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Buyer’s remorse? Here’s how to go back to iOS 6 while you still can (Update: Loophole closed)

Update: Bad news. Apple has stopped signing the 6.1.3/4  so you won’t easily be able to downgrade.

[tweet https://twitter.com/iH8sn0w/status/381213582605975552]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTpXVv-DaBQ]

Apple launched iOS 7 yesterday, and while adoption rates are soaring, some users are less-than-thrilled with the new look and feel of their phones. Typically Apple doesn’t allow iOS to be downgraded to previous versions, but at the time of this writing disgruntled users are still able to go back to the leather and green felt they know and love.

Just how do you accomplish this? Keep reading for a full walkthrough.

There are a few important things to cover before we start this process. If you’re interested in jailbreaking, you should note that there is not a jailbreak available for iOS 6.1.3 or 6.1.4 at this time.  If you’ve upgraded to iOS 7, you can’t jailbreak right now at all, even after downgrading.

That won’t be the only thing you lose by downgrading, though. Some apps on the App Store have now been updated to require iOS 7 in order to run. You’ll still be able to install older versions of those apps, but you won’t be able to update them beyond that point, which means no more bug fixes or new features.

Finally, you can’t use an iOS 7 backup on your iOS 6 device. If you don’t have an old backup from iOS 6, you’ll have to start from scratch by setting up your phone as a new device and your old data will be lost (except the stuff stored in iCloud).

If that seems like an acceptable trade-off to you, follow the steps below to get back to iOS 6.


The first and most important step in downgrading is determing whether you still can. Apple requires the iTunes servers to approve of any iOS devices being restored. In order to appease the server and get permission to restore, you have to be restoring to an approved version of iOS. Typically Apple stops approving old versions of iOS almost immediately after an update is released, but at the time of this writing, iOS 6.1.3 (and 6.1.4 on the iPhone 5) are still being approved.

Of course, if Apple stops approving these versions, you won’t be able to downgrade. The easist way to check is to visit this page. Click your device at the top of the page and see which versions of iOS have a green checkmark next to them in the “Apple Signing Status” column in the table that appears. If there’s a green checkmark, you are able to restore and run that version. If there’s a red X, Apple has stopped approving that version and you can’t downgrade to it. If that’s the case, stop here and don’t continue.

The next step is to get the IPSW for that version. The IPSW is basically a bundle containing the operating system that will be installed on your phone or iPad. You can easily get the IPSW for any version of iOS by clicking on the link in the “Download” column on the same page listed above. This will download the file directly from Apple’s server—no shady third-party files or servers are used here.

Once you’ve got the file, open up iTunes, plug in your device, and hold down the Option key (or the Shift key on Windows) and click the restore button. Navigate to the file you just downloaded and select it. iTunes will then “phone home” and ask Apple’s servers if the restore is approved. If it is, your phone will be downgraded back to iOS 6. From here, just restore your backup in iTunes, re-sync your media and apps, and enjoy your newly-downgraded device.

Once you’ve downgraded, be careful around the over-the-air updater in the Settings app and the “update” and “restore” buttons in iTunes. Since Apple probably won’t continue approving these downgrades for long, accidentally updating back to iOS 7 again could cause you to get stuck there without a way to go back.

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Comments

  1. Chookalana (@Chookalana) - 11 years ago

    I’ve using it since WWDC and I’m not sure why anyone would want to go BACK to iOS 6…

    • Brock Leham - 11 years ago

      Because people want a good, consistent experience?

      The fact is, the iOS 7 drains battery quicker.
      There are bugs that still need to be addressed, and probably will be in 7.0.1.
      Most apps haven’t been updated for iOS 7, meaning hundreds of thousands of apps look like they belong in iOS 6.
      And what about the people who have iPhone 4’s? There’s a big performance hit going from 6 to 7. Not to mention, iOS 7’s overall UI is SLOWER than iOS 6 (because of the slower animations).

      Just because you’re having a good experience with iOS 7, doesn’t mean everyone is.

      • Chris Rager - 11 years ago

        don’t stroke out on us Brock… it’s gonna be alright son…

      • Gregory Wright - 11 years ago

        Don’t forget we are dealing with humans. There will always, I repeat always be some in opposition.

      • thejuanald - 11 years ago

        Change is bad…apparently. My iPhone 4S works like a charm in iOS7 and is incredibly snappy. Did you backup, wipe your phone, then restore your apps, music, photos, files, etc. like you should have? That could be a big issue.

        The UI is light years better than that ugly, trashy, child-like, skeuomorphic crap that was in iOS6, PLUS they added a ton of functionality to the OS.

        My battery seems to drain at about the same speed (my 4S has had god awful battery life since I got it).

        iOS7 finally brought Apple into the modern age with smartphone OS’s. I was about to drop my 4S for a Samsung phone, but the new OS made me have to think a lot harder about that.

      • Kurt Tappe - 11 years ago

        @thejuanald: Just because not all change is good does not mean “all change is bad.” Don’t conflate the two. I happen to like Mavericks, but I don’t like iOS 7.

    • Lisa LikesTo Save - 11 years ago

      well, I can’t see the gray text with the white background. I can’t see the white text with the green background when texting. There are too many steps for me in the calendar and I find when I use safari I have to do a lot more clicking to close and open sites.

      I like change if it is for the better – oh and the sleeker font on the keyboard, not conducive for older eyes either. These are simple changes that could be easily fixed if we were given an option for colors and themes.

      If anyone knows if there is a way to fix these small annoyances, please let me know. The rest I think I can deal with – even the annoyance of telling me that I have over 3000 emails even though most have been read and archived. Oh, and if anyone knows how to change the big red notification circle on the apps, that would be appreciated too.

      • thejuanald - 11 years ago

        You can turn off the notification circles in Settings. Just go to Settings->Notification Center->find the app you want->Turn off Badge App Icon. And that’s it, though you do have to do it for each app.

      • iOS 7 user interface is like someone took my Transformers (iOS 6) and replaced them with GoBots (iOS 7).

        • The look of the graphics are like my sexy curved butt is now flat and stale.

        • The user interface operation is ‘faster responding’, but 60% less efficient. I am a ‘power user’. I work on a PC, but on my iPad I write notes on it, take screenshots, set mini-alarm reminders, chat, email and more, all on my iPad to keep my pipeline smooth and running. I am more social with my iPad sharing art, logo concepts in the brainstorm age, demo screen layouts and more. ALL without the need of my Desktop PC. Yesterday, friends noticed my less than normal performance. Good thing?

        • The interface ‘candy’ of ‘zooming in’ when you exit an app is distracting. I forgot what I was going to do a few times because of it. Turn it OFF PLEASE! There is NO REASON for parallax scrolling. Adding the ability to have animated gifs for the Lock or Home screen would be nice or custom designing my HomeBarMenu would have been great!

        • Folders now only display 3 x 3 rows for only 9 of 16 apps and you have to slide to see them? What gives? Did I miss the notice and now dinner tables have been downgraded to coffee tables and their tiny size? I want to see all of my apps in the folder please!? [BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT]. I don’t know about others, but I use my device as work and play, but more work and typing up posts like this to avoid Safari crashes.

        • The DOUBLE EFFORT of closing apps, one-by-one. In iOS 6, double press the Home Button to access the Multitaskbar, then press and hold ANY app icon, then close it in the Multitaskbar, back, to efficient back.

        Now it’s, double press the Home Button, slide to each app you want close and on the upper portion of the screen (shift your eyes to glance up at it) then slide the widow up, closing the app. A bit inefficient for my tastes. I’ll adjust, but for now I feel I am an Android user. EVERYTHING I poke fun at my friends when they want to do an efficiency of use test, I am now experiencing. The only good thing, my quality is still far better.

        • Siri is no longer my assistant, she is an admin, no… She is a screen hog? iOS 6 Siri was good enough for my tastes. She won’t look up things like:

        “Siri find Mary had a little little lamb little lamb Mary had a little lamb it’s fleece was white as snow”

        I do that to hear her ‘sing’ when she repeats it and asks if I want her to search the web for it. It’s fun and allows me to have custom commands.

        But now I have to say :

        “Find me some nursery rhymes with Mary had a Little lamb.”

        Why she now has to take up my entire screen on iPad makes no sense. She was perfect as-is.

        • Overall, I don’t like iOS 7, but I don’t like Windows 8 for Tablets. If my efficiency drops and more, this will only be a glorified typewriter for me. Is that a bad thing? No. But sad I won’t be editing photos, sound, music and more. I multitask a lot because there is no truly efficient photo editing app like Photoshop 7 / Photoshop CS5 that has :

        – unlimited layers (or at least 50 layers)
        – text can be on the layers
        – effects like drop shadow, glow, etc can be added to any layer
        – removing a background or cloning a piece of the image
        – a cropping tool
        – the ability to make your own border easily.

        For now for ALL OF THAT I have to use :
        – ProCreate
        – Retouch
        – iDraw
        – Snapseed

        I have to think just a little on the order of use for the project at hand. If I am near my computer, I just load up Photoshop CS5 and get the job done. Playing games will not ‘train’ me on how to use my device like I did in iOS 4.

        Question to both Apple and Microsoft :

        Why do you have to mess with the user operations when you can just go up under the hood and make the changes? You can still improve performance and add new things.

        Microsoft: An Windows 8 XP Theme would improve your sales on the PC market. Why? Because many people love Windows XP’s look and feel. But many new users would not even KNOW how to change any of those settings.

        So it would be wise to have it like that out of the box, but with the improved speed and the control settings to Windows 8 specific features that connects all of your Windows 8 Devices. Otherwise those who purchase, eventually get frustrated and ignore their purchase and move on to something else and leave PCs alone altogether.

        Apple: Just because Steve is gone does not mean it is party time. In Steve’s words: “What is innovative?” apply that to people’s mobile lives.

        Thank you for reading.

      • S ergey - 10 years ago

        Warrant, cheers, you are so right!
        The question comes: Is Apple becoming a new Microsoft?
        Playing with appearances without practical change in performance was always a PC thing.

    • Dustin Moskowitz - 11 years ago

      My iPad 2 GSM is too slow, and the whole OS is too white for me. I tried inverting the colors in the Settings, but it also inverts photos as well. Makes sense, but if it didn’t invert photos, I’d be happy with it. Also, the iPad apps got very crashy, and the only reason I upgraded was because the new iOS 7-ready apps didn’t like playing with my jailbroken iOS 6 version.

  2. OneOkami (@OneOkami) - 11 years ago

    Overall I like it and it so far I haven’t had any real problems with it on my iPhone 4S. However, my 3rd Generation iPad has been a bit of a different story. Orientation transitions are no longer smooth, it kept getting up when trying to initially enter my iCloud credentials, on-screen keyboard typing can be noticeably laggy at times, and it’s like Apple spent little to no time optimizing custom wallpaper settings. It’s horrendously choppy and unresponsive and I’ve disappointingly given up on trying to set one and am using Apple’s stock wallpapers right now.

