I find it insulting enough that Apple doesn’t trust its own users to choose which version of firmware that they can install on the iPhones and iPads they own. In fact, they actively prohibit firmware downgrades via a signing scheme that either approves or disapproves of firmware installation requests through iTunes or Finder.
But to rub salt in the wound, Apple offers absolutely no way to downgrade apps downloaded from the App Store. So whatever should you do if you find that an update to one of your apps either breaks functionality or completely disrupts a workflow you’re accustomed to with a complete user interface overhaul? Well… we think that iOS developer Mineek has you covered with a TrollStore add-on called MuffinStore.
According to the project’s GitHub page, MuffinStore is an experimental app that provides users with the tools necessary to downgrade apps that are already installed on their device, or to download previous versions that are still available from Apple’s servers (but hidden from users).
Once installed via TrollStore, which is a perma-signing utility that will keep MuffinStore installed and signed indefinitely on your iPhone or iPad, you can launch the app and you’ll find yourself with the rather simple interface depicted above.
The app displays a series of buttons you can tap on. The bottom section of buttons offers a list of apps you have installed on your device, and you can tap on them to specifically select an app you want an older version of. The top-most button is a Download button that lets you enter the App Store link for any app and then manually designate a specific version of the app or fetch a list of available versions from Apple’s server.
If the app isn’t’ already installed on your device, then you’d obviously want to fetch the URL from the App Store via the Share button beside the app you wish to download an older version of. Then, upon pasting it into the interface and moving on, you’d be presented with a list of available versions where you can select what you want, perhaps to ensure full compatibility with a jailbreak tweak, or to revert changes you don’t like.
Once you select an option, the rest of the interface will look wholly familiar to downloading an app from the App Store. This includes the Double-Click to Install interface and going back to the Home Screen to see your app in question downloading like any other app.
If you had a newer version of the app installed before installing an older version, then no worries, MuffinStore will simply overwrite your existing installation with the older app, providing you with a seamless downgrade.
While not everyone has the need to downgrade apps or download older versions of apps from the App Store, the fact remains that the very niche cases where you might want to are indeed very real and worthy of attention. It remains to be seen why Apple can’t just let users decide for themselves what version of software they want to download, just like I can go to GitHub to certain software websites and select my preferred version.
I can see MuffinStore being especially useful if you take advantage of jailbreak tweaks where an update breaks the add-on, or if you install an updated app that completely changes what you’re used to about that app and you want to go back.
If you’d like to give MuffinStore a try, then you can download it for free from Mineek’s GitHub repository. The add-on is fully open-source there. You don’t need a jailbreak, but you do need a device that runs TrollStore. TrollStore is compatible with iOS & iPadOS 14.0-17.0 only. MuffinStore unfortunately can’t be used with sideloading utilities like AltStore on other firmware versions (we tried).
Are you going to be making use of the unfettered ability to downgrade apps and install older versions of apps on a whim? Let us know why or why not in the comments section down below.