as those of you who have read my previous posts will know, I have a preference for older devices. That applies to Iphones as well, I like them small.
Here’s some context to my request for help:
My SE from 2016 cannot hold a charge any longer and the smallest newer iPhone is the 13 mini. I have tried the SE 2022 - slightly bigger, but I wanted the home button. Unfortunately, I couldn’t stand it because of it being haptic and not mechanic.
Now I have this refurbished 13 mini in my hands, which I just wanted to a get feel for, without transferring any data whatsoever, just start it and look around in the apps, settings, etc (and to check the battery). It is apparently impossible. You either have to have an iCloud account, a previous phone (Apple or Android) or a computer with the “devices” app installed.
Is there any way to just start the phone without any of this nonsense? What if someone has none of the above?
In addition, I would like to avoid upgrading the iOS (not sure what it comes with, I can’t see it) and especially the apps (some of them are no longer available). My plan was to transfer (everything or select elements) from an iMazing backup of my old SE, in the hope that the old version of my apps will stay. Is that feasible without jumping through the configurator’s hoops?
You should be able to set up the 13 Mini without entering an iCloud account or transferring from a new phone. If you do that, you can check the battery health. At quick start, choose set up without another device. At transfer, choose don’t transfer anything. At the account signin, they hide it, but I believe you can choose other sign-in options and continue without an account. Battery health isn’t locked behind iCloud after you set up the phone. I can’t speak to iMazing restoration.
That was exactly what I was trying to do, but for some reason it seemed that I couldn’t get any further. After multiple attempts I did manage, not sure what changed.
I will update this post concerning iMazing, for future reference.
iMazing should be able to help determining the battery health:
I’m curious about the backup/restore: does iMazing only store data (like Apple does) or also the IPA (executable, resources, etc.) in a backup? If it’s only data, the apps will be obtained from the App Store (and thus the latest version; not older ones - unless the newest version does not run on the iOS version on that phone?). I have never tried this, but would like to know, so please post back.
iMazing does not automatically save the IPA, but I have it for a few apps from the good old iTunes times. I’ve tried copying just that, it did not work. I’ve then tried transferring the whole backup onto the new phone (selecting “copy directly from library” - or wording to that effect) and received the error message I’m attaching.
In all fairness, I’m on an older version of iMazing (of course!) and it did warn me that it’s not fully compatible with iOS 18. That might be the issue.
I will experiment further in the coming days and will post back.
I have transferred all data from the old SE to the new 13 mini with the Apple wizard (it wouldn’t work with iMazing, for some reason) and tried adding an app for which I have the IPA, but which no longer exists on the App Store. Unfortunately I receive an error message.
The app still works on older devices that have it, but I can’t transfer it to the new one. So basically, as far as I understand, no way to have old apps on new phones if they have been pulled from the App Store.
iOS 18 still works under iMazing 2, warning message notwithstanding.
There could be a reason why older apps don’t work on newer versions of iOS. It might be because the developer’s or Apple’s certificates which were used to sign the original ipa have expired.
For the sake of completeness: it doesn’t install on the same iOS either (I have tried with another SE 2016 I have). The app still works on devices that had installed it previously.
I have also tried downloading the IPA of other random apps (still in the Store) in iMazing 2 and I receive an error message. Maybe this functionality has been removed.