    It’s a shame. I like the look and feel of the interface but the performance hit has been disappointing.

    • thejuanald - 11 years ago

      I’ve had the complete opposite experience. I too have a 4S and iPad 3 and both run fantastic. Maybe something messed up in the upgrade process? Did you backup, wipe your ipad of all data, then install iOS7 and restore all apps, photos, music, settings, etc from the backup? That’s what I do every time there is a large update like this and it works perfectly.

  3. Carlos Rodriguez - 11 years ago

    I will say, if you don’t like the new IOS, well, there are many options of other phones out there, stop the nonsense FREE upgrade conversation please

    • Kurt Tappe - 11 years ago

      How do you know if you’re going to like it if you can’t install it?

      • Elizabeth Lewis - 10 years ago

        Some of us merely upgraded on a pleasant Saturday morning. If I had heard about iOS 7 ahead of time I would NEVER have upgraded. I absolutely feel like my iPad morphed into a Windows tablet. I cannot work under these conditions – it’s cruel and unusual punishment!

  4. David Park - 11 years ago

    I’ve gone from “giving it the benefit of the doubt” to severely disliking it. The new appearance is like a children’s toy, with overly saturated colors and a new slimmer font that, combined, hurt readability. The dependence on icons that are less “skeumorphic” (ie less obvious!) leaves me looking at icons and not knowing what they do.

    I also not vertical-horizontal transitions are chunky and cause the phone to freeze for a couple of seconds.

    The worst thing though is going to bed with 98% battery and waking up to a phone that’s turned off due to low battery.

    Not going back, though.

    • thejuanald - 11 years ago

      Skeuomorphism is terrible and I hate it. How anyone could like the old OS over this is insane.

      • Jim Dawkins - 11 years ago

        I am not the biggest Apple fan but this is where the difference between Steve Jobs and every other dime a dozen engineer comes into play. Apples success has greatly been due to its great design and intuitive functionality. People “loved” the Skeuomorphism in the UI. That is what gave it its special character. Details like this matter to consumers. Steve Jobs understood that big time. Most engineers do not understand that. This is all going to become more apparent with Apples’d future products. IOS7 has a lot of the Microsoft metro look about it. I wouldn’t call that a successful design although I’ll say Apple implemented it better than Microsoft.

      • thejuanald - 11 years ago

        Skeuomorphism is ugly. The iphone isn’t even intuitive, unless you believe reduced functionality and placing you in a small box that you can’t deviate from is intuitive. Maybe the broad consumer does think that way I guess, but that doesn’t make it a great design nor does it make it intuitive. iOS7 is a step in the right direction.

      • jared689 - 10 years ago

        Easy, I use my phone a lot of work. Now my battery does not even last half a day. The new design looks like it is made for a 2 year old. It is hard to see things in bright sunlight. I think this is totally garbage that we can’t go back. I am going to get the new samsung phone today.

      • Sam Pain - 10 years ago

        At this point I believe if Apple came out with a blank sheet of paper, told the world it had invincible text in it, and sold it $200 lines will form around blocks just to get it. Strip the addons and IOS 7 is just a lazy child’s play – all white, harder now to read, calendar looks awful … I can go on. The difference between Steve Jobs and Tim Cook someone said makes all the sense – Jobs creates markets, Tim manages it.

    • Felonius NoSpamius - 11 years ago

      I want the skeumorphism back. I liked it. I think the new ui looks like a 3rd grader threw up on a rodeo clown.

      • Adam Kelso - 11 years ago

        +1

      • thejuanald - 11 years ago

        And I think that skeuomorphism is incredibly ugly and childish looking. That faux leather and felt? Butt ugly. Skeuomorphism makes things look like little toys.

      • Elizabeth Lewis - 10 years ago

        Amen!

    • Alexander Voigt - 11 years ago

      Maybe it looks like a children’s toy because we consumers get giddy like children about a new toy…

  5. Anybody bashing iOS 7 is an idiot and in the VAST minority, Quit you’re bitching and making up imaginary problems. EVERYONE I know loves the new OS, and feels it’s a massive improvement. Stop being jackasses!

    • David Park - 11 years ago

      People who are having problems are idiots and jackasses? Really? Way to be judgmental…

      • Tammie Brazeau Grant - 11 years ago

        are u seriously kidding me Niles…the calendar is absolutely aweful so for anyone who does any type of schedule…its a night mare….is that bitching???? Also…the to do list…is so so lame and simple and plain…..please….shoot me……also…the camera…. plain simple and aweful….so please stop being a phone geek and give us back the basic iphone that people want. I had a blackberry torch, an galaxy 3 and I didnt want to become a drone and get a iphone but for the average person that has regular appointments and a regular life with kids and jobs…we want to keep it fairly simple so for Apple to make the upgrade and make it more like the galaxy was a major mistake.

    • Apple’s brain warp and public schools at their finest… Because he says it is it is… That’s a true indication of an “idiot”.

    • Trolling much?!?! iOS 7 on the iPad 3 is painfully slow and jerky as hell. On the iPhone 5 it runs smoothly. So its Apple’s problem that they approve a device (iPad3) that is not even close to ready to run the iOS as released.

      • thejuanald - 11 years ago

        I have iOS7 on my ipad 3 and it works like a charm. It works great on my 4S as well. You’re the one with the issues here, not everyone else. Did you restore and then update? If not, that’s the issue. Backup and restore to iOS7, everything works perfectly here.

    • Felonius NoSpamius - 11 years ago

      Learn to write. Then judge other people. As long as you’re not paying for our devices, we’ll say whatever we darn well please.

    • T Hawkins - 11 years ago

      Judgmental is an understatement. Only *his* personal view of a complex piece of software and hardware has validity?

      I thought the comments section was for discussion between peers, not driven by personal self-loathing diatribes against the innocent.

    • Kyle Koontz - 11 years ago

      Maybe you’re just a pretentious dumbass. Did that ever occur to you? Take iOS 7 and stuff it up your ass if you love it so much. As for me, a simple jailbreak in order to downgrade will suffice.

    • minh uyen huynh - 11 years ago

      You’re is you are, your is the one you’re looking for! The new keyboard is annoyingly bright as well as their green MMS colors once they fix this I’ll consider upgrading.

    • June Da Rookie - 11 years ago

      The part when your iPhone’s battery is being drained quickly isn’t an improvement.
      I’m a cyclist, I use GPS apps, Map My Ride and other cycling apps while cycling for long period of hours, I used to have an S3~Android I never liked it due to battery life issues it only lasted 4 hours with GPS and cycling apps in use, so I switched to iPhone 5. With the iPhone 5 the battery lasted 7 hours with GPS and cycling apps in use, now with the current OS I am not happy about it. Today, I went riding with my battery at 50% to begin with and within 1 hour it went to just 5%, it’s ridiculous, I can never enjoy what I used to enjoy with my iPhone.

      • Marc Plus (@stakwild) - 11 years ago

        There’s a specific bug affecting battery life on the iPhone 5 in some situations, it should be fixed soon.

        This always happens on every major iOS release. Some people have battery drain problems, and it gets eventually fixed in version X.0.1 or X.0.2.

    • Bernie Tiano (@sur4dye) - 10 years ago

      You’re quite the idiot (along with EVERYONE you know) to not see the obvious design flaws of iOS 7. This is by far the sloppiest product Apple has released. The new features are nice but it doesn’t outweigh floating text (not designing on a grid), inconsistent UI (search is different amongst its own native apps), centering tabs on a screen (pull down your notification bar), overlapping text, ridiculous button sizes, etc. etc. etc.

      I’ve owned only Apple products since the 90’s and this is the first one that makes me hate my iDevice.

      • Elizabeth Lewis - 10 years ago

        Agree. This is the first time I’ve considered burning my iPad or throwing my iPhone at the wall. iOS 7 is a joke.

  6. Kristina Mirell - 11 years ago

    Obviously I’m here because I am looking for ways to downgrade to iOS6. FWIW, I like what iOS OFFERS. What I DON’T like is the layout and the design. I feel like I have confiscated my 11 yr old niece’s iPod. I listed my pros and cons last night. I have 5 or 6 Pros and 15-20 cons. I wanted to update my ipod first but it’s an iPod3 so I can’t. :( I’m do not want to restore my phone either……… Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh

    • thejuanald - 11 years ago

      I really don’t get it. iOS6 and below look like children’s toys, with that fake leather and felt shit everywhere. This is much more streamlined. You people aren’t making any sense. I guess as people age, any sort of change, even if it’s way for the better scares them.

  7. Caitlyn Filipi - 11 years ago

    I plugged it into my iTunes to do this and then it says to hold down the shift button and I did. Nothing happened.

  8. The camera app is frustrating on an iPhone 4S. Instead of previewing the 4:3 image that will be taken, the camera crops the tops and bottom and covers the left and right with buttons and a tinted overlay. Composing is broken. Worse, when going to view the taken image, by default the UI chops off the edges of the image, too. Probably works great with the extra screen real-estate of the iPhone 5 and up…

    • thejuanald - 11 years ago

      Mine does not have crop the top and bottom nor does it cover the left or right with any buttons whatsoever….The top and bottom have a transparent UI overlay but you can see right through them very easily.

      • thejuanald, it sounds like you are describing in portrait mode. The UI overlay is translucent, but the shutter button and previous thumbnail are opaque. Using the shutter means covering more of the image. In portrait, the left and right hand edge of the captured image extend beyond the screen.

        On iPhone 5 and up, the shutter button is completely outside the view.

  9. Kenneth Richter - 11 years ago

    Using ITunes on Windows, the holding the shift key does not bring up file navigation. What I am doing wrong?

  10. thejuanald - 11 years ago

    I have no clue why anyone would ever want to go back to that garbage that was iOS6. I had to have it jailbroken just to get some functionality out of it, Safari was horrible to work in, the skeuomorphic shit was horrible (how anyone could like that faux leather and felt garbage makes no sense to me). I am very happy with iOS7 and it’s made me think about staying with Apple. I was ready drop Apple for Android now that my contract is up on my 4S, but I may just go ahead and get a 5S now. Still not 100% sure but this was a huge increase in functionality and design logic.

    • willysjeepman - 11 years ago

      You talk about iOS 6 being garbage and yet you bought an iPhone anyways. If the Fisher-Price theme of iOS7 was enough to keep you in the Apple camp then I doubt you would’ve made full use of Android anyways.

      For some people, whatever Apple deems is “it” is enough for them.

