iOS 10 was officially released on September 13 and is considered to be the most advanced version of iOS to date. And it is for this reason that the OS has been eagerly anticipated since its announcement at WWDC 2016. Now that you’ve had a couple of days to get to know the mobile OS, are you happy to have upgraded?
If you’re not happy and have been seeing faster than usual battery drain or your iOS device is lagging, there is a way for you to downgrade to iOS 9.3.5.
How to downgrade from iOS 10 to iOS 9.3.5
Before we begin, I have to tell you that backups made in iOS 10 cannot be restored on iOS 9.3.5. However, when you upgraded to the latest firmware, you should have done a backup then. So please make sure this backup is available and that you have the very latest version of iTunes.
Also if you’re having problems, your choices are to wait for a fix from Apple or downgrade while you still can. At this moment, Apple is still signing iOS 9.3.5, but it could stop doing this any day now.
So if you read the above information and feel ready to begin, here we go.
Step 1: To start the process, you need the iOS 9.3.5 IPSW file for your device. Here are links to the files for each Apple device compatible with the firmware.
- iPhone 6s
- iPhone 6s Plus
- iPhone SE
- iPhone 6
- iPhone 6 Plus
- iPhone 5C (CDMA)
- iPhone 5C (GSM)
- iPhone 5s (CDMA)
- iPhone 5s (GSM)
- iPhone 5 (CDMA)
- iPhone 5 (GSM)
- iPhone 4S
- 12.9 inch iPad Pro
- 12.9 inch iPad Pro (Cellular)
- 9.7 inch iPad Pro
- 9.7 inch iPad Pro (Cellular)
- iPad Air 2
- iPad Air 2 (Cellular)
- iPad Air (4,2 Cellular)
- iPad Air
- iPad Air (4,3 China)
- iPad 4 (CDMA)
- iPad 4 (GSM)
- iPad 4
- iPad 3
- iPad 3 (GSM)
- iPad 3 (CDMA)
- iPad 2 (2,4)
- iPad 2 (2,1)
- iPad 2 (GSM)
- iPad 2 (CDMA)
- iPad Mini 4
- iPad Mini 4 (Cellular)
- iPad Mini 3 (4,9 China)
- iPad Mini 3
- iPad Mini 3 (4,8 Cellular)
- iPad Mini 2 (4,5 Cellular)
- iPad Mini 2
- iPad Mini 2 ( 4,6 China)
- iPad Mini (CDMA)
- iPad Mini (GSM)
- iPad Mini
- iPod touch (5th generation)
- iPod touch (6th generation)
Step 2: Once you have the IPSW file for your device, connect your iPhone to a Mac or Windows PC via USB.
Step 3: When ready, launch iTunes on your computer. Then look for the menu in the top-left corner and select your iOS 10 device.
Step 4: If you have a Mac, press the Option and Command keys at the same time while clicking the Restore button.
If you have a Windows PC, press and hold Shift and then press the Restore button.
Step 5: Next you need to find and choose the IPSW file you downloaded earlier. When you have done this, iTunes will tell you that your device running iOS 10 will be erased. This means you are about to lose all your data.
So if you’re sure you want to downgrade to iOS 9.3.5, from here, there’s no way back for the moment (or you can re-install iOS 10 later if you want).
If you want to start the process, just allow it to start, and iOS 9.3.5 will be installed on your device. It is at this point that you need to have some patience; just wait for iTunes to do its thing. Once the downgrade process is complete, it will alert you to this, and your device will reboot.
Step 6: Finally, you need to restore your backup of iOS 9.3.5 or older.
