Recently, Apple released a beta version of iOS 9 to the participants in its public beta testing program. If you installed iOS 9 to check it out but have decided you no longer want to run the beta operating system, no worries as you can quickly revert to iOS 8.4. Just open iTunes on your Mac or PC and follow the step-by-step instructions below.
Enter Recovery Mode
First, you need to put your iPhone or iPad in recovery mode, which allows iTunes to restore the device using the latest version of iOS. Recovery mode is designed for situations when your iOS device is not working properly, but we can use it here to downgrade back to iOS 8.4.
- Hold down the power button and swipe on the “Slide to Power Off” button to turn off your iOS device.
- While the iPhone or iPad is still powered off, plug your USB cable into the lightning port or 30-pin port on your iOS device.
- Hold down the Home button on your device as you connect the USB cable to a to a computer with iTunes.
- Continue to hold the Home button until you see the “Connect to iTunes” screen.
- When the “Connect to iTunes” screen appears, you then can release the Home button.
Restore to iOS 8.4
Once your iPhone or iPad is in recovery mode, you can use iTunes to restore the operating system. The restore process will erase all the contents of your iOS device and install a clean, factory version of iOS. Just launch iTunes, which will detect the iOS device and ask you what you want to do with it. Select “Restore” or “Restore and Update” and then follow the prompts and agree to the Terms and Conditions to start downloading iOS 8.4. The file is approxiamtely 1.8GB so it may take a while to download. If the iOS device reboots back into iOS 9 because the download is taking so long, you can repeat the steps above to get back to recovery mode. When the iOS 8.4 download is complete, iTunes will automatically install the operating system on your device.
Restore Backup Version of iOS 8.x
If you made a backup of your iPad or iPhone before you installed iOS 9, you can quickly install that backup and restore all the photos, apps and settings you have configured on your iOS device.
- Keep the iOS device connected to iTunes and select the option to “Restore from this backup” in iTunes.
- Choose the iOS 8.x backup from your iPad or iPhone (you cannot install a backup that contains files from iOS 9).
- Allow iTunes to restore your data back to iOS device.
If you use iCloud for your backups, you can forego iTunes and select a backup when you are first configuring your phone after restoring it.
