Despite delivering a host of great new features, iOS 9 is turning out to be one of Apple’s most troublesome launches. Two dedicated bug fixes have been released in the last week to combat the growing list of user problems and now the second has come with a somewhat nasty (and risky) surprise…
With iOS 9.0.2 Apple has stopped signing both iOS 8.4.1 (the last version of iOS 8) and iOS 9.
‘Signing’ is what allows a device to go back to a previous iOS version (Apple’s servers sign off permission to install each software version) and is commonly used when a user experiences trouble with new software version. Consequently with the release of iOS 9.0.2 Apple has taken away the escape route back to iOS 8. It’s iOS 9.0.1 and 9.0.2 now or nothing.
This is a problem for a number of reasons. Firstly iOS 9.0.2 doesn’t fix all the bugs in iOS 9 and now any users who experience problems cannot get back to iOS 8 safety while Apple continues to beta test its first major iOS 9 update: iOS 9.1. Secondly, based on iOS beta history, iOS 9.1 is still at least 1-2 months away and Apple releasing a third pure bug fix for iOS 9 (iOS 9.0.3) would start to reek of panic stations.
It would also be unprecedented for Apple to put out four iOS updates in such quick succession (three in itself is new ground with Apple last doing two only when it had to release iOS 8.0.2 to cover for pulling the troubled iOS 8.0.1 from the market).
And what about losing the sign off for iOS 9? That actually matters far less since iOS 9.0.1 (still being signed) and iOS 9.0.2 are both tweaked improvements of it. Basically if you are struggling with iOS 9.0.1 or iOS 9.0.2 then iOS 9 is not going to help you - though a trip back to iOS 8.4.1 (the final version of iOS 8) would have.
I’ll deal with these issues in more depth in my dedicated iOS 9.0.2 upgrade guide, but in short: if you have upgraded to iOS 9 there’s now no going back. By contrast if you are still running iOS 8.x (and about 50% of iOS devices still are) then I would advise you wait until iOS 9.1 appears sometime in late October/mid November.
What about the new iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus which launched with iOS 9? Thankfully they are reporting far fewer issues. Which shouldn’t be a surprise…
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