Need geocaching app for iPhone 3GS that works in 2021

[+BethKatzPA]

I use my iPhone 11 Pro and Cachly to cache. I also use my old iPhone 6 with Cachly and without a SIM card to have scouts cache.

 

My daughter just gave me back my old iPhone 3GS that I used to use for geocaching. I'd like to be able to use it with scouts as well. However, the old app that I just downloaded won't log in. If I remember correctly, there was a time when the existing geocaching apps were made useless by changes to the geocaching servers.

 

So my question is .... What geocaching app can I run on my iPhone 3GS such that it can connect to the geocaching servers? How do I get that app on my iPhone 3GS?

[+Hügh]

I don't own an iPhone. Still, I doubt that there are all that many apps (regardless of them being Geocaching apps or not) that are compatible with iOS 6.1.6. For reference, the Official app requires iOS ≥12.0.

 

That said, you might (again, not an iPhone user; you could definitely do this on Android but I'm not sure about iOS) be able to jailbreak it and trick it into upgrading to a newer iOS version and/or installing an app.

Edited April 18, 2021 by Hügh

[+ecanderson]

IIRC, it was the antenna that made the iPhone3 a big dodgy for position accuracy.  When finding, it may take some additional time, but we've seen placements that were quite a ways out when set with a 3.  Your 11 is miles ahead of it in terms of technology.  Wouldn't spend a ton of time looking for an app that's still able to run on the 3.

[+DerDD]

Well I own an iPhone 3GS too and I want to use geocaching on it as well, as part of the hole "retro setup". You can download an old version of Looking4Cache Lite, but the authentication doesn´t really work. Every time it asks to authenticate again and doesn´t let you search for caches. I would be pretty happy if someone knows how to fix this. Or maybe someone has an old 3GS or iPhone 4, 4S or 5 with iOS 6 and a working geocaching app installed. You could plug it in to a computer and make a file from this app, which then can be installed on every other device through iTunes.

[+niraD]

3 hours ago, DerDD said:

You can download an old version of Looking4Cache Lite, but the authentication doesn´t really work.

There have been a couple times where they changed the API, and apps that were not updated to use the new API stopped working. I've had that happen with a couple third-party Android apps so far.

[+DerDD]

So there is maybe no way to geocache with an iOS 6 device...

[+thebruce0]

You'd probably have to scrape the internet for a copy of the raw app application file to load in via iTunes. Any apps available on the store today really have had no reason to support an os that old, and with Apple's insistence on being updated, chances are none can even run on the old OS.  Your best bet for the 3GS would be to use a map app and paste GPS coordinates to navigate. 

I geocached with a 3GS until I upgraded to the 4S. The 3GS is certainly a capable device to geocache with.  But yeah, it's very old and unsupported now.

[+BethKatzPA]

Thank you for all the comments and suggestions. I had to come back and find the post because this forum didn't automatically have me follow the topic when i created it. Sigh.

 

It feels like what I need is a mapping app (maybe MotionX-GPS which is also no longer supported but which I had on that phone way back when) where I can add in waypoints and just ignore the geocaching website. Such an app would also be handy for teaching people about geocaching without having them have an account or look for published geocaches. When I do temporary geocaches, I add them as waypoints on one of my nearby published ones.

 

Again, thank you for confirming that I wasn't missing something.

[+Jayeffel]

On 4/19/2021 at 4:01 PM, DerDD said:

So there is maybe no way to geocache with an iOS 6 device...

I use my iPhone 6 plus with os 12. 5. 3 and the  geocache app works okay. Cachly does too. I do have  L4C Lite but do not use it, so do not know if works.

[+BethKatzPA]

On 5/17/2021 at 6:21 AM, Jayeffel said:

I use my iPhone 6 plus with os 12. 5. 3 and the  geocache app works okay. Cachly does too. I do have  L4C Lite but do not use it, so do not know if works.

 

You can use an iPhone 6; I do that with Cachly even without a SIM card.

You cannot use an older iPhone with iOS 6 (such as the iPhone 3GS in my original question). None of the older apps can connect to the current geocaching server.