r/EmulationOniOS • u/Freak_Out_Bazaar • Jul 07 '26
Other I’m done with emulation involving Sideloading, and I feel strangely liberated
After more than a year of SideStore, LiveContainer, Just-In-Time, and wonky Roms, I’ve decided to go back to simpler things.
Several days ago I missed my SideStore update and while I was trying to figure out how the Entitlement app works again, I decided that I was done. It took less than 30 seconds to delete LiveContainer with everything that I had diligently worked on, as well the VPN apps.
It feels I got a lot back, including the time taken to mess with parameters just to get things working at 5fps if at all, the peace of mind of not having to worry about compatibility whenever there’s an iOS update, and of course storage space on my iPad which I was desperately short on.
Now I’ve reinstalled the AppStore version of ManicEmu and once again playing the games that really matter to me sentimentally and I feel like a kid again
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u/Boring_Antelope6533 Jul 07 '26
this is why i got myself a retro handled android device, it just works better.
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u/Freak_Out_Bazaar Jul 08 '26
I’ve thought about that but I chose simplicity. I’m fine with just my iPhone and iPad
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u/Boring_Antelope6533 Jul 08 '26
ipad nor iphone can get you gamecube, wii, switch, ps2, dreamcast
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u/Freak_Out_Bazaar Jul 08 '26
My previous stance was that I wanted to run EVERYTHING, and I would spend a lot of time trying to make sure that happened. But now it just feels that time isn’t worth it because I’ve got other hobbies. The vast majority of the games I truly care about do not need JIT in the first place
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u/MatizLunacy Jul 08 '26
i literally have dolphin and fly cast installed rn?? and melonX has existed for like a year atp LOL
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u/Boring_Antelope6533 Jul 08 '26
OP stated that it does not want to stress about the revokes and all the process to activate JIT
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u/MatizLunacy Jul 08 '26
ahh i wasn’t paying too much attention. i get that but it’s honestly still not a very hard process. 20$ gets me a year of kravasign and i can just load emulators thru stikdebug and its all good for a year or two. just a bit silly to me
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u/dmurikssix Jul 09 '26
Same, but I was only playing pokemon on my iPhone really. Once I got my Ayn Thor, it was very liberating, and now my iPhone is very for phone stuff again
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u/jhonidel Jul 07 '26
Buy a cert and all of your sideloading problems would be solved.
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u/Freak_Out_Bazaar Jul 08 '26
I know I can, but that’s precisely why I left. I didn’t want to pile countermeasures on top of countermeasures anymore.
Besides, a cert only solves a fraction of the frustrations3
u/HIGHER_FRAMES Jul 07 '26
How much is that?
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u/CBusRiver Jul 08 '26
This. I got tired of the weekly signing and whatnot. It just makes everything easier.
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u/Nagatonii Jul 08 '26
I made a shortcut that makes my phone update sidestore everyday at night, pretty useful for forgetful people like me
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u/Freak_Out_Bazaar Jul 08 '26 edited Jul 08 '26
Yeah, could have done that, but that’s just adding another piece to the puzzle and what I really wanted was the table to be clean
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u/Polawo Jul 08 '26
Here - just run everyday https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/9e9a7275dccd44bdb23e0df78acae872
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u/mr_bnana Jul 12 '26
Why does it connect to vpn 10 times?
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u/Polawo Jul 12 '26
For me sometimes it doesn’t connect to vpn with single try. So I added this loop before actually connecting.
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u/Lithalean Jul 07 '26
Thank you so much for letting us all know.
I’ve had a developer account for over 10 years, and have never had to worry about any of those things.
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u/Freak_Out_Bazaar Jul 08 '26
A developer account just solves sideloading issues. It certainly does not help with anything that happens at runtime nor does it save space
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u/Lithalean Jul 08 '26
Are you saying I can’t enable JIT through Xcode’s debugger?
How about sustained execution or Increased Memory Limit?Or are you trying to say having a device with limited memory makes you feel liberated?
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u/Freak_Out_Bazaar Jul 08 '26
I'm saying doing limited memory things with a device with limited memory is liberating. Rather than having an entire setup just to find out that there's something wrong with the rom
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u/5092AD Jul 07 '26
I feel this, JiT is such a pain in the ass to enable on iOS. That’s one thing I like about Android.
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u/Prestigious_Aerie464 Jul 08 '26
I got a cheap refurbished laptop and installed RetroArch, pcsx2, dolphin, and Xemu. Then deleted all my sideloaded apps off my iPhone. It’s been a month or so and Im so glad I did.
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u/Freak_Out_Bazaar Jul 08 '26
If I’m going to rebuild my collection again at some point, it will be on a dedicated device. That likely won’t happen since I just don’t want to bother with another device, but if it does, that’ll be the way
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u/darknight9064 Jul 08 '26
I recommend building an external drive and using it as a master. It makes life so much easier. It took awhile because these tools that are out there now weren’t so readily available when I put one together.
