Downgrade

iPhone owners looking to downgrade from iOS 10 to the previous version (iOS 9.3.5) are out of luck. This week, Apple stopped signing the latest iOS 9 firmware. This means that downgrading to the earlier operating system is not possible. At this time, the only versions of iOS that can be installed are iOS 10.0.2 and 10.0.3. Apple released iOS 10.0.3 exclusively for the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. For all other iPhones iOS 10.0.2 remains the current version.

Beta testing is always a risky business, especially if you are installing the unproven software on your main device. The whole point of beta testing is to identify bugs and instabilities in software that has not yet been officially released. As such, there is always the possibility of installing the software and finding that your device constantly crashes in certain situations, or certain features no longer work. For instance, the 9.3 beta has elicited complaints about Bluetooth not working properly.

The famous downgrade tool TinyUmbrella was recently updated to a new beta version, despite the fact that downgrading iOS 8.x is not yet possible. Saving firmware SHSH blobs is always a safe bet, as one never knows when they might be needed should a downgrade solution be released.

For the time being, jailbreakers are warned to avoid updating iOS. Moving to iOS 8.2 will result in the loss of any installed jailbreak. While TinyUmbrella developer semaphore sees downgrade possibilities on the horizon, at the present time backing up SHSH blobs locally is just insurance. Until a downgrade is released, here are instructions on how to save iOS SHSH blobs with TinyUmbrella:

A new beta version of TinyUmbrella has been released, to easily save SHSH blobs for jailbroken iOS 8 devices. The software has a long history in the community, previously used to facilitate downgrading to earlier (jailbreakable) versions of iOS. Apple has prevented this practice with its latest security procedures, including signing firmware. So why save SHSH blobs now?

The developer of TinyUmbrella, semaphore sees a future in SHSH blobs and has spent time and energy rewriting the firmware umbrella tool with the expectation that downgrading will once again be possible. Of course, this does not mean jailbroken devices can be upgraded at the moment. Updating iOS will result in a stock device, and the jailbreak will be lost.