Websites not loading on old iPad

October 25, 2023 10:21 AM

I have an old iPad running 12.5.7 iOS (it can’t update past that). Certain websites won’t load at all, like imgur and many shopping sites. The header will appear but that’s all. Is there a way to work around it?

I use Chrome but tried Safari and Firefox with the same results. Caches have been cleared. Anything else I can try? Thank you!

posted by dianeF to Computers & Internet (8 answers total)

I wonder if it's a security issue. If the OS is that old it may be running with expired certificates. I'm not sure how to work around that though.
posted by Alensin at 10:35 AM on October 25, 2023 [2 favorites]

Browsers on iOS/iPadOS are based on Webkit, currently. Which means they're really Safari but with different "chrome" (everything around the page rendering like the URL bar, menus, and navigation) and features like password saving.

If the site won't work in Chrome or Safari or Firefox it's probably a problem with Webkit or other components that Apple forces browsers to share on iOS/iPadOS. If you can reach those sites without error / problems on another device then the culprit is very likely "my version of Webkit cannot deal with this site for some reason."

It would also mean that you're not up to date with security fixes and there may be some spectacular security vulnerabilities in an OS / browser that old. Looks like support ended for those devices in 2019, (Apple last released a security update in January and I know there've been some major security updates since) so if you do use it for web browsing I hope it's only for known/well-trusted sites.
posted by jzb at 10:57 AM on October 25, 2023 [2 favorites]

Is it possible you have an adblocker app installed? I had a long forgotten, out of date ad blocker that started to break sites like this on iOS.
posted by Lorin at 12:48 PM on October 25, 2023 [1 favorite]

Since you asked for a workaround, I will say that I have an original iPad (from 2010!) that I use as a kitchen/recipe computer. The only way to access modern websites is to use remote desktop software to log into a Windows computer on the network and browse from there. I have also been doing this to access certain websites on a newer iPad as well. A little clunky but it does what I need it to!
posted by lolibrarian at 1:05 PM on October 25, 2023 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: Thanks, guys. My iPad is from 2012 so I think I’m in the same boat as you, lolibrarian. I’m going to see if I can get that to work. Thanks again!
posted by dianeF at 6:15 PM on October 25, 2023 [1 favorite]

May need to update all the browsers. There was a pretty high level patch recently that affected a LOT of browsers due to a foundational library vulnerable to an exploit by bad guys.
posted by kschang at 8:13 PM on October 25, 2023

The exist some sites that wrap modern webpages for old computers. The one I'm most familiar with is FrogFind, but that's for computers decades older than yours. Maybe one exists that's more appropriate for your case.
posted by vasi at 1:49 AM on October 26, 2023 [1 favorite]

The issue is usually an HTTPS certificate being signed using a cipher that the older browser doesn't support. This is a pretty common problem with retrocomputing of any sort lately, especially because almost all sites are HTTPS now. Sometimes there are patched versions of old browsers you can install that fix this (I had to do this on my vintage PowerMac), but on iOS you're pretty out of luck.

There miiiiight be a jailbreak for that version of iOS which would (maybe) mean you could install a newer browser for that. But that'd take some doing.
posted by neckro23 at 9:06 PM on October 26, 2023 [1 favorite]