If you had upgraded your iOS device to iOS 7 beta to check it out and want to downgrade back to iOS 6, then the good news is that you can downgrade. This is despite Apple’s warning which states that you cannot downgrade back to earlier versions of iOS.
Important points to note:
- You will be able to downgrade back only to the latest iOS 6.x.x version (which is iOS 6.1.4 for iPhone 5 and iOS 6.1.3 for the remaining iOS devices).
- Please take a backup of your iOS device to iCloud or using iTunes.
- Please note that when you downgrade back to iOS 6.x.x, you will be able to restore back to iOS 6.x.x compatible backup and not the iOS 7 backup to avoid compatibility issues.
Please follow these simple instructions to downgrade to iOS 6:
- Download the appropriate iOS 6.x.x firmware file for your device from the below links:
- Connect the device running iOS 7 beta to your computer.
- Launch iTunes and select the iOS device from the top right corner, to the left of the iTunes Store button.
- Hold the Alt/Option key (Shift Key in Windows) on your keyboard and click on the Restore iPhone/iPod touch button in iTunes. Note: If you’ve Find My iPhone enabled then it will prompt you to turn it off before restoring your iPhone (it’s one of the features of iOS 7).
- Select the ipsw file you had downloaded earlier.
- iTunes will inform that it will erase and restore your iOS device to iOS 6.x.x and will verify the restore with Apple.
- Click Restore.
- iTunes should now restore your iOS device to iOS 6.x.x.
- After a restore, the iOS device will restart. You should then see “Slide to set up”. Follow the steps in the iOS Setup Assistant.
- You can then restore your device from a backup if required.
That’s it. Please don’t forget to let us know how it goes in the comments and drop us a line if you hit any issues.
