I just put iOS 6.1.3 on old iPad 2 since they are still signing it today. Wow we've come a long way 
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Accidentally Allowed Downgrades All the Way Back to iOS 6 Early Today
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Thanks. Able to restore to 6.1.3 on my iPhone 4s.I just googled “iOS 6.1.3 for iPhone 4S” and downloaded the software. Once it downloaded I went to iTunes, connected my iPhone and clicked on restore while holding the option key on the keyboard, located the file I downloaded and it started restoring. That’s it. The phone is super fast now and it’s really nice to use it and see how different it was
Will see for how many days I can use it.
[doublepost=1515771433][/doublepost]
Yes felt the same seeing the interface.I just put iOS 6.1.3 on old iPad 2 since they are still signing it today. Wow we've come a long way
May be Apple is doing this to show the difference to users.
I just googled “iOS 6.1.3 for iPhone 4S” and downloaded the software. Once it downloaded I went to iTunes, connected my iPhone and clicked on restore while holding the option key on the keyboard, located the file I downloaded and it started restoring. That’s it. The phone is super fast now and it’s really nice to use it and see how different it was
Thanks for the tip, I was able to downgrade my 4S from iOS 9 to 6. Unfortunately a few apps didn't work but an hour later I got a popup asking me to upgrade to a new iOS 8.4.1.
My iPhone is now faster.
Just a doubt if we have to upgrade should we do it to 8.4.1 or 9. Which one is better?Thanks for the tip, I was able to downgrade my 4S from iOS 9 to 6. Unfortunately a few apps didn't work but an hour later I got a popup asking me to upgrade to a new iOS 8.4.1.
My iPhone is now faster.
iOS 9 was very slow on my 4S but iOS 8 is fine and i'm able to install all my apps.
It’s my backup phone for music so I will leave it like this for purely nostalgic reasons and speed
I thought about it, but I ultimately decided playing around for nostalgia’s sake is a waste of my time.
I’m happy on iOS 11.
I’m happy on iOS 11.
Maybe a "trial balloon" to see users' reactions. (in particular the more tech-savvy ones). Maybe it is related to the pending lawsuits regarding throttling. The lawsuits in the US may not have much bite, but those lawsuits in the EU might require Apple to do something.
Meaning my own personal opinions nothing official. Pending lawsuits could be a reason why all of a sudden we're seeing Apple opening up and signing previous iOS versions when that has never in the past with Apple. Coincidental?
Where did I made the correlation that you are claiming I made? My point still stands. I never had any issues like these on any previous version of iOS. If the files were corrupted then my device or apps wouldn't even work. My issues are certainly not uncommon.
If you're telling me I need to lose my encrypted Telegram messages in a restore from a backup or lose everything in setting up my phone again, then I don't know what your point is. iOS 11 simply sucks and is a failure. Stop making excuses or making poor "correlation is not causation derp" arguments. The fact that you worked on iOS team only shows your bias which is pretty obvious at this point. I'm also pretty disgusted that your nonsense post has six likes when these problems with iOS 11 are widespread. Seems this forum has issues dealing with reality. Restoring doesn't work. Stop wasting my time and stop making BS excuses for Apple when their QA has clearly dipped dramatically.
Last edited:
#%*^!
If I had known this, I'd be able to keep three iPad Pros currently on the eBay scrap heap, each rendered useless by iOS11. I can't believe this happened, and I was on this site when it was happening, and missed the opportunity. Unreal.
If I had known this, I'd be able to keep three iPad Pros currently on the eBay scrap heap, each rendered useless by iOS11. I can't believe this happened, and I was on this site when it was happening, and missed the opportunity. Unreal.
I just restored an iPad 2 from iOS 8.1.4 to 6.1.3. Can't believe it.
You can check a site that tracks things like that, like https://ipsw.me
Semi-long, semi-off-topic post:
I've had this very thought too. I've written about this before, and every coin has two sides - there are some good reasons for Apple to allow downgrading to a firmware of your choice, as well as some good reasons for them not to do so. In the end -- I believe it comes down to giving users a choice; while I'd personally never downgrade an iPhone used daily as my primary smartphone to, say, iOS 4, I firmly believe that if someone out there wants to do so, he should be allowed to do so. If I make an informed choice to risk exposure to potentially fatal security flaws, not being able to recieve technical support or security updates and lose access to almost every smartphone app for the simple reason that I enjoy the user experience of, say, iOS 4, more than whatever the current, secure and updated version might be then so be it.
