Q: Want to downgrade to previous version of iOS
I have an iPhone 5 that has been pretty crippled since I installed iOS 9 about a week ago. I installed 9.0.1 but it did not fix my specific bugs (cellular data only works with MMS and nothing else, period).
My previous phone was an iPhone 4 running the last version of iOS 7 that could be put on a 4. That phone is still in my possession and has everything on it that it had when I moved my life over to the 5. The only difference between what's on that phone and what's on my new one is the new photos and texts from the last 25 days. Nothing major.
I have had this 5 for about a month. When I set it up it was running the stock version of 8 that came with it. I did a backup of my 4 and moved my data and such onto the 5 when I set it up.
Then within 2 - 3 weeks iOS 9 came out and I put that update on my phone and have had problems ever since.
I would like to revert back to the version of 8 that was on the phone when I set it up. I would also like to be able to restore my apps, contacts, etc to the phone.
My questions:
1) Since my 5 has synced with iTunes on my (Windows) laptop since having 9, can I pull my data from that backup if I restore my phone to factory settings? Or will that result in another update to 9 happening? I'd prefer to wait until the bugs are worked out before doing 9 again.
2) If that won't work, can I re-sync my old 4 with iTunes, restore the 5 which will result in 8.x.x being on it initially, and then put the data from my 4 onto my 5 again?
Or will my iCloud account be expecting my 5 to have things in a format that will only be friends with 9?
Posted on Sep 25, 2015 9:03 PM
You cannot downgrade. Apple does not support downgrading iOS.
In answers to your questions.
1. If you restore your phone to factory settings that will still install iOS 9.0.1, as that is the latest version of iOS that you can run on that device. Restoring to factory loads the latest iOS.
2. Doing anything with your iPhone 4 and then restoring the iPhone 5 will not result in iOS 8x being on it initially, since you do not put old iOS on a device. It just doesn't work that way. A restore from backup, or a restore as new will result in the newest iOS for the device being installed on the device. The iPhone 4 is iOS 7x, but the iPhone 5 is iOS 9.0.1.
Posted on Sep 25, 2015 9:12 PM