      • thejuanald - 11 years ago

        I bought it to jailbreak it. I had the original Motorola droid rooted with cyanogen mod. I absolutely make full use of my phones. I fell for Apple’s advertising when switching from the motorola droid (which I had for a long time) to the iphone 4S and have pretty much hated it since. The only thing that made it usable was it being jailbroken. My two year contract just ended and I’ve been chomping at the bit to get back to Android. iOS7 might just make me keep my 4S until the next flagship comes out from Samsung.

        It’s funny that you call iOS7 Fisher-Price because to me iOS6 was pure Fisher-Price little toy nonsense. How anyone can say that skeuomorphism is not trash is amazing to me. Faux leather? Felt? Just terrible. I value streamlined design over over the top ridiculous cartoon shit that iOS6 was. Not to mention iOS7 has a lot of added functionality.

  11. Warren Marshall - 11 years ago

    Do we have to extract the zip file once downloaded?

  12. Evrery single dictionary app i had just crash. Internetbanking, messengers. Absolutly idotic response in Safary – a pixel to the left or right and you get all thios “huge” bars up and down the screen. Also, my feeling is that fonts are not fitted for iphone 5 screen. The impression of holding huawei in my hands, not an apple device.

  13. bartron84 - 11 years ago

    9to5 I love your site, but writing something like this makes me so mad as a tech! Working in IT we get a lot of requests, sometimes its exactly for this, and working previously at Apple, shows me what happens when garbage like this is written. Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should! What you have kindly left out is that even though Apple is still allowing devices to go back, there is a potential to brick the device! Most, not all updates in iOS will do a change to the baseband firmware of the device. iOS 7 Activation lock is one such example. Once you upgrade you cannot go back, so if you do it, make sure its the thing you want to do. The reason for 1 way travel, is that the older version of iOS does not run well on the newer baseband. Now some might do it at first and state, oh its working fine for me, but it won’t for very long. Even if you DFU restore the device to force a firmware restore, iOS and iTunes will not let an older version of the baseband overwrite the new version. If you like iOS 6 and you don’t want to upgrade awesome, if you want to try it out…. Visit an apple store and try it out, then upgrade if you want.

    • Elizabeth Lewis - 10 years ago

      Does that mean I throw out all my I devices? I can’t live with the iPad or iPhone 5 this way? Is there really no hope left??

  14. JL (@mightygoldnbear) - 11 years ago

    Using Win7, I can find the navigation window to find the .iwps file by using the shift key and the Restore button, but when I download iPhone3,1_6.1.6_10B329_Restore, the folder itself does not have an iwps file in which to open. I can navigate through the Firmware folder, and then folders within, but I don’t find any file that can be open through iTunes.
    I did want to point out that as I extracted the zip folder, I got a message stating that a number of items could not be encrypted, and that it would have to extract as unencrypted.
    Please tell me what I am doing incorrectly.

    • Don’t do anything to the .ipsw file. In iTunes Shift+Restore & navigate to the location of your .ipsw file

      • JL (@mightygoldnbear) - 11 years ago

        Thanks for replying Sandeep.
        Unfortunately, when you download iphone3,1_6.1.6_10B329_Restore, it downloads as a zip folder. When you unzip it, you get a few files and some folders, but nothing that is a .ipsw file. The ipsw file does not exist anywhere in the download. Andy Giles below has the exact same issue.
        This is using Win7.

      • thejuanald - 11 years ago

        JL, if it’s the same as what I had to do, you will open the zip and get a few files. One of them will be large (i can’t remember the file type but it will be the only one that is a large file), so what you have to do with that is use a program like 7zip and extract what’s in that file. In there should be the ipsw file. That’s what I had to do, but that was for the GM before iOS7 was released. I hope that helps.

      • thejuanald - 11 years ago

        JL, I believe the file type is an .hsf file, you can open that with 7zip and extract the .ipsw out of there. Does that help?

      • JL (@mightygoldnbear) - 11 years ago

        Thanks thejuanald!
        I will try that.
        My wife does not like the white colors of the calendar and clock, as well as the smaller font. I adjusted the font size, but could not change the background color. She said she would try it out for a few days and let me know, so I’ll try your suggestion out when it comes to that. I appreciate you taking the time to look into it for me though!

  15. When I started using it a few months ago, I struggled with certain apps, especially notepad, I hated how plain it was, what I discovered soon enough is that the operating system is fantastic. Yes there are some colorful icons that you are not use to but you can also customize this thing, for example, if you don’t like the calendar use Fantastical calendar or another one, don’t like the calculator use another one… once i mixed between stock apps and the apps from third party developers and the hidden features that took me forever to discover I fell in love with it. There are over 200 new features. My advice and it is JUST my advice, give it a chance, play with it, mix and match. After time now, I would not never go back. I would be lost without the control center that now flips up with the screen locked. Siri so much better, for example you can say to Siri, take me to X settings and it just does like “Siri open blue tooth settings” BAM, or SIRI increase brightness BAM… just so so many improvements. Maps… 1000X better… just my 2 cents.

  16. garyreaves - 11 years ago

    The free upgrade, just to have new buttons, means that i now have a useless home stereo. Apple’s need to control every device that we use and monopolize means i lose money buying a new phone, or lose money needlessly buying a worthless Ihome. Suddenly my iphone is “not compatible with this device”

  17. Whoever wrote this, thank you and thank God. You did leave out some crucial info, but I got around it. ios7 is terrible. I couldn’t stand looking at it or using it. Thanks again

  18. Andy Giles - 11 years ago

    I cannot get the shift button to work, it wants to restore previous back ups but fails, I have the file so can do all of the above, thanks

  19. Andy Giles - 11 years ago

    also it downloads as a zip not the file type mentioned, any help would be great as ios 7 has killed my wife’s phone (god knows why, worked fine before), thanks.

  20. Lucy Campbell - 11 years ago

    Thanks for the article! I updated to iOS 7 this afternoon and was shocked with the major changes to my iPod touch 5th generation and iPad 2. I don’t like many of the new features and changes that have been made, including the layout and how slow it makes the overall thing run! I’ll update back to iOS 7 when they have fixed all the little problems. Thanks again, it really worked!

    • thejuanald - 11 years ago

      The issue with it running slowly is probably because you didn’t backup everything and restore to iOS7, you just installed iOS7 on top of iOS6, that always slows everything down. I always back everything up and then just wipe my iphone clean and then install the new OS. After the upgrade I restore all of my files, apps, photos, and music. My iPhone 4S and iPad 3 both run iOS7 at great speeds.

  21. Melissa M Miller - 11 years ago

    Yikes, when I open the download, iTunes opens, beyond frustated! Also holding down “shift” and clicking restore from back up, tells me I do not have enough space :( It never navigated me to pick a file

  22. wildmarkets - 11 years ago

    He is cute!

  23. Tom Garrison - 11 years ago

    IOS 7 sucks, the icons are washed out and in some cases unreadable, especially the calendar. I simply can’t read it. Also the calculator. The picture I have for wallpaper is so washed out that it makes it ugly.

  24. Melanie Shaffer - 11 years ago

    I don’t care what anyone says… Here is my opinion, and that is all this is.. MY opinion, so if your going to bash it, or argue, keep it to yourself..
    iOS 7 SUX! I HATE IT! It looks like a damn cartoon character threw up ALL over my phone! I LOVED my iPhone! LOVED IT! With this upgrade, I am going back to the droid as soon as i can. I was an Apple girl all the way. Everything electronic i own is apple. Until now. You can take your iOS 7 and shove it. I am TOTALLY downgrading i dont care if i lose things, its SO worth it to me, i HATE 7 THAT MUCH! I will run my iPhone into the ground, until i HAVE to upgrade, at which time, i am getting a different phone, screw your iOS 7. Why do you all feel the need to change things THIS much! Not to mention the fact that it HURTS my eyes to even look at the screen, i cant even type my password in, without my eyes hurting! And I’m not even CLOSE to being old! There was no point in changing it THIS much. Let Jessica Rabbit use it, I’m OUT!

    • Tammie Brazeau Grant - 11 years ago

      totally agree

    • Ryan Dumphy (@ryandun101) - 10 years ago

      totally agree….. I thank god I got 6.1.3 back but when it no longer works I’m going back to android… the funny part is that someone said that ios7 looks like he picked up his 11 year old child’s iPod… that is exactly how it looks. So I say thank you for having the same opinion as I do.

  25. Mike Ewing - 11 years ago

    I hate it. If it stays the same, my next upgrade will be to a non-Apple tablet.
    It is ugly and stupid. I used to love my iPad. Now it has been vandalized by IOS 7.

  26. childhoof (@childhoof) - 11 years ago

    Damn, it looks like I can’t revert this until I upgrade from iTunes 10 to the dreaded 11…& that’s never going to happen.

    • Mark Wolfskehl - 11 years ago

      Hey, I was worried about that too. I upgraded iTunes, and I was able to revert. Thanks Mike for saving me. I was on the phone all day with Apple trying to get them to revert me. That 7 stuff is total trash. Unstable, and it looks like another garbage Android UI now.

      By the way, with the iTunes upgrade, that was the most difficult part actually, on Windows XP. I ended up having to do a direct download of the iTunes installer, and that took forever to install. After that it was real easy to do the revert.

  27. wpepp - 11 years ago

    I have an IPAD 2. The keypad is not responding as quickly prior to the upgrade and Safari uses up all my ram after opening 2-3 tabs causing the web pages having to be refreshed when I click on a different tab. I’m ready to go back to the iOS 6.1.

  28. Mark Larsen - 11 years ago

    I followed your instructions yet still struggling. The update downloads as a zip file so that iTunes doesn’t see it. I even extracted all files and tried to rename the file to end with .ipsw to no avail. Please help

  29. Enrico DeLorenzo - 11 years ago

    I downloaded the file and its not showing up as an IPSW ? It first shows up as a zipped file, but even after I unzip it, no IPSW ?? Need to figure this out as My iPad 2 is definitely suffering a major battery hit.. Hopefully its just a software issue and will be fixed.

  30. Dennis Larsen - 11 years ago

    I tried the iOS 7 and was shocked how the icon tray at the bottom of the home screen looked on iPad mini replaced by a bar that covered up the bottom of your favorite background picture and in photos where they got a white frame surrounding the individual picture that shows when viewing, I thought photos in ios6 were much better without the extra junk added, so thanks for the help showing how to get the iOS 6 back on my ipad mini and that new iOS , all i could say about it is that it sucks donkey dick!

  31. June Da Rookie - 11 years ago

    My one and only complain with iOS 7 is that it drains the battery quickly.
    I am a cyclist, I ride for long period of hours and I use my iPhone 5 as a GPS device.
    I used to own a Samsung S3~Android, I never liked using it. Battery gets drained within 4 hours of riding with GPS app, Map My Ride app and other cycling apps on.
    So I switch to iPhone 5. I enjoyed using the iPhone 5 because the battery can last up to 7 hours of continuous use with GPS app, and Cycling apps.
    Tested it today, I rode and my iPhone has 50% battery life to start with, after an hour it went to 5%.
    I can no longer enjoy what I used to enjoy with my iPhone 5.

