Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iPad iPad 3 in 2024.
- Thread starter Yodzhi
- Start date
-
- Tags
- ipad 3
- Sort by reaction score
You did not understand. I don't need to update iOS on my iPad 3.
It's in the “out of the box” state right now. And I need to install all the other software I need on it. How can I do this if the App Store contains only versions of programs that don't support the operating system on the iPad 3? There is an opinion, and there are many people who have come to this conclusion, that you need to install a version of iTunes on your laptop in which the App Store will download old versions of iPad 3 applications from the cloud. Perhaps this was the case before. And even this year, users were able to do so. But not now. Now, when you try to download no matter what application iTunes or App Store gives an unknown error (-50) and that's it.
So I ask: how to solve this problem and install applications on the iPad 3?
Thank you for your answer.
There isn't one. As far as the apps are concerned, you do need to update your iOS - but as the iPad is 12 years old, you cannot.
The only workaround that might work would be to use a device with a later operating system to get the apps that you want from the app store, then factory reset the iPad so that it gets the apps from there when you login with your Apple ID. If the latest version is not compatible with iOS 9.3.5 it should offer you the option to download the last compatible version. I had tried doing it with a laptop on iTunes to the iPad 3 in 2019 and it didn't work then, but I didn't have another device to try the device route that I had read would work.
The iPad will then run that provided the app developer has not dropped support for that version. Banking apps will not work for sure, as the banks eventually force the update for security reasons.
The only workaround that might work would be to use a device with a later operating system to get the apps that you want from the app store, then factory reset the iPad so that it gets the apps from there when you login with your Apple ID. If the latest version is not compatible with iOS 9.3.5 it should offer you the option to download the last compatible version. I had tried doing it with a laptop on iTunes to the iPad 3 in 2019 and it didn't work then, but I didn't have another device to try the device route that I had read would work.
The iPad will then run that provided the app developer has not dropped support for that version. Banking apps will not work for sure, as the banks eventually force the update for security reasons.
let's put it this way,
iPad 3 on the original iOS was slow to begin with.
it's basically an iPad 2 with (4?) times the pixels to push with basically the same chipset.
now, with iOS 9, the device is very very slow. it shouldn't have been supported for this iOS to begin with.
for context, i have around 60k images or videos in my photos libarary.
to sync with iCloud, it took me 3 weeks and it's still not finished syncing lol
bottomline: if you have this legendary (yes!) device, try not to update to iOS 9 if possible, and don't use iCloud features. basically you can only use it for safari (barely) and watching videos downloaded into the device, and looking at images (locally). and that's it.
p.s. it is still legendary because it is the first retina display iPad, and the largest battery, and probably the physically largest chipset ever put into an iPad, thus the most 'pushing the boundary' iPad apple has ever put out.
but it was very early in the device development cycle so the succeeding devices advanced so much quicker, and thus leaving this iPad 3 as a museum relic.
iPad 3 on the original iOS was slow to begin with.
it's basically an iPad 2 with (4?) times the pixels to push with basically the same chipset.
now, with iOS 9, the device is very very slow. it shouldn't have been supported for this iOS to begin with.
for context, i have around 60k images or videos in my photos libarary.
to sync with iCloud, it took me 3 weeks and it's still not finished syncing lol
bottomline: if you have this legendary (yes!) device, try not to update to iOS 9 if possible, and don't use iCloud features. basically you can only use it for safari (barely) and watching videos downloaded into the device, and looking at images (locally). and that's it.
p.s. it is still legendary because it is the first retina display iPad, and the largest battery, and probably the physically largest chipset ever put into an iPad, thus the most 'pushing the boundary' iPad apple has ever put out.
but it was very early in the device development cycle so the succeeding devices advanced so much quicker, and thus leaving this iPad 3 as a museum relic.
This is what I followed when I wanted an older version of Facebook, I think version 100 or earlier, to be used on iOS 10
How to download older versions of iOS apps
You just need to download and install an older version of iTunes, the one still with App Store support...
But this will only work if you have already downloaded the app that you want in the past... So you should use the same Apple ID
How to download older versions of iOS apps
You just need to download and install an older version of iTunes, the one still with App Store support...
But this will only work if you have already downloaded the app that you want in the past... So you should use the same Apple ID
the thing is if you need to use iCloud you have to update this to iOS 9 as iCloud no longer supports older iOS’s
iOS 5 and 6 was fine on it, iOS 7 despite it running well on A5 devices on the iPad 3 the performance decreased but nothing beats iOS 8 for it and the rest of the A5 family.
also don’t forget despite the pixels it also had double the resolution of the iPad 2 as well. 1GB of RAM wasn’t going to save it and as of its 4 core GPU interestingly the iPad 3 and iPhone 4 for iOS 7 were the only models hardware wise lacked the control centre ui feature thing. iPad 2 didn’t suffer from it but because of the iPad 3 not getting it ( which is why control centre back then looked white, the iPad 2 didn’t have it too.
It and the A5 family needed iOS 9 which isn’t a big deal considering iOS 10 was the last iOS to support 32bit CPU
The
oof i found my ipad 3 unbearable and gave it up back in 2016. props to anyone still making use of one today.
as for the apps question, i'm pretty sure the 'last supported version' approach only works if the developer themselves still supports an extremely old version of the app. when i'd tried on an older device, that selection was almost nil. also many if not most apps require back end support from the developer, so even if you got it installed somehow, it'd still likely be non functional as their servers would reject old unsecured versions.
as for the apps question, i'm pretty sure the 'last supported version' approach only works if the developer themselves still supports an extremely old version of the app. when i'd tried on an older device, that selection was almost nil. also many if not most apps require back end support from the developer, so even if you got it installed somehow, it'd still likely be non functional as their servers would reject old unsecured versions.