Welcome to 2026, I once thought what it’s gonna look like when it’s 2024..2026.. when I was in 2017..2018. A lot has changed, I wouldn’t have even predicted the things that happened.
Sideloading
Before I used to say you can’t sideload in iOS/Apple phones without jailbreaking. In a way that was dumb, because when you think about it.. iPhone apps have to be developed..obviously they can be tested on a physical device.. I didn’t think of that.. so.. I wasn’t thinking in this angle.
So when I started using iPhone, I got an iPhone mainly for app development, I soon realized you can use at most 3 apps..self signed can be installed on the phone, but the catch is, you have to install it again and again after 7 days.. because it would expire, it’s a pain right.. I know, it is.
To solve this you have either two options, buy a developer certificate.. the developer certificate is $100 per year or altstore, if you have an app published and used by lots of people and it gets you revenue.. it’s worth it to buy a developer certificate.. otherwise it’s every year purchase.. you gotta do.. which is horrible in my opinion. How it works is.. you get a developer license, so any apps you want to sideload.. you just sign without your certificate and use it as many times as you want.
Later Apple was forced to allow third-party App Stores in EU countries due to the Digital Markets Act (DMA). This officially went into effect on March 7, 2024, though Apple announced the changes earlier in January 2024. But what I’m saying is way before that…
Altstore
I used to use AltStore to sideload apps on my iPad and iPhone, AltStore comes in two parts, the server and the client, the server is an AltServer that runs on the Mac machine, at this point I had a Mac machine, but there is also a version for Windows and Linux I believe, you sign in to the AltServer, you have to give out your account email and password, .. yeah I know it sounds sketchy, but it’s actually widely considered safe. AltStore is open-source, and your credentials are sent directly to Apple’s servers via an encrypted connection to handle the app signing process—they are not stored on any third-party servers. For peace of mind, many developers recommend using a secondary Apple ID specifically for sideloading, though using your main account with two-factor authentication (2FA) is also supported and secure. I checked the community (mostly reddit) and the project’s details, and it’s okeyish for my use.
Once that is installed in the laptop or Mac machine. Download AltServer here. It runs a small binary that runs the background that you seen the in the title bar, you click/ right click it and then install the AltStore, you can also download the open source version of apps you need like torrent, YouTube plus plus (a version of YouTube modified from original source code to add ad blocking and background play and additional features), this is really great, but the catch as I’ve said it can only have 3 apps, and for free accounts you have to refresh every 7 days. Otherwise you have to do the installing of the AltStore again, the beauty of it is, if you refresh the apps within 7 days, you have to be on the same Wi-Fi network for his to work but run the AltServer on the laptop and then click the refresh or you can also do it with cable, connecting the iPhone to the Mac machine, because the initial setup of the AltStore and the signing is what takes times, so if you can refresh every time before 7 days, you can just open the SideStore app on the phone and then refresh the apps, the app is used to check the logs and manage the apps in that are sideloaded.
For detailed instructions, checking out the AltStore FAQ and their Getting Started guide is highly recommended.
Key Features of AltStore:
- No Jailbreak Required: Works on any iOS device running iOS 12.2 or later.
- Wireless Refreshing: Apps can be refreshed automatically over Wi-Fi when on the same network as AltServer.
- Open Source: The project is transparent and available on GitHub.
Evolution
The evolution of this is eventually came by, I always knew other options are present like using leaked certificates of developers / companies and then use that essentially using it for a year. A lot of people would use it but I thought it was sketchy, there is also a version where you install the key (token;.. key pair) using the key install the app, but then they block the Apple server via DNS or VPN , I have my own DNS server so blocking only the Apple server for my device is easy, but as I said I thought it was sketchy.. I stuck to AltStore as its used by many / it widely accepted at some point since I daily drive the Android phone I started to watching YouTube videos and other things on my Android device so I started to use less and less the iPhone for entertainment or other things
Official SideStore Documentation
Since the beginning I would miss some weeks were I forget to refresh then I had to reinstall the same steps over and over again, it was a pain but that is what I was doing until 2025, at one random night after midnight idk what came after me, I just started to look at subreddits of iOS just out of randomly, I don’t do that normally, then read about SideStore, so opened my laptop installed SideStore server, installed the SideStore app, they have this thing where if you install the SideStore app installed on your app then do some process to install something by connecting your device (generating a pairing file via AltServer or JitterbugPair and importing it into SideStore), you don’t have to connect your device to laptop again, you can just refresh the things on your phone it’s simple.
