Microsoft Office for iOS - Old ipa file for iOS 9.3.5

[mattpant]

Hi All,

 

I recently reformatted our MacBook and did a fresh clean reinstall of Mac OS High Sierra - this machine was managing our iPad trolley which we also reset all the iPADS and did a clean install using the new Apple Configurator 2 App - we had been using the iOS versions of Word / Excel / PowerPoint on these iPads, but when I came to re-download and install them onto the iPads - it wouldn't let me anymore as the version on the App Store is only for newer versions of iOS and the highest our iPads will allow is 9.3.5

 

Does anybody have a version of Word / Excel / PowerPoint ipa files sitting on their machines that will work with iOS 9.3.5 that could be sent over to me please so I can manually import onto our system.

 

Many Thanks

 

Matt

[ZeroHour]

I dont know if that would work as I think IPA's are encrypted with the customers cert to prevent sharing.

[mattpant]

Ahhh - that's a PITA!! Even for Free Apps??

[ZeroHour]

All ipa's are signed, I think you may be able to resign some if you have an enterprise certificate though but I am not sure tbh.

[mattpant]

OK - Thanks for the reply and the heads up!

[TLARWise]

It is a bit fiddly but there is a way to trick itunes in to downloading an older version of an ipa file. I usedthe instructions from https://makovetsky.me/downgrade-iphoneipad-application-on-windows/ to successfully download ipas for 9.3.5 in the past which worked successfully with apple configurator 2 before I moved over to using the free Mosyle MDM.

[mattpant]

Thanks @HilcrRWise -

 

I'll give it a go then and see what happens - out of interest, do you know what the version number is that I should be looking at downloading that will work with 9.3.5?

 

Thanks,,

 

Matt

[TLARWise]

Not sure off the top of my head but you could manually install the apps on one ipad (if you haven't already got one with them on) then go to Settings > General > Storage & iCloud Usage > Manage Storage and then select an app, the version number will be shown at the top of the screen.

 

To identify the integer value for that particular version you would then search for the app in the app store click on show version history and count how many versions from the most recent to the version you want, then count the same number from the highest integer value down.

[bknaggs]

You want version 2.5.

[ass17]

We still get them through a specific version of iTunes. Problem is for us is that when you have applied the blueprint, then gone through setting it up ready for pupil use, we have launch one of the office apps and login with the username and password we used in iTunes to download it in order to activate it. Once one is done, all the other apps are ok.

[mattpant]

Sounds like we could be on to something... Do you know which version of iTunes your using - and it does definitely allow you to pick and choose an old version to download... not just being able to download the latest ipa file, which is no longer possible in the newer versions of iTunes?

 

Thanks

[ass17]

I use a combination of fiddler4 and iTunes 12.5.5