Any active iOS 6 users in 2017?

[logicstudiouser]

I've got 2 iOS devices, one with iOS 6.1.4 and one with 8.2 (pre-Apple music)

My iPhone 5 is on iOS 6 - primarily only phone, texts, a few stable apps including a running app and of course the music app which I love on iOS 6.

What about you? Are you still holding on to iOS 6? What is your main reason for sticking with it in 2017?

 

[Retromac2008]

your answer seems no

i wish i could, i m using IPhone 4S and IPad2 with A5 chip, and with IOS9 they re slow

with ios6 my idevices were perfect !

 

[braddick]

All my older devices run on the original firmware- like you, iOS6 is flawless on an iPhone 5.
I was able to purchase an iPad 4 (here on the forums) with iOS6 and it too runs smooth.

 

[Retromac2008]

i think Icloud is the best thing on apple devices, so i use ios 9 (ios 7 and 8 are slow the same)

 

[ThunderMasterMind]

My iPad 4 is on iOS 6.0.1 and my old 4S is on 6.1.3. I love my iPad, but ever since I got my MacBook, I don't really use it much. I still love iOS 6, but recently support for it has taken a giant decline and it's not as useful as it was 3 months ago. I love the design and the way the design ties into the functionality makes it miles better than what iOS is today. Sadly I don't think we will ever see Apple in that direction again, and it really is a shame. All the whiteness and dull icons in iOS 10 just make it so boring to use. It's better than Android, but nothing will ever outrule iOS 6 except iOS 6 itself. If I knew how to work code in iOS, I would personally work on iOS 6 and make it even better.

 

[primarycolors]

I'm hanging on to iOS 6 and OS X Mavericks. I can't deal with all the iOS 10 and Sierra nonsense.

Main device is 32gb iPhone 5 with iOS 6.1.4 (down from iPhone 6+).
I've jailbroken it with minimal requirements (SSLpatch and NCsettings) and it's going super strong.

For compatibility, I can download whatever apps I need on the 6+ and then can do last compatible version on the 5. It's got all the necessities... FaceBook, Kik, Yelp, eBay, Pages...


See how much screen space is wasted with iOS 10!!

 

[logicstudiouser]

I'm hanging on to iOS 6 and OS X Mavericks. I can't deal with all the iOS 10 and Sierra nonsense.

I need Sierra for work so I don't have a choice there. I've been able to stick with iOS 6 cause I am not much of an iCloud, gaming or social media user. I also really value Genius Playlists and Mixes, so since Apple has axed them on iOS, even more reason to stay where I am.

Saw this video online about how to make Yosemite look like mavericks, presumably this would also work for Sierra, haven't done it but you may want to give it a try if the 10.9 look is important for you.

i think Icloud is the best thing on apple devices, so i use ios 9 (ios 7 and 8 are slow the same)

The one thing related to iCloud I rely on heavily is iTunes Match. If iTunes Match were to stop working on iOS 6 that would be the end of my days with iOS 6.

 

[robbiepayne97]

Yes. I have quite a bit of an Apple collection devices running pre-iOS 7 except for one which was a black Verizon iPhone 4 8GB on iOS 6.1.3, but I updated that one because I had the exact same phone, same color, same carrier, same storage, even same firmware, so I was like why not have another one running a different software, so I updated that one, but my devices I actually use and not for my collection, but it is in my collection though:

Black Verizon iPhone 5 16GB on iOS 6.1.4
Black iPad 4 Wi-Fi 32GB on iOS 6.1.3
Yellow/White iPod touch 5th generation 32GB on iOS 6.1.3 (little more rare to find, especially for cheap)
Black iPod touch 4th generation 32GB on iOS 6.1.3

All of them are jailbroken and I enjoy them that way because it is useful for me.

 

[Tozovac]

I need Sierra for work so I don't have a choice there. I've been able to stick with iOS 6 cause I am not much of an iCloud, gaming or social media user. I also really value Genius Playlists and Mixes, so since Apple has axed them on iOS, even more reason to stay where I am.

Saw this video online about how to make Yosemite look like mavericks, presumably this would also work for Sierra, haven't done it but you may want to give it a try if the 10.9 look is important for you.

The one thing related to iCloud I rely on heavily is iTunes Match. If iTunes Match were to stop working on iOS 6 that would be the end of my days with iOS 6.

