There’s good news for those who weren’t impressed by iOS 8 and are now wondering to downgrade to their previous firmware. Last week iOS 8 was released for the public and it took the baton from iOS 7.1.2, which is the last iOS 7.x.x release for all devices that support iOS 8. If you have upgraded already and haven’t found the new software to your liking you can downgrade iOS 8 to iOS 7.1.2 albeit for a limited time only.
It goes without saying that Apple will close the downgrade window soon enough. It may only be supporting the previous release for the time being as majority of its devices are jumping up on iOS 8 for the first time, allowing people to downgrade if they face any issues. Once that downgrade window is closed though there will be no way to downgrade iOS 8 to iOS 7.1.2.
There are a couple of things you have to keep in mind though. It is essential that you already have an iOS 7.1.2 backup on iTunes otherwise you’ll have to setup your device from scratch on iOS 7.1.2. For the latter you’ll need the iOS 7.1.2 IPSW which is available online and iTunes to restore the software on your device. If you have a backup the process is as easy as connecting the device and restoring the backup using iTunes.
Devices that come with iOS 8 pre-installed, like the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, can’t be downgraded from iOS 8 to iOS 7.1.2 so there’s no need to even try. Apple probably won’t announce when the downgrade window is closed so if you are having second thoughts about iOS 8 I’d recommend rolling back to iOS 7.1.2 immediately if that’s what you really want.
Filed in . Read more about iOS 8.