  32. Ian Toto - 11 years ago

    Well this saved my sanity for now. iOS 7 gone, 6.1.4 back. :) About the only way that I imagine Apple measures or remotely cares about of giving the finger to Mr. Ives and his juvenile design. Loved the new functionality in 7 but the negatives made it unbearable, and every one of those was Design based. Oh voicemail, how will I enjoy once again retrieving a message without my ear inadvertently pressing something and deleting or pausing the message. My worry, as we plan to avoid Win 8 by getting Macbook Pros, is that maybe we’re only 1 release away from Ives doing the same to the desktop. If nothing else, it shows once more just how clever Jobs was, he wasn’t letting this guy near his software design. I mean, with all the money & resources at his disposal, he comes up with this!

  33. Brian J. Clites - 11 years ago

    Thanks so much Mike! The new OS was killing my iPad 3 battery life, even though I disabled the new functions built for the A7 chip. To clarify, if you are restoring the iPad, navigate to the device screen in iTunes, where you will see the button “Restore iPad.” Before clicking on the button, depress and hold down your SHIFT/APPLE key, then click “Restore.” Otherwise, iTunes directs you to downloading iOS7 again. (You said this in your article – but since the Apple key brings up the options menu in iTunes, I did it wrong the first few times.) Thanks again!

  34. Kld Margaritaville - 11 years ago

    I agree with all of you who say IOS 7 sucks! The lag on my iPad3 is unbelievable, as is the juvenile look of the icons and background! Give us a break, Apple! You’re better than this or, at least, you WERE better than this. I probably won’t go back to IOS 6 because I’m a chicken; instead, I’ll hold out hope that Apple will apply a fix that will address our concerns very soon.

    And users, please stop bashing one another. If you like IOS 7, great. If you don’t like IOS 7, that’s fine, too. It’s all opinion, not fact. Every person and every device is different. Be kind.

  35. Amber Sutton - 11 years ago

    I hate the look of IOS 7 looks like a kids toy

  36. Leonardo Leoncio - 11 years ago

    ios7 is veeeery slow — i just cant send a message, take 1 minute just for digit one word ??!?

  37. KiraleeStrange - 11 years ago

    EVERYONE!! CHANGE THE ZIP FOLDER ITSELF, DONT EXTRACT ANYTHING. CHANGE THE .ZIP FOLDER ITSELF TO .IPSW THEN WHEN YOUR IN YOUR IPHONE SCREEN IN ITUNES HOLDDOWN SHIFT AND CLICK ON RESTORE IPHONE.

  38. I’m having a MAJOR problem with typing on my Iphone 4. 10 seconds or better, from the time I start typing til the time it appears. I need help!!!

  39. Jane Hinchliffe - 11 years ago

    I’ve downloaded the file and it’s still there for my fone but when I plug my fone into itunes it’s saying not compatible HELP PLEASE

    • Bob Rhea (@stiawdftw) - 11 years ago

      My comment should showup soon at the bottom. It’s kind of a process and you have to delete out old itunes files from “app data” and “program data” and you also have to delete a library file (search “.itl” on computer hard drive”). If you have music and such on itunes thee’s more to the process but start by downgrading to itunes 10.7. This is for windows so mac will probably be different.

  40. Andy Giles - 11 years ago

    it is saying the firmware file isn’t compatible, any ideas as it still has a tick on the other website.

  41. Bob Rhea (@stiawdftw) - 11 years ago

    Instead of this method you could just downgrade to Itunes 10.7 and put the iphone into recovery mode and itunes will tell you it needs to be restored and upgraded. ios 6 is built into itunes 10.7 and it restores ios 6. Your method didn’t work for me it keeps telling me that I need to upgrade to the new itunes to sync my phone thats running ios 7. The new itunes doesnt let you pick a restore it just makes you use ios7,

  42. Bob Rhea (@stiawdftw) - 11 years ago

    Look up “downgrade to itunes 10.7” there’s guides on how to do it properly. It’s the only way I found that works because it has IOS 6 built into it.

  43. Cindy Ritz - 11 years ago

    How do I determine which iPad version to download for my iPad2? Thanks.

  44. Thank goodness I can go back to 6 before they totally shat on the single best OS for a phone ever created.

    Skeuomorphism gets a lot of crap because of apps that try to hard (and sacrifice functionality) for beauty. Jobs had an unmatched way of keeping solid functionality while making things look insanely beautiful.

    IOS7 is a humiliating joke of wasted effort by a blind and leaderless team of idiots who lost their captain and decided to pretend they still had the balls to be bold.

    As far as I’m concerned, Apple is half-dead. When they run google-brand crayons down the seams of OSX (poorly) they’ll be completely dead.

    7 is the software equivalent of whitewashing the Sistine Chapel ceiling because the lighting was too dark.

    I’d understand the simplistic design if it worked maybe better or ran faster, or even be smarter and more intuitive than google’s Gmail app.

    No such luck.

    I’m back on IOS6 and from these ancient ruins of a masterpiece, and I’ll watch the apple price-tag drop and then I’ll feel great owning an android because I know I won’t be missing anything.

  45. Alicia Rosignol - 11 years ago

    Dear Mike Beasly,
    Thank you!!!! You literally saved me from iphone limbo.
    I had a sprint-carrier phone that I was switching to tmobile (with a hacker gsm card thingy) that completed locked me out of service after the iOS7 update. I tried calling tmobile, I tried calling sprint, and I tried calling apple and no one knew how to help me. I almost traded in the phone for a cheaper smart phone and am so glad I googled this before i walked out the door. From the bottom of my heart, sincere gratitude. <3
    Alicia

  46. Kenneth Richter - 11 years ago

    Windows 7 users: You must use save the file with .ipsw (i.e. iPad2,2_6.1.3_10B329_Restore.ipsw) and make sure you change the save as type to all files. If not, windows will save in a zip format with a .ipsw extension and it will not work. The above instructions do work.

    Note to Apple: You know dam well that the IPhone 4 does not have enough processing power to make version 7 work as advertised. It might work well on a 4S, 5, 5C, 5S, but not on my 4. And when I needed help to change back to 6.1.3., you said “it is not supported by apple” and left me with a useless Iphone4. Thank God for this site and someone will to help.

    Mike Beasley, you rock!

  47. James Walter Brooks - 11 years ago

    Not allowed to download ios .1.3 on my iPad 2 wifi. I did not want ios 7 and may ditch apple over this. I have been loyal for 10 years.

  48. Junior J - 11 years ago

    Have read every reply on this page and will agree that everyone is entitled to their own opinion. My own? …. Well funny enough it was removed today, less than 24Hrs from the apple website because and I quote ..”contained non-constructive rants or complaints”. What the heck is a forum for????
    It appears that slowly but surely and as time goes by, consumer choices are being selected for us whether we agree to it or like it or not. Choice? Yeah sure, we live in the 21st century, we have loads of choices but do we really? Constructive marketing forces the consumer to think we are getting the brave new world served on a platter but are we just being served a wolf in sheep’s clothing? If I buy a PC I can still purchase older versions of Windows therefore why after I have paid hard earned money for an iPhone and iPad can I not choose to run the software I choose, regardless of what App may or may not run correctly after all I am the consumer, do I not get a say in what I prefer or not? I’m not asking to downgrade to a version released years previously.
    So your now using iOS 7 and you love it? Great, I’m pleased for you, chuffed to bits. Me? I’ve tried it, hate it and in fact want to turn back time, just 1 day please.
    Yesterday, right up to the point of completion on my “new” update I praised both my apple products from the rooftops and always said they were thee… best products I owned and I used them dally. Now, I’m very seriously considering other alternatives. I don’t like the interface or how seemingly everything has changed. If I lock my phone, ipad how the heck can anyone come along and simply swipe up or down to access quite intricate details of something that is personal to me. Would Joe Bloggs like a stranger reading his/her diary? I don’t and can’t understand why a global company like Apple who spend millions upon billions of pounds every year developing products can not give their customers a little choice. So so disappointed. If the downgrade doesn’t work properly and I hope and pray it does without jeopardising anything major then I could very well be selling 2 apple products.

    My original post on apple forum by the way for anyone interested. I was replying to a particular blog after reading quite a number of other opinions. This was posted 30 minutes after installing iOS 7 (inferior overrated software – iOS .. No.7)……

    Not at all happy with iOS 7 myself bro in fact I’m really p***ed off with it now. In my opinion it cheapens the look of the iPhone + iPad (I’m running a 4s and mini iPad) – both products have slowed down dramatically and the “new” icons look cheap and rather crap compared to those used up to the last version of iOS 6. The notepad which I used regularly is a joke making it now redundant to me. The main apps look dire, email and internet apps are completely alien and in no way complimentary compared to the older version. Dislike 95% of what I’ve seen so far and my guts have sank with regret I don’t like it that much. Used both daily and would not have changed a thing. The entire upgrade has been the BIGGEST regret I’ve had since buying both products. One lesson learned here, never jump on the band wagon and back up just before you upgrade so you can always restore revert back. So disappointed with this. If anyone can wave that magic wand and get me back to 6.1.3 then please make my day and drop me an email please and get rid of this tacky cheap a** updated childish software Thanks

    ………

    Within 10 minutes I had 27 replies leading me to this site (thank you to you all)……

    Good luck to you all and I hope Apple get their fingers out of their backsides and resolve impending and urgent issues

    ;-p

  49. Kenneth Richter - 11 years ago

    Update: The Iphone 4 will automatically download V7 on to the phone, with the over-the-air updater in the Settings app.

  50. Kenneth Richter - 11 years ago

    Cindy Ritz says: How do I determine which iPad version to download for my iPad2? Thanks.

    ◾- iPad 2 (WiFi) NO PROVIDER
    ◾- iPad 2 (GSM) ATT
    ◾- iPad 2 (CDMA) VERIZON

    In the United States, Sprint and Verizon networks are CDMA whereas AT&T and T-Mobile are on GSM

    http://www.diffen.com/difference/CDMA_vs_GSM

  51. ericutzu (@ericutzu) - 11 years ago

    iOS7 design is plain UGLY, this wouldn’t have passed by Jobs in a million years. Good thing apple is gonna run it in to the ground AGAIN. one thing differentiates apple from the rest, their osx and ios interface/experience. Why mess with something after millions of people approved it trough the years and got to love it the way it is? I was planning on going to the store this morning and get the 5s, not anymore.

  52. Joe Ferguson - 11 years ago

    It would have been good to add… Hold down the on/off button and the Home button connected to your Mac forcing a restore. Doing this and then holding down the option key when clicking on restore allows you to select the downloaded file.