There is an app on the App Store called WireGuard (or the now-recommended LocalDevVPN) that you can use to turn on the dev VPN. How it works is that SideStore uses a specially configured VPN profile to route traffic locally (localhost). This tricks iOS into thinking the device is connected to a computer running a signing server (like AltServer) via USB, allowing it to sign and refresh apps directly on the device without an actual computer connection.
Why SideStore is better:
- No Computer Needed (mostly): After the initial pairing file setup, you only need the phone and a Wi-Fi/Data connection.
- Multiple Sources: Supports adding custom community repositories (repos).
- Official Resources:
The pain is gone now.
About the 3 apps sideloading problem
There is this awesome open source app called LiveContainer (it allows you to run unlimited apps within a single app securely, bypassing the 3-app limit). The way it works is by creating a virtual environment (like a container) for apps. You install all your IPA files inside LiveContainer, and it manages them without needing individual certificates for each.
Features of LiveContainer:
- Bypass 3-App Limit: Run as many apps as you want inside the container.
- JIT-less Mode: Can run many apps without needing JIT enabled.
- Isolated Data: Each app gets its own separate data folder.
- Official GitHub: khanhduytran0/LiveContainer
The caveat is that you can only run one application at a time with one LiveContainer instance, but since you can have multiple LiveContainer instances (if you really need to), the apps are not limited anymore.
Automating
You still have to open the app (SideStore and then refresh the apps?) No that’s where the shortcuts come in . I’ve never mentioned these before there, but there are a great things that you can use to automate a lot of things, was initially impressed by them but failed to spend time on them to set it up, so I found this shortcut online Reddit of all place inspected them and then imported it, it basically runs ever based on configuration I set it up as 3 days every night, turns on Wi-Fi, connects to known Wi-Fi (phone does that automatically), connects to the dev VPN then then runs the short to refresh the app, the whole process is automated, you don’t even have to open the phone, if it’s being used it runs in the background once it’s done, it disconnects the VPN that’s all, if you want to run off VPN after it ran you just configure that too, for my iPad this is what I’ve done.
Shortcuts File Download, you can review and modify them
Conclusion
It’s been so long, I feel lost, mindless sometimes, I have so many things I want to do , but little time, I find it harder and farther to focus on the essentials, I can’t believe after COVID, everything moved so fast, I don’t like it, but it is what it is, it’s already January, marriage topic comes up, still some issues on that side, then the AI topic comes up, I’m trying to pivot to it by learning from scratch (understand the core), studying in my free time, obviously I put a lot of time in new things by AI to build with it, automate it, use it to my benefit and learn new things every day or every other day, I put a lot of time in it but ultimately I don’t want to use it as a product, I want to learn from scratch understand to build ai from scratch. I have a new addiction playing an old game that I used to play in school? and maybe start of college, it’s an online golf game..that I used to play for a short period of time (Pangya). Again randomly on one weekend, searched for private server of the game, found it was running and there are some open source tools that make the game run without anti-cheat. The official company (Ntreev Soft) has gone under/stopped services, so the official anti-cheat won’t work.
But the detail is I have a Mac but this needs Windows to run. It was built in the early 2000s era. For those interested, community servers like Pangya Reborn or Pangya Debug are still active.
Anyway, I was introduced to this game by my friend back in the old day. Now since I stopped playing Steam games, as it was taking much of my time, I thought I could play these games after I retire? so all the games I bought.. maybe I’ll play them after I retire? I do enjoy playing games, but I equally enjoy or enjoy more learning new things and building new things. I’ve noticed it’s been taking a lot of time recently, so I stopped that for almost 3 months? yeah it’s been three months so I thought this game could be therapeutic & calming.
Spent almost half a day on a weekend to set it up in on Mac with Crossover, it said game won’t run (reported by others), but I kept trying and trying and trying but it won’t work. Then finally I tried installing on my ARM Windows (Parallels) running on my Mac. For my surprise it runs great! I thought ARM machine won’t run this old x646 game, but it ran great. I was ecstatic, so I spent my time on that more than I thought I would be rediscovering the memories I had back when I was playing it, the items, the maps, the things.
But I didn’t want to go in the same road when I was in school.. meaning I don’t wanna put more time in it, but the first few days/weeks are the best right, as on anything..you will have the honeymoon period, so I did put a quantitative chunk of that in the game.. like small chunks here and there couple weeks, but yea. It was addicting for a short while, maybe I’ll post about it sometime in the next writing.
In this jounral, I started to do this new thing… I started to do..write with my eyes closed and type, it’s much faster to write with the flow, I love it, any spelling / accuracy mistakes I correct it later, I have to look it up if other people have done the same before,.
Happy New Year, hope you are doing well.. (me reading from future, sq)