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Why aren't older versions of Firefox for iPad on the App Store?

  • 2 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 10 views
  • Last reply by kurt29

kurt29
kurt29
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Discussions in the Apple Community "Support" forum seem to be nearly unanimous that the reason versions of Firefox that would run on older versions of iOS are not available in the Apple App Store is because Mozilla has withdrawn them. But Mozilla freely makes every version of Firefox available for other platforms (back to version 0.8 !!). So why is the latest version that would run on iOS 5 or 9 not available on the App Store? Did Mozilla withdraw the prior versions? Or did Apple force them off? If Mozilla withdrew them - why?

And please - don't just say, "Buy a new machine". I'm trying to set up a pet adoption non-profit with a VERY limited budget so they can use a portable web portal. Unless you're volunteering to buy new iPads, such an approach is not helpful (and I got plenty of it on the Apple Community "Support" board.)

Discussions in the Apple Community "Support" forum seem to be nearly unanimous that the reason versions of Firefox that would run on older versions of iOS are not available in the Apple App Store is because Mozilla has withdrawn them. But Mozilla freely makes every version of Firefox available for other platforms (back to version 0.8 !!). So why is the latest version that would run on iOS 5 or 9 not available on the App Store? Did Mozilla withdraw the prior versions? Or did Apple force them off? If Mozilla withdrew them - why? And please - don't just say, "Buy a new machine". I'm trying to set up a pet adoption non-profit with a VERY limited budget so they can use a portable web portal. Unless you're volunteering to buy new iPads, such an approach is not helpful (and I got plenty of it on the Apple Community "Support" board.)

All Replies (2)

user1693610
user1693610
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It is Apple's AppStore policy. Apps get updated for a reason. Unless you are running a previous version e.g, iOS 12, it always downloads the most recent App version.

Prior iTunes 12.6.x it was possible to manually deploy (previous) apps from from Users > yourusername > Music > iTunes > iTunes Media > Mobile Applications within iTunes.

kurt29
kurt29 Question owner
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Okay, so now I have two conflicting versions of events:

1) The Apple Community claims that 'Mozilla' removes the prior versions of Firefox from the App Store. That is MOZILLA makes the software unavailable.

2) Your account appears to say that Apple's App Store is responsible for removing the previous versions of software and making them unavailable.

So which is it? Is Apple pulling the prior versions? Or is Mozilla?

With an old iPad v. 1, the highest supported iOS is version 5.x, so clearly in its present form, the App Store is useless to support these old devices. Still, the hardware works, and for the use I have in mind, they're just fine - and at 1/20th the cost of a new iPad, the price is also right. It seems a shame to add to E-Waste to the growing pile (let alone drive up costs for non-profits) by discarding the old iPads.

Where can I get definitive information on what's going on?