F-Droid repos generally maintain support for old F-Droid releases for a long time. That means that old F-Droid releases will continue to work for years. That provides a path to run F-Droid on very old Android releases. Here are the download links for installing the newest release that runs on a given Android release:
- Android 6.0 (API 23) and up: F-Droid (latest stable)
First issue older Android versions encounter will be certificate related, please read and follow the steps to install the Let’s Encrypt ISRG Root X1 certificate before proceeding. Android 6 and 7 are also affected, while the latest in-client mirroring system will alleviate this and cycle through mirrors until it finds one that is still compatible, users are encouraged to add the certificate anyway as this helps other apps too.
- Android 5.1 (API 22): F-Droid 1.15.6
- Android 4.0 (API 14) to Android 5.0 (API 21): F-Droid 1.12.1
- Android 2.3.3 (API 10) to Android 3.2 (API 13): F-Droid 1.2.2
- Android 2.2 (API 8) to Android 2.3.2 (API 9): F-Droid 0.100.1
- Android 2.1 (API 7): F-Droid 0.91
- Android 2.0 (API 5) to Android 2.0.1 (API 6): F-Droid 0.69
- Android 1.6 (API 4): F-Droid 0.56
- Android 1.5 (API 3): F-Droid 0.45
Please note that many apps on F-Droid may no longer support such old Android versions. It is recommended to enable the “F-Droid Archive” repository in the F-Droid app. Enabling the Archive lets F-Droid show you older versions of apps, which may include versions that still work on your device.
