Apple released iOS 12 in 2018. Over the years, Google updated the YouTube app infrastructure, eventually dropping support for older operating systems. If you wipe an older device like an iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPad Air, or iPad Mini 2 and try to download YouTube from the App Store, you will often encounter an incompatibility error.

If you are running and need a YouTube solution:

This guide will explain everything you need to know about downloading a YouTube IPA for iOS 12, sideloading it without jailbreaking, and unlocking premium features like background playback and ad-blocking.

: If you’ve never "purchased" it, use a newer device (iOS 15+) with the same Apple ID to "get" the app first, then return to your iOS 12 device's Purchased list. Working with IPA Files (Sideloading)

The App Store blocks downloads of apps requiring higher iOS versions.

Confirm the download to install the last version that supported iOS 12. 2. Sideloading YouTube IPAs (No Jailbreak)

An IPA file (.ipa) is an iOS app archive file. Think of it as the Apple equivalent of an .apk file on Android or an .exe file on Windows.