restoring 5.1.1 without upgrading to iOS 6

No.

iOS 6 works perfectly fine.

No workaround that doesn't require hacking or jailbreaking, and those can't be discussed in an Apple hosted forum.

Yes, it is possible if you don't mind voiding your warranty and risking turning your phone into an iBrick if it doesn't go right.

The only reason I can think of to not update to iOS 6 is if the phone was unlocked by hacking or is jailbroken for some other reason.

It would help a ton if you stated the problem for which you feel the need to restore to 5.1.1. Chances are you are better off with what you have than screwing up your device by hacking it.

I think the OP is saying that the phone has never been updated to iOS 6 and that he/she wants to restore it to factory settings without that update.

I can think of about 300 pages of reasons not to update the iOS at this time. Just look at all the help requests here to see a few of the lovely problems people are having. I have not yet seen a sure fire cure for the wifi disabled problem. That would be disaster for me, which is why I'm holding off for about a month.

I can show you many thousands of pages that if you read no one would ever update any iPhone at any time. Some people have a problem after updating. The vast majority don't. But all you see are the posts from people who do have problems; the ones who don't won't bother to post "I updated to iOS 6 and everything works perfectly, only better."

If you go to the ER of your local hospital and use that as the standard you would have to conclude that everyone in your city must be deathly ill.

But the fact remains that you cannot restore the phone to any version other than the most current one without voiding your warranty, and if you want to find out how to void your warranty you will have to get your information from a source other than an Apple-hosted forum.

If you have not yet installed iOS 6, and you have an iOS 5 still on your computer, then you can restore your iPhone with iOS 5 -- I think the help above assumed you had already installed 6 and wanted to step back down to 5 (that is not possible via "standard methods", and is a violation of the TOU here).

So yes if you still have iOS 5 on your computer you can restore to iOS 5 as long as you haven't updated to 6 -- no requirement to update to iOS 6 if you haven't done so yet. If you do not have iOS 5 on your computer, then you won't be able to download it from Apple. There are other sources to get iOS 5 if you Google that, then you should be able to restore to that version as long as what you saved to your computer is the same (or later) version of iOS 5 that you're using now.

I've updated to iOS 6 and have had no troubles at all, but I won't try to sell you on updating.

Laurence_Finch - you said "I can show you many thousands of pages that if you read no one would ever update any iPhone at any time. Some people have a problem after updating. The vast majority don't. " and this is true, of course. But for some of us, the phone is a vital part of our lives/businesses. I simply choose to wait until the emergency room is a little quieter before venturing out into the dark unknown 🙂

What rockmyplimsoul said, and a little more. If you updated to 5.1.1 by downloading through iTunes, then you have it on your computer. Just ignore the nags to download/install 6.

Skibs27 wrote:

I am currentl on 5.1.1 and I did download it through itunes. I can just restore through itunes and choose to restore with the 5.1.1 ipsw instead of updating?

Yes, absolutely. I have not yet updated my wife's iPad 2 to iOS 6 and was able to restore it to 5.1.1 over the weekend.