When you rock a jailbroken iPhone or iPad, one of the cardinal rules you follow is staying on the lowest possible firmware (or the newest jailbreakable firmware) at any given time. When you do this, software updates will quickly outpace you, and some App Store apps may require you to actually update for device’s firmware to use them.
Fortunately, palera1n jailbreak co-developer Mineek is out this week with a new and free jailbreak tweak called AppStoreTroller that lets users download/purchase incompatible apps from the App Store on their device and then easily downgrade to the latest compatible version.
As you can see in the before and after screenshot examples above, Apple’s own Apple Store application requires iOS & iPadOS 17.0 or later, but we have a jailbroken iOS 16 device, and we can’t download it without incident. We can’t even install the last compatible version for iOS 16, which is particularly frustrating, and one of Apple’s ridiculously tedious ways to try and compel users to update their firmware.
After installing AppStoreTroller, you can simply enable the tweak, try “purchasing” or “downloading” an app via the App Store, and when it fails, you can disable AppStoreTroller and then you should be able to return to and re-download the latest compatible version of that app, should it happen to exist.
Because AppStoreTroller is open source, iOS developer Nathan Senter actually released an upgraded version of the tweak in their repository, allowing users to specify a minimum iOS version any bypass the installd version check. That said, you may want to try Nathan’s version of the tweak, but we also wanted to link to the original on Mineek’s GitHub page just for citation’s sake.
Once installed, Nathan’s version of the tweak adds a dedicated preference pane to the Settings app, where users can not only toggle the tweak on or off on demand, but also enter an iOS or iPadOS version to spoof and then apply their changes.
While we’re sure that this workaround will be particularly useful for jailbreakers who use older versions of iOS or iPadOS, we should note that not all apps have versions compatible with jailbreakable versions of iOS or iPadOS. That said, it should be used on a case-by-case basis. The Apple Store app, for example, has been compatible with iOS & iPadOS 16 before, so it’s a good example of an app that would work.
Those wanting to give Nathan’s upgraded version of Mineek’s AppStoreTroller jailbreak tweak a try can download it for free from Nathan’s personal repository via their favorite Package Manager app. The tweak supports jailbroken iOS 15 and 16 devices.
If you’re not already using Nathan’s repository, then you can add it to your Package Manager app, such as Sileo or Zebra,using the URL provided below:
https://nathan4s.lol/repo/
Alternatively, you can head over to Mineek’s GitHub page to download and install the original version of AppStoreTroller manually using a File Manager or Package Manager app.
Do you plan to make use of AppStoreTroller, and if so, how? Let us know in the comments section down below.