As we know Apple has released the first public beta of iOS 9 and many users have upgraded their devices to this latest release, but this first public beta is yet not fully prepared for the common users. It may contain many bugs and may not support any of your favourite apps. Though trying the new features at an early stage is really exciting, but running beta iOS on your main iPhone or iPad is not recommended normally. However, if you are a developer or have a spare iDevice, you could get the latest public beta and install it.
As we all know that Apple verifies every iOS upgrade and downgrade. This verification procedure involves an important step where iOS is signed by Apple against the device. Apple usually stops signing the older versions within few days, sometimes within few hours, once the new iOS version is available. However, this signing window is kept always open for the latest public build and beta build. Due to this signing window we can upgrade and then downgrade our devices. So is the case with iOS 9 public beta (or iOS 9 beta 3) and iOS 8.4.
The downgrade process is really simple. All you have to do is to connect your device with the PC running the latest version of iTunes. Then keep pressed the “Shift” key on Windows or “Option” key on Mac OS X, and click on “Restore iPhone” on iTunes. You’ll be prompted with a dialogue box to navigate to the downloaded stable iOS build, in our case iOS 8.4. After selecting the appropriate iOS iPSW file for your device, let iTunes perform its job.
However, if the above-mentioned normal downgrade process is not working in your case or you are stuck in downgrade process, you can try this uncommon method to downgrade iOS 9 to iOS 8 / iOs 8.4. Before trying this method, it is very important to know that you may lose your call logs, messages and other precious content on your device. You may not properly restore the backup of iOS 9 on your iOS 8 device after following these steps. If you don’t have anything to lose or you have a backup of iOS 8.3 / iOS 8.4 which contains everything you need, you can follow this method.
What Are Requirements and Procedure for Downgrading iOS 9 to iOS 8?
- The latest public version of iOS 8, which is iOS 8.4 so far.
- The latest version of iTunes
- USB Cable
- iPhone or iPad
Step 1: First of all download the latest iOS 8 version and keep it in a convenient folder on your PC like Desktop.
Step 2: Make sure the latest version of iTunes is installed on your device. If is out of dated, update it before the downgrade process.
Step 3: Connect your device with the PC using a USB cable and make a backup of your device.
Step 4: Now disable Find my iPhone on your iPhone / iPad.
Step 5: Now we need to get into DFU (Device Firmware Update) mode. For this purpose, hold down the Power and Home button simultaneously for 10 seconds, then release the Power button but continue holding the power button.
Step 6: If you successfully performed the above step, the phone will go into DFU mode, the sign of which is that you’ll see a blank screen on your iPhone / iPad. You will also get a message in iTunes saying the iTunes has detected the device in Recovery Mode.
Step 7: Click on “Restore iPhone” button while keeping pressed the “Shift” key if on Windows PC or “Option” key on Mac OS X. Navigate to the downloaded iOS 8.4 iPSW file and select it.
Step 8: Sit back and let iTunes finish its job. Once completed, you can go through the usual step-up process and can also restore the backup either from iTunes or from iCloud.
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