iOS 10.3.2 To Shut Down Apple Support For 32-Bit iPhones: What To Do If You Have One

The iOS 10.3.2 software update is mostly confirmed to end support for 32-bit iPhones — the two beta versions of the update launched recently don’t support such phones, even though Apple hasn’t made any formal announcement regarding the development.

For the uninitiated, this means that Apple has cut software support for all iPhones launched before iPhone 5S, meaning that device ranging from the first iPhone to iPhone 5/5C will not get Apple’s official software updates anymore. This is the first time that Apple has cut software support for devices in the middle of the previous update, iOS 10’s shelf life. This entails that all users who have the older Apple devices will be stuck on iOS 10.3.1 as the last update for their devices. According to Phone Arena, this includes 43.7 million iPhone owners who still use the iPhone 5 or the iPhone 5C.

This isn’t good news for the users of older devices, since the iOS 10.3.1 is basically an incremental update that was issued to fix software issues such as battery drain and Wi-Fi vulnerabilities with iOS 10.3. The software version does not allow jailbreak either.

Jailbreaking an iPhone removes restrictions on the device's software imposed by Apple and allows the user to access features, which are not officially available for the device.

Read: How To Fix iOS 10.3 Battery Drain

So, what to do if you have an older Apple device but don’t want to be stuck with the software update?

There are only two ways out — either you will need to downgrade to iOS 10.2.1 or jailbreak your phone, when the software to perform it is available.

Apple has kept the option for users to downgrade to an older, less buggy version open currently, but that's only for a limited period, within which you will have to make a choice whether to downgrade the software or not.

Read: How To Downgrade From iOS 10.3 To iOS 10.2.1

The second option being the iOS 10.3 jailbreak. Once you perform the jailbreak, you will have the option to get features such as Apple Clips on the device in the future. While it doesn’t look good, these are the only options available for users of older devices currently.

Apple is expected announce its next, 64-bit device only iOS 11 update at the World Wide Developers Conference in June.