What's easiest way to get a previous iPhone app version onto my device? (for testing upgrade to upcoming app version)

Question

Background : Have got v2 of an iPhone application in XCode now, with v1 on the app store. So on my iPhone I have working versions of v2.

Aim : So I want a quick way to load the true original version onto my one and only iPhone device I have for testing.

Question : What's the best/quickest way to do this. I don't have a good option currently. I have thought of:

1. Download from iTunes - but this is a bit of a pain (ie assumes I really just want the current version, to overwrite the upcoming latest version I've deployed to the device from XCode).

2. Copying the files from the iPhone using something like "Phone Disk" (http://www.macroplant.com/phonedisk/) to my Mac, test the upgrade deployment of v2, and then when wanting to rollback then using Phone Disk (a) delete existing files on iPhone, and (b) copy back original files I'd saved off. I could NOT get this to work however. Was problematic transferring files across, and when I got them all back onto the iPhone and tried to run it it wouldn't start :(

(Note - From other advise I could probably just replace the sqlite file for the purpose of testing the core data migration, but for the purpose of this question I was targeting getting the actual true previous version in place)

Answer 1

The way most developers do this is with a backup or version control checkin of every submitted app version. Just restore from backup or checkout from source control into a different directory from the working copy, open that project, build and install.

I usually change the Bundle ID, Bundle Display name, and product name in the copy of old version (add a V0100 suffix or some such), which allows me to run the old version alongside the current build of the app for comparison testing, etc. But for upgrade testing, you would have to leave them the same, or use a temporary ID and name for both the previous and upgraded app versions. This rename allow you to do this upgrade multiple times. Just keep rev'ing the suffixes. Just don't forget to change them back when done testing.

Answer 2

Is your device jailbroken? It may actually help if (in this case) it is.

I'd download the IPA version you're looking for through google or something, then, with AppSync installed on your device, sync the app through iTunes.

The only problem You might see with this is that the newer version's user data MAY be deleted.

Try this at your own risk. I am not saying it will work, but I have done so in the past. And don't use jailbreak illegally, use it responsibly.

Edit: didn't see you had the previous version already. Maybe just bundle it up into an IPA, then use the method I said.