If only you could correct how Jony Ive ruined the red yellow green stop lights from their dumbed down overly simplified appearance back to the lickable buttons that took real talent to create and made sense with their 3-D appearance for indicating they were functional and clickable. I cringe when I see the flat design stop lights which look like information only and not clickable.

 

[BrettApple]

Shoot, I wish I had an iPhone 5 on iOS 6. I mean, I have an iPhone 5 but it can't be downgraded as far as I know. It's been sitting on 7.1.2 for years and then finally went to 10.3 to get ready to sell it or something.

I do have a 3GS that I recently upgraded from 4.0 to iOS 6 simply to be able to use iMessage. It's my secondary phone that I love to use to unplug from social media and such as it has just the base apps plus 2K songs on a playlist and some older games. No FB/Insta/etc. It also gets noticeably better reception than my iPhone 7.

Just today I found an iPhone 4S running iOS 6 for sale on Swappa and picked it up. I had one in 2013 running 6.1.2 and it was great, sadly it was updated to 7.x and then sold. So I'm back where I was then, haha. But iOS 6 was darn stable. I don't know what subversion it has though.

That 3GS is rock solid stable too, more so than iOS 4 I think. At least 4.0 and 4.1. And the battery still holds 100% of it's charge even after 8 years (2009 production date) as indicated by coconutBattery.

 

[Tozovac]

This photo pi**es me off. I'm reminded how Jony Ive's team ruined OS by dumbing-down the stoplight buttons' appearance (shown as all grey here for whatever reason) as well as -- at first glance, quick, anyone answer: Is "Mac" or "iOS" selected?

 

[C DM]

This photo pi**es me off. I'm reminded how Jony Ive's team ruined OS by dumbing-down the stoplight buttons' appearance (shown as all grey here for whatever reason) as well as -- at first glance, quick, anyone answer: Is "Mac" or "iOS" selected?

Seems like "iOS" is selected as it has the darker non-default background color.

 

[Tozovac]

Seems like "iOS" is selected as it has the darker non-default background color.

Good guess. I won't be able to answer, I refuse to downgrade past Mavericks, which retained the intuitive 3D-look as to what's depressed.

 

[C DM]

Good guess. I won't be able to answer, I refuse to downgrade past Mavericks, which retained the intuitive 3D-look as to what's depressed.

It's not really a guess, just what it is in that style.

 

[BrettApple]

So the iPhone 4s came in today. And it's an odd one, that's for sure. It is completely mint, not a scratch on the thing. Nor any dust in the speaker ports. Doesn't look like it was ever even used. And sure enough, I fired up coconutBattery yet again and it has 6 charge cycles. Yes, 6! It's also on its shipping firmware from it's date of manufacture which is also quite strange.

It is running iOS 6.1.0 - and has an iOS 6 picture on the home screen on the box and it was manufactured in Feb. 2013 but it's also a 16GB model and not the usual 8GB model that was shipping after the iPhone 5 was released. I forgot they continued making both the 8GB and 16GB models after the iPhone 5 came out. It also means it was never updated too, very nice. Though I wouldn't mind having 6.1.1 on there for the cellular issues for the 4s fix. But oh well.

 

[logicstudiouser]

Cool, I didn't know about this coconut battery app. Just added my iPhone 5. I have used it so much, so I am a little surprised the cycle count isn't higher. 89% health after 746 cycles sounds pretty decent to me and the battery still runs strong, I normally get around 8-10 hours of usage per charge.

I recently had to delete my music and reset iTunes Match on my phone which is why I have so much space back. I usually keep it just below 3.5gb available storage to avoid Apple from downloading the update when I am plugged in with wi-fi
Until I get back down to that amount, I have to charge with wi-fi off. A little bit of a hassle, but worth it for the great experience I get with the device each day.

Has anyone else noticed that on the software update page, it still offers 8.4.1? Kind of bizarre. :S

 

[Tozovac]

What a sight for sore eyes, looks so inviting to press and use.

 

[FeliApple]

I am using my iPod Touch 5G still on 6.0! Bought it as soon as it got in my country (Dec 2012) and never updated it. Works awesomely but I cannot check charge cycles because for some reason Coconut Battery doesn't read them.

 

[MacDevil7334]

Has anyone else noticed that on the software update page, it still offers 8.4.1? Kind of bizarre. :S

Yeah iOS 9 had some kind of change that required you to be on iOS 8 in order to do the update OTA. So if you are on an older firmware, you have to update to iOS 8.4.1 first if doing an OTA update.

