Hi there everyone. Apologies if this has already been mentioned but a quick scan didn’t provide an answer.
I have an old ipad (4th gen, digitally geriatric at nearly 6 years old) which is getting so slow that it’s practically unusable. I only ever got it as a mobile word processor anyway so no great loss but I’m not exactly rich so I’ve hatched a plan.
I’ve found a website which hosts old images of the iOS so I can do what Cher never achieved and turn back time. The assumption is that the current performance of the pad is entirely due to apple being douche bags and they’ve been slowing down the performance of older equipment under the guise of protecting batteries when in fact its protecting sales.
What I’d like therefore is a copy of an old installer for scrivener which would be compatable with the old version of iOS.
Is there such a thing? Where would I find it?
I’m pretty sure that once I’ve installed the old OS and associated jailbreak I’d be able to install the old scrivener and everything would be back to the way it was.
Then my next trick will be to attempt the same thing for the world and turn the clock back to 2006, there’s a few people I need to assassinate.
Well, Scrivener for iOS was released in 2016. It’s never, ever worked on a version of iOS earlier than iOS 9. So if you’re rolling back time to before then, Scrivener won’t exist… but the current version is still compatible with iOS 9. Therefore, just use the current install of Scrivener.
A 4th gen iPad is fairly old tech but a clean install of iOS13 should perform ‘reasonably well’. It of course won’t run as fast as a later model with higher spec cpu.
As for the old chestnut about Apple slowing down to force more sales…
It is a load of bunk. just as crazy as ‘they never landed on the moon’ conspiracy.
As Apple has added features to iOS demanded by power users, yes it may run slower, though 13 runs faster than some versions in between.
Apple has never deliberately slowed down older gear to force more sales.
Yes, they did slow down older phones to get more life out if them. Their failing was having the arrogance (?) to think they knew best and in not telling people up front and putting the option to disable which they subsequently did and then offered the battery program which caused lost sales as people held on to devices that now had a brand new battery.
Sum up. Your iPad 4 is still very usable (though battery may be getting close to consumed). If you don’t need all latest features, as you state their are sites that offer downloads of older versions of iOS, though not sure of the legality and of course forget about support from Apple. If you do call, one of the first things they will say is you need to upgrade to the latest version supported by your hardware.
A 4th gen iPad doesn’t meet the requirements for iPadOS 13. The cutoff is at the 5th gen.
support.apple.com/en-us/HT210327
FWIW, an iPad mini at 9.3.5 works Scrivener reasonably well.
EDIT: iPad Mini 1rst gen.
You are of course correct. Brain fade.
Note that configurations not supported by Apple are also not supported by us.
That is, if you jailbreak your device in order to install an older version of iOS, Scrivener may work, it may not, but if it doesn’t you’re on your own.
Katherine
Thank you all for your welcome comments.
I know that there was definitely a time when my ancient ipad ran scrivener without the lapse between keystrokes and words appearing.
That’s all I’m hoping to return to and I’m well aware that apple don’t condone this. I’d dispute that apple are benovelent overlords whose only failing was communication but that’s a thread for a different forum.
You will of course address your issue however you wish. One possibility that no one’s mentioned is replacing your iPad gen 4’s battery. It’s not a no-cost solution, but it’s cheaper than a new iPad and if the slowdown you’ve noticed is indeed related to Apple’s battery code, that should solve it. It has the advantages of not jailbreaking your system, and getting you years more of service.
Apple itself will still service 4th gen iPads. Battery service from Apple costs USD $99. Third-party battery replacement will of course be cheaper.
Further possibilities: If you use iTunes on your Win machine to back up your iPad, AND you run backups of your Win machine to an external drive or a backup service, you may find old copies of Scrivener in your backups.(Look for files named Scrivener.ipa .) Restore it to the iTunes apps folder, and it will be re-installed. Another utility that can do this is iMazing (I use it myself on Mac; there is a Windows version.) iMazing can install an older system if you can find an image—no need to jailbreak.
Finally, if this is something that’s new with Scrivener iOS v. 1.2+, have you tried contacting L&L Tech Support directly? L&L still claim compatibility with iOS 9+; if the newer versions in fact have a problem with older systems, Tech Support needs to know.