Because of their data collection practices, some time ago I swore off of Google services – at least those that require an account. I no longer use Android or Gmail, and I use DuckDuckGo rather than Google for search. (I do still use Google maps on occasion, but with tracking blockers, and without logging in).

Yet, despite my avoidance of Android, I have to admit that there are occasions when a tablet can come in handy. So a while back I snagged a used iPad 3rd generation (a model discontinued over 7 years ago) from an individual on eBay. Now, one potential down side to choosing tech that’s this old is that it has an old version of the operating system that cannot be updated further (in this case, iOS 9.3.6). The current version for newer devices is iOS 13. Most current apps in Apple’s app store require at least iOS 11 or iOS 10. The result is that, when trying to install apps using Apple’s “App Store” on the device, almost every app gives an error saying that the iOS version on the device is too old, and it won’t install.

But some interweb sleuthing revealed that there’s a work-around which turns out to be successful in many cases. Older versions of iTunes allowed users to access purshase or download apps from Apple’s app store on your computer, with the idea that you could later sync those apps to your device. (Newer versions of iTunes dropped this capability). So I found a copy of iTunes 12.6.5 (the last version which allowed app downloads) and installed it in one my Windows 7 virtual machines.

Now, iTunes still won’t transfer these newest versions of the apps over to the device when it’s connected to the computer. BUT, once you download an app in iTunes, when opening up the app store on the device it will show up as one of your “Purchased” apps (even if it was free). And in most cases, when you attempt to download the “purchased” app, a message will pop up saying “The latest version of this app will not run on your device. Would you like to download an earlier version of the app that will run?”.

And so now I have a perfectly usable device, including the iPad version of e-Sword for off-line study (even though e-Sword now technically requires at least iOS 10).