The idea of jailbreaking one’s device isn’t necessarily the easiest decision. While some of us have been jailbreaking our devices for years, many iPhone owners are against the idea completely. Some are not sure about the installation process while others fear that they’ll void their warranty (untrue BTW).

Update: f.lux for iOS is no longer available as Apple has asked the developer to take it down as it is in violation of the Developer Program Agreement. You can check our post for more details.

Whatever their reasoning is, the lack of owning a jailbroken device relegates them to the standard avenues of app downloading and device customizations. That means that they miss out on cool jailbreak tweaks like UniversalForce, RevealMenu, and HideX. But one of the most popular jailbreak tweaks can now be added to non-jailbroken devices.

How to get F.lux on your iPhone without Jailbreaking

f.lux is one of the most well-known Cydia tweaks in the store. Basically, f.lux automatically adjusts the brightness of your device depending on the time of day. So it’s warmer and easier on the eyes at night. You’d be amazed to realize how relaxed your eyes feel after installing this tweak, especially if you tend to use your iPhone just before going to bed. The brightness can also be adjusted manually for those who want more control over the app. The app has been available on the OS X platform for some time, but only recently released a beta version for the iPhone and iPad. But, in order to get that iOS version on your device we are going to need to side-load it. The app can be downloaded and side-loaded on iOS 9 devices using Xcode on a Mac running OS X 10.10 Yosemite or later.

Step 1.

You’ll need to create an Apple developer account in order to use Xcode and side-load apps. Head over to https://developer.apple.com/. Here you will need to create a developer account. You can use your regular Apple ID or create a new one for this account. If you create a new account you’ll need to go through the entire account creation process as you would with a regular Apple ID. Remember that this is not a paid developer account. Those developer accounts have access to items that the free account does not.

Step 2. 

Download Xcode from the Mac App Store. This application is 4.30 Gigabytes, so be aware. Make sure you have enough space and be patient as this large application will take some time to finish downloading (dependent on your internet speeds).

F.lux is not available in the App Store because it needs access to Apple API’s in order to adjust the default brightness of your screen. So this, and more convoluted reasons, is why we will need to side-load the app.

Step 3. 

Download the f.lux zipped file for iOS. [Update: As mentioned in the update above, f.lux for iOS is no longer available on justgetflux’s website.]

Step 4.

Unzip that F.lux file and open the iflux.xcodeproj file in the F.lux folder in Xcode.

Step 5.

In Xcode you will need to enter in your developer account information before you can do much. Go to in the top-level menu and select Preferences and Account to enter in your account information.

Step 6.

After entering in your account information make sure you are in the Targets section on the flux file.

Once you have that, go to Targets -> iflux -> General -> Identity, and give the Bundle Identifier a unique name.

Simply add your unique name AFTER the information that is already provided in the text field.

Step 7.

Under the same Identity section find Team and select your iCloud account or Developer profile in the drop-down menu. 

Step 8. 

Now, we are now going to connect our iOS 9 device to the computer. Back in Xcode, in the Product Menu select Destination and select your iOS 9 device.

Step 9.

Next press the Command + R keys on the keyboard to run. Once you hit run you’ll be prompted to open Settings. In Settings go to General -> Profile on your device and trust the developer account.

Step 10.

Xcode will inform you that the Build was successful, and prompt you to unlock your device to launch f.lux on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch if it is locked.

It will launch the f.lux app on your iPhone and prompt you to allow it to access the location and send notifications. The app uses your location to adjust time zones and orient the brightness of the display.

The ability to sideload apps like f.lux may not be the easiest thing in the world to do, but for people out there that want to get apps that are not present in the App Store without jailbreaking their devices, this is the most legit way to do so. Now that iOS 9 supports a more “open” environment by allowing side-loading, more and more applications will probably become available, making this a more interesting option.

f.lux is also available for Mac, Windows and Linux. You can download it for your computer from justgetflux.com.

Let us know what you think about f.lux or if you ran into any issues when trying to sideload it.