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How to Downgrade From iOS 16 to iOS 15: When you upgrade to a major version of iOS, you should think about things like backups and iCloud. iCloud settings are always getting changed, and it’s important to remember that if you back up a device with a newer version of iOS to iCloud, you can’t use that backup on a device with an older version of iOS.
This means that if your device made an iCloud backup while you were testing iOS 16, you can’t put that backup back on your device when you go back to iOS 15. Then, people often ask, “Will I lose my data if I go from iOS 16 to iOS 15?” No, it doesn’t if you have the right tools.
Why Downgrade From iOS 16?
If you’re thinking about going back to iOS 15, you likely know why. Any way you look at it, there are many reasons to go back from iOS 16 to iOS 15. There are a few types of apps that won’t work with every major iOS update. One of the first apps to go when new software comes out is the one for banking. This year, there are a lot of banking apps that don’t work on iOS 16, so you might want to go back to iOS 15.
- iPhone heating too much and frequently
- poor battery life after the iOS 16 update
- random crashes
- other glitches.
Steps to Downgrade From iOS 16 to iOS 15
If you want to go from iOS 16 to iOS 15, there is a difference between the steps above and the ones below. If you go through the Recovery Mode steps, you’ll end up with a fresh install of the most recent stable version of the software. But this also means you’ll have to hope that your backups from iOS 16 will work with the “older” software.
- Open the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad.
- Tap General.
- Scroll down and tap VPN & Device Management.
- Under Configuration Profile, tap iOS 16 Beta Software Profile.
- Tap the Remove Profile button.
Downgrade iOS 16 to iOS 15 Manually
- Check the Software Update section of System Settings/Preferences to make sure your Mac is running the latest version of macOS.
- Open either the iTunes app or Finder on your computer.
- Plug your iPhone or iPad into your computer.
- Place your device into Recovery Mode using one of the following methods:
- iPhone 6s and earlier: Press and hold the Sleep/Wake and Home buttons at the same time. Continue holding both buttons until you see the recovery mode screen.
- iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus: Press and hold the Sleep/Wake and Volume Down buttons at the same time. Continue holding both buttons until you see the recovery mode screen.
- iPhone 8 or later: Press and quickly release the Volume Up button. Press and quickly release the Volume Down button. Press and hold the Side button until the recovery mode screen appears.
- If your device’s screen remains blank, a dialog appears in iTunes/Finder saying it’s “detected an iPhone in recovery mode. You must restore this iPhone before it can be used with iTunes/Finder”.
- Once your iPhone is in Recovery Mode, click the Restore button in iTunes/Finder.
- After the restoring process is finished, you might be prompted to enter your Apple ID and password. This is done to deactivate Activation Lock.
FAQs
To downgrade iOS 16 without iTunes, use iMyFone LockWiper. This reliable iPhone screen unlock tool allows you to choose any iOS firmware version for the unlocking process, hence letting you downgrade to the firmware of your choice.
Another reason why your iPhone battery is coming up short after the iOS 16 update is the Apple Photos app. It periodically indexes your library to weed out duplicate photos and videos in the background and that process, Apple claims, can initially take days depending on the amount of media you’ve on your iPhone.
Here you can enter the model number of your iPhone, and it’ll bring up the relevant IPSW files. Once selected, you will see a list of available Signed and Unsigned IPSW files. Click on the iOS version you want to use for the downgrade.