  53. Logan Pollander - 11 years ago

    The one thing that bugs me the most is that it crops down all my photos. Any time I take a picture with my iPhone itself, when I look at it in Photos, it’s slightly zoomed in. When I try to zoom out by dragging both my fingers, I’m ejected out into the photo album again. I literally cannot see an entire picture anymore. Thanks, Obama.

  54. Johnny babboom - 11 years ago

    Okay I have a iphone 4 for veizon. I upgraded yesterday to ios 7 and my phone is super super slow! I hate the ios 7 and want to go back to the i0s 6. How do I backup all of my contacts and pictures on my phone before I downgrade back to the ios 6? Also I went to that penguin website about knowing what apples signs off for and downlaoded the iphone 4 cdma ios 6.1.3 and now the green checkmark is gone??? I have the file downloaded, can I still downgrade??? I really want to go back to the old ios!! i just dont want to lose my contacts or pictures…. let me know how to do this?? Please please help
    Also someone was saying something about using a old verizon of itunes? I just ended up downloading the itunes 11 because my phone wouldnt charge in my computer without downloading the new verison.
    Please help me

  55. Brandon Lee Robinson - 11 years ago

    It’s not a loophole, why would you call it one…..

  56. mrllaccount66 - 11 years ago

    Here’s how imma say it! All, or most of you who upgraded knew what iOS 7 looked like, it was all over Apple’s, and everyone else’s website! All of you had an option to upgrade, and if you knew you hated the design, the blame is, and was ALL on YOU! So stop being rude, and stop trolling, Apple did right by finally doing something different with their mobile OS! And a lot of you messed up on how you upgraded, because with such a big upgrade you should have BRRP(Backup, restore, reinstate preferences). And to be honest if you get a Samsung, HTC, Windows Phone, etc… you’ll get a similar UI(NOT PERFORMANCE) as they use small text, etc. Yes I know this because I have a Galaxy Note 3, and an iPhone 5, that I;m upgrading to the 5S!

  57. Logan Pollander - 11 years ago

    Another thing–they took off my favorite function, double-tapping to access a mini version of the iPod controls when your phone is locked. Now you can only do that when music is already playing. Granted, I could just press the play button on my earbuds, but the button’s been broken for a month. Now I either have to enter my 19-character passcode (I wish it wasn’t necessary–don’t you love having to live with younger siblings?) every time I want to listen to music, or go out and blow 25 bucks on a new pair of headphones (quite a sum for a kid who just got his first job). I gotta give you credit, Apple; you really know how to squeeze the cash out of someone.
    I guess it’s true what they say–you never really know what you have until it’s gone…

  58. Ji-hwa Yi - 11 years ago

    It’s too late!! I can’t downgrade!! This really scks!!
    I’ve never regretted updating ioses before.. then, how could I know this beforehand?!!
    This shit has become too wasteful, too white for me to even take a brief look at it!!
    And no way to go back!!!
    Confound os7!

  59. Péter Szedlák-Kun - 10 years ago

    Just to warn everyone. IOS 7 (offical through the phone update) bricked my iphone 5 (A1429). First couple of hours the new software was working properly, then slowly the phone became unresponsive. Now after every 10-15 touches it works for 2-3 touch, then again unresponsive. I’ve tried to restore to ios 6.1.4 but it is not working, like mentioned in this article. So now there is no other solution for me than to take it to a service point. Hardware buttons still working and as of that, it seems the op running in the background. Hope I will have some kind of solutions for this. The real said part that I was buying Apple iphone as there were no such problems before like this…..:(

  60. Rose Guay - 10 years ago

    Help – I need to get this ios 7 piece of garbage off my ipad mini. It has messed up my wallpapers and the icons for the App Store, itunes and musice no longer work and are inaccessible. Please HELP.

  61. Alex Rodriguez - 10 years ago

    I used to send to my Iphone a text with an address, click on that address, bingo! the map was launched automatically. Not anymore in iOS7! Contact was very easy to change what kind of phone was added, not anymore!
    Setting up your alarm or timer , the spinning wheel was very attractive, now it looks pallid, looks like apple went back in time. The battery drains faster!!! Notes, wow! Was so nice to see the “notebook”, now is all pallid! etc, etc, etc!!!!

    iOS 7 is a peace of crap!

  62. Crady von Pawlak - 10 years ago

    Too late. Apple already killed everything prior to iOS 7. =(((

    How Tim Cook made me hate my iPad

    There are any number of reasons why I dislike iOS 7, though the fact the new GUI looks like an Apple-ized (and rather gay) version of Windows Phone is the least of them.

    No, my real issues have to do with usability and the fact so many things feel rushed-to-market or just flat-out badly engineered. As someone who’s spent many thousands of hours working in R&D labs it’s fairly obvious Apple spent little time with real-world users as is evidenced by blogs filling up with complaints similar to my own.

    Placement of controls was reversed for no logical reason:

    In the Control Center, the volume slider and brightness slider positions have been reversed. Yeah. For anyone who’s accessed those controls countless times in their original positions all I can say is FY.

    And whatever “logic” was behind that decision was also applied to Safari. Bookmarks are now inexplicably to the right of the address bar, also, there is no longer a mechanism to quickly delete your browsing history, presumably because Apple has found some way to monetize that information.

    The keyboard is now less sensitive and less accurate:

    Even with a screen protector (because Gorilla Glass does get scratched) I used to be able to quickly add an exclamation point but now when I type at my usual pace I invariably get the ‘comma’ and have to go back, slow down, and make slow deliberate keystrokes to achieve an ‘!’. Clumsy. Very clumsy.

    More design flaws:

    If you have a typical third party full-coverage case that covers the bezel (mine is thick leather) you can no longer reliably access the Control Center by a simple upward stroke from the bottom of the screen. To achieve reliable access you need to be able to begin the gesture starting from the bezel and then stroke upwards onto the display. If you cannot physically touch the bezel then good luck. My hit rate is like, 1 in 8 if I’m lucky.

    Apple hates people who use iPads in landscape:

    We have an Apple TV. Two actually. I (and my wife) also use our iPads exclusively in landscape mode. I also love my Apple Remote app. At least I used to. Beginning with iOS 7 the Remote is now “portrait mode only” which means you’re forced to stop enjoying yourself, physically rotate the pad, do your business, and then rotate it back. Yuck.

    Some of these glitches and oversights will hopefully be addressed soon but in the meantime I think it’s fair to say that iOS 7 is now officially Apple’s Windows 8.

    Fail.

  63. jared689 - 10 years ago

    OSi 7 is so garbage. I have iPhone 5. I hate the new OSi. It looks like someone made it for a 2 year old. It’s way to cartoony, glitchy and slower. My battery use to last over a day. Now it only lasts half a day, not even.
    I am no longer an iPhone fan. Using this for work seems pointless now. Samsung all the way now.

    • Alex Rodriguez - 10 years ago

      Apple went back with iOS7. What is the matter with TIm Cook? Is he smoking weed? I really want back iOS6! I dont see the benefit of iOS7.

      Pallid calendar
      Pallid contact list
      Pallid clock, alarm
      pallid note app
      fast battery drain
      cannot longer click on an email address text it to me, and go to straight to map.
      etc, etc, etc, etc!!!!

      Come on, Tim Cook, what the hell is wrong with you?

  64. jared689 - 10 years ago

    I got an iPhone 5 for sale! Say 400$.

  65. Jason Cox - 10 years ago

    i downloaded the ios6 file for my iPhone4 on thursday but haven’t had a chance to install it until now, after apple closed it. Would it still work to do the downgrade?

  66. Felipe Alves - 10 years ago

    I want my iPhone back! want my ios 6 back! Please resurrect the steve jobs

  67. Shawn Medley - 10 years ago

    Upgraded my iPhone4 to iOS7 and what a mistake. Battery used to last all day but not anymore…if you have an iPhone4 I would hold off upgrading until bugs worked out as I’ve experienced a few glitches with upside down screen view & rotating phone doesn’t correct it. Have to toggle portrait view on/off several times & then is normal.

  68. Kak Bhubate - 10 years ago

    I really don’t like flat design. Looks like i’m using iPhone with Android+Window phone.

  69. IOS7 has taken away many of the features that made my life much easy. I have dyslexia so found Notes, with its yellow lined background easy to see. Notes now has a plain white background which is very bad for dyslexics who have scotopic sensitivity. Even with IOS7 accessibily settings ramped up to the max the fonts are too thin, as are the menus, the keypad lacks contrast, making it very difficult to discern letters, and the overall platform is just too bright, which causes visual distress (common for dyslexics). I rely on my ipads for work and for daily living. It has come as a real blow that I cannot revert back to IOS6. I am interested to know if anyone else is in my position? Have you found a solution?

  70. Stephan Twi (@StephanTwi) - 10 years ago

    I have a dream …
    … that one day all these ‘Yes, Massa!’-type-of-users stand up and tell Mr Cook and Mr Ive what they have done to us with iOS 7.
    And I have a dream that they realize how iOS 7 negates the brilliancy of all former iOS-Versions and transforms our technical perfect devices to something which in no case is worth an Apple logo.
    And I hope that at the least they implement some switches in iOS 7.XX which bring back the behavior and the impression of iOSs 1 to 6 and with this the approved look-and-feel of Apple.
    With this faith, we will be able to order new iPhones and iPads.
    With this faith, we don’t have to fear to wake up and be surrounded by eerie Androids.

    Tom and Jony, we – the users – are free at last!

  71. tony c - 10 years ago

    I’m so mad at myself for doing the upgrade or should I say downgrade to iOS7 !
    What a mistake it was to do this. Even the camera controls are not easy to use. Every time I go to switch to from camera to video I take an unwanted picture. The controls are too close together. Not to mention all the other crap I hate about this new blunder. I want my old iOS6 back.

  72. Ron Vichar - 10 years ago

    Boo I wanted to check out iOS 7 but things like typing and browsing lag big time. Now its too late to downgrade and there’s no turning back. Beware people Beware. iOS 7 is nice and all but the performance just sucks on my not so ancient iPad 3. iLag 7.0.1 fix better be coming soon.

  73. Julie Smith - 10 years ago

    Hate, hate, hate the update. Nothing is working anymore! The internet cuts in and out, therefore all the apps that use the internet are shoddy. All my pictures are blurry and same with the videos. Face time won’t work. Netflix is useless. The calendar function looks bizarre and so do the multiple “pages” under each folder. Oh, and did I mention the interface looks like it was designed by a 4 year old? Seriously irritated. This is not the professional and easy-to-use Apple product I bought.

