• After more than 15 years covering everything Apple, it’s with a heavy heart we announce that we will no longer be publishing new content on iMore and the iMore forums will be closing as of November 1st, 2024.

DowngradeiPad Air from iOS 10 to iOS 9.3.5?

MikeElmendorf

Well-known member
Sep 27, 2012
166
0
16
Visit site
Good morning -

My son is using an old iPad that can't be upgraded beyond 9.3.5.

My wife just moved to a newer iPad, so I want to transfer his device over to her old one. However, I'd like to do a restore from his encrypted backup so everything carries over as it was--which means both devices need to be on the same iOS version.

So, I've been trying to downgrade the iPad Air to 9.3.5, but it is not working. I am getting a "Declined to authorize this image on this device for this user."

Any advice on how I can get this to work so I can do the restore?

Thanks.
 

doogald

Trusted Member
Oct 23, 2012
2,803
153
63
Visit site
You should be able to restore an older backup onto a newer version of the OS. You cannot do the opposite, however. If you were trying to restore a backup made from iOS 10.x to 9.3.5, it would give an error message that the restore cannot proceed.

You haven't said if you have tried this yet or not, but I would erase all settings from the iPad Air (settings / general / reset / Erase all contents and settings) and the go through the setup, and choose to restore from the iTunes backup when it comes up in the set up procedure.
 

MikeElmendorf

Well-known member
Sep 27, 2012
166
0
16
Visit site
Hmmm, I did not think it would restore a backup from an older version. Although, perhaps in the past when I ran into that it was attempting to restore a backup from a newer iOS version. That would certainly make life easier; I'll give it a shot. Thanks.
 

Just_Me_D

Ambassador Team Leader, Senior Moderator
Moderator
Jan 8, 2012
60,410
882
113
Visit site
Good morning -

My son is using an old iPad that can't be upgraded beyond 9.3.5.

My wife just moved to a newer iPad, so I want to transfer his device over to her old one. However, I'd like to do a restore from his encrypted backup so everything carries over as it was--which means both devices need to be on the same iOS version.

So, I've been trying to downgrade the iPad Air to 9.3.5, but it is not working. I am getting a "Declined to authorize this image on this device for this user."

Any advice on how I can get this to work so I can do the restore?

Thanks.

If the backup you’re trying to restore is from a device with a newer iOS version to a device with an older iOS version, the attempt will fail. For example. You cannot restore a backup made with iOS 10 to a device running iOS 9. You can, however, restore a backup made with iOS 9 to a device running iOS 10 which makes sense because if you want to buy a newer device running the newest iOS version, you want to easily be able to move your current data over to it.
 

MikeElmendorf

Well-known member
Sep 27, 2012
166
0
16
Visit site
Well that makes life much easier, thanks. I've had the issue before with a new device that apparently wasn't on the latest version that wouldn't take the backup. I took that to mean that the backup and device needed to be on the same version. Appreciate the helpful replies.
 

Just_Me_D

Ambassador Team Leader, Senior Moderator
Moderator
Jan 8, 2012
60,410
882
113
Visit site
Well that makes life much easier, thanks. I've had the issue before with a new device that apparently wasn't on the latest version that wouldn't take the backup. I took that to mean that the backup and device needed to be on the same version. Appreciate the helpful replies.

On behalf of doogald, you’re very welcome...:)