if iOS 7 accessibility bugs are driving you crazy you can downgrade

By Jessica Brown, 20 September, 2013

Forum
iOS and iPadOS
Hi. Apple is still signing 6.1.3 for all devices except iPhone 5 and 6.1.4 for iPhone 5. If the screen sensitivity bug or any other bugs in iOS 7 is too much for you to deal with, you can downgrade but do it quick because I do not know when apple will quit signing 6.1.3 and 6.1.4. I only know how to do this on windows, so hopefully mac users know what the mac equivalent to the windows commands are or maybe someone who knows both systems can give the mac commands. Anyhow, go to ipswdownloader.com and download iOS 6.1.3 for anything but an iPhone 5 or 6.1.4 for an iPhone 5. Please note that iPhones, iPads and iPods all have a different iOS even if they are all called 6.1.3 so make sure it is the iOS for your device. Then download it and remember what folder you downloaded it in. Then backup your device to iCloud or iTunes. Then open iTunes and click the button that says iPhone, iPad or iPod, depending on which device you have. Then tab to restore and hold down shift and while holding shift press enter then let both keys go. Then you can brows to the place where you downloaded iOS 6.1.3 or 6.1.4 earlier. When you find the file just press enter on it and your device will begin restoring and you will get the normal prompts. When it is all done you should be downgraded. Then restore your device from the iCloud or iTunes backup you made before you downgraded so you get all your apps and contacts and music and everything else back. Note that to restore from a backup and to restore iOS are 2 different things. Good luck. I wanted to take time to write more and be more detailed, but I wanted more to get this out before apple quits signing 6.1.3 and 6.1.4. So if you need more help please email jessicabrown531@gmail.com or use my contact form on this site and I will try to help more. Now if they would just sign 6.1.2 so I could jailbreak my iPhone 4s and iPod 5 I would be the happiest person in the world!

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Comments

By Greg T Kelchner on Monday, September 23, 2013 - 19:41

Hi Jessica, thank you so much for this information. I went to ipswdownloader and grabbed iOS 6..1.4. When I go in to iTunes, however, I click on the iPhone option and go to my summary tab and click restore iPhone. As I press the space bar to click restore I hold the option key as I believe this is the Mac equivalent to holding down shift on Windows. ITunes asks if I want to do a back-up before I restore and I answer that, and then it asks me all the normal things like "are you sure you want to restore your iPhone all of your media and purchases will be erased." I give it the ok but am never presented with an option to browse for the iOS 6.1.4 I just downloaded. it just takes me to a place where I can update to IOS 7. Anybody got any suggestions?

Sounds like you are not doing the correct mac command that is like shift+enter in windows. As soon as you do shift+enter, you should have your files and folders come up so you can find and press enter on the file you downloaded. Can someone please reply to this and tell us what for the mac is like shift+enter on windows? Thank you.

Hi again. This is what I found. It makes no sense to me, I hope it makes sense to you. It says `hold Option while clicking Restore` I think it may mean go to the restore button then hold down option then press enter then let both keys go, but not sure, just guessing.

By Guest on Monday, September 23, 2013 - 19:41

How about 4S?

Hi there... I figured it out. I had to hold shift plus option while pressing the space bar. I am happy to report that my phone has been restored to iOS 6.1.4. I still have all my contacts but my apps have all disappeared. I would like to do a restore from iCloud but was not given that option during the set up process. Interestingly enough I can see my most recent iCloud backup when I view it in settings (made yesterday just before updating to iOS 7) but iTunes does not recognize it. Is there a way to restore from an iCloud back up right from my phone even after the initial set-up process? Thank you very much. Greg

By Jessica Brown on Monday, September 23, 2013 - 19:41

Yes. This will work on iPhone 4s, download iOS 6.1.3 for iPhone 4s.

By Greg T Kelchner on Monday, September 23, 2013 - 19:41

Good news… I did some research and figured out how to back up straight from my phone… All I needed to do was go to settings, general, reset… And select erase all content… It'll ask you if you're sure you want to do this and hit enter and you'll go through the usual period Of silence… Then… At least in my case my phone vibrated twice to let me know that it had restarted and I then did the triple click home to launch voiceover. It took me through the initial setup process… And the process was actually expanded… I had to choose the language and the country this time… And thankfully it gave me the option to restore from an iCloud backup. My phone is currently restoring from the iCloud backup I made yesterday just before upgrading. My recommendation to anyone who might be worried about having the same problem… To make the process easier just be extra careful and back up a copy of your phone to iTunes before you downgrade. And Jasmine… Yes you can downgrade to 6.1.3 for the four ass.

