Apple stops signing iOS 18.6.2 – no more downgrades after iOS 26

iOS 26's stable version was released last week, on September 15, to all supported iPhones. Now, the Cupertino tech giant is no longer allowing people who upgraded to iOS 26 to downgrade.

Apple stops signing iOS 18.6.2 

Now, if you wish to go back to the OS before iOS 26, you can no longer do that because Apple has stopped signing iOS 18.6.2. 

Of course, Apple is not forcing you to upgrade to iOS 26. There's still an option to continue using iOS 18. However, if you've upgraded to iOS 26, you can no longer go back. 

Apple protects users from installing outdated software

Basically, when software is "signed", it means that it has passed a server-side verification check that Apple does every time a new version of iOS is downloaded on an iPhone. In other words, an update can't be installed unless it passes said verification check. 
Apple stops signing software to protect Apple device owners from installing outdated and less secure versions of its operating systems. Therefore, it's done for protection purposes. 

iOS 26 has minor bugs that should be addressed in a future fix

iOS 26 is a pretty big upgrade, and I've been loving it so far. There are plenty of exciting changes, and I overall like the new design of the OS. However, I've experienced a couple of minor bugs here and there, nothing fatal or experience-disrupting, and usually those get ironed out soon after with a following software update.

After all, I wasn't even thinking of downgrading back to iOS 18. Hopefully, users who wished to do so have already done it, so now the rest of the people who are on iOS 26 are hopefully happy with it. 

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