Apple has already stopped signing iOS 14 in the wake of iOS 14.0.1 release

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iOS 14 Widgets
iOS 14 Widgets (Image credit: Rene Ritchie)

What you need to know

  • Apple has stopped signing iOS 14.
  • That means that nobody can downgrade from iOS 14.0.1.
  • This just a week after iOS 14.0.1 was released.

Apple only released iOS 14.0.1 last week but it's now the only version of iOS we can install after Apple stopped signing iOS 14 yesterday. Apple only made iOS 4 available to the public on September 16, meaning it lasted only two weeks.

The arrival of iOS 14.0.1 wasn't a big milestone for Apple or iPhone users, but it did mean we received some relatively important bug fixes. The main one was causing browser and email app defaults to be reset following a device restart – that will not happen with iOS 14.0.1 installed.

Apple stopping signing iOS 14 won't impact the vast majority of people, but with downgrading sometimes a path people take when they are suffering from particularly nasty bugs, it's an option that can come in handy. The only option for those people right now is to try a full system restore and cross their fingers.

Jailbreaking can also sometimes be a reason for some to downgrade to an older version of iOS, but that isn't likely to be a consideration here. While iOS 14 can be jailbroken, the devices that it supports is limited.

Apple is already testing iOS 14.2 with developers and that update will likely be made available to users once iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro ship later this month.

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.