Apple announced iOS 16 at the WWDC 22 event along with other major OSs. iOS 16 is a significant upgrade and comes with many new useful features. And with so many new features on iOS 16, no one can stop themselves from trying out the new features by installing the iOS 16 Dev Beta. But what if you want to go back to iOS 15. Well here is a guide on how to downgrade iOS 16 Beta to iOS 15.
We got to know many things about iOS 16 at the WWDC event. Apple finally came up with features that many of us were waiting for. Some of the new features include new lock screen with personalization options. Now you don’t have to unlock your phone for many of the settings like lock screen customization, track food delivery, enable focus mode, and more. Also in iOS 16 users can unsend or edit messages.
While all these features are cool and attract users to try these features. But currently, the iOS 16 is available only as a developer beta. This means it is a very first build and requires long testing before it can be used as a daily driver.
How to Uninstall iOS 16 Beta
Many of you might be encountering issues or bugs that make the iOS 16 unusable for now. So once you tried all the new features of iOS 16 and want to switch back to iOS 15, you need to downgrade your iPhones. And it is not an easy process. So you might need to follow the guide to downgrade iOS 16 to iOS 15. You can find the guide here.
Download IPSW
Apple allows users to roll back to a few old versions that are signed and so for this you will need a signed IPSW file for your iPhone. You can easily find the IPSW on Google. Make sure you are using the trusted source for downloading IPSW and choose the signed version of IPSW. Also, choose the latest iOS 15 IPSW.
Remove iOS 16 Beta Profile
Now if you have installed iOS 16 Beta on your phone, this means you must have installed the iOS 16 Beta profile as well. So when you want to downgrade to iOS 15, you also need to remove or uninstall the iOS 16 beta profile. To remove the beta profile follow these steps.
- Open Settings on your iPhone.
- Now head over to the General > VPN & Device management.
- Under the configuration profile, you will find iOS 16 beta. Tap on it.
- Now tap on Remove profile and confirm it.
- Restart your phone when the pop-up appears.
Download iTunes (Windows Only)
This is for Windows PC users. To remove iOS 16 Beta and install iOS 15.5, you need a PC. And for Windows PC, iTunes application is required. For Mac users, Finder will be used.
You can download iTunes from the official website. Install and set up iTunes after downloading it.
Take Backup of your iPhone
First turn off the Find My Device by going to Settings > Your Profile > Find My. If you don’t turn off this feature, you will be asked while using iTunes or Finder.
Now connect your iPhone to Windows PC or Mac using the lightning cable. Open iTunes on Windows or Finder on Mac. Your iPhone will throw a popup that you need to Trust the connected PC or Mac. So tap on Trust and continue.
In iTunes click on the iPhone icon and go to the Summary page. Under Backups, select This Computer (to save backup to your computer instead of iCloud). And then click on Backup Now.
In Finder, click on the iPhone and go to the General tab. Under Backups select ‘Back up all the data on your iPhone to this Mac’ and click Back Up Now.
Remove iOS 16 Beta and Install iOS 15.5
Once you have taken the backup of your iPhone, it’s time to uninstall iOS 16.
- I assume iTunes or Finder are already opened and your iPhone is connected to Windows or Mac.
- Look for the Restore iPhone option under software, don’t click on it yet.
- Windows – Press and hold the Shift button and left click on the Restore iPhone button.
- Mac – Press and hold Options button and left click on Restore iPhone button.
- Browse and select the IPSW file that you downloaded earlier.
- When you click on Open you will get a popup, click on Restore.
- Now iOS 16 beta will be uninstalled and your iPhone will downgrade to iOS 15.5.
Restore Backup on your iPhone
Once the process is done, you will be greeted with a hello screen on your iPhone. Now it’s time for the backup restore process so that you can get all your data back.
Mac
- On your Finder click on the search icon.
- Enter ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/ in the search and press Return.
- It will now show the backup folder that you took earlier in the process.
- Open the backup folder (If there are two backup folders, open the recent one, check the date).
- Locate info.plist and open it with any text editor.
- Once the plist is open in editor, click on Edit > Find > Find.
- Search for 16.0. When you click enter it will take you to that line. Now replace 16.0 with 15.0 and Save the file.
Windows
- Press Windows and R buttons together to open Run dialog.
- Now enter %appdata% and search. Now go to Apple Computer > MobileSync.
- If the backup folder is not there enter %USERPROFILE% in Run. Then go to Apple > MobileSync > Backup.
- Open the backup file (latest one that you created earlier). Look for Info.plist and open it with Notepad.
- In Notepad search for iOS 16.0 (CTRL + F to launch find) and once you find it, replace it with 15.0 and save the file.
Restore Backup
- After making changes to the info.plist file open iTunes or Finder on Windows or Mac respectively.
- Now under Backups click on Restore backup (Your iPhone must be connected to PC).
- Select the backup to restore and click on Restore.
- Wait for the process and once done, your phone will restart.
- You can now set up your iPhone and all data will be there.
So that’s how to downgrade iOS 16 Beta to iOS 15. This works with other versions too. I hope you find the guide useful. Let us know what was your reason to remove iOS 16 and go back to iOS 15. No wonder you will say bugs and lags. You can also wait for the public beta release, because by that time it will be stable enough for regular use.
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