Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

KnightPocalypze

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 17, 2016
4
1
Hi all-
I have an iCloud backup of my iPhone 7 with a "Last Backup" date of 11/13/16.

My current iOS version is 10.2.1.

I want to see if it's possible to revert to an earlier version of iOS from my iCloud backup. Perhaps the Last Backup mentioned above is earlier than 10.2.1..?

And so my question is, if I restore from that iCloud backup, will it place me on the version it was during that backup?

My fear is to lose the 10.2.1 ver. and somehow get stuck with the latest iOS. So I figured it would be safer to ask the experts here before I screw something up!
 

C DM

macrumors Sandy Bridge
Oct 17, 2011
51,392
19,461
Hi all-
I have an iCloud backup of my iPhone 7 with a "Last Backup" date of 11/13/16.

My current iOS version is 10.2.1.

I want to see if it's possible to revert to an earlier version of iOS from my iCloud backup. Perhaps the Last Backup mentioned above is earlier than 10.2.1..?

And so my question is, if I restore from that iCloud backup, will it place me on the version it was during that backup?

My fear is to lose the 10.2.1 ver. and somehow get stuck with the latest iOS. So I figured it would be safer to ask the experts here before I screw something up!
Backup only contains data essentially, it doesn't contain iOS itself, so it can't be used to jump to different iOS versions or anything like that.
 
  • Like
Reactions: KnightPocalypze

KnightPocalypze

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 17, 2016
4
1
Backup only contains data essentially, it doesn't contain iOS itself, so it can't be used to jump to different iOS versions or anything like that.

Better to find out now I suppose.. thanks for clearing that up so quickly!
 
  • Like
Reactions: C DM

chrfr

macrumors G5
Jul 11, 2009
13,729
7,306
Hi all-
I have an iCloud backup of my iPhone 7 with a "Last Backup" date of 11/13/16.

My current iOS version is 10.2.1.

I want to see if it's possible to revert to an earlier version of iOS from my iCloud backup. Perhaps the Last Backup mentioned above is earlier than 10.2.1..?
Backups of iOS devices do not back up the operating system, but instead only back up user data. If you have to restore from the backup today, you'd be restoring to 11.0.3. There is no way to revert to an older version of iOS, or even 10.2.1.
 

KnightPocalypze

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 17, 2016
4
1
Backups of iOS devices do not back up the operating system, but instead only back up user data. If you have to restore from the backup today, you'd be restoring to 11.0.3. There is no way to revert to an older version of iOS, or even 10.2.1.

Wow.. thanks. I'm also reading that a factory reset will place me on the latest iOS as well, but this didn't happen to me. I have a brand new iPhone 6S on 10.3.3, which I've already factory reset and installed backups to, but yet I'm still on 10.3.3.
 

chrfr

macrumors G5
Jul 11, 2009
13,729
7,306
Wow.. thanks. I'm also reading that a factory reset will place me on the latest iOS as well, but this didn't happen to me. I have a brand new iPhone 6S on 10.3.3, which I've already factory reset and installed backups to, but yet I'm still on 10.3.3.
Resets and restores are different things.
For now, Apple is still signing 10.3.3 on the 6s only, so it’s still possible to restore that, but you can expect the signing window to close very soon.
 
  • Like
Reactions: KnightPocalypze
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.