How do you test against a specific version when you don't have a device with the version?

Question

I have 3.1.2 device and have used 3.1.2 as minimum iOS requirement for my app.

Now I want to set the minimum iOS requirement for my app to 4.0.

The problem is it seems there's no way I can upgrade my device to 4.0 without jailbreaking. (and it seems if I jailbreak my device, I won't be able to test IAP)

Hence, I can only update the device's iOS to 5.0, and I won't have 4.0 device to test against.

What do you do when you are in such a situation?

Answer 1

Yes that is a problem, i've faced my self. I still own an iPhone 3G which is still running 4.2.1 and I can down grade it to iOS 4.0 My iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4S are stuck on iOS 5.

I've used testflight to for an open beta to get 20 test with different iOS version, which if it is possible can help a bit. But getting and iPhone 3G or second gen iPod touch might help.

You can install all version of the iOS (up to the one they support) on them since there is real install check done. You might need a tool to finish the installation if it hangs on the final step, but there is no need to jailbreak them.

Answer 2

You may need to buy an old used iOS device running the old OS version which you want to test against. You could sell your other test device with an unusable OS version to help pay for it.