Testing on previous iOS versions [duplicate]

Question

This question already has an answer here:

Installing older iOS for device testing (1 answer)

Closed 8 years ago.

I was told to make an app that is now at development stage backwards-compatible from iOS 4.3 or at least from iOS 5. The lowest version of iOS I have running on an real iDevice and that I can use for testing is iOS 5.1, and I've read some posts saying that it is no possible to downgrade an iOS version (for example: DownGrading iOS to Previous Version Officially), at least without entering the world of jailbreak. However, it is recommended in Apple's docs to test your apps on all the devices and iOS versions you intend to support. And they also say somewhere in the documentation that simulator would not be enough for testing since it hasn't all the devices' capabilities.

So... is there no way to get an older iOS version on a real iDevice, even if only for development and testing purposes?

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

It is very unlikely that you can downgrade without jailbreaking your device.

The only solution is to get the software images for the specific ios versions and run them in the Xcode Simulator.

Unless you are doing very hardware specific software ( i am talking driver level code) there is no need to worry about device testing on all iOS platforms. If it runs on one then it will run on others. Just downgrade the Xcode simulator.

Also 91% (Apple data source) people have upgraded to iOS 6 so you shouldn't worry so much about the rest 9% unless your app is like Whatsapp or going to be as famous as them.