Apple gave everyone a choice to stick around with iOS 17 and iPadOS 17. But can you downgrade back from iOS 18 and iPadOS 18?
Though iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 are Currently Being Supported by Apple, You Cannot Downgrade from iOS 18 and iPadOS 18
When Apple released iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 last year, it gave everyone a choice to stick around with iOS 17 and iPadOS 17. It did so by releasing iOS 17.7 and iPadOS 17.7.
To this day, Apple has been seeding iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 updates, which include bug fixes and security fixes. Both are extremely important for your devices.
In fact, at the time of writing, the latest update is iOS 17.7.4 and iPadOS 17.7.4.
If Apple is seeding new updates for iOS 17 and iPadOS 17, this also means the company must be signing the older firmware, right? Shouldn’t that mean you can just grab the latest iOS 17 or iPadOS 17 firmware files and downgrade from iOS 18 and iPadOS 18?
Well, not quite.
The interesting thing is, while Apple is still supporting iOS 17 and iPadOS 17, you can’t downgrade back from iOS 18 or iPadOS 18. The reason is simple: the firmware files aren’t available for all devices.
However, there are two firmware files available which you can grab from the links below:
I have no idea why only two firmware files are available for the older firmware, that too iPadOS 17 and the above iPads only.
In case you’re wondering, the firmware files linked above are for the latest iPadOS 17.7.4 update.
Since these files are available for download, you can just plug in your iPad to your Mac, launch Finder, hold down the Option key and click on ‘Restore iPad’ and select the firmware file for downgrade.
If you have an iPhone, you’re complete out of luck.
I understand why Apple is doing this. Otherwise, everyone will go ahead and downgrade their devices whenever they feel like it. And, Apple definitely doesn’t want that to happen.
If something goes wrong with your device and you’re forced to do a clean installation, you’re going straight to iOS 18 and iPadOS 18, unless you have the above two mentioned iPads. And I’m assuming many of you do not.
Let me sum it up for you real quick:
- You can’t downgrade your iPhone from iOS 18 iOS 17.
- You can only downgrade two iPads from iOS 18 to iOS 17.
