Downgrade back to iOS 8

[thetechfixer]

Hi, I have been running iOS 9 on my main device (I know) for around a month now and I want to go back to iOS 8, the only thing I want to have a backup of is my messages which I would like to restore back to iOS 8. I wanted to know how I could backup only my messages as I could just redownloaded my apps, music, photos, contacts etc. Thank you

 

[DBZmusicboy01]

Hi, I have been running iOS 9 on my main device (I know) for around a month now and I want to go back to iOS 8, the only thing I want to have a backup of is my messages which I would like to restore back to iOS 8. I wanted to know how I could backup only my messages as I could just redownloaded my apps, music, photos, contacts etc. Thank you

Won't work :/
Once you are in a higher OS you can't go back and get all you want.
That's the downside of downloading a new OS
I would just wait a few more weeks and you get evverything wtihout problem.

 

[batting1000]

If you have a backup from iOS 8, you can go back to 8.4 by entering DFU mode and restoring your device. There's no way to only backup your Messages. Backups from iOS 9 cannot be loaded onto iOS 8.

 

[C DM]

If you have a backup from iOS 8, you can go back to 8.4 by entering DFU mode and restoring your device. There's no way to only backup your Messages. Backups from iOS 9 cannot be loaded onto iOS 8.

Or just recovery mode (vs. DFU).

 

[Yun0]

make an unencrpyted itunes backup, extract messages database, make new backup with ios 8.4, import messages database into that backup, restore from that backup

 

[thetechfixer]

make an unencrpyted itunes backup, extract messages database, make new backup with ios 8.4, import messages database into that backup, restore from that backup

How would I do that?

 

[Yun0]

these should get u started

http://www.imactools.com/iphonebackupviewer/
https://www.theiphonewiki.com/wiki/Messages#Main_database_file
http://www.smsiphone.org/
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3481349?start=15&tstart=0

its been a couple years since i tried it so exact names of files or locations may vary slightly & theres new tools available now to do this, when i did it i did it the manual way. this is without being jailbroken.

remember to use unencrypted itunes backups for all of this till done