Okay, so i've read countless places saying the app size limit is either 20 mb and some say it's 50mb... which is it?
More importantly, my current app has an "estimate app store size" of 106.1mb in the Archive section of the Organizer. HOWEVER, when I distribute it to an ad-hoc file, it comes out as a .ipa which has the size of 48.3mb. Which one should I use, and I'm confused as to why they are so different.
The official (and reliably up to date) resource for this is the Uploading Your Binary section of the iTunes Connect Guide (expand the 'To begin the Ready to Upload Binary flow' section). At the time of this edit it states:
iOS App binary files can be as large as 2 GB, but the executable file (app_name.app/app_name) cannot exceed 60 MB. However, consider download times when determining your app’s size. Minimize the file’s size as much as possible, keeping in mind that there is a 100 MB limit for over-the-air downloads.
Over-the-air download limit means apps below this threshold can be downloaded with a mobile data connection (anything above the limit requires a WiFi connection, or to be downloaded through iTunes on the computer). This is important as many users may not have ready access to WiFi and you don't want to prevent them from being able to get your app!
Also the .ipa is a compressed, encrypted zip file, whereas the archive is just a fully inflated package of the app, which is why the file sizes are different. The .ipa file size is the one that will be used in the App Store, so use that as your reference for total size. That said, the smaller you can make your app, obviously the happier the user will be!
Apple recently bumped up the size from 20 to 50 shortly after WWDC '12. I am not sure if it was officially announced, but was observed in the error message of larger apps.
Use the IPA size. The files sent from the app store are compressed. Perhaps the 106.1 is the uncompressed size, or it is a bug.
Today, Apple Increases Over-the-Air App Store Download Limit to 100MB.
Related
I asked a question on here a few weeks ago, and everyone said I needed to look at the .ipa file and that was it (to stay under 50 mb). However, I was browsing Apples iTunes Connect website from questions, and they posted this:
Why did Apple make my app file size larger than the .zip file I uploaded for my binary in iTunes Connect?
When your application is approved by Apple to sell on the App Store, it is encrypted for DRM purposes and re-compressed. When the encryption is added, the size of the compressed file will increase. The exact size of the increase will vary from app to app, however, the size increase can be large when the binary contains a lot of contiguous zeros. We are unable to guarantee the size of your file after the encryption has been added.
iOS apps with a final size of up to 50MB can be downloaded over the 3G network. Larger iOS apps will require a Wi-Fi connection.
So does that mean the .ipa file is going to increase once they encrypt it, or is the .ipa file already encrypted?
You can check the estimated App Store size in Organizer after you archive your app. In my case, the actual file size is even smaller than the estimate (828k vs 534k).
I'm wondering how many images I can store in the iPhone documents directory so that I don't get any memory issues. I'm torn between caching images or loading them from a webserver every time the user wants to access them. There most likely won't be more than 10-20 images cached at any given time...
Any thoughts?
There's a 2GB cap on the largest size of a single file in the /Documents folder. Other than that, you can store as many images as you want. iOS itself didn't put a limitation on how much space you can use on a device. So your space limit is the size of Flash on the device (i.e. 16GB, 32GB etc).
You might consider use the /Library/Caches instead because iCloud will attempt to sync the Documents folder (if entitlements are configured). I heard App being rejected by review for excessive use of the Documents folder. To get the path, call NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains with NSCachesDirectory and NSUserDomainMask.
Though a user can determine the size of space you are occupying in System Settings.
You can probably cache as many files as available memory allows, but you absolutely should be safe having 10 - 20 images cached at any given time.
B.T.W., instead of using the documents directory, why not consider using the cache directory as He (+1 to him!) suggests?
Here is a related question that shows how to get the size of the directory.
is there a way to view a list of apps on my iPad and iPhone and see how much total space they're taking up? When I look at the apps through iTunes and sort them by size, it doesn't take into consideration the data stored with those apps.
For example, in iTunes I see the New Yorker app as "9MB", but I have multiple issues of the magazine downloaded and one of them alone is over 125MB large.
If I have 200 e-books, then the size of those e-books does not and should not affect the size of iBooks (or any other reader). It is not the size of the app that you are after, but rather the size of all the other data you download.
To clarify, I will be uploading new app to the App Store and I want to determine what the final size for the end user will be.
Currently, unzipped build file is 22MB and little over 18MB if I zip it (as per instructions for uploading new apps). My question therefore is which file size will be shown in the store? Do users download zipped archive or unzipped app file?
Thank you for your responses.
Roger's response doesn't take into account the additional DRM that Apple adds to your applications. This will generally add at least 1 MB to the final size, and this does affect whether or not it can be downloaded over 3G.
That's not always completely correct. My zip was 19.9mb when I launched but the store read it as 20.1mb and thus it didn't qualify for anything but wifi downloading.
Try to stay away from pushing the 20mb limit...
You can take a look at My answer... The compressed size is wrong: Did Apple change their app archiving method?
I plan to submit my new app to App Store. App consist of a lot of image resources (animation) - more than 40M.
Is there any formal limits at App Store of the app bundle size? I never see such condition and think it will be ok. Is it right?
My major question is..
Is there any negative aspects for usability in case app is a huge?
-increase user traffic
-problem with installation
-etc...
Should I try to reduce my app size as much as I can? (actually I've done it already but size still big)
I have no statistic on this point. What is the average app size at app store and how many exclusion with big size?
Thanks, Mike/
The only limit that I'm aware of is that if your app is larger than 10 megabytes, you must download it over wifi when installing via the App Store on the phone.
There are some huge apps that I've installed, including:
Apple's Hold em: 172.8 MB
Spore: 68.5 MB
Oregon Trail: 52.6 MB
and 10 more that are over 40MB
I'd venture to guess that the upcoming Tom Tom app with the maps will be very large.
I don't think most people look at app size when downloading via iTunes or even on the phone when on Wifi. Smaller applications will install faster, but at that point they've already bought the application.
If you somehow have the ability to get your app under 10MB, then I'd say shoot for it. I don't have any actual numbers, but I would guess it certainly wouldn't hurt. However, if you can't get down to 10MB, I would spend only a reasonable amount of time getting your application size down. The decrease in download time and disk space I doubt will raise sales that much.
I don't know of any limits, but remember that anything larger than 10 MB requires a wifi connection to download. Under 10 MB can be downloaded over 3G.
At least these are the limits today, they could change soon.
iTunes Connect developer guide says there is a hard limit of 2 GB.
App Size Tips (For iOS Apps Only)
■ Apps can be as large as 2GB, but be aware of download times.
■ Make efforts to minimize file size.
■ Remember there is a 20MB limit for Over the Air downloads
https://itunesconnect.apple.com/docs/iTunesConnect_DeveloperGuide.pdf