Those who bought (or got as a gift) the new iPhones, iPad and iPod touch this holiday could be facing a common problem – Apple restricts an 150MB size limit over a cellular connection. So, unless you are on Wi-Fi, you won’t be able to download a big file. But, there is a trick that you could use to bypass the App Store download limit of 150MB.
Insufficient app store limit
Apple primarily introduced this limit after backlash from users who had problems with too much usage of their mobile data without their knowledge. Though it’s a needed measure, for users with unlimited data it was a limit that prevents them from using their device efficiently.
It is not that Apple doesn’t understand the woes of the users. To help users download a bigger file, it did bump up the limit before. If you didn’t know, the earlier App Store download limit was 100 MB. Meaning, for downloading an app bigger than 100 MB, users had to wait to connect to Wi-Fi. But, with the release of the iOS 11, Apple raised the App Store download limit to 150 MB.
“We’ve increased the cellular download limit from 100 MB to 150 MB, letting customers download more apps from the App Store over their cellular network,” Apple said at the time.
Apple originally had a 10MB cellular limit, but later, limited the download over a cellular connection to 50MB. In 2013, they bumped the limit from 50MB to 100MB.
Despite the bump to 150MB, there are many useful apps that are bigger than that. For now, there does not appear any chance of Apple raising the limit. So, until Apple decides to up the limit, you can use a trick that will allow you to download apps and games over 150MB in size over a cellular connection.
How to bypass App Store download limit?
To start, go to the app (over 150 MB in size) that you wish to download. Do make sure that you are using cellular data and not Wi-Fi. Now, click on the option to download the app. The App Store will try to download the app, but will soon pop up an alert saying the app exceeds the 150MB limit on cellular data.
You must dismiss the alert. However, you will see the “Waiting” notice icon on your home screen. Now, go to the Settings and select General > Date & Time, and turn off Set Automatically. Next, manually set a date a few years into the future. Like for the year 2022.
Now, you will get an App Store pop-up asking you to retry the download. Click on retry and you will notice that the app, which earlier failed is now downloading over the cellular data connection.
The app will download as normal. Bigger files as expected would take longer on the cellular network. So, apps like Fortnite or PUBG could take some time to download, but other apps like Facebook or Apple’s own Pages app should download rather quickly.
After you download the app, it is advisable to switch the Date & Time settings back to “Set Automatically.”
This workaround to bypass the App Store download limit works perfectly, and has worked for all that have used it. But, a drawback of this workaround is that it is just a bug. So, it might be that Apple will plug this loophole in the future.
Is Netflix bypassing App Store?
In separate news, Netflix is reportedly planning to bypass the App Store in an attempt to avoid paying the so-called “Apple tax.” Apple takes about a 30% cut on the third-party app sales through its iTunes App Store. But, for the subscription services, the charge drops to 15% on renewals after the first year.
On Friday, a report from VentureBeat noted that Netflix is not supporting Apple’s iTunes payment method for new users on the iOS devices. For the existing users, however, the iTunes renewal payment continues to work.
Bypassing the App Store would allow Netflix to keep the entire proceeds from the new subscribers, and avoid paying a cut to Apple. “The news that Netflix is leaving the App Store is somewhat expected, given the company began testing alternatives to the App Store last summer,” Gene Munster, managing partner at Loup Ventures, said in a post.
In May, the streaming firm did the same with the Play Store for subscribers using Android devices.
