For trying out the latest upgrades and updates, Beta versions are good. However, not all work flawlessly in day-to-day usage. If you have upgraded to iOS 15 just out of excitement and now you are regretting your decision. Here’s how to get back to iOS 14.6, the stable version of iOS.
The easiest way to downgrade to iOS 14.6 is to delete the iOS 15 beta profile and wait for the next update. Here’s how to do that:
- Head to iPhone’s Settings > tap General.
- Tap Profiles & Device Management.
- Choose Remove Profile and reboot iPhone.
Unfortunately, until the new update is available, you cannot go back to the non-beta version of iOS. To check for the available updates again, go to Settings > General > Software Update.
Read More: iOS 14.5 App Tracking Transparency:- Grayed Out after update
However, if you don’t have the patience, you can use the Recovery Mode. For this, you will have to connect the iPhone to a PC or Mac & can follow the steps mentioned on Apple’s support page.
Why downgrade from iOS 15?
It doesn’t matter for what reason you upgraded to iOS 15. If you don’t like the update, you can go back to iOS 14.
Important note
Before we get started here’s something you must know. Before joining iOS 15 Beta, if you created an archived local backup you can easily downgrade it to iOS 14. However, if you missed out on creating a backup, you can still downgrade without picking from where we left.
What Are Archived Backups
Unlike standard backups, archive backups aren’t overwritten on your Mac and PC. Using it to downgrade to iOS 15 will make you lose all your text apps and other data on your phone. It’s just a warning.
How to downgrade from iOS 15 to 14.6
Contrary to the Windows operating system, Apple doesn’t make downgrading to a previous version easy. Moreover, Apple keeps a tab on the time frame of the software update. This means, after every few days the older versions are truncated. This means, there’s no guarantee that this method would work or not, but no harm trying.
To download you will have to first get into the recovery mode and this varies from device to device.
iPhone 8
Press the volume up button followed by the volume down button simultaneously. Afterward, press and hold the power button until you reach recovery mode.
The same steps will help put the iPad into recovery mode.
iPhone 7
Press and hold the volume down and power button until you reach recovery mode.
iPhone 6s or earlier
Press and hold the home button and power button until the recovery mode screen is visible. Now that you are into recovery mode, here’s how to download it to an older version of iOS.
To downgrade from iOS 15 to iOS 14
Note: You won’t be able to downgrade to anything older than iOS 14.6 because Apple has denied signing older iOS software. Also, Apple doesn’t provide IPSW downloads. So, you will have to download it from a third-party site.
How to downgrade iOS 15 to iOS 14.6
- Using the lightning cable plug your iPhone into your Mac or PC
- If your macOS is older than Catalina, open iTunes. However, if it is macOS Catalina or higher open finder and click the iPhone option present in the sidebar
- You will now see a pop-up with a message saying there is a problem with your iPhone that needs to be updated or restored.
- On Mac hold the Option key while on PC hold the Shift key and click the restore button.
- Select the downloaded IPSW > Agree to terms and conditions.
Generally, this process takes 15 minutes or so. However, if it’s taking long or reboots into iOS 15, unplug your iPhone and put it back into recovery mode before starting the process.
Note: To reinstall iOS 14, you need an active internet connection.
Once the iPhone is restored it will feature a clean copy of iOS 14. Thus helping get back your text, apps, and other data.
In case you have an archived backup, you can restore iOS 15 from that. To do so, macOS Catalina users will open Finder while those using older versions need to open iTunes.
Once Finder or iTunes is open select restore > select the archive backup of iOS 14 and you would be able to download iOS 14.6
This is how you can downgrade iOS 15 to 14. In addition to this, if you don’t want your iPhone to update automatically follow these steps.
How to stop iOS 14 from upgrading to iOS 15?
Until the final user’s reports about iOS 15 aren’t published, you don’t want to use iOS 15, right? Here’s what you need to do to stay on iOS 14.
- Open the iPhone, iPod, or iPad Settings
- Head to General menu > Software Update
- Tap Automatic Updates
- Disable the options to automatically download and install iOS updates
That’s it, once you disable automatic updates, no longer your iPhone will be upgraded to iPhone 15.
Final Words
If you can’t hang in there until the final iOS 15 is released using these steps, you can downgrade to iOS 14.6 from iOS 15.
Doing so will allow you to stay wary of security issues and different issues detected in the iOS 15 Beta. While doing so remember, you can only update to a public version of iOS that’s newer than the version you have. This means to move off the beta completely you will have to wait for the final public release. The above method will only help downgrade to iOS 14.6.
We hope you find the article helpful and by now have decided what you wish to do.