You may recall that Apple recently started signing iOS & iPadOS 17.3.1 again for unknown reasons after initially unsigning it. In effect, this meant that iPhone and iPad users could downgrade to iOS & iPadOS 17.3.1 from newer firmware again because Apple’s online servers would have provided the green flag necessary to move forward with it.
Unfortunately, Apple just this week stopped signing iOS & iPadOS 17.3.1, along with the newer iOS & iPadOS 17.4, ending the ability for iPhone and iPad users to use the traditional Shift + Click Restore in iTunes for Windows or Option + Click Restore in Finder for macOS methods to force the installation of firmware molder than iOS & iPadOS 17.4.1 that had been downloaded from the internet.
Worthy of note, there are currently two different builds of iOS & iPadOS 17.4.1 being signed by Apple — 21E236 and 21E237. The second build got released a couple of days after the first and could only be installed via a computer. It’s unknown what the changes between the two different builds are, but based on the build number differences, it must have been something relatively minor.
While the DelayOTA method still works for users who wish to bypass Apple’s signing status and upgrade from older firmware up to 90 days past its unsigning, most people who are taking control over what firmware they’re running know better than to install newer firmware, as it reduces their odds of being able to install hacks or jailbreaks, such as TrollStore and Dopamine.
Apple regularly unsigns older firmware for this very reason, in effect forcing people to update to the latest firmware any time they want to restore their iPhone or iPad. The irony is that people wouldn’t even need to install these hacks or jailbreaks if Apple simply made their operating system more accessible by developers and allowed users to install their own apps outside of the App Store — the premise of many lawsuits the Cupertino-based company is currently facing globally.
While the company cites shielding users from security vulnerabilities, patching annoying bugs, and helping users take advantage of new features as reasons for why it does this, we know from first-hand experience that the company actively tries to stop jailbreaking in its tracks with security mitigations that make exploiting the kernel tougher. Ironically enough, however, it’s jailbreak tweak ideas that Apple has poached over the years to improve the iOS & iPadOS user experience.
At iDownloadBlog, we think that users should be able to install any version of iOS or iPadOS on their device, but it may be a cold day in you know what before that ever happens, unless governments put more pressure on the company as they have been in both the European Union and the United States as of late. It’s evident that governments are taking notice of Apple’s controlling nature and want the platform to foster more competitiveness.
As always, you can check the handy IPSW.me website to find out what firmware is or isn’t being signed for your particular device, whether that’s an iPhone, an iPad, or something else of Apple’s making. You can also use our downloads page to acquire any firmware file that you might need for these devices.
Are you upset to see that Apple is no longer signing iOS & iPadOS 17.3.1 or 17.4? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section down below.