Apple just this week stopped signing iOS & iPadOS 17.0.3, preventing downgrades from the newer iOS & iPadOS 17.1 firmware that launched just last week with a bevy of new features and improvements for iPhones and iPads.
Curiously, Apple continues to sign iOS & iPadOS 17.0.2, which is older than the firmware Apple stopped signing this week.
Apple routinely stops signing older firmware to prevent its users from moving to older firmware on demand, which in turn hinders jailbreaking and device hacking.
While one camp applauds this approach because it helps corral people onto newer and safer firmware, an entire community of jailbreakers loathe this process because it keeps them from installing hacks and add-ons that let their iPhone or iPad do more things than it does out of the box.
Jailbreaking aside, there are some instances in which users have used firmware downgrades to avoid being impacted by nasty software bugs and glitches, including the following instances:
- iOS 16.0 over-prompting users on clipboard access when pasting copied content into another app
- iOS 14.7 breaking the Apple Watch’s ability to be unlocked with the host iPhone’s Touch ID sensor
- iOS & iPadOS 13.2 imposing incredibly aggressive background management on backgrounded apps
iDB believes that users should have the choice to install any version of iOS or iPadOS they want on their device so that they can freely jailbreak or install hacks on a whim — after all, users own their devices and should be allowed to install any software they want on them. Sadly, restrictions aren’t likely to lift without government regulation, such as how the EU forced Apple’s hand to move to USB-C with its iPhones (which we applaud).
If you ever want to know whether a particular firmware is being signed for your device, then you can head on over to ipsw.me to learn more. You can also use our Downloads page to acquire any firmware file you might need for any of your devices.