How can I extract IPA from iPhone for an application downloaded from the App Store so that I can see assets in IPA?

Question

One of my favorite apps has been removed from the app store, I think, because it has not been updated for too long. I have it on an old device (near iOS 7.1.2), but it did not load on new phones.

How can I get an IPA so that I can look at the application bundle and see it in the application?

Answer 1

So, one of the possible solutions to enter the assets of any application is to use iTunes and a little magic.

In your case, you can easily synchronize your device with iTunes so that all applications from your devices are copied to the iTunes Media folder:

And after that, you can simply unzip the ipa file and go to Payload/AnAppName.app , and there should be all the assets of the application.

An example using your terminal:

 $ cd ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes\ Media/Mobile\ Applications/ $ tar -zxf Apple\ Store\ 401000.ipa $ cd Payload/Apple\ Store.app/ 

And the result will be:

PS: instead of using bash for unarchiving, you can simply change the ipa file extension from .ipa to .zip and then double-click on it.