Browse 43,000+ iOS apps (2008–2014) — every archived version included — and install them on your jailbroken device.
💖 Like AppDrop? Tip the dev on PayPal
Runs natively on iPhone, iPod touch & iPad — a clean list or grid on iPhone/iPod, and on iPad a true iPad interface (multi-column grids, large tiles, landscape), not a blown-up phone layout.
- iOS 5.0 – 10.x (armv7 / 32-bit) — fully supported and tested on iPad 1 (iOS 5.1.1), iPhone 5 (iOS 6.1.4), iPad 4 (iOS 6.1.3), iPad mini 2 (iOS 10.3.3).
- iOS 11+ — not supported. The binary is 32-bit only and Apple dropped 32-bit app support in iOS 11.
- Compatible devices: iPad 1, iPhone 3GS / 4 / 4S, iPad 2 / 3 / 4 / iPad mini, iPod touch 3 / 4 / 5 (and 64-bit devices like iPad Air / iPhone 5S running iOS 10.3.3 or lower).
- Requires a jailbreak — that's it. Cydia handles the rest.
- 43,000+ apps — browsable by category right from the home screen, with every archived version of each app available
- Native on iPhone, iPod touch & iPad — a clean list or grid on the phone / iPod, and a true multi-column iPad interface (large tiles, landscape) on iPad — never a stretched-up phone app
- Auto-updating catalog — downloaded on first launch and refreshed automatically when new apps are added, so you never reinstall the app just for new content
- 17 themes + full dark mode — recolour the whole app instantly: 8 light colours and 9 dark variants, applied live with no restart
- Your own layout — switch any grid between list and icons and pick how many apps/tiles per row with a native iOS-6 wheel
- Widget-style home — press and hold any tile until it jiggles, then drag to reorder and drag a tile's bottom-right corner to resize it (1×1 / 2×1 / 2×2); pin your favourites on top, tap Done when you're happy, or hit Reset to start over
- Favorites & folders — ⭐ star any app, and organise apps into your own named collections right on the home screen
- Download later — queue apps to a "later" list and grab them when you're ready
- Device-aware — each app shows whether it'll run on your device, the catalog hides apps your iOS can't run, and AppDrop auto-picks the newest version you can actually install
- FairPlay-aware — detects DRM-encrypted builds before installing and steers you to a clean, installable version
- 9 languages — EN / FR / ES / DE / PT‑BR / JA / ZH‑Hans / TR / PL, auto-detected from your device
- Localized app descriptions — rich descriptions for thousands of apps, in all 9 languages
- Multi-select install — queue up dozens of apps in one batch, with a configurable max of simultaneous downloads (1–8)
- Pause, resume & cancel — pause a running download and pick it back up later, with live progress and a "N downloading · M waiting" counter
- DNS-over-HTTPS + HTTP proxy — installs keep working even where your ISP blocks archive.org at the DNS level, and downloads honour your manual Wi-Fi HTTP proxy if you set one
- Skeuomorphic iOS 6 UI — fits naturally into your jailbroken device
- No backend, no account, no tracking — talks directly to archive.org
AppDrop is distributed via Cydia. No manual IPA transfer, no SSH, no file manager — Cydia handles everything, including the two required dependencies (AppSync Unified, IPA Installer Console).
- Open Cydia on your jailbroken device
- Go to Sources → Edit → Add
- Enter this URL:
https://adrienrl1.github.io/cydia/ - Tap Add Source — Cydia refreshes the source list. The repo is named AdrienRL.
On the oldest devices (mainly iOS 5), Cydia may reject the HTTPS source with a "could not be verified" / TLS error. These devices are missing the modern Let's Encrypt root certificate (ISRG Root X1) that
github.ionow chains to. Install it once and the source works:
- On the device, open
http://repo.invoxiplaygames.uk/certificates/in Safari — usehttp://, nothttps://, because the device can't yet verify the very certificate it's about to install (same chicken-and-egg that's blocking Cydia).- Tap ISRG Root X1 CA (Let's Encrypt) and install the certificate (if it doesn't open on its own, go to Settings → General → Profiles and install it there).
- Return to Cydia and add
https://adrienrl1.github.io/cydia/again — it now validates.iOS 6 and newer already trust this root (verified on iOS 6.1.3 / 6.1.4), so this is only needed on the earliest devices. Certificate page courtesy of InvoxiPlayGames.
- From the AdrienRL source, tap AppDrop
- Tap Install → Confirm
Cydia automatically pulls and installs the two prerequisite packages if you don't have them already:
- AppSync Unified by Karen — lets the system load unsigned IPAs
- IPA Installer Console by autopear — the actual install tool AppDrop drives under the hood
When the install finishes, AppDrop appears on your home screen. Tap it and you're done.
