Connect with us

Apple

How to Downgrade to iOS 8.2 from iOS 8.3

Published

on

iOS 8.3 was released today, but if you’re having problems with the new update, you can downgrade to iOS 8.2 for a limited time.

iOS 8.3 includes a handful of new features, including more emoji that are racially diverse and support for using CarPlay wirelessly, as well as the usual bug fixes and performance improvements.

Normally, you wouldn’t be able to downgrade back down to an older version of iOS, but Apple is still signing iOS 8,2, which means you have time to downgrade back to this older version if need be.

If you want to downgrade to iOS 8.2 from iOS 8.3, you’ll want to do it as soon as possible, because it’s only matter of time before Apple stops signing iOS 8.2. Afterward, you won’t be able to downgrade. Luckily, Apple is still signing iOS 8.2 right now, so you have a little bit of time to lock in iOS 8.2 if you’ve been having issues with iOS 8.3. Here’s how to do it.

UPDATE: Unfortunately, Apple has stopped signing iOS 8.2, which means you can no longer downgrade from iOS 8.3.

Downgrading to iOS 8.2

Since iOS 8.3 is the latest version of iOS, you can’t simply open up iTunes and “update” to an older version. You have to add on a couple more steps, but luckily it’s fairly easy.

Before you do anything, make sure to back up your iOS device, because this method will wipe your iPhone or iPad entirely clean. Luckily, we have a handy guide on how to do just that.

Screen Shot 2015-04-08 at 1.54.02 PM

First off, visit this website (seen above) and download the iOS 8.2 IPSW for your specific iOS device. These files range between 1.5 GB and 2GB for iPhones and iPads, so be aware that it may take a bit of time to download it.

Once you have the file downloaded, plug your iOS device into your computer and open up iTunes. Go to your device’s summary page and hold down the Option/Alt key on your keyboard, or Shift if you’re on Windows. Keep holding down the key as you click on Restore in iTunes.

itunes-backup

Next, browse to find the IPSW file that you downloaded and open it. iTunes will begin restoring your iPhone and will install iOS 8.2.

After the process is complete, your iOS device should now be running a clean-slate version of iOS 8.2. From there, you’ll want to restore your backup by going to the device summary page in iTunes and clicking on Restore Backup. Give it time to restore all of your apps and settings, and eventually you’ll be back to running iOS 8.2 just like you were before updating to iOS 8.3.

If You Want to Jailbreak

Unfortunately, iOS 8.3 nor iOS 8.2 are jailbreakable, and you can’t downgrade even further down to iOS 8.1.2 (which is the latest jailbreakable version of iOS), which means you’re simply out of luck if you’re on a newer version. However, if you’re still running iOS 8.1.2, you can easily jailbreak your device with TaiG’s latest jailbreak.

The TaiG jailbreak currently only works on Windows machines for the installation process and there’s no word on whether or not a Mac version will be on the way, but we wouldn’t be surprised to see it soon enough. Luckily, though, there’s another jailbreak tool that you can use to jailbreak your iPhone or iPad on Mac.

iOS 8.1.3 jailbreak

If you’re not running iOS 8.1.2, you’ll have to wait for an iOS 8.3 jailbreak, which shouldn’t be too far off. The TaiG jailbreak team, which was responsible for the iOS 8.1 jailbreak, already has a jailbreak available for iOS 8.2 beta 1 and 2. However, there have been newer betas since then and Apple has closed access to the first and second betas for iOS 8.2, obviously, but the company hasn’t patched up those exploits, meaning that iOS 8.2 is still jailbreakable, and as an extension, iOS 8.3 is most likely the same way.

On the TaiG website, they have stated they’ve “already completed the untethered jailbreak support for iOS 8.2,” which could mean that the TaiG team already have newer exploits needed to crack iOS 8.2 and iOS 8.3 if Apple patches up the current exploits that are being used. Of course, TaiG won’t disclose these exploits until an iOS 8.3 jailbreak releases, which should only be a matter of time at this point.

17 Comments

17 Comments

  1. Rick

    04/16/2015 at 6:42 am

    When I downloaded 8.3, my front camera no longer works. Any suggestions? I have erased the phone and restarted – did not help.

