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New to iOS development, still figuring out stuff. Just purchased Apple Developer account! Could anyone please let me know if it's possible to run xcode 6 and xcode 5 compiled ipa on iPad device running iOS 8.1

I can't install xcode 6.1 because I think it requires OS X 10.10 yosemite

In other words I want to know what's the least OS X and xcode version requirement in order to build an application that could run on my iPad running iOS 8.1

Many thanks

user1344502
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2 Answers2

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As a licensed developer, you can download versions of Xcode at the Downloads for Apple Developers page.

You need Xcode 6.1 to develop with the iOS 8.1 SDK. Xcode 6.1 requires Mac OS X 10.9.4 (Mavericks) or later according to the App Store. The aforementioned Downloads page confirms that it requires Mavericks or Yosemite.

If you want to develop using the iOS 8.0 SDK, you need Xcode 6.0 or later. It requires Mavericks, too.

You can use Xcode 5.1 on Mountain Lion or Mavericks, but you can only develop against the iOS 7.1 SDK (and no Swift).

By the way, effective February 15th, 2015, you cannot submit apps to the store that were developed using an SDK prior to iOS 8 (i.e. you must use Xcode 6.0 or later by that point):

64-bit and iOS 8 Requirements for App Updates

December 17, 2014

As we announced in October, beginning on February 1, 2015 new iOS apps submitted to the App Store must include 64-bit support and be built with the iOS 8 SDK. Beginning June 1, 2015 app updates will also need to follow the same requirements. To enable 64-bit in your project, we recommend using the default Xcode build setting of “Standard architectures” to build a single binary with both 32-bit and 64-bit code.

See the relevant developer announcement on the News and Updates page.

So you may want to go ahead and update in anticipation of that.

Community
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Rob
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  • Thanks, exactly what I needed to know. Currently I am using xcode 4.6.3 (OS X 10.8.5) which is too old. I guess there is no way I could build an ipa with it that could run on my iPad running iOS 8.1 just for testing. Is there? – user1344502 Dec 30 '14 at 22:10
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    I'd at least consider upgrading to Xcode 5.1.1, which gets you iOS 7.1 support and the site suggests that works with Mountain Lion. Is there some reason you wouldn't just upgrade the OS on your machine, though? It's pretty painless and isn't it free? Regarding testing your older iOS SDK apps on the newer iOS device, you should be able to do that (via ad hoc deployment at the very least if not interactively debugging), but you'll be constrained to the SDK features of the base SDK included in the version of Xcode you are using. – Rob Dec 30 '14 at 22:27
  • Actually all my attempts to update OSX have failed ( -- Download interruption / infinite delays due to some wifi issue or something -- or setup errors like "volume doesn't meet the requirement" etc). Anyway, I don't need interactive debugging, just want to run a single view app having UIWebView, UIButton and UIImageView controls. It would be very helpful if you could point me to some tutorials for this ad hoc deployment thing. Many thanks for all your help. – user1344502 Dec 30 '14 at 23:06
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    Just search for "ios app ad hoc deployment" and you should get plenty of hits including Apple's [App Distribution Guide](https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/IDEs/Conceptual/AppDistributionGuide/TestingYouriOSApp/TestingYouriOSApp.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40012582-CH8-SW4). Regarding your OS X challenge, it might be worth taking it to an Apple Genius Bar or something like that, because if you want to put app on store anytime after 4 weeks from now, you'll need Xcode 6 or higher. – Rob Dec 31 '14 at 01:54
  • "Actually all my attempts to update OSX have failed ( -- Download interruption / infinite delays" and its a good thing. Don't update to 10.11. Just don't – Anton Tropashko Nov 16 '15 at 10:25
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I don't think there are such requirements for the installation of Xcode 6.

I installed Xcode 6 Beta running OS X 10.9 Mavericks and it wasn't an issue.

I also checked on the Apple Developer website and they don't mention these requirements either.

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nburk
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  • Thanks for the reply. Actually I tried to install xcode 6 on OS X 10.9 but the setup said I must have 10.9.4 to install xcode 6. I was unable to update 10.9 to 10.9.4 through app store or downloaded combo updates (dmg). So I am trying to make it work on OS X 10.9.0 – user1344502 Dec 30 '14 at 21:55
  • Even though Mavericks is supported now, it won't be forever. Probably have at most another 6 months before Yosemite is the minimum version of MacOSX for the latest SDK. – marko Dec 30 '14 at 22:29