How to Downgrade iOS 9 beta to 8.4

As was earlier discussed, the iOS 9 public beta is now available for some of us who are willing to try out the latest iOS 9 software on our iPhones and iPads. As noticeable in the name, the iOS 9 is still in beta stage which means there might still be some glitches in the OS 9 beta therefore; this publication is made to show you how to downgrade your iOS 9 back to iOS 8.4 if you have previously upgraded to iOS 9 beta and found that it is not suitable for you.

Although, you can upgrade to the iOS 9 but I suggest that you wait for the final release which is expected to be out this fall. Until then, you might keep your iOS 8.4 and the good news is; reverting to iOS 8.4 is easy. All you need is iTUNES and your Windows or Mac PC.

You may download iTunes for Mac or Windows PC from here.
Once you have installed iTUNES on your PC, you may proceed to the guidelines below to revert your iPhone or iPad back to the iOS 8.4.

DOWNGRADING iOS 9 to iOS 8.4 ON iPad or iPhone
1- Put your iPhone or iPad in recovery mode: as always, iOS devices upgrades and downgrades are always adviseable to be done using iTunes and for iTunes to downgrade or upgrade your iPhone or iPad, it should be in either Recovery or DFU mode.
How to Put your iPhones And iPads in Recovery Mode:
i- Power off the iPhone or iPad (Press and Hold the Sleep/Wake button until 'Slide to Power off' appears then, slide).
ii- Plug the compatible USB Cable for your iPhone or iPad to the PC.
iii- Hold-down and keep holding down the Home button on your iPhone or iPad while you connect the other end of the cable to the iPad or iPhone.
iv- Now that the PC is connected to the iPhone or iPad via the cable, hold still the Home button on the iPhone or iPad until connect to iTunes come on. See the image below;


Now that your iPhone or iPad is in Recovery Mode, let's proceed to downgrading the iOS 9 beta to iOS 8.4.

HOW TO DOWNGRADE TO iOS 8.4 ON YOUR iPAD or iPHONE

1- Normally, iTunes automatically lunches on your PC when an iPhone or iPad is connected, if it doesn't simply lunch iTunes. It should detect your iPhone or iPad in Recovery Mode.

2- Click Restore on the iTunes and then, click Restore and Update to confirm the operation.

3- Click Next on the iOS 8.4 Software Updater.

NOTE: you should click "Agree" to accept the Terms and Conditions and start downloading iOS 8.4. (It's 1.84 GB, so it might take a while depending on the speed of your connection.)

If your device reboots to iOS 9 before the download is complete, simply repeat the steps above and put it back into Recovery Mode. Once the download is complete, iTunes will restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to iOS 8.4.

Alternatively, you may download the iOS 8.4 firmware from here and save it in a folder on your PC. And then, in the step 2 above press and hold ALT Button (Windows PC users) while you press the Restore option on iTunes.
Windows Explorer should popup and you can browse to the location where the iOS 8.4 IPSW (Firmware) is saved on your PC.

And that's it. Your iPhone or iPad would be downgraded to iOS 8.4.

Now, if you made a backup of your iOS 8.4 before you upgraded to iOS 9, you may now restore your archived backup back to your iPhone or iPad.

HOW TO RESTORE ARCHIVED iOS 8.4 BACKUP TO YOUR iPHONE or iPAD

You should now have a clean copy of the iOS 8.4 running on your device. To get your data back, you'll need to restore from a previous backup you made.

NOTE: If you've been running iOS 9 for more than a day, your standard iCloud or iTunes backup will likely be iOS 9-based and will most likely not restore to an iOS 8.4 device. This is where the archived backup you made prior to upgrading to iOS 9 public beta would help.
Restoring iOS 8.4 Backup

1- Select Restore from this backup in iTunes: while your iPhone or iPad is connected to the PC and iTunes could see it, iTunes would receive your earlier backups and you can easily restore to them.

2- Choose the archived backup you made before upgrading to the iOS 9 public beta and let iTunes do the rest of the works for you.

Once the restore is completed, your iPhone or iPad should be back to where it was before you upgraded to the iOS 9 public beta.

Have any questions or concerns? Use the comment box below here.

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