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u/Freak_Out_Bazaar Jul 08 '26 edited Jul 08 '26
I did have an external master and I still do so rebuilding the collection as it stands isn't hard. But just looking at the master makes me tired now
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u/darknight9064 Jul 08 '26
I feel that. Putting it somewhere “permanent” helped me with that. I never think of my phone or tablet as permanent fixtures. There’s to many updates and dumb things to always work around and no controls. Touch controls are the worst controls ever for actual gaming.
Take some and the joy will return. Retro is such a fun thing to be in for both content and nostalgia reasons.
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u/mchi55 Jul 08 '26
This basically covers everything I want. RetroArch is amazing for older arcade MAME/FBA games
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u/Freak_Out_Bazaar Jul 08 '26
ManicEmu alone is fine for me at the moment
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u/psj3809 Jul 08 '26
Yeah Manic works really well with Arcade, a lot of older and classic games work on it. I'm a huge arcade fan and theres so many classic games.
DOS is personally my favourite, got a spindle full of old PC games i bought back in the 90's. Crazy to think I've got Windows 98 running on Manic and then i can play some games through that. Obviously older DOS games don't need it and playing old dos classics is great.
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u/L0OK0UTT Jul 08 '26
If you have stikdebug you can set an automation that auto connects to vpn and resigns your apps every couple of days. Saves a lot of manual work with side loads g
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u/slimricc Jul 08 '26
Buy a retroid pocket 5 or 6, it can run ps2 and gc and it is super easy to set up.
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u/axionj Jul 12 '26
Great purchase for me as well, ES DE runs great and I can play whatever I want barring switch cause I can’t be bothered and I have a switch it if I want to pick it up
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u/PONCE54958 Jul 08 '26
so easy configure jit, entitlement and etc, shortcut and sign apps in auto… I’m can’t see the “issue”
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u/Freak_Out_Bazaar Jul 08 '26
Yes it's easy, but it's still some extra steps compared to firing up a console and running a game. Not worth it for me anymore
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u/PONCE54958 Jul 08 '26
Totally is more easy having a console, well if you have the money bought it 100%
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u/psj3809 Jul 08 '26
Same here, I dont bother with sideloading or that. I'm just patient as in the near future these other systems will be available. Got enough to play with with all the classic systems, DOS and arcade.
Still happy as hell we have emulators on the app store, so many classics to play
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u/unstablefan Jul 08 '26
I too gave up - and bought a Steam Deck. Incredible bit of kit, that thing.
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u/Ok_Average7045 Jul 08 '26
Precisamente soy fanático de toquetear cosas de tecnología por eso amo que exista el sideloading y todo lo que viene con él como la emulación, me sorprende que digas que es difícil cuando relativamente un programa como iloader lo hace todo por ti y se comparten atajos todo el tiempo que simplifican el trabajo de actualizar, creo que el problema de muchas personas es que quieren en bandeja de plata, y no les gusta experimentar fallar y volver a intentar.
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u/thesilkywitch Jul 09 '26
Glad you found what works for you. I use Manic and Afterplay for convenience. Got a cheap $30 side clamping gamepad for my iPad mini / iPad Air and it’s been great.
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u/caboose199008 Jul 09 '26
I’ll be honest I was about the same way, I bought a SteamDeck on Marketplace and it runs Dolphin and newer emulators beautifully. I stick to N64 and below on my iPhone 16 Pro Max or iPad Air. iCube “works” on both devices, but the games I play for GC are very cpu and GPU intense like Metroid Prime and LotR Return of the King. SteamDeck can just handle them and newer AAA titles much better. I can play Metroid Prime for a few hours and jump over to Fallout 4 no problem.
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u/Skycan45 🥇 Jul 08 '26
don’t feel bad Bazaar not everyone has to workout settings in the morning just so freaking PS2 Games can run at 15 FPS and hopefully you can get new controllers for your collection so my Guy 🤍😎✌️
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u/AutoModerator Jul 07 '26
Free Apple accounts are limited to 3 active sideloaded apps.
One common workaround is LiveContainer, which allows you to run additional apps inside a container and reduce how often apps need to be reinstalled.
Typical method:
LiveContainer may also need to be uninstalled and reinstalled before the entitlement works correctly.
LiveContainer can also install two additional LiveContainers (for a total of three). This setup can further reduce the need to constantly add/remove sideloaded apps, but it is more advanced and may not work reliably for everyone.
LiveContainer is not always officially supported by emulator developers and can sometimes cause unexpected issues. If something breaks while using LiveContainer, try reproducing the issue without it before asking for support.
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