.ipa - iPhone Application
What File Juicer can extract from IPA files
An IPA file is a ZIP archive containing all the files that make up an iPhone or iPad application. File Juicer can extract images, icons and text from IPA files directly. Drop the IPA onto File Juicer and it will find the images and URLs stored inside the app bundle.
You can also unzip the IPA manually in Finder and then drop the contents onto File Juicer for a deeper search. Inside you will find a Payload folder containing the app package, which you can explore further with Finder's Show Package Contents.
PNG images inside iPhone apps (CgBI)
PNG images inside iPhone applications use Apple's proprietary CgBI compression, which is not standard PNG even though the files have the .png extension. Modern macOS and Preview handle CgBI images correctly. File Juicer extracts them as found.
How to get IPA files
Since Apple removed app syncing from iTunes in 2017, IPA files are no longer downloaded to your Mac automatically. Ways to obtain them today:
- Apple Configurator 2 (free, Mac App Store) can export IPA files from a connected iPhone or iPad
- iMazing can extract IPA files from device backups
- Developers can export IPA files directly from Xcode