While Apple’s new iOS beta is fun to experiment with, and useful for developers, but let’s face it: It’s not for everyone, and not something you should use 100% of the time. For those of you who have already upgraded and want to take a step back, we’ve got just the thing! Fortunately, downgrading back to iOS 6.1.3 (or 6.1.4, for iPhone 5 users) is simple – just follow along for the details!
To begin, start by downloading your iOS 6.1.3 firmware using the below links. Once it’s downloaded, we’ll be ready to begin. I recommend saving it on your desktop, or someplace you’ll easily remember.
Next, plug in your iOS device, and fire up iTunes. Find your device in the left hand column (or from the “Devices” menu in the top right hand of the main iTunes window), and click the icon. Next, hold down your Option key, click the “Restore iPhone…” button, and choose the .ipsw file you saved in the previous step. iTunes will now identify the file and restore your device.
*Note: If the restore fails, follow the instructions at the bottom of this post.
That’s all there is to it! Once your device comes back up in iTunes, just restore from your backup (unless you backed up while running iOS 7, then you’ll have to start fresh), and you’re ready to go! Note that this is all done at your own risk – we can’t provide any troubleshooting or accept any liability it it doesn’t go as intended. Good luck!
For a hands-on tutorial, check out the handy video below from iDownloadBlog!
Note: If the restore fails, you may need to modify the “hosts” file on your Mac. To do this, open Finder, hit the Go menu, select “Go to Folder…” and type “/etc/” as your path. Then find a file called “Hosts,” copy it to your desktop, and open it in TextEdit by right-clicking it and selecting “open with…” and then TextEdit.
Find the following line in the “hosts” file: “74.208.105.171 gs.apple.com”, delete it, save the file, then copy “hosts” back to the original folder, overriding the original. Then, simply try the process again and it should work.
For more helpful tips, check out our full collection of tutorials by visiting our How-To category!
