Apple officially released iOS & iPadOS 18.4 last week, bringing Priority Notifications to Apple Intelligence, a dedicated Vision Pro app, new Emojis, and other under-the-hood improvements to modern iPhone and iPad owners.
As a direct consequence of the new firmware release, the Cupertino-based company has made the rather predictable move of unsigning the previously current iOS & iPadOS 18.3.2 firmware, which prevents iPhone and iPad owners from downgrading from the newer iOS & iPadOS 18.4 firmware if they’ve already installed it.
By unsigning the older firmware, Apple’s servers will now reject requests by iTunes on Windows PCs and Finder on macOS computers to install the outdated release on any iPhone or iPad. This means that anyone already on iOS or iPadOS 18.4 is now stuck at that version until Apple releases another update, and it also means that anyone upgrading from an older firmware will be forced to install iOS or iPadOS 18.4 without the option to install any firmware between it and the version they’re upgrading from.
While Apple has never officially disclosed why it prevents users from installing outdated firmware on their devices, it seems obvious to anyone who has ever needed or wanted to install non-current firmware on their device – to stop iPhone and iPad users from jailbreaking their devices.
As Apple releases new firmware, those releases contain bug fixes and security patches that close the vulnerabilities used in jailbreak creation. By preventing downgrades, Apple can stop users from installing desirable firmware versions and jailbreaking their device to do what Apple doesn’t want its users doing with the devices they rightfully own and pay for. It’s a cat-and-mouse control game.
Jailbreaking aside, there are other reasons why someone might want to downgrade firmware, such as when unintentional instability manifests itself. There have been various examples of this happening over the years, and while rare, it can sometimes be so annoying of an issue for some users that they’ll actively downgrade their device to a previously good firmware version until Apple releases another fix. Examples include:
- iPadOS 18.0 bricking M4 chip-equipped iPad Pros
- 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
Even though firmware downgrades to iOS & iPadOS 18.3.2 are basically done for, it’s still technically possible for users on earlier firmware versions to upgrade to the now-unsigned firmware using the DelayOTA method. This method remains open for up to 90 days after a particular firmware version becomes unsigned.
The next time that Apple gloats about its new firmware adoption numbers, remember this: Apple artificially inflates those figures by removing the element of user choice. More people are running the latest firmware version because they’re being forced to, and not necessarily because they want to. For this reason, we think users should have the choice to install any firmware they want on their devices.
If you’re interested in seeing what firmware version(s) are or aren’t being signed for your device(s), then you can head over to the always-handy IPSW.me website. You can also download any firmware file your device that you might need from our dedicated Downloads page.