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Currently iOS 10 supports both 32-bit and 64-bit binaries. Come iOS 11 only 64-bit binaries will be accepted.

We need to figure out how many of our users are currently running on 32-bit hardware, however iTunesConnect Analytics doesn't break down the devices by:

  • Device Model, or
  • CPU Architecture

The only breakdowns are by device family or iOS version. This isn't granular enough.

  • An "iPhone" device family could be iPhone 5c or iPhone 6. The former is 32-bit, the latter is 64-bit.
  • Similarly, an "iOS version 10" metric could be iPhone 5c or iPhone 6. The former is 32-bit, the latter is 64-bit.

How can we identify currently active devices that are on 32-bit architecture and would become obsolete?

Update:

To reiterate, as this keeps coming up: we are looking into a way to determine this using Apple's Analytics or other developer tools.

Obviously integrating a 3rd party SDK or even our own code to detect and report is easy enough, but a little late in the game.

Slav
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  • It is not a "how to check if device is 32bit" (we can do that easily). It is not a programming question either, since I am not making use of any software stacks for this question. This is an Apple Development question, regarding their suite of available tools (namely "iTunes Connect" portal). You have a tag for that, which I used, and which describes it pretty well. Other questions in this tag are pretty similar: asking for help in using iTunes Connect. I could reword the title as "How to check if 32-bit in iTunesConnect", but I thought that was frowned upon if a tag was being used. – Slav Aug 21 '17 at 15:00
  • This is totally something I would help get opened / placed for SO. You could ask what API or system information can make this determination within the app. You'd want to put up shell code in your language if you want to get basic model / hardware. Someone is sure to have a library or stub or just help you make an array with all the known 32 bit devices. Apple won't release any more of those, so it's pretty safe to hard code your collection code for profiling your user engagement metrics per device and architecture. – bmike Aug 21 '17 at 21:29
  • Dupe of https://stackoverflow.com/questions/20104403/determine-if-ios-device-is-32-or-64-bit or would one of the answers there be appropriate here, Slav? – bmike Aug 21 '17 at 21:46
  • Is there a reason you have to drop iOS 10 support? If you build against iOS 11, but set your deployment target to iOS 10 you can support both and keep 32bit support for those unable to upgrade to the new OS. Just make sure to check for support for new iOS 11 APIs before calling them. – BergQuester Aug 21 '17 at 22:54
  • @bmike as I keep saying, this isn't a question on how to do something programmatically from *our* application code side. This is a question on how to do something with Apple's Developer Tools Suite (namely Analytics). – Slav Aug 22 '17 at 16:06
  • @BergQuester you can guarantee me for a fact that when iOS11 is released, the App Store will continue to accept app submissions that contain dual-binaries (32 and 64bit)? Even Apple developer support couldn't give me an answer for that, claiming "don't know future events". Until then, we have to consider possibility that come iOS11, the AppStore will no longer accept dual-binaries, and as a result, our 32-bit only users would be left with no updates. We are trying to figure out what that number of users is... but seems impossible as Apple Analytics doesn't provide it. – Slav Aug 22 '17 at 16:10
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    (1) We don't know the future either. (2) If you need an enhancement to the way Xcode works, file an enhancement request. As far as Stack Overflow goes, it seems to me this post is just a moan, not a programming question. – matt Aug 22 '17 at 16:18
  • matt I did not ask you to comment on the future, this was a rhetorical retort to BergQuester. I am asking how to use Apple Analytics to detect 32-bit devices (not moaning, but asking how to achieve something). This is not a Stack Overflow question, I agree. I don't agree that @bmike migrated it. I originally posted on Apple SE – Slav Aug 22 '17 at 18:30
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    I’ll reopen the question on Ask Different. Feel free to close or keep this open here. I expect the answer is no, Apple won’t provide this but let’s see what happens. – bmike Aug 22 '17 at 23:03
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    @Slav Can I guarantee? No. Am I confident enough to continue shipping fat binaries for the next year or more in my own apps? Absolutely. Apple won't just drop support unannounced, they will give fair enough warning as they have done before. I have seen no evidence that they have stated that they will reject apps with 32bit support, only that they now require 64bit apps for iOS 11 and so require all new submissions to support it. – BergQuester Aug 22 '17 at 23:52
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    Also, they aren't going to suddenly hang 32-bit iOS 10 users out to dry by by locking them out of the App Store when iOS 11 is released. – BergQuester Aug 22 '17 at 23:58

1 Answers1

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In this answer I will address the root question which is: "How do I determine how many 32-bit device users I will lose when Apple bans 32bit apps from the App Store for the iOS 11 release?"

As anticipated in the comments, Apple has NOT banned 32bit apps from the App Store as of Sept 23, 2017. Instead, they have continued to support 32bit apps in the App Store for older devices. The only requirement at this time for apps is that they must support 64bit as well.

This is because the requirements for iOS 11 and for the App Store are independent sets of requirements.

I have been able to confirm this by viewing the available updates for my 32bit iPad 2 running iOS 9.3 (see below). I can confirm that the apps do run (though rather slowly due to the old hardware).

While this issue is not currently a concern, I would keep an eye on Apple's Developer News and Updates page for future changes in app submission requirements.

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BergQuester
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