  74. Robin Turner - 10 years ago

    I’ve had an iPhone and iPad for years. iOS 7 is the most horrible experience I have ever had. Friday I could use both devices without glasses – today I can’t. Unless you have a brand new phone there is a serious performance hit. I searched for “remove iOS 7” and got millions of hits. I spent time with Apple Tech Support yesterday and they told me I have to live with this because the update cannot be undone. This Christmas it will be a Windows Phone and a Windows pad replacing both Apple devices

  75. Angela Erickson - 10 years ago

    I can say honestly I loved it the first few hours til I started to play and see just how awful IOS 7 is. While my iPhone 4s could almost go a day and half without a charge now it only lasts 4 hours if that without hardly any use. I did all the changes etc that I was told to do with no changes.
    2nd I cannot send any pictures to anyone other than apple users. Really? While some don’t care about this feature this is very important to me. I use this for family, my business etc.
    After finding out I cannot go back to IOS 6 and I am on my 3rd day with this I cannot stand my phone. I loved it before. I cannot enjoy it. Whats horrible I was always a android user up til 3 months ago I went iPhone. Well looks like I am going back. While your customers love your products Apple don’t be so strict!

    • Kristy Effinger - 10 years ago

      Gee, I don’t have any trouble at all sending photos to people from my iPhone 5 after upgrading to iOS7. They don’t have to be Apple users. I can’t imagine what you are doing that this is not possible for you anymore.

  76. Scott Paré - 10 years ago

    iOS7 is tacky. I cant believe apple put something this ugly out. Its white and bright my phone gives me a headache now.

    • R KOR - 10 years ago

      Yes, Apple really will loose a lot of users!
      Its not only IOS7 release with bugs, restrictions and the unlucky new design…….Nobody of the Apple users needs this!
      AirPlay button handling and stability of connection is a mess!
      Technology leadership is no more Apple busniness.

      Its also IPhone design an Release stratetgy – Apple’s competitors are smileing….
      Are they sleepping at Management Level – think they earn to much Money!!!
      Pure Stephe – Apple will go down if they will not change dramatically management and strategy….

    • Becky Jecky - 10 years ago

      This is intended for anyone experiencing problems with their iPhones or iPads because of the update.
      They have basically kept telling us that many of the problems like wifi and bluetooth not working is a result of hardware failure. Mind you, everyone’s unit’s were fine before the 7.0 update. I have an online petition on change.org and a youtube video detailing this information. If you would join me and try to get Apple to address the many issues due to iOS7, perhaps we can make a difference. It’s ludicrous to be forced to pay more money for new units when the problem wasn’t ours to begin with. Please share the petition and video.

      To sign the petition, go to: chn.ge/GILJ4R

      To view the youtube video, go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iC4NgAtB_o

    • Troy F. Anderson - 10 years ago

      SHORT YOUR STOCK IN APPLE NOW!!!!!! BET AGAINST THE MARKET!!!!!!! THIS IS THE BIGGEST MISTAKE IN APPLE HISTORY. WATCH IPHONE UPGRADES DECLINE AND APPLE TABLET AND PHONE SALES DECLINE RAPIDLY STARTING NOW!!!!!

  77. Elizabeth Lewis - 10 years ago

    I hate iOS 7! HATE IT! If I wanted a windows tablet, I would have bought one. The icons are childish and weakly colored. The background moves constantly like it has the java-jitters. No person capable of reasonable thought would enjoy a betrayal of this magnitude! Bring back iOS 6!

  78. Joe Belunke - 10 years ago

    ios7 icons are pathetic when compared to ios6(calender/camera icons for example). cant understand why in the world apple had to do this. If Steve Jobs were alive he would have hanged himself.

  79. Jan Hollander - 10 years ago

    IOS7 is ugly and dreadful, impossible to use for someone – in this case me – that dont have full sight on his eyes. I was forced to buy a new phone otherwise I had to stop using a mobile. Just wonder what an idiot decided to use darkgrey text on a lightgrey background – not enough contrast to read the text if your eyes are less than 100 percent fresh. The fonts are also smaller and impossible to read. I dont want to think or talk about the ugly icons cause they make me sick.

    • Kristy Effinger - 10 years ago

      It’s easy enough to make the text more bold and larger through the settings app in iOS7. There is no need to strain your eyes.

      • Deborah Xaros-Lanigan - 10 years ago

        Kristy, I’m thinking, like myself, it’s not the lettering that is the vision issue with younger and older who are vision impaired. The light gray on white keyboard… The white dial up screen with light gray circles… On my iPad 2 I’ve always had a white wallpaper. I group similar apps / books/ educational into folders. So I had 3 pages of black folders on my desktop. The folders ( for the things that actually came back via my backup) are now white.
        So, no, nothing to do with lettering or making lettering bolder.
        When Apples tech support person shares with me that no one at her location updated their phones to IOS 7 ” because they were aware in advance”… Then that tells me we have a problem.

  80. Ania Bielecka - 10 years ago

    HI, I have got a quick question – when trying to restore and press shift to choose the IPSW file – Itunes do not recognise the ziped file it comes in. WHat shall I do in such case?

  81. Frederick Colby - 10 years ago

    iOS7 what a joke! worse than hate. How could they do this to us? They should’ve given us some idea of what they were doing! I bragged about how much I loved my iPhone, it was fun to use and so much part of my life. I have two friends and one of my sons has told me they are not happy too I called AppleCare to find out we cannot go back, what a disappointment! I really don’t like this update so much, the wiggly screen, the ridiculous icons and the apps are all changed, etc. I will never get used to it! I never thought it but now am sure I’ll break away from iPhones when it’s time… Gurrrr!!!!

  82. Eduardo Leon - 10 years ago

    Point blank iOS 7 SUCKS $&!% !
    Does anyone want to buy a iPhone 4S Cheap!

    • Deborah Xaros-Lanigan - 10 years ago

      Not investigating this update in advance, I stupidly did my iPhone 4S & iPad 2 at the same time! I should have realized this was not your typical software update when I kept receiving messages that there wasn’t enough storage space on my phone… Started deleting apps.. Eventually some photos.
      iPhone took about an hour… IPad 2 took 1.5 hours. Then…. I went into total shock that I had completely different devices. If I wanted devices with a “drastically different look”I would have gone shopping and purchased a product other than Apple.
      Phone… I could hit ” Facebook” and my contacts would open… Didn’t matter what icon I hit, it now had a mind of its own.
      iPad 2… No longer usable. Soooo slow loading pages. Most of the time when trying to load a page it will ” time out” stating ” unable to open”.
      Called tech support. Nothing they could do after running diagnostics on both devices.
      My tech support person did share that he… And most others in his dept , DID NOT upgrade… And won’t be.
      He did offer to replace my devices free with new models that can accommodate this software. IOS 7 is simply more software than an Ipad2 can accommodate.
      Yesterday morning , battery was dead, again. I plugged it in to charge at 8 am and never unplugged it ( it’s no longer portable) . At 10 PM it was now at 46 % battery power !!. When I put it down last night, power cord came out a little… So this morning it was dead again. I plugged it in at 8:30 am today… It’s now 10:39 and I’m at 5 %.
      I replaced my phone , even thou apple is sending me a 5 for free, with a used 4S on eBay that had not been upgraded. I will be doing the same with my iPad today.
      That seems to be the only option available. There are also stores that sell refurbished and it’s soon enough so that the refurbished ones in their stock are still IOS 6.1.3
      Very costly error.

    • sixtentherabbit - 10 years ago

      Nope, not since Ios7, sorry. Getting rid of mine too. Windows98 wanted their phone back.

  83. Pat (@SunsetSeaR) - 10 years ago

    iOS7?! What happened to Apple leading? Galaxy-like? And I agree with Jan. Light grey keyboard, lighter color keys… Why? People over 50 use the iPhone, and now we either tote around our reading glasses or wait until we get home to send a reply to a text message! What a disappointment… and believe me, the “flashlight” and the “level” don’t make up for the color schemes.

    Navigating the calendar is ridicoulous as is entering new contacts… Contrast, contrast, contrast, Apple! While 20-something year olds may not have a problem seeing the screen now, give them a few years of reading annoyingly bright screens and poorly thought out color schemes. Well, maybe in a few years Samsung will have have solved the problems Apple has decided to cause.

    • Deborah Xaros-Lanigan - 10 years ago

      My 25 yr old is having massive problems with the light gray on white. Many young people have poor vision. Her friends dislike their ” different new phones” as much as I do.
      I do have to say… Out of my friends ( though I IMMEDIATLY put out a ” May Day Warning ” on FB.. So most of my friends did not upgrade) and my daughter friends I was the only person that put the devices side by side and upgraded both at the same time!!! How dumb was that??

  84. Tyler Dyck - 10 years ago

    Thanks for the information… I guess I’m too late to revert from the absolute CRAP that Apple has decided to force upon us with their iOS 7.

    … currently trying to find the LEAST offensive of the options available to me. Too bad the zoom, interface and sounds are all new and can’t be undone.

    Bloody hell, Apple, IF IT ISN’T BROKEN … DON’T TRY TO FIX IT!

    • Deborah Xaros-Lanigan - 10 years ago

      The least offensive cost me money but… My iPhone 4S was a new upgrade still under warranty… Not one tiny scratch.
      My only option I could think of was to go on eBay and search for an iPhone that had not been upgraded. Found one. The seller stated “always had screen protector and was always in a case…. No scratches.. I won the auction. Cost $375.00. They shipped immediately and I received it in 2 days. But, screen is covered in scratches and also several scratches on casing. Disappointed about that but was thrilled beyond words when I put in my SIM card and set up as a new device and had an iPhone again.
      Am trying to do the same to replace my iPad 2 which is not usable any longer. Cost of an iPad2, used, that’s still running on IOS6.1.3 on EBay …. $1000.00-$1200.00!!!!!!!

  85. ios 7 sucks, thats one d reasons many of apple users switch to androids

  86. Doug Ross - 10 years ago

    Thanks, but I just got this device as a gift . I do not know how to do the retrieval in the 1st place.

  87. Deborah Xaros-Lanigan - 10 years ago

    The day after I upgraded iphone 4 and IPad 2 and realized I had made a huge mistake and iPad is no longer usable… I began a frantic online search to see what my options were.
    The firmware for my IPad2 IOS 6.1.3 was still available for download. I did download it and saved to my PC desktop. I had to leave… Never downloaded firmware for iPhone. I did know that there was a ” small window of opportunity.”
    Was gone for the weekend. Apple closed the window prior to my return home.
    Question… Am I still able to downgrade with that firmware that I downloaded and saved to my desktop. The instructions I had were that I do that then open itunes on my PC.. Plug in device and do it from there?
    I haven’t tried it yet and was wondering if that was still an option since I do have it saved on my desktop.
    Any advice / answers about this would be greatly appreciated.

  88. Denise Murphy - 10 years ago

    Choosing 7 over 6 is akin to choosing DOS over Apple OS. Apple has lost its humanity and placed its ever-fragile future in the hands of engineeering automatons.

    These devices were supposed to facilitate communication, not simultaneously give you a headache and nausea.