  2. Bruno

    04/17/2015 at 1:33 pm

    Hi,
    Maybe it should pointed out that once downgraded to 8.2 it’s no more possible to restore a backup previously done on 8.3 (at least with iTunes, since PhoneClean seems to allow it, but at your own expenses, as there should be incompatibilities between the ways datas are handled in the two releases).

  3. J Nix

    04/17/2015 at 10:09 pm

    Do NOT do this! It does NOT work! Not possible!

    • Bruno

      04/18/2015 at 1:50 am

      Could you be more specific ? What does NOT work ? downgrading to 8.2 in a general way or restoring an 8.3 backup once downgraded to 8.2 ?

      • RT

        04/25/2015 at 7:24 am

        No problem downgrading to 8.2 from 8.3 BUT you can’t restore a version 8.3 backup to version 8.2! Totally sucks!!

  4. smileandgame

    04/24/2015 at 6:55 pm

    great

  5. Ron

    04/25/2015 at 9:10 am

    You can easily downgrade to ios 8.2 to 8.3 following the given instructions. Guess what? You can’t restore an ios8.3 backup onto ios2! Didn’t you guys actually try this? If there is a way restore the last backup, please tell me how to do it otherwise better revise your article.

  6. Graham

    04/26/2015 at 6:14 pm

    This screwed me. iTunes won’t let you restore your backup with 8.2. it says “Can’t restore this backup because teh OS on this device is too old.”

  7. Malcolm

    04/28/2015 at 9:34 pm

    I want to also note that after downgrading to iOS 8.2 it’s not possible to use iTunes to restore the backup made on iOS 8.3. iTunes says “The backup cannot be restored to this iPhone because the software on the iPhone is too old.”

  8. Priti

    05/11/2015 at 4:24 am

    i have updated to the latest version 8.3 ios but m facing one issue. My phone network failure is occuring every 10 mins like if i m talking to someone the phone get disconnected and doesnot allow to make a call for 1 min…please help me.

  9. Ginny

    05/11/2015 at 2:11 pm

    I hate IOS 8.3 …
    Apple cannot do this to me… I can’t have a regular search like before because it has a stupid bug now where the search button does not appear anymore. And there is no hotspot option in the settings. What else is there to say…?

  10. Lee

    06/06/2015 at 6:31 pm

    Every since I downloaded 8.3 I cannot log into my iCloud account or FaceTime anyone :( I cannot down load apps because if this either. Any ideas how to fix this? I have an iPad.

  11. naqiah

    06/12/2015 at 10:42 am

    i hate 8.3 very very much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! my camera doesn’t work ! can’t seem to downgrade to 8.2 :(

  12. Hyun Joon Lee

    07/01/2015 at 11:57 pm

    iOS 8.4 to 8.3 doesn’t work. Once you downgrade and try to restore, iTunes says that my 5S’s iOS version is too old to restore my backup. You really can’t restore after downloading. Big mistake updating.

  13. Rob

    07/05/2015 at 4:21 pm

    Since the iOS 8.4 update, I’ve lost almost all my apps. Even Safari has gone! This is on my 4th gen iPad. Anyone else had the same problem?

  14. Roxanne

    07/06/2015 at 3:37 am

    it worked fine for me! i couldnt restore from backup since i didnt backup on ios 8.3 before, it was on ios 8.4 and it didnt let me, but i dont care, all my apps were waiting in the cloud. ios 8.4 sucks big time. all that shitty useless music service. it all screwed up my playlists and my stard, it doubled all my playlists and they were mixed up together. it ruined my weekend but thanks to you, i was able to go back in time. but now i get that notification that an update is ready all the time. can i disable it some way?? and on my macbook as well? i never wanna update anything anymore!!

  15. DavidTRobison

    08/29/2015 at 12:54 am

    //>>> Hey Friends,,,,!my classmate’s step-aunt makes $79 /hr on the laptop .!!She has been fired for 5 months but last month her income was $19889 just working on the laptop for a few hours.
    Visit This Link>>>> Click Here To Read More

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.