Apple stops signing iOS 14.8: you can no longer downgrade to it

Apple has now stopped signing iOS 14.8, which means that if you have upgraded to iOS 15, you can no longer return to the previous iOS 14 version starting today, reports 9to5Mac. Now, all iPhone, iPad, and iPod models no longer have access to iOS 14.8.

iOS 14.8 is now unavailable for downgrading

If you have updated to iOS 15, iOS 15.0.1, or iOS 15.1 beta, you can now no longer return to iOS 14.8 if there's something you don't like with the newest software update. However, the fact that Apple has stopped signing iOS 14.8 while there's no other iOS 14 update means that soon a new security update for iOS 14 users will be coming soon. The iOS 14.8 version brought a major security update that fixed a zero-day vulnerability making phones running iOS 14 vulnerable to hacker attacks.

Reverting to older iOS builds is often used by people who jailbreak their iPhones; but restoring an iPhone or iPad to a previous version of iOS can also sometimes be used to solve significant bugs after upgrading without having to wait for Apple to release a fix.

Well now, if you have upgraded to iOS 15 and you are experiencing software issues, you are left to wait for Apple to release a fix.

iOS 15 did not come without software bugs

Other features include improvements to FaceTime, an augmented reality Apple Maps view, support for UWB cards in Apple Wallet, and a redesigned Weather app.

However, all of this did not come without bugs. The newest iPhones, the phones from the iPhone 13 series, lost the ability to unlock with Apple Watch for a time before Apple recently released a fix for that issue. iOS 15.0.1 was the update that fixed the annoying issue which stopped iPhone 13 users from unlocking their phones with their Apple Watch (this feature was used when wearing a mask, instead of Face ID unlocking).

One of the other recently noticed bugs is related to deleting iMessage conversation threats. Basically, if you've saved any photos from a conversation in the iMessage app and then delete the conversation, the photo will disappear from the gallery the next time iCloud backs up.

Another bug, or we may say an issue, with iOS 15 is that Siri has lost some commands that were mainly used as accessibility features for the visually impaired. Commands that are no longer available for Siri include "Do I have any voicemails" and "Check my call history", among others.

Recently, several iPhone users have also noticed some touchscreen issues with the new operating system. The reported issues are mainly happening on phones from the newly-released iPhone 13 series, and not all users have been experiencing those. For example, some users have been experiencing issues with the phone’s screen becoming unresponsive unless the power button is hit to sleep and then wake the phone up. Another reported issue isthat when taken out of the pocket, the phone doesn’t register the users’ fingers unless it is put back to sleep.

iOS 15 is actually a non-mandatory update, meaning if people don’t want to upgrade their phone to it, they can choose to skip it and remain on iOS 14. Recently, we reported that the rate of adoption of the new iOS 15 operating system is slower compared to the adoption of iOS 14 last year. Actually, the adoption rate of iOS 15 is close to half the rate of iOS 14 last year during the same time frame. Around 21% of compatible iPhones have upgraded to the new OS by October 1, some ten days after the OS was publicly released.