    Consumer bottom line: We should have at least the CHOICE to revert to iOS 6x.

  89. Lara Zinn - 10 years ago

    Another customer not happy. Yes, the light grey/ white background/ font is dreadful. I used notes and calendar a lot of my work and now with this hideous layout it hurts my eyes. Also, the iOS 7 has slowed my Ipad, consumes more battery, lots of apps not working well.

    Wish could have the iOS 6 back. I was sooo happy with it… not I feel like never using the Ipad again.

  90. Deborah Xaros-Lanigan - 10 years ago

    I’m just thrilled beyond words that Apple has replaced my 2 devices with new ones that are running on IOS 6.1.3!!! And no hassles. My devices I swapped off , that I stupidly upgraded , are sitting in a pile of trash in the dumpster behind the Apple Store… Hopefully.
    Apple, you are still the best in customer service!!!

  91. Peter Russell - 10 years ago

    Camera is totally screwed up. Doesn’t focus right now at all. Well done Apple, you’ve probably just driven me back to Samsung with this piece of crap software!

  92. Bored197272 - 10 years ago

    I’m going back to a blackberry.

    • Kristy Effinger - 10 years ago

      You do know, don’t you, that Blackberry is being sold & going out of business? The new owner will probably break up and sell the various patents and services. Blackberry will no longer be a viable company. Most cell phone carriers are clearing out their Blackberry stock, and won’t be offering them anymore.

  93. Debbie Henderson - 10 years ago

    I have to agree with everything on this site thought it was just me having problems with iPad being much slower jumping all over the place I use the calendar for my business booking customers now hate using it colour so wishy washy also I really miss the week calendar that ran along the bottom of screen so easy to use now I have to scroll across every week to say book an appointment for 5 weeks time utter crap . Wish I hadn’t upgraded and now looking for a more friendly user devise any suggestions????

    • Deborah Xaros-Lanigan - 10 years ago

      Call Apple just like I did. I know have a new iPhone 4S and IPad 2 running on IOS 6.1.3c
      Do not believe for a minute that you are stuck with this.

      • Debbie Henderson - 10 years ago

        Thanks for your reply will give it a go do I just contact customer support ????

      • Deborah Xaros-Lanigan - 10 years ago

        Debbie… Call the Apple tech support line. I’m not sure what device you have. I had iPhone 4S and iPad 2.
        No matter what your device/devices are doing this is what you’re going to tell them:
        For iPhone… Whatever icon you hit , the device is opening whatever it chooses. You hit contacts, FB opens, stays briefly then back to home screen . Contacts never opened. It might on the second or third try. You hit Candy Crush … Your online bank icon opens briefly, then closes and back to home screen. The device is doing what it wants. Tell them you lost over 1000 photos… 8 came back after upgrade and your beyond upset. The battery drains so fast it impossible to go out for the evening and make it home without the battery going dead.
        iPad … NO. Battery power. Was dead the morning after upgrade. You plugged it in at 8am. By 10 pm that night you had 48%…!! You put the iPad down when you were going to sleep. The power cord dislodged. When you woke in the morning it was dead again. Plugged in at 8:30 am. At 11am it had 11% battery charged. At 3 pm it was up to 17%!!
        That’s when I called them.
        Also tell them that cloud is not interacting with the other device ( if you have 2)
        Tell them your camera roll and all photos are missing on iPad .
        Also tell them that you are not in the Bussiness of researching software and believed when you saw there was a new upgrade you expected it to be another “benign ” upgrade just like all the others.
        Bottom line… The device/ devices are not what you purchased. When you bought it you went, checked out, played with many devices in the store. You purchased the iPhone / iPad on the visual look and design. Let them know that all smartphones and tablets basically do the same thing. The deciding factor if generally that its visually pleasing. The device you have today does not resemble what you gave your hard earned money for.

        That all said… They did do diagnostics on my phone… Couldn’t find anything wrong so there was no choice except for them to replace it. They didn’t bother doing diagnostics on the iPad… They just decided they would replace that also. I knew that all devices going out are still on IOS 6.1.3 ( common sense) I told her I did not want those new devices taken out of the box and upgraded. I wanted them to remain on IOS 6.1.3. She agreed and said they would arrive in 5-7 days.
        I decided to take it a step further and I suggest you do the same. I told her I didn’t live far from the apple store at a mall near me… Could I just go and pick them up there. She asked the name and location of the mall. Looked up the number and we did a 3-way call. She told them I would be in and to do a swap out. She instructed them to NOT upgrade prior to giving them to me. She also sent the store an email with instructions.
        A little sticky at the store. The sales person said ” your devices are no longer under warranty. I got very assertive… Did not address that but simply stated there had been nothing wrong with either device… Apple developed software that had rendered them trash. I then gave him The name and direct line of the person at Apple that I dealt with and said.. ” I’m not engaging in this conversation with you. Read the email notes you have and here’s her number at Apple if you have questions. He left… Came back with my 2 new devises. I activated them myself in the store to insure the were running on IOS 6.

        The new devices thou are constantly popping up alerts in different areas to upgrade. You have be careful. It’s not like before where its in settings and that’s it. The “app” icon might have a number 4 over it. That usually means you have 4 apps that need updates. You go to updates and there’s only 3 apps that need updating… The 4th is the IOS7 upgrade in the apps setting!!!! Be very careful not to hit ” update all.”
        Also when my phone is in “sleep mode” I hit the home screen button today and there was an alert box across the home screen telling me my software needed upgrading.
        I’ve had Apple products for years. I’ve never seen the aggressiveness about upgrading software before.

        Good luck. You CAN do this. I wish I could send you the name and direct line of the woman I dealt with there but there’s no way to email it to you privately on this site.

    • Deborah Xaros-Lanigan - 10 years ago

      Also.. I maintained 2 calendars.. One for personal Appts.. The other for social events. I lost all Appts and events… Nothing . Blank calendars.please tell them that also.

      • Deborah Xaros-Lanigan - 10 years ago

        Let me know how this works out for you… I really wish I could get the contact name and direct number for her to you.

  94. Sharon Lee Soo Fang - 10 years ago

    Apple, please provide a solution for users to revert back to ios6. iPad is not user friendly anymore with ios7!!!!!

    • Deborah Xaros-Lanigan - 10 years ago

      Call them… I did.. Told them iPad was no longer portable. Needed to remain plugged in 24/7. iPhone opened FB contacts icon was hit. Opened Candy Crush when Citizens Bank icon hit… And above all else , I purchased a smart phone on the visual aspect ( all smart phones pretty much do the same… We purchase on what’s pleasing visually.
      My iPhone that I work hard to have the money to buy… No longer resembled what I had purchased. If Steve Jobs replacement needed to redesign his own version of Apple software , he needed to give consumers an option. I, along with most of my friends/ acquaintances had no idea this was not the typical benign software upgrade.
      If I had wanted a “different look” I would have purchased a different smartphone and tablet.
      Apple Tech support agreed, stating none in their location had upgraded!
      They said they would send me 2 new devices running on IOS 6.1.3 … They would arrive in 5-7 days.
      I told them I would like them to call my local Apple Store and tell them I would be there in 20 min to pick up the devices. She did a 3 way call. They were told NOT to upgrade the software before handing them to me.
      I activated them in the store to insure they were not upgraded.
      All stock in every store has IOS 6.1.3 installed. I knew this ( common sense told me) when I called Apple.
      Sales people in Apple Stores are told to remove from box and upgrade the software before giving it to you. You need to request they do not do that… And they won’t.
      BTW… We’re not just talking about Apple Stores. Best Buy, Walmart… Etc, are still using up all there stock supply of IOS 6.1.3 devices.
      Why people think they are stock with devices running on IOS 7 is beyond me. All I had to do was read the words ” you can’t go back” and I thought “watch me.
      Call Apple… They have the BEST customer service of any company. They’ve proven me right again . The call was last Monday at 3 pm… I handed in my upgraded trash , got new ones and was back in my home at 4:30 pm.
      Do it. Your iPhone is no longer the product you purchased and there’s enough back stock of IOS 6 devices out there to last awhile.

      • gn0mel0ver - 10 years ago

        I called and they would not let me trade mine in. They were awful.

  95. John Butler - 10 years ago

    My wifi is all fouled up. Greatly diminished in ability to receive on the go… Riddle me this: when is an upgrade a downgrade: OS 7.02

  96. Dennis (@u00dep1) - 10 years ago

    This is Apples way of making us buy a new phone. Glad i found this out before the phone for my wife in a couple weeks. Won’t be an IPhone

    • Deborah Xaros-Lanigan - 10 years ago

      No… You have apple send you new devices running on IOS 6! It’s going to take a long time to delete the supply that’s still in every store that sells Apple products… Including the apple store. Advocate for yourself.

  97. Kenia Wiedemann - 10 years ago

    iOS7 is slow, battery drainer, exagerated bright and colorful! It’s HORRIBLE, and we are not allowed to get the iOS6 back??? Why, Apple? Why???

    • Deborah Xaros-Lanigan - 10 years ago

      Are people just not reading my posts. 5 days ago apple easily agreed to send me 2 new devices that were on IOS 6. I picked them up at my local Apple Store rather than wait. Apple called the store and instructed the sales staff NOT to take them out of the boxes and upgrade prior to giving them to me. I would be taking them with IOS 6 only.
      It went very smoothly.

      • Anonymous Bosch - 10 years ago

        I suspect these people’s warranties have expired. I think mine is still active, i will try what you suggest. At the least I am telling them if I am stuck with this designer’s-nightmare buggy OS, I will no longer be buying anything from Apple.

  98. Deborah Xaros-Lanigan - 10 years ago

    Ok… Everyone pay attention. No one seems to be reading what I’ve put out there.
    I upgraded iPhone 4S and an IPad 2. I had no idea what this upgrade was and believed it was just another benign software upgrade. I got the shock of my life. Unfortunately I did them at the same time.
    Aside from the massive problems… Like 0 battery life in my iPad ( was no longer “mobile ” and had to remain in a plug 24/7… I explained to Apple that there are many smartphones and tablets on the market. We ( all of us) purchase on the visual aspect of the product. Lets face it… They pretty much all do the same. Our deciding factor is “look.”
    I no longer had devices that looked like what I had purchased. I didn’t have the product any longer. I work to hard for my money to have some guy that replaced Steve Jobs take the product I purchased and make it into something ridiculous looking.
    My deciding factor to Persue contacting Apple was that I read 1000 times on sites like this ” if you upgraded to IOS 7…. Your stuck with it! ( can’t has never been part of my vocabulary. )
    After thinking about this , I realized that all the stock in every Apple Store, Best Buy, Walmart among 100’s more stores were on IOS 6.1.3. The most likely scenario is if you go in to purchase a device the sales people at an Apple Store will take it out of the box and upgrade before it leaves the store. Walmart won’t bother. Best Buy I’m not sure.
    Anyhow at 3:30 last Monday I called Apple. They said they would send me new devices running on IOS 6 to arrive in 5-7 days. I didn’t want to wait. I asked them to call my local Apple Store, tell them what’s happening and tell them NOT to upgrade my new devices. Tech support did a 3-way call. They also emailed the store with instructions. I went , picked them up without incident. There was question of my devices not being under warranty. I had brought the name of my Apple contact with her direct number with me. I only responded to the warranty question by giving the sales person that information… And said this is not for you to question… Call this person.
    They didn’t. They gave me my new devices which I activated myself prior to leaving the store to insure they were not upgraded.
    Start to finish… 1.5 hours from the phone call to me bring back in my home.

