How To Fix Unsupported Apps on older iOS Versions

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February 7, 2025

How To Fix Unsupported Apps on older iOS Versions

If you’ve ever jailbroken your iOS device or you simply use older iPhone models because they are cheaper, you probably know that Apple makes it almost impossible to run unsupported apps on older iOS versions.

Most iOS Apps stop supporting older iOS versions as time passes and when you try to install the app you are greeted with an annoying “This application requires iOS 15 or later” message.

While fixing this issue is not possible for all iOS applications, some of them can be modified to work on older versions so that you can keep your jailbreak or older device while still using modern apps.

In this article, we’re going to dig into what you can do to run unsupported apps on older iOS versions.

Unsupported iOS app show the "This application requires iOS 15.0 or later." when you try to install them. — Unsupported iOS app show the This application requires iOS 150 or later when you try to install them

Why are iOS apps suddenly unsupported on my iPhone?

This issue happens mostly because of Apple. See iOS apps are developed in a tool called Xcode, which is made by Apple. Virtually all apps in the App Store are made in Xcode and Apple has great control over this tool.

Reason 1: Xcode updates removing older iOS SDKs

As Apple releases new iOS versions, they also update Xcode and once you install the update for Xcode you tend to lose the SDKs (Software Development Kits) for older iOS versions.

As a practical example, at the time I am writing this article, the latest Xcode version is 16.2 and the oldest SDK it comes with is for iOS 15 which means that I would not be able to build my app for iOS 14 even if wanted to.

Sure, you can modify Xcode manually to add the older SDKs and that would work just fine, but most developers do not tinker with the system that makes them money, and that could also potentially get the app rejected during App Store review.

Reason 2: Frameworks and Libraries (Dependencies)

However, as you can see, even though Xcode still allows you to support iOS 15 devices, some apps require iOS 16 and later. That is caused by the various libraries and frameworks used in the apps.

Any given app from the App Store might be a conglomerate of various libraries and frameworks that do certain things (features) the app has, such as Ads, Crash Reporting, UI frameworks, etc.

The app developers may not necessarily modify those frameworks, they simply use them for the functionality they bring, but this comes with a cost. The finished app cannot target older iOS versions that a framework or library doesn’t support, thus forcing you to go to a certain iOS version to use the latest update of said app.

How to fix “This application requires iOS 15 or later.” on older iOS versions

While Reason 1 can often be fixed even without access to Xcode or the source code of the app, reason 2 is often problematic.

That’s because some frameworks and libraries may target newer iOS because they depend on core components of iOS that may not be found in previous versions. In that case, there is not much you can do short of updating or using an older version of the app.

In cases where the only reason for the app incompatibility is that Xcode imposed the limit, we can actually modify the app IPA file and change the Minimum Deployment Version inside its Info.plist file.

While this is not guaranteed to work on all apps, some of them will work just fine with this method. It all depends on what frameworks the app uses and how dependent those frameworks are on newly introduced core OS code.

🙂 Please note that this is a Hail Mary fix. It will certainly not work with all apps due to the reasons stated above. It’s worth a try but it’s not intended to be a guaranteed fix.

To fix unsupported apps that are caused by reason 1, you need to follow the steps below.

Grab an IPA file for the app. Google is your friend. Make sure it’s the latest version.
You will need a PLIST (Property List) file editor. On macOS, you can use Xcode’s built-in editor but on Windows, you need a third-party tool such as plist Editor Pro which is sadly paid. Certain free and open-source alternatives such as XPlist are available.

Rename the IPA file to have a .ZIP extension and unpack it with 7Zip or Winrar.
Inside the Payload folder, you will find the app’s files, including Info.plist.
Open the Info.plist file inside the PLIST editor and locate the MinimumOSVersion key.

Replace the version there with whatever you are using, for example, if you are on iOS 14.3 write 14.0 (make sure it ends in .0).
Save the file and pack the Payload folder back into a ZIP. Replace the .ZIP extension to .IPA and done.
Sideload the modified .IPA file to your device using Sideloadly, AltStore, TrollStore, or your favorite IPA installer.

If the app launches you should be good to go. If it doesn’t, then certain libraries are at play and there is nothing else you can do. I am sorry.

This is what you need to change inside the PLIST file. — This is what you need to change inside the PLIST file

Final thoughts

As you can see, in some cases it is possible to make some of the newer apps work with your jailbroken or older device running an outdated iOS version such as iOS 14 or even iOS 15 now, however, it is hit and miss.

This method works best when the app doesn’t necessarily require features introduced in newer iOS versions and even then, most banking and fintech apps will likely refuse to work.

This is a Hail Mary method that may allow you to use SOME apps on an outdated iOS version. It’s worth a try as you have nothing to lose besides a few minutes of your time.

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About the author

GeoSn0w

An iOS and Jailbreak enthusiast who has been around for quite some time in the community. I’ve developed my own jailbreaks before and I am currently maintaining iSecureOS, one of the first iOS Anti-Malware tools for jailbroken devices. I also run iDevice Central on YouTube with over 146.000 Subscribers! Thank you for being part of this awesome community.