Can I downgrade from iOS 8.4 to iOS 8.1?

Apple have already stopped signing 8.3 so I assume they stopped 8.1 a while back. So no I don't believe you can.

In short no you can't. Rather get use to using iTunes, iOS 8.4 is anyway a much better version than iOS 8.1, if I remember correctly iOS 8.1 had a lot of accessibility issues compared to newer updates, so over all it will be best for you to have 8.4.

I understand that using iTunes is a pain specially on windows computers.

If there is something that definitly has always being wrong with all Apple usability, quality and bla bla is iTunes. I hate it and therefore won't recomend you just get used to it, cinse I assume you also do not like it and this is why you are not using it at the moment.
However, the bad news is you can not downgrade to 8.1 anymore. Apple doesn't give you the right to refuse using a new piece of software if you are not happy with it. It means that once you buy a device when you update its software you have no longer a way to come back to the original software you paid for when you bought the device and when you make an update, even it breaking something important for you, there is no way of going back *** have ya ever heard about something called lotery ... ? there, my dear, you go **** At least I haven't found a reliable way to do it and this irritates me more than it's acceptable to write here. Then, again, reseting your device would not help because if such option was available then you would go to IOS 8 the original release, something you don't want * you want to go to 8.1.
However, these are the Apple rules, you agree or not. If you don't, you are always free to choose another platform. I am not complaining, only letting you to know how things work when we come to Apple stuff.

Depending on what you're trying to do use dropbox. It can't pyut myusic in your music app but it is better than using iTunes. There are other legal and acceptable software that allows you to transfer data between your phone and conputer, but the thing is these will only be able to manage data inside of theirselves unless there is an extension.
For example, you can transfer music to your device via dropbox but you will have to listen to your music inside the dropbox app, because if you transfer something via dropbox only dropbox can manage the transferred files. With extensions, it's possible to integrate softwares, so you can transfer an epub e-book via dropbox and open it into iBooks app but this is not always true for all possible cases.

Not anymore. Apple quit signign ios 8.1 a long time ago, and 8.3 just yesterday. so you are stuck with 8.4. I'd just learn it and enjoy the wonderful fixes (and I'm not being ssarcastic either) that apple have implemented.

Hello,

As everyone above said, the answer is no, you cannot downgrade.

What you might want to do is contact the software manufacturer that you can no longer use on your desktop. Let them know what issues you are running into, your computer and IOS specs, and how to replicate the issue you ran into. The more details, the better.

I am willing to bet the manufactuere will look into it since most people will upgrade to 8.4 and newer devices will also have the latest IOS.

HTH and good luck.

Hi Fiona,

Which alternative software were you using to transfer data when you had iOS 8.1? If you can tell us that, and what type of data you're moving, it might open up a recommendation.

Tell us the name of the software .... I always try to find something but they're not often accessible so it's good to know about one that is accessible and even it isn't working at all it will work soon accordingly to the developpers.