Q: how to downgrade Ios 8 from IOS 7.1.2

Unfortunately downgrading is not allowed.

Be patient. The next couple of updates should make a huge difference.

So what do I do with my useless iPad Air until then? It will only stay connected to wifi for about 20 seconds.

You can throw it in the trash can or you can start your own post describing the problems, what trouble shooting you tried and ask for help. Or you can take it to the Apple Store and let them look at it.

My apologies, that was rude of me. I'd start my own post, describe the problems and trouble shooting steps you've taken. If you don't get a reply stop by the Apple Store. I'm sure your problems are fixable without an update. Good luck.

No worries.  You sound like I feel!    I am convinced the problem is ios 8 because I *never* had the problems with 7.1.2. I did fix one of the problems.  I have 2 networks, the top end using Apple technology (Airport Extreme I think it is) and low end using linksys.  I changed the network connecion to the linksys and it seems to be much better now, went an hour without disconnecting.  I'll know this evening.  The other problem is scrolling through videos.  Do you think that problem is fixable?

I would definitely put in a Tech Support "ticket" on that one, and get it taken care of that way. If your iPad is not usable, that's definitely something for Tech Support.

http://www.apple.com/support/

Actually, what I would do if I had that problem is take it down to the Apple Store and have them run a hardware check on the device, to make sure you don't have some hardware problem. And if that checks out okay, then they should be able to get you up and running ... :-) ...

Do not talk to me about this iOS 8 software. The updates made no difference at all. I've an iPad air too. Was experiencing tonnes of annoying problems, so contacted Apple. They suggested a factory restore to see if the software would work better afterwards. So I said fine. The girl I spoke to double checked for me that I'd everything backed up in iCloud. I also backed everything up on my pc too. Went ahead and did restore......lost all of my books and PDFs!! So got back onto them. I was 6 hours in total back and forth with it until some advisor came on and told me if they weren't purchased in iBooks or iTunes then they couldn't accout for them. It's a total nightmare. I lost a full years worth of college PDFs, books etc. if you have your iPad full with stuff that didn't come from iTunes DO NOT install iOS 8. You'll lose it all and it's not backed up in iCloud. Be warned!!

Its not hardware problems, it's ios 8 problems. My iPad has not worked properly since I installed it either and by the looks of it, I don't know anyone has escaped it.

It's been known for a long time that there are certain things that are not backed up in an iCloud backup. And it's possible that some Apple people don't know this fact, precisely either. I noted it and had to tell an Apple Genius (at the Genius Bar) that this was the case. He didn't know it at the time, and looked it up while I was there and then confirmed what I was saying.

I would get Dropbox and back up selected items through it and also use Apple's iCloud service too. Both are useful and convenient and provide secondary backups for each other.

Well, the fact of the matter is that "you just don't know" if it's a hardware problem with your own device or not. It may not be, but you can't be entirely sure, unless you do have it checked. You might say it's probably not, but when fixing problems like these, you just have to run through all possibilities. As I've seen in the past, the thing you think you can skip (when checking things) MAY be the very thing that is causing the problem. It's simply prudent to go through the process of elimination in arriving at the solution that will fix your device.

icloud does not back up PDFs apparently. Wouldn't you think they'd inform you of that. I spent 6 hours the other day trying to sort out the mistery of my lost PDFs with Apple support. 6 hours!!! It was beyond a joke! I have Dropbox also but didn't have all the PDFs in there (I've learned my lesson now). Also had downloaded books for college for another source and they were wiped too. its just very frustrating.

You can't downgrade so I'd just go to the apple store.