Easily reinstall your iPhone and iPad apps when they are no longer compatible with your version of iOS or have been removed from the App Store.
Restoring an older iPhone or iPad sometimes has a few (bad) surprises. With the annual iOS updates, older devices end up on the sidelines. But the evolution of iOS isn’t just affecting devices.
Apps from the App Store are also affected and developers, in order to keep their app alive, are in turn making updates that allow them to work on the most recent versions of iOS, while abandoning the support of the oldest. Others simply disappear from the store without further ado.
Result, iPhone or iPad a little dated, but still functional find themselves unable to download applications that worked very well before their removal.
While going through the App Store, attempts to download fail. Only the most recent version of the application is indeed offered, and any download attempt ends with the display of a message indicating that your version of iOS is too old to make it work.
However, all is not lost. It is possible to recover old versions of your applications that have become incompatible with recent versions of iOS or that have been removed from the App Store. There is only one condition to be met: you must have already downloaded the app once in the past for it to be available in your history.
1. Access your account on the App Store
Open the App Store on your iPhone or iPad and go to your account by tapping on your avatar.
Then enter the section dedicated to your Purchases. This gathers your purchase and download history on the App Store.
2. Download missing or incompatible apps
In the search field, enter the name of an application that has disappeared from the App Store, or has become incompatible with your version of iOS that has become too old.
If the app is still compatible with your version of iOS, you can download it back to your device by tapping the cloud icon.