How to downgrade to iOS 8.1

If you want to jailbreak iOS 8.1, but you’re running iOS 8.1.1 or the new iOS 8.2 beta, you can downgrade your firmware to iOS 8.1 and jailbreak as long as Apple is still signing the iOS 8.1 firmware. As of this post, 8.1 is still being signed, but that will change in the future, so use this post to determine whether or not this tutorial is still valid.

If Apple is signing iOS 8.1, it’s extremely easy to downgrade your device, even if you’re running the iOS 8.2 beta or iOS 8.1.1. Neither of those firmwares are jailbreakable at the moment, but iOS 8.1 is jailbreakable, hence the need to downgrade. Follow our simple tutorial after the break to downgrade your device back to iOS 8.1.

Step 1: Make sure that Apple is still signing iOS 8.1. If it is, you may continue to the next step.

Step 2: Download the iOS 8.1 firmware for your device via our downloads page and save it to your desktop.

Step 3: Connect your device to your computer and open iTunes. Hold ⌥ and click the Check for Update button on the device page (if you’re running Windows, you’ll need to hold the Shift key instead of the Option key when clicking Check for Update). Navigate to your desktop and select and the 8.1 firmware file that you downloaded in Step 2 and click Open.

Step 4: iTunes will downgrade your firmware back to iOS 8.1. Again, this is assuming that iOS 8.1 is still being signed as noted in Step 1. If iOS 8.1 is not being signed, you will receive an error message and the downgrade will halt.

That’s all there is to it. 

Have you downgraded iOS 8.2 or iOS 8.1.1 yet? I have twice, but I have a feeling that Apple will be bringing the signing window to a close in the near future, so you might want to jump on downgrading if you’re at all interested in jailbreaking iOS 8.

What do you think?