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Shirasaki

macrumors P6
May 16, 2015
16,271
11,768
Why downgrade for me iOS 15 runs fine
Someone has mission critical apps that wont work in iOS 15 beta.
Doesn’t like features and want to go back.
Too much hassle during normal use so wants to go back.
The list goes on and on.
 
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tivoboy

macrumors 601
May 15, 2005
4,052
853
update: apparently this didn’t post last night for some reason.

Seems to have worked this time, here is what I had to do
Connected it to a 2020 MBP 16" running Big Sur. Item showed up in "finder" since Big Sur has no itunes.

RAN a backup, from the ios 15/3 software, backup completed (this is important)

When option clicking "check for update" and selecting the same IPSW I had been trying before, it prompted with a new modal box saying, "this ipad needs to be updated" and proceeded.. that first pass seemed to time out, and nothing happened. So, I tried it again and just sat there, putting in device passcodes, clicking on screen prompts, etc.

Then it said, this device needs to be updated to 14.7, proceed.

That seemed to take and yes the ipad was up and running on ios 14.7. but of course, no messages were there (I guess is that years of messages just lost now? I made ANOTHER backup of the device, which was now running 14,7

So, as instructed above, I did a full device wipe "erase all settings and data" and then connected it to the same computer to do a restore.

The ONLY backup that was available for the restore was the NEW backup just made on 14,7. I can't even FIND the other backup that was made about 25 minutes ago when the device was running 15,0/B3? Where would this one be?

And now that the unit is back up and running on 14,7, it would seem that most things do seem in place, but all messages are indeed lost/gone in the ether. MAYBE they will come back if/when I ever upgrade to 15,0 in the future and maybe restore from one of the several backups I've made on my other machine in the pact couple days.

At least I'm done with that god AWFUL safari for the time being and have NO need for any of the other features in 15,0 at this time..

thanks for your time and patience.
 

Shirasaki

macrumors P6
May 16, 2015
16,271
11,768
update: apparently this didn’t post last night for some reason.

Seems to have worked this time, here is what I had to do
Connected it to a 2020 MBP 16" running Big Sur. Item showed up in "finder" since Big Sur has no itunes.

RAN a backup, from the ios 15/3 software, backup completed (this is important)

When option clicking "check for update" and selecting the same IPSW I had been trying before, it prompted with a new modal box saying, "this ipad needs to be updated" and proceeded.. that first pass seemed to time out, and nothing happened. So, I tried it again and just sat there, putting in device passcodes, clicking on screen prompts, etc.

Then it said, this device needs to be updated to 14.7, proceed.

That seemed to take and yes the ipad was up and running on ios 14.7. but of course, no messages were there (I guess is that years of messages just lost now? I made ANOTHER backup of the device, which was now running 14,7

So, as instructed above, I did a full device wipe "erase all settings and data" and then connected it to the same computer to do a restore.

The ONLY backup that was available for the restore was the NEW backup just made on 14,7. I can't even FIND the other backup that was made about 25 minutes ago when the device was running 15,0/B3? Where would this one be?

And now that the unit is back up and running on 14,7, it would seem that most things do seem in place, but all messages are indeed lost/gone in the ether. MAYBE they will come back if/when I ever upgrade to 15,0 in the future and maybe restore from one of the several backups I've made on my other machine in the pact couple days.

At least I'm done with that god AWFUL safari for the time being and have NO need for any of the other features in 15,0 at this time..

thanks for your time and patience.
Unless you archive backup MANUALLY, each time you backup the old one will be erased. That’s just how it is and I lost all my messages back in iOS 9 beta days too.

Lesson learned: never try out any form of beta again.
 

tivoboy

macrumors 601
May 15, 2005
4,052
853
Unless you archive backup MANUALLY, each time you backup the old one will be erased. That’s just how it is and I lost all my messages back in iOS 9 beta days too.

Lesson learned: never try out any form of beta again.
Yeah, thats’ funny and odd. I hadn’t ever done backups on my Big Sur machines yet, I’ve always used my older machines that are running High Sierra and Catalina for doing my iTunes backups for posterity. I DID do a backup on one of those machines but when the ipad was running iOS 15 beta. but, as I’ve noted here, I could never get one of those machines to take the IPSW file, or process the “update” to an older iOS. MAYBE that had something to do with using a USB A to USB C cable, maybe the file is too large to transfer and doesn’t get going fast enough (it never got going at all mind you).

With older iTunes backups, I’m used to the backup of a same device, not REPLACING the current backup but making a 2nd backup with a new time stamp. So historically I have gotten essentially versioning of backups. As well, I would have to prune the backups in itunes since they did tend to build up over time.

Not, here‘s the final question, promise. At this point, technically I still HAVE a full backup of this ipad but from when it was running iOS 15 beta, and that backup IS on one of my older machines running High Sierra and iTunes. That backup SHOULD have all the same files and config AND all the messages. No?

Now that the ipad is running IOS 14,7, do ya’ll think it would be possible to go back to that machine and iOS 15 backup, wipe my device again, plug it into the older machine but only to do a restore from backup, use the iOS 15 backup as the restore version (of course, I think the only way this would be possible is to indeed DO the PLIST file editing that others have highlighted, so that iOS 15 backup could be used to backup / restore to a device that appears to be running an earlier IOS?

