iOS 14 cannot be freshly installed at the moment: Apple stopped signing iOS 14.8 for all supported iPhones and iPads on Tuesday night, so it is no longer possible to install this operating system version. This currently prevents both the downgrade of iOS and iPadOS 15 back to iOS 14 and a new setup or restoration of iOS or iPadOS 14. At the moment, the only thing left is to upgrade to iOS / iPadOS 15.
iOS 14 should continue to be maintained
Such a procedure was common at Apple in the past: Around two weeks after the release of a new operating system version, the manufacturer usually stopped signing older iOS versions in order to prevent a downgrade to a less secure version.
In the case of iOS 14, however, this step is unusual because Apple has announced that it will continue to provide the older version with security updates. For the first time, users have the option to stay on iOS 14 instead of being pushed to install the new version 15.
Security update in preparation?
Why iOS 14.8 is suddenly no longer signed remains unclear. Apple may have problems with its server responsible for this, for example iOS 15 was temporarily no longer signed on new iPhones in the past week – annoying for users who carried out a restore exactly during this period. The error was fixed after a few hours, but iOS 14.8 (Build 18H17) – as of early Tuesday afternoon – is still not installable.
Apple is probably preparing another security update for iOS 14 that will be available for download soon. A security researcher recently published several zero-day vulnerabilities that affect iOS 14.8 as well as iOS 15. This would make it possible to downgrade iOS 15 and restore iOS and iPadOS 14 at the same time.
(lbe)
