How to check an IPA file for supported iOS version

Table of Contents

1. How to check an IPA file for supported iOS version
1. Step 01: Update the device the latest signed version of iOS
2. Step 02: The "Info.plist" file
2. By the way...

How to check an IPA file for supported iOS version

If you do not know already, an IPA file is an iOS-related archive file that is downloaded from the Apple AppStore and then installed. However, recently, there has been a massive effort to preserve many of these IPA files, especially the older 32-bit ones, in one way or another and therefore the ability to download and install these files from somewhere other than from Apple is now possible, especially if you have a jailbroken device.

This tutorial is geared toward GNU/Linux users, but may be possible on other systems via binaries or source code from https://libimobiledevice.org and https://github.com/libimobiledevice/libplist.

Step 01: plistutil

To look at most *.plist files, specifically the info.plist file, in a human readable-like way, you will need to be able to run the 'plistutil' command.

Run the following in a GNU/Linux (Debian-based in this case) terminal to install required software:

    
        sudo apt update
        sudo apt install libplist-utils
    

Step 02: The "Info.plist" file

Next, open the downloaded "com.company.program.ipa" file with an archive manager and search for a file named "Info.plist" and extract it somewhere. You would then run the following to read the "Info.plist" file...

    
        plistutil -i "/path/to/extracted/Info.plist"
    

There will be a bunch of XML-related output; look for "MinimumOSVersion" or something similar and what follows afterwards. That number would be the minimum version of iOS required to run the software. And yes, you can also apply a similar method to Apple x86/x86_64 *.apps to find-out the required minimum Mac OS X version.

By the way...

As mentioned before, an IPA file is an archive; meaning, it is compressed. If you would like to know about what size the installation will be, you can run '7z -l com.company.program.ipa' in a terminal. However, do not forget to also add the file-size of the IPA itself if space is limited. You can delete the IPA after installing, but make sure to test first. If a free app has a time limit, I have no idea if keeping the IPA on the device to reinstall will help or not.