AppDrop's in-app updater checks GitHub Releases hourly and, when a new version is out, opens Cydia directly on the package page so you can tap Upgrade in one tap.
| Symptom | Fix |
|---|---|
| Cydia rejects the HTTPS source ("could not be verified") on old iOS | Mostly iOS 5. Install the ISRG Root X1 (Let's Encrypt) root certificate from http://repo.invoxiplaygames.uk/certificates/ (see the note above the install steps), then add the source again. |
| Cydia can't resolve AppSync Unified | Add Karen's official repo https://cydia.akemi.ai/ (package ai.akemi.appsyncunified), then refresh. Use only the official build. |
| Icon not visible after install | Reboot the device, or via SSH run uicache -p /Applications/AppDrop.app && killall -9 SpringBoard. |
| App crashes on launch | Confirm your iOS is 5.0 or newer (iOS 11+ is not supported). |
| Dependencies marked as "broken" | Refresh all your sources, then try Install again. |
The home screen sorts 43,000+ apps into categories (Games, Utilities, Entertainment…), with quick tiles for All apps, Favorites and Download later. Tap a category to browse it, and rearrange or resize the tiles to make the home yours.
Every version of every app, with icons, names and sizes. Use Filters to narrow by iOS version, device or sort order, and Select for multi-pick batch installs. Prefer a tidy list or a dense icon grid? Set it in Settings → Display.
Each app shows a localized description, version, size and a green/orange banner telling you whether it runs on your device. Install it, save it for ⭐ favorites, queue it for later, or browse every archived version from the Versions button.
Some archived IPAs are still FairPlay-encrypted (tied to the original buyer's Apple ID) and just won't launch on a jailbreak. Before you download, AppDrop probes the build over a tiny HTTP range request — no full download — and, if it's encrypted, shows a banner and points you to a clean, decrypted version when one exists. The Versions list flags each encrypted mirror too, so you never waste a 485 MB download on something that can't install.
Narrow the catalog by minimum / maximum iOS version, device class (iPhone, iPad, both), uniqueness (one row per bundle ID), and sort order. Tap a sort row again to flip ascending / descending.
Pick from 8 light colours or 9 dark themes — the whole app retints instantly, no restart. Then dial in your layout: list vs grid, and how many apps or home tiles per row, via a native iOS-6 picker wheel.
Catalog metadata : stuffed18.github.io/ipa-archive-updated
↓ pre-built SQLite (catalog.db.gz) downloaded on first launch, auto-refreshed
IPA download : http://archive.org/download/X/Y.ipa
↓ archive.org → CDN redirect → mbedTLS-bundled HTTPS
Local install : /usr/bin/ipainstaller path/to/Y.ipa
↓
App on home screen ✓
AppDrop downgrades archive.org requests from https:// to http:// to bypass Fastly's JA3-fingerprint blocking on old TLS clients. The CDN node then redirects to HTTPS, and the bundled mbedTLS handles the Let's Encrypt handshake on iOS 5-6 where the system TLS stack is too old.
Requires the Theos cross-compile toolchain on macOS.
git clone https://github.com/AdrienRL1/AppDrop.git
cd AppDrop
export THEOS=$HOME/theos
# One-time: build mbedTLS for armv7 (or use the prebuilt libs in deps/build/)
cd deps && bash build-mbedtls-ios.sh && cd ..
# Build the .deb and deploy directly to a jailbroken device via SSH
gmake package FINALPACKAGE=1| Layer | Technology |
|---|---|
| UI | Objective-C, UIKit, custom drawRect: skeuomorphic widgets |
| Networking | Bundled mbedTLS (TLS 1.2) on raw sockets — iOS 5-6 system TLS can't handshake modern servers |
| Catalog DB | SQLite (system libsqlite3) |
| Theming | Live palette engine with notification-based retint |
| Install | posix_spawn → /usr/bin/ipainstaller |
| i18n | NSBundle .lproj × 8 langs |
| Build | Theos (clang armv7) |
AppDrop runs no analytics, has no account system, sends no telemetry. See PRIVACY.md for the full list of third-party services contacted at runtime.
- stuffed18 — public IPA catalog metadata at github.com/stuffed18/ipa-archive-updated
- archive.org — hosting the actual IPA files
- mbedTLS — Apache-2.0 TLS library that made HTTPS work on iOS 5-6
- autopear —
ipainstaller, the helper AppDrop delegates to - Yusubera (Reddit) — Turkish translation
- Gerg_ (Reddit) — Polish translation
AppDrop is a client for publicly-listed archive.org content. The app downloads files that are already available to anyone with a browser. It does not redistribute or host any IPAs itself. Use responsibly — only install software you own or that is freely redistributable (free, archived, homebrew).