Hi. You can do this and you do not need to use iTunes to do it. Go to settings general reset erase all content and settings. Then you will have to enter your passcode if you have one and confirm you want to reset a few times. After that, give it a few minutes and voiceover should come back on. If it does not, triple click home. Then do the slide or double tap to unlock even if it is not speaking English. Once it unlocks it will start talking english. Then you will have to set up your device again. You will have to tell it your location and re-enter your wifi password and tell it if you want to use siri and all that. Then one of the options will be restore from iCloud backup and you will have to type in your apple id and password. Then you can pick from your most recent backup, which is the default or pick an earlier backup you made before.

By Greg T Kelchner on Monday, September 23, 2013 - 19:41

Hi Jessica… Thanks a lot for the information… But I think I posted just before you did saying that I had figured it out. One thing I do want to correct from my earlier post… If you're going to downgrade back to iOS 6.1.4 (Or 6.1.3 depending on your device)… Only do it if you still have backups available from when you were previously running that iOS. So if you have backups of your eye device in either iTunes or iCloud… And they were made when you were still running a previous iOS (basically anytime before 1 PM Eastern time on Wednesday) you should be in the clear to do the downgrade. Otherwise once you do the downgrade you will not be able to restore from backup's that were made while using iOS 7... restoring from these backups will require you to upgrade back to iOS 7. also one other thing that I think is worth mentioning… When you choose your device model… And I know this is true for the iPhone I don't know about the other eye devices… But you will have two options for each version… For example you will see iPhone 5 global and iPhone 5 GSM. I don't know what the difference between these two versions is… But all I know is I tried iPhone 5 global first and iTunes told me that the firmware wasn't compatible with the device… So I went and downloaded the iPhone 5 GSM firmware and it worked just fine.

Has anyone found a work around for restoring a iphone 7 backup onto IOS6.x or older? I came across something on the internet which I tried which involved editing the info.plist file in the backups folder but that didn't work. I'm having to upgrade back to IOS7

By Guest on Monday, September 23, 2013 - 19:41

I've read the above comments. One more thing to ask and to ensure, is the process same as upgrading? Of course, the backup should be before iOS 7 installation.

Hello Jasmine… Essentially yes the process is the same as upgrading only of course you're downgrading… The one big difference is that since you are restoring your device your devices restored to its default factory settings and most if not all of your data is erased.. When you first do the restore… You may notice that your home screen is organized as it was when you first got the iPhone… And all of your apps and everything are gone… And so at this point it is necessary to restore from one of your pre-iOS 7 available backups… But aside from that yes it's essentially the same process.

By Guest on Monday, September 23, 2013 - 19:41

Thanks all kind replies above. I'm now rescuing it. Let's see whether I bring any reminder here. :)

Hi Neo, if the information you found and tried has not worked… I'm pretty sure you are limited to pre-iOS 7 backups. I personally have not found any sort of workaround for restoring from backups made from iOS 7 devices running iOS 6.1.4. Just before upgrading on Wednesday I did an iCloud backup. In the interim nothing important has happened so it was completely fine for me to just restore from that backup I made. I'm sorry if this is an area of inconvenience for you… let me know if you have anymore questions.

By Guest on Monday, September 23, 2013 - 19:41

Well, I've just tried the way of solely completing on iPhone but it fails. No changes appear at iOS. A kind reminder here. Very slow backup resuming now. LOL I'm gonna try the method Jessica mentioned.

What exactly failed? I could be misunderstanding you… But I think you may have thought that you could do the complete downgrade process from the iPhone itself… This is not the case. You have to go to the website Jessica mentions in her post download the firmware and then restore your phone… And then if you have iCloud backups that you would like to restore from you will be able to do that directly from your phone if they are pre-iOS 7 backups.

Oh thanks, get it now. -_- I've downloaded the file but I'm not sure the procedures at iTunes. Can anyone tell idiot me step by step which exact button should be pressed. Really afraid of getting wrong...

By Guest on Monday, September 23, 2013 - 19:41

Ooooops! I finally reach the choosing box! Restoring now! Thanks a lot to you all!!!

By Guest on Monday, September 23, 2013 - 19:41

Additionally, is there any way of downloading more than one premium voices? I know iOS 6 cannot perform it at its own settings but I'm just asking any other way.

Hi Jasmine… Unfortunately in iOS 6 you can only have one premium voice. I saw earlier that you were worried about your default premium voice not coming back… And I don't see that comment anymore so maybe you deleted it… But in any event… The premium voice will come back once your phone is plugged in, screen locked, and charging. Although my phones premium voice came back while I was in the middle of doing something on the home screen so it seems to be temperamental… But if things are working correctly your default premium voice should just be automatically downloaded again… You may just need to give it time.

As of last night, Apple is no longer signing (e.g. authenticating) new installs of iOS 6.1.3 / 6.1.4, according to 9to5Mac. So, for all intents and purposes, it is no longer possible to downgrade from iOS 7.

Another 9to5 Mac report indicated that iOS 7.1 is in internal testing at Apple. They are basing this on web traffic logs.

Yes, that part was deleted. lol Multiple premium voices issues was asked because I saw something about iFile and something similar before. Anyway, thanks for your comment.