I believe the OdysseusOTA tool uses the fact that Apple still signs iOS 8.4.1 via the OTA interface to allow for downgrades to iOS 8 from iOS 9 and later on supported devices.

 

[BrettApple]

Yep, my 4S keeps prompting me to update to iOS 8.4.1 as well. The bad part is that aside from resetting it, there isn't a way to remove the downloaded iOS update hogging a couple GB of space. Bad move on Apple's part. I think iOS 7.2 was the first to allow you to remove downloaded updates, though they usually come back anyway.

I could just jailbreak it and then use a Cydia tweak to remove the OTA and keep it off but then I couldn't easily reset it. Though it may be worth JB'ing to use Odysseus OTA and get it up to 6.1.3 from 6.1.0. But that's the only reason I would.

 

[FeliApple]

Yep, my 4S keeps prompting me to update to iOS 8.4.1 as well. The bad part is that aside from resetting it, there isn't a way to remove the downloaded iOS update hogging a couple GB of space. Bad move on Apple's part. I think iOS 7.2 was the first to allow you to remove downloaded updates, though they usually come back anyway.

I could just jailbreak it and then use a Cydia tweak to remove the OTA and keep it off but then I couldn't easily reset it. Though it may be worth JB'ing to use Odysseus OTA and get it up to 6.1.3 from 6.1.0. But that's the only reason I would.

For now though, I'm selling my iPhone 7 and using the 4S I bought full-time. Reason being the reception has driven me bonkers today. No signal, 1 bar, none again, message send failure, sent as SMS failure, etc. Stuck my SIM in the 4S and I've been sending SMS and iMessages all day!

I may look into getting the BlackBerry KEYone actually. But until then, it's back to iOS 6 for me. And I personally love it! I'll miss some apps but nothing critical. I've got my music, phone, sms, calendar (Google), notes, find my friends, flashlight, radar app, weather apps, bible app, Dropbox, Google drive, Google maps, etc all working just fine.

I also snagged a Speck CandyShell case in red for a whole $3 shipped on eBay. Arrived brand new unopened and genuine from what I can tell! Score!

As far as I know as well, there isn't a way to remove the OTA update other than restoring. That's why I avoid leaving the Wi-Fi on when charging my iPod Touch 5G. It is a shame that Apple didn't implement a way of deleting that before iOS 8 I think. Now fortunately we can but with 128GB devices as I have with 83 left on my iPad and 105 on my iPhone it isn't as necessary as it was with my iPod Touch with 4GB left only.

 

[MultiFinder17]

I keep my old 3GS in my car strictly for music. I love the music app from iOS 6; it is so much easier to navigate than the current one, hence why I use it in my car. My old iPhone was a 32GB model, so it has plenty of space. I'm looking forward to many more years of solid usage from it!

 

[Tozovac]

Every time I have to adjust my iphone 4 or ipod 3 (both with ios6, and which I use for household video security monitoring via the Manything app), it's such an amazing pleasure to use. It's so apparent how colors, borders, font types, lines of varying thicknesses, & button shapes are used to almost effortlessly guide the user for focusing on whatever task they're performing....a stark contrast to the minimalist white-out thin-font monochrome unintuitive flat interface that Jony & Timmy have stuck us with for the past agonizing four years.

So Jony imagined that the world knew how to use a touchphone by 2013 and no human would ever need the knuckle-dragging UI/prompts that were the cornerstone of Apple UI up until after iOS6. I would love to put an iOS6-enabled phone in front of someone whose first introduction to a touchscreen phone started with iOS7, 8, 9, or 10 and see what they think.

 

[HeathHayle]

I only use iOS 6 I looked at ios 7 durning beta via the net and youtube etc so I knew before release that I hated it etc the only time I have used iOS 7+ is when I have bootlooped my devices and needed to restore but have gone back to ios 6 on those devices or got iOS 6 compatible device as soon as I could I am running iOS 6 on a iPad 2 and iPhone 4s I will probably get a iPhone 5 when I can get one on iOS 6 so yes I am a ios 6 user in 2017!

 

[KingSH007]

Still using iOS 6 on an iPod Touch 4g, and I might possibly install it on the iPhone 4 that is currently running iOS 7.

Anyway, iOS 6 still supports everything that I need: Twitter, Youtube (and a youtube downloader), Reddit, iCloud Photo Sharing, some games, and a plethora of jailbreak tweaks.