Do you think that would work?
 

Shirasaki

macrumors P6
May 16, 2015
16,271
11,768
Yeah, thats’ funny and odd. I hadn’t ever done backups on my Big Sur machines yet, I’ve always used my older machines that are running High Sierra and Catalina for doing my iTunes backups for posterity. I DID do a backup on one of those machines but when the ipad was running iOS 15 beta. but, as I’ve noted here, I could never get one of those machines to take the IPSW file, or process the “update” to an older iOS. MAYBE that had something to do with using a USB A to USB C cable, maybe the file is too large to transfer and doesn’t get going fast enough (it never got going at all mind you).

With older iTunes backups, I’m used to the backup of a same device, not REPLACING the current backup but making a 2nd backup with a new time stamp. So historically I have gotten essentially versioning of backups. As well, I would have to prune the backups in itunes since they did tend to build up over time.

Not, here‘s the final question, promise. At this point, technically I still HAVE a full backup of this ipad but from when it was running iOS 15 beta, and that backup IS on one of my older machines running High Sierra and iTunes. That backup SHOULD have all the same files and config AND all the messages. No?

Now that the ipad is running IOS 14,7, do ya’ll think it would be possible to go back to that machine and iOS 15 backup, wipe my device again, plug it into the older machine but only to do a restore from backup, use the iOS 15 backup as the restore version (of course, I think the only way this would be possible is to indeed DO the PLIST file editing that others have highlighted, so that iOS 15 backup could be used to backup / restore to a device that appears to be running an earlier IOS?

Do you think that would work?
First step is to determine if the backup you thought you have actually exist. Are you using the same computer running the same software to perform backup of the same device once in iOS 15 beta and another in iOS 14.7?

Also, for messages, there’s a database file that may not be compatible between major iOS version upgrade. Keep that in mind.
 

msephton

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 6, 2004
460
197
United Kingdom, Europe
Log out of iCloud and then log back in to get your Messages to sync.

Assuming you're using Messages in iCloud (which I believe is the default setting) all your historical messages are there, don't worry.

I'm puzzled how it overwrote your backup? When I did my backups I had two stored with different timestamps. You did backup to your computer, as it says in the steps, right? Not to iCloud? I've clarified that in the text.
 
Last edited:

tivoboy

macrumors 601
May 15, 2005
4,052
853
Log out of iCloud and then log back in to get your Messages to sync.

Assuming you're using Messages in iCloud (which I believe is the default setting) all your historical messages are there, don't worry.

I'm puzzled how it overwrote your backup? When I did my backups I had two stored with different timestamps. You did backup to your computer, as it says in the steps, right? Not to iCloud? I've clarified that in the text.
I don’t actually use Messages in the iCloud, so I’m thinking that MAYBe I can turn that on on my phone (where all of the message still are resident) and then activate it on the ipad and maybe it will sync? What happens if one turns it off?

As far as the multiple backups (and only having one) historically, with iTunes I was used to having multiple time stamped backups for the same device.

In this case, I couldn’t get it to work with my iTunes Mac (the Older MPB running High Sierra with a resident iTunes app)

So, I had to try with a 2020 16” MBP that is running Big Sur, so the interface for backup was the FINDER, and there only was the one (after downgrade and backup of 14,7) when i reconnected.. Even tough I DID a backup of the ipad on the same computer when it was running iOS 15 beta 3. So, technically I would have expected it to have an earlier in the day backup of the ipad with iOS 15, and then another later in the day backup with 14,7, but when I went to try and restore afree downgrading only the one backup was showing, the 2nd one (and only one apparently) which was the 14,7 downgraded one, with no messages

does that make sense?
 

msephton

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 6, 2004
460
197
United Kingdom, Europe
Not really. ? But I used Big Sur Finder to do this and had two backups in the restore drop-down.

Anyway, if you activate Messages in iCloud and wait a long while, let's say overnight, then switch it off, wait a short while, and then in again... it should sync.
 

str0ppy

macrumors regular
Jun 27, 2010
110
32
Regretted going to 15 on my iPad Pro 9.7 immediately. Restored to 14.7 and set up as new. Running so smoothly now, unless I hear that 15 is somehow running great on this device I’ll be staying on 14.
 

GBstoic

macrumors 6502a
Nov 6, 2016
519
495
I finally got this to work. My first attempt is at post #10. I updated an SE to 14.7.1 but then found I could not backup to my PC. iMazing started off okay but then bombed out. iTunes started okay but failed saying it could not establish a session with the phone. So I ignored the advice in the method documented and backed up to iCloud. The backup/set up as new/restore process worked perfectly.

I dislike the new Safari on iPhone, don’t want less apps on my iPad Pro 12.9 home screens and don’t see any new functionality worth having in iOS 15 so I am going to keep my 5 devices (plus an AW) on iOS 14.
 

PaladinGuy

macrumors 68000
Sep 22, 2014
1,698
1,098
I just put my phone in restore mode and then used my encrypted backup to restore it. I did not lose any activity data, messages, or anything else that I am aware of. I was worried about it, which is part of why I went ahead and downgraded back to 14.7 before too much time passed.
 
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