F-Droid and old Android versions

Wiki Tips & Tricks
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F-Droid is a nice app store that provides free and lean software. The idea of using old phones with modern software from F-Droid is quite obvious. There are several problems with e.g. F-Droid and Android 4.x but there are also several hints in this forum. Please help to collect them. This is a wiki thread, that means, most users can edit this post.

Table of contents

  1. About old software and security
  2. Helpful android apps
  3. Using the PC to get F-Droid apps
  4. About android, F-Droid and other versions
    1. Firefox/Android version history
  5. The certificates (and ssl versions) can be too old
  6. Repositories
  7. Preparing an old phone with less bloatware
  8. Supported apps and their versions ordered by android version
    1. Android 6 (Marshmallow, API 23)
    2. Android 5.1(.1) (Lollipop, API 22) (and much else below)

About old software and security

Helpful android apps

  • F-Droid Classic version 1.2 (2021-06-01) supports Android versions >= 4.4 (will be the last version to support Android 4.4)
  • Mounts2SD is a script for devices with low storage capabilities, but It can be used for a lot of things and is useful on almost any device, even those without external sdcard. It needs root and can configure swap, zram, mount optimzations and other things.

Using the PC to get F-Droid apps

About android, F-Droid and other versions

Firefox/Android version history

A list of Firefox versions and comments which Android version support has ended is available at
Firefox for Android - Wikipedia , e.g.:

  • Version 68.11.0: July 27, 2020. Last version to support Android 4.1–4.4,[233] also the last version to display the about:config page in consumer releases..

The certificates (and ssl versions) can be too old

Repositories

  • The F-Droid archive repository is included, but not activated, in F-Droid and F-Droid classic. If your old phone has no problems, you may get the old apk versions which can be used by old Android versions (It crashes my Galaxy J1, maybe because of low ram (512MB).)
  • https://forum.f-droid.org/t/known-repositories/721

Preparing an old phone with less bloatware

Getting rid of old software may improve the responsiveness of your phone.

  • do a factory reset to your phone
  • When starting first, don’t add your wifi to prevent google and other software to update
  • Deny everything to google and other software, e.g. Samsung App Store.
  • remove or deactivate every preinstalled software you don’t need (maybe keep the browser to install F-Droid)
  • activate your wifi
  • install F-Droid classic or something similar, either from SD-card, USB or using the preinstalled browser

Supported apps and their versions ordered by android version

With Izzy’s repo browser you can browse the different versions of an apk in the F-Droid archive repo. The details of the apk lists the minVersion “minimal Android version” and you get a download link for old APKs previously offered in the F-Droid repository.
Use CTRL+f to search the apk list below for a program.

Android 6 (Marshmallow, API 23)

Android 5.1(.1) (Lollipop, API 22)

(comment: was 5.1.1 too unimportant to mention?)

Android 5.0 (Lollipop, API 21)

  • aTalk 2.9.2 - 2.9.4
  • Conversations 2.10.1+fcr(42022) - 2.10.2.1+fcr(42024)
  • mail (a.k.a. monocles mail) recent version as of 9.10.2023 (1.2.2) (11)
  • Quicksy 2.10.1+fcr(42022) - 2.10.2.1+fcr(42024)

Android 4.4 (KitKat, API 19)

  • F-Droid Classic version 1.2 (2021-06-01) (will be the last version to support Android 4.4)
  • Stork IM 1.5.1(11) - 3.0.27(90)

Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean, API 16)

exploitable security issues before briar 1.4.22!

Briar had exploitable security issues before version 1.4.22: https://briarproject.org/news/2023-three-security-issues-found-and-fixed/

  • Conversations 2.9.3+fcr (2021-01-05)
  • Quicksy 2.9.3+fcr (2021-01-05)

Android 4.0.3 (Ice Cream Sandwich, API 15)

  • mail (a.k.a. monocles mail) 1.0.4 (5) 2022-07-17 (last version for android 4.0.3, version 1.0.5 needs android 5.0)
  • Xabber 2.6.6.644-open(644)

Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich, API 15)

Android 2.3.3 (Gingerbread, API 10)

Android 2.3 (Gingerbread, API 9)

  • Burger Party 1.4.2 (2023-06-25) small game
  • Navit v0.5.6 (2021030660), recent version, car navigation system
  • VLC 3.0.13 (2018-07-26) media player

Android 2.2 (Froyo, API 8)

Android 2.1 (Eclair, API 7)

  • Yaxim 0.9.1(51) - 0.9.3(53)

Android 2.0 (Eclair, API 5)

Android 1.6 (Donut, API 4)

Android 1.5 (Cupcake, API 3)
:top_arrow: TOC
2 Likes
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There is also the RepoMaker

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How can you use repomaker to help you with old android versions?

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I never used RepoMaker but I think it’s a web interface, used to manage several packages and sync with the connected devices.

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This all got easier now: with Repomaker, you are able to create your own repo and do not need to have any special knowledge to do so. Repomaker | F-Droid - Free and Open Source Android App Repository

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The project was abandoned and someone came to update it (Django issue) but I don’t see activities since 11 months.

EDIT: Repomaker needs a maintainer, please adopt me! Repomaker currently runs on Django 1.11, which went out of security support in July 2020. Please see #234 for more information.