Others might disagree, and I strongly believe the biggest risk of setting downgrading free is that it may - in the long term - contribute to OS fragmentation like Android has seen since day one because a large pool of users may prefer to use one specific older firmware, however this should logically make a huge incentive for Apple to improve releases of iOS going forward even more in order to keep users on the newest version possible so OS fragmentation doesnt become an issue, and may even provide some real valuable feedback from their users on featured changed or removed vs older versions. Just look at what happened when Microsoft released Windows 8 a few years back. Lots of people absolutely despised the thing, some consumers even went out and bought business machines with performance they didn't need just to get Windows 7, usage and update shares were low and the company who made Classic Shell became famous - just because they did something as simple and to be honest plain stupid as to remove the Start Menu. Flash forward a couple of years to Windows 10 and the real breakthrough feature turned out to be - you guessed it, the start menu
[doublepost=1515791314][/doublepost]And yeah, allowing downgrades would probably put the planned obsolescence talk to bed for good. It'd be as simple as: "Think the new iOS version killed your battery/killed your performance/is just crap in general? Fine, then go ahead and revert to the old version. Have at it if you like, no questions asked, but please be aware that there may be security flaws which we will not patch for you since our policy is to provide security updates for the latest and most current major release only.". I've always loved iOS because it is secure, easy to use and well optimized for the hardware on which it runs - I'd never switch platforms just to know that I'm allowed to downgrade if I want to, but this strict no-downgrades policy has always irritated me somehow.
Last edited:
Fragmentation already exists (to a certain extent) in the iOS ecosystem... because not every iOS device in service today is capable of running the latest version of iOS. Second, as difficult as Apple has made it to avoid updating when a device IS capable, the user still has the option to NOT update. I acknowledge that as a percentage of all iOS devices AND sheer number of them, they are a relatively small cause of fragmentation.
I have yet to hear a convincing argument that explains why fragmentation is bad for the consumer. I get why it is bad for Apple. I think the continued accusations of planned obsolescence and the recent battery-related throttling is giving more people reason to consider the impact Apple's push to update is having on them.
Part of the reason why fragmentation is bad for Apple is the nature of iOS. There is quite a bit functionality that traditionally has been part of an operating system (transparent to the application) on other platforms that require applications to add code to support those functions in iOS. Back in the day, it was the clipboard/copy/cut/paste. More recently it is split window multitasking. Fragmentation within iOS means that Apple cannot advance OS-level functionality unless they pull the apps along with them.
That was a design decision on Apple's part that is not aging well.
Every Android device that I still own runs just as well as it did on the first day I bought it. The batteries may not hold the same charge as they did, but regardless of the version of Android they're running, their performance has been maintained. Most of them have had only 1 update of Android. A few have had 2. But even with some older devices running ancient versions of Android, I haven't found many apps that are so tightly connected to a particular version of Android that I couldn't run SOMETHING (either the app itself or a viable alternative).
You make a valid point. Like I said before, in the end I believe users should be given a choice when it comes to how they use their device and that includes the choice of running outdated software if desired. There is nothing stopping me from using 10.6 or 10.7 on my MBP since the hardware supports it, I’m able to do so at any time despite unpatched security holes so I really can’t see why I shouldn’t have the same freedom of choice to run 7.0 on my phone if I really wanted to.
I still find it quite interesting that 6.1.3 is still, most likely intentionally, being signed for A5 devices. If they didn’t want these users to be able to downgrade to iOS 6 they would’ve closed the signing of that firmware for those devices when they closed all the other signings. Perhaps they are doing a “trial run” of some kind to see how tech-savvy users will respond to this and collect diagnostics from downgraded devices. In that case, it’d be interesting to know why they picked A5 devices and 6.x specifically. Or maybe they just don’t care cause these are old devices on which untethered downgrading to this very firmware has been possible for a long time with 3rd party software
Personally went to 6.1.3 yesterday on my iPad 2 which I use daily - it’s quite a treat to use, love the UI and the performance vs 9.3, but web browsing kinda sucks with a 5 yo browser. For everything else though - FB, media consumption etc, it’s great. I’ll see if I stay on 6.1.3 long term or end up going back to 9.3.5.
Does anyone know who has downgraded did Apple add any blurp to the I Agree statement that says you are acknowledging that by agreeing risk may occur taking Apple out of any liability. If something like this was recently added then we would know for sure Apple is allowing this on purpose.
Last edited:
Are you referring to the terms and conditions text that appears when activating a device? If so, I didn’t see anything but that may be related to the fact that I never read the damn things
However that would probably require apple to modify the ipsw file since that agreement appears directly on the device during setup and is not fetched remotely by iTunes afaik