Oliver Haslam on January 20, 2022, 7:57 pm

Apple Stops Signing iOS 15.2 Leaving People With iOS 15.2.1 Or Nothing

Apple has now stopped signing iOS 15.2 which has the impact of preventing people from downgrading from iOS 15.2.1. It also means that iOS 15.2.1 is now the only option for people who are restoring their iPhones.

Apple made iOS 15.2 available to the public shortly before Christmas on December 13 and released iOS 15.2.1 around a month later.

That update brought with it a fix for a CarPLay bug while also dealing with a HomeKit security exploit that would potentially cause iPhones and iPads to repeatedly crash. That was brought on by creating a HomeKit device with a name that had an unusually long name.

People don’t often need to downgrade from iOS releases but it does crop up every now and then. The main reason is to be able to jailbreak, although that is itself less relevant than it once was.

Another reason for some to downgrade is when they hit bugs in the laters release, although again Apple doesn’t normally stop signing updates until a little while after they were released — giving people time to downgrade if they need to.

Apple released iOS 15.2.1 on January 12 and is already well into the beta testing program for iOS 15.3 with developers and public beta testers now running the update on devices.