    Please, please don’t let anyone make you believe you don’t have options or choices. Apple has always had outstanding customer service and still does. I thought this was going to be a battle but was prepared to see it thru.
    It wasn’t a battle at all. One of the easiest transactions I’ve done in a long time.
    If you are not happy with the performance OR LOOK… Swap out your device. Call Apple tech support.

  99. Sandy Orr - 10 years ago

    iTunes won’t get me do the above–I get a message that my iPhone can’t be used with this version and I have to upgrade iTunes. Well, I hate the new version of iTunes even more!

  100. Kathy Yates - 10 years ago

    Thank you, Deborah! I’m calling first thing in the morning. IOS 7 is dreadful!!!

  101. If they don’t issue another update to the Iphone to get rid of IOS 7, I will be changing phones. The contrast makes it nearly impossible to see the screen, and no I don’t think making the screen black with skinny white letters helps in the least. Also, I can’t find many things that used to be easy to find. Why move the internal workings of my wireless information, why change how everything looks. I cannot delete messages with the new app, and if I do, I cannot remove the deleted ones from the box either.

  102. robert chenery - 10 years ago

    if i have to live with this upgrade??? I’m going away from i pad, i hope the dim-lows don’t do this with their other software. anyone want an i pad?

  103. Robin Grigg - 10 years ago

    The company phones are up for renewal in January next year so where I was just looking at the Nokia or Sony, but now with this iOS7 and its playschool look and about half a dozen of my apps now not working correctly, the music player when connected to my car always reverts to playing them all from the beginning in alphabetical order it going to be which of these 2 phones. I have just tried in the of chance to down grade but the loophole is definitely closed. It does seem that since Steve Jobs passed the lunatics are now running the asylum!!!!!

  104. Daniel Miller - 10 years ago

    I don’t like the way it looks. Apps crash. My ipad runs slower. I wish I never upgraded…

  105. Kenna (@WhiteSoxRedFox) - 10 years ago

    My iPod 5 use to last from 7am til around 8pm, while using it on and off, but now it dies at 10am! Three hours of on and off use and it dies. It drains my battery, my storage is all of a sudden “full” when I haven’t downloaded anything or taken any pictures or videos. I demand getting iOS6 back. This is just like Obama forcing Obamacare upon us, we should be allowed to have the option whether we want it or not.

  106. Tristan Macleod - 10 years ago

    I’ve had a enough. Phone freezes, crashes and icons gone missing. I’m changing to Android. iOS7 must go down in history as Android’s Salesman of the Year.

  107. Bye bye Apple. Samsung here i come.
    I dig a hole en then i put my iphone in it.
    R,I,P My iphone :(

  108. Jon Nordstrom - 10 years ago

    I bought an iPhone 4 in Aug. 2011, and a Samsung Galaxy S2 Skyrocket 4 months later, because I sell and install car/home products that interface with Apple/Android devices. I have left the Samsung on my desk nearly unused for 2 years, and simply LOVED my iPhone 4, even with being a die-hard PC user/Apple hating techie. I have the iPhone 4 with me from the moment I wake up, until the moment I lay it down to go to sleep, it’s even our alarm clock the next morning.

    IOS7 has rendered it the most un-useable piece of junk I own, and I go thru LOTS of technology in my business. My iPhone 4 is in MINT condition, but now even the simplest task like opening Contacts, or the phone screen takes forever. I have over 240 apps on my phone, 180 of them just for business applications, all organized in folders, etc. , now those folders are piece of shit gray backgrounds, instead of the nice high-contrast black they were. How about the nearly useless botoom blind, that you are supposed to be able to pull up and access Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Orientation, Flashlight, Brightness etc. I can MAYBE get it to come up once in 20 tries.

    The icons look as fruity and gaily made as I’ve ever seen, the fonts are horrible, the keyboard is horrible, it lags so bad, it auto-corrects something I’m 3 words past, and ALWAYS wrong, due to the input lag, and massive choking of my A4 processor. Not a business users classy device like it used to be, now it looks like some dumbed-down, worldy universal kids starter phone toy.

    The phone screen is awful, ending a call takes 3-4 presses of the END button, which then lags thru to the previous screen, and usually dials a “favorite” or the last call that happened to be present in the log, under where the END button just was.

    I could go on with more gripes but you get the idea. iPhone 5 intro was bad enough LAST year, with no 3rd party support for accessories, interfaces, hell, not even charging cables. Rendering nearly 2/3 of my business offerings USELESS with their grand new design. Lightning connector? Great idea in thoery maybe, but Apple wouldn’t share the specs with anyone, and created a glut in useability of the 5 for almost a year. I told ALL of my customers not to buy the 5 if they wanted to use it to interface with car stereos, home audio docks, etc.

    I’ve recently picked up my almost 2-year old Galaxy 2 Skyrocket running ICS, and have to say, it’s working far better, and actually looks more appealing and business-like than IOS7 will ever be. I think I may just retire my now nearly-useless iPhone 4, and NEVER bother to update my still functioning iPad 2.

    Apple should have a class action lawsuit brought against them for not explaining the upgrade better, and how DRASTICALLY it would change your phone, and give you the choice to “opt-out” of the update, or revert back to IOS 6 at this point.

    I have a Pentium 4 PC in my mix still running XP, but I would never think of putting windows 8 on it….it’s an OS not built for hardware that old. Yet, I can still surf the web, and type word documents and do my Quickbooks on it just fine…..even with the threat of Microsoft terminating all support for XP in 2014, I’m sure it’s final iteration and updates will still allow it to run just fine, along side my Vista and Windows 7 machines. They aren’t going to force a new OS onto my PC, and make it run at 20% of the speed it runs at now…..

    Shame on you Apple. Shame on you Tim Cook. Your visions are not forward-thinking like Steve Jobs were, stop breaking the things that work, and invent something new, don’t try to re-invent Jobs’ masterpieces. I might even go for a Blackberry or Windows phone at this point.

    • zlaputz - 10 years ago

      I agree, I watch MacBreak Weekly every tue & they recommended it, especially Andy Inatko, I blame them 4 not giving a very candid review. Andy seems more concerned about saying anything negative about Apple so he will continue 2 b invited 2 Apple events. yes Leo u were right , if Steve were here he would say “you are fxxxing up my company”!

      • zlaputz - 10 years ago

        what’s up w that silly grin on Renee Ritchies face during Leo’s show…s he reading the Sunday comics ? in all fairness I should have taken a hint when Andy sed he had not upgraded hi main work iPad 2 ios7,,,but as far as there not being a black list….come on Andy,

      • Tom Garrison - 10 years ago

        I hate IOS7, thank GOD I only installed it on my iPhone 4, my backup phone. When my contract is up I will get another phone, NOT APPLE. I did NOT upgrade my iPhone 5, iPod Touch 5, and my iPad 2. I have NOT upgraded iTunes on my desk top. I don’t buy from iTunes anymore. I get my music, books, and movies, from Amazon, a much easier web site to use. I used to be a loyal apple consumer but the stupidity of IOS 7 has changed that. I have vision trouble and IOS 7 is impossible to use!

  109. Noah Hiatt - 10 years ago

    iOS7 worst update ever what the hell were they thinking when they did this update it sucks to high heaven

  110. Debbie Veel - 10 years ago

    hate hate hate ios 7:( my son upgraded it for me and I loathe it. The apps look like something a child has done- garish neon-horrible. The bright white diary page is headache making. you canot scale photos to use as wallpapwer it jsut zooms tham out and you lose half the photo. The safari is aweful too. It looks, feels and works like an android now instead of being sllck ,simple and beautiful it is clunky and not very user friendly. :( I was going to buy a mini ipad becasue I like ipads so much more than tablets, but there isn’t any point now PLEASE let us go back to ios 6
    Shame on you apple :(

  111. Duvan Luong - 10 years ago

    As you can see, Tim “Idiotic” Cook likes to piss off the Apple community, starting from iOS 6.

  112. Lê Thanh Sơn - 10 years ago

    I knew the ios 7 is ugly and childish, but unluckily I pressed on the update icon and my phone turned to a fucking ridiculous stuff after about 30minutes upgrading. I got the damned ios 7 stuck in my phone for 1 month and really hate it. I have been looking for a used iphone 4 with ios 5 or 6 but I am almost out of luck. Most of them come with the goddamned ios 7. Before with ios 5, my battery could last more than 48 hours since the full charge, now with ios 7 it only lasts more than 17 hours and requires charging. I even think about buying a used iphone 3S and throwing my fucking iphone 4 to the shop. F*ck Apple ! Please get people back to ios 5 or 6 otherwise you will be bankrupt.!

  113. cardifilm - 9 years ago

    ios7 is the most FUC*ED up thing ever.

  114. cardifilm - 9 years ago

    Switching to Android

    • rondrinksgrolsch - 9 years ago

      Used to really enjoy my 5S + iPad Air with iOS 7.1.2 ever since I upgraded to 8.0 and 8.1 its been a nightmare on Elm Street. As a developer I have been testing 8.0 since the early betas. iOS 8 still feels like it hasn’t matured beyond a beta. If you thought iOS 7 was bad iOS 8 is certainly worse. The first thing I noticed was battery drain due to constant crashes being written to the crash log. The second annoyance was iOS 8 had somehow turned into a thick laggy Oil Slick. Lot’s of reloads and crashes in native apps and a buggy as FcUK Safari browser. This isn’t your old man’s iOS and it sucks.

  115. if i use the link and go back to ios 6 (which i love) will i loose my messages? because i got iOS 7 a while ago and i still hate it but havent been able to do anything about it till i saw this, but idk if i want to do it espically if it doesnt let me save my messages…..

  116. ロハン増進 - 8 years ago

    Its that foolish Designer team, who took advantage of their position. In ego battle with Scott they ruined everything what Steve/Apple has build in over 30+ years of hard and love for their work. Dumbest flat and tasteless design ever made in Apple campus. Please someone stop this team to make this sluggish designs. Somewhere in race of market share and “units sold” war, Apple already lost its core value :( I want Skeuomorphism back ! Somebody really needs to save Apple!