A little more than a week after it released iOS 9.1 to the public, Apple today has stopped signing iOS 9.0.2. This means that users are no longer able to downgrade from iOS 9.1 to iOS 9.0.2, which was initially released almost exactly a month ago.
For Apple, it’s normal for the company to stop signing an older version of iOS when it releases an update to the public. In Apple’s eyes, any bugs that were present in iOS 9.0.2 have since been fixed with iOS 9.1, making it the more stable and secure option for the average user.
Of course, the more likely reason for Apple to stop singing iOS 9.0.2 is to block the hole that the Pangu jailbreak solution circumvents. Pangu released its iOS 9, iOS 9.0.1, and iOS 9.0.2 jailbreak tool two weeks ago. Apple has always attempted to block jailbreak tools and to stop signing older versions of its operating system is the easiest and most basic method of doing so.
The release of iOS 9.1 last week brought about a handful of changes and enhancements, most notably of which included more than 150 new emoji characters. Other changes included new wallpapers, Live Photos enhancements for iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus users, and various other tweaks.
Now that Apple has shut the door on iOS 9.0.2, released iOS 9.1, it is now shifting its focus to iOS 9.2.
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Hasn’t 9.2 already been released to Developers?
As a developer, I can confirm that 9.2 was already released as I am running it on my iphone 6
As a non-developer, I can confirm that iOS 9.2 was already released as I am running the public Beta on my iphone 6s.
Me as well.
What if i want to go back to iOS 8?
You cannot. You will need to buy a phone with iOS on it already.
iOS 8
Not even resetting and manually picking the iOS from the computer?
Well that’s very unlikely… but thanks :P
Unfortunately not – you have not been able to do this since like IOS4 – the firmware is validated by Itunes and will only load the ones Apple has authorized.
This needs to be the next frontier for Jailbreakers bypass Itunes all together and then load any firmware you want – they are not there yet.
For reference – this site tells you all the firmwares currently being signed by Apple – at this time only 9.1
https://ipsw.me/signed
Thank you. Apple from this side suks a lot.
upgrading to 9.1 caused MMS texts from non iphone users to stop coming through on my 5c… and now there is no going back. :(
This
Sucks
Same here; let me know if you find a fix b/c this is just pitifully bad.
Should have never even upgraded to iOS 9 on my 5c in the first place. Overall I thought this upgrade was going to create more polish and streamlining, instead its added more lag, random restarts and even screwing up my alarms. Tried reseting twice now too. I love that Apple is supporting older devices even more than Android, but if you are going to do so, at least make sure those older devices can run the OS properly.