How to downgrade iOS 26 Beta to iOS 18.5 without data loss

betaprofiles · June 15, 2025, 5:27am

I guess you’ve downloaded and installed iOS 26 beta on your device in the past few days, right? Although iOS 26 brings some exciting features but some devices may encounter issues such as overheating, battery drain, or lag after installing iOS 26 beta. This is completely normal because it’s a major update and it’s currently in the beta stage.

If you don’t want these issues to occur on your daily-used iPhone, here’s a guide to downgrade from iOS 26 beta to iOS 18.5 without losing data.

Preparation

Mac or Windows computer
Lightning or USB-C cable capable of data transfer, usually the one included with your iPhone, iPad
IPSW file for your device

Download IPSW file for iOS 18.5 (22F76)

Download IPSW file for iPadOS 18.5 (22F76)

Temporarily Turn Off Find My

Go to Settings – [Your Name] – Find My – Find My iPhone (or iPad) – Turn off “Find My iPhone”. Then enter your Apple Account password to disable it.

If “Find My iPhone” is grayed out and you can’t turn it off, it means Stolen Device Protection is enabled. You can disable this feature by going to Settings – Face ID & Passcode – Stolen Device Protection, then try turning off Find My again.

IMPORTANT: Back Up Your Data

Please note that downgrading will erase all of your current data, so make sure to back up your device using iTunes (on Windows) or Finder (on Mac). We’re not responsible for any data loss if you skip this step.

Here’s how to back up your device:

Open Finder on your Mac or iTunes on your Windows PC. If you don’t have iTunes installed, download it here.
Connect your device to your computer using a USB to Lightning or USB-C cable.
Select Back up all of the data on your iPhone to this Mac (or This Computer on Windows), and make sure “Encrypt local backup” is checked. Then click Back Up Now .

Downgrade Guide

Connect your iPhone or iPad to your Mac or Windows computer using a USB-C or Lightning cable that supports data transfer.
Open Finder (on Mac), iTunes, or Apple Devices (on Windows).
Put your device into recovery mode. The steps vary depending on your iPhone or iPad model. Please refer to Apple’s official guide here: https://support.apple.com/118106
Once your device is in recovery mode, you’ll see the screen shown below on your iPhone.

recovery mode iphone screen640×1286 44.8 KB
Now go back to Finder or iTunes — you should see a prompt that says “There is a problem with the iPhone…” Hold down the Option key (on macOS) or the Shift key (on Windows), then click the “Restore” button.

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A window will appear for you to select the .ipsw file you downloaded earlier.

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Wait for the restore process to complete, then follow the on-screen steps to complete the activation.

Keep scroll down to learn how to restore your data from a backup.

If the Downgrade Fails

Not everyone succeeds on the first try, so if your downgrade attempt wasn’t successful, simply go through the steps again.

Most downgrade errors people encounter are caused by low-quality or non-MFi-certified USB-C or Lightning cables. If you run into issues during the process, try using a different, high-quality cable.

You can also try putting your device into DFU mode to perform the downgrade.

Steps to Enter DFU Mode:

Connect your device to a computer using a USB cable.
Quick-press the Volume Up button
Quick-press the Volume Down button
Hold down the Side button until the screen goes black, then hold down both the Side button and Volume Down button.
After 5 seconds, release the Side button while continuing to hold down the Volume Down button.

If the Apple logo appears, the Side button was held down for too long.

Nothing will be displayed on the screen when the device is in DFU mode. If open, iTunes or Finder will alert you that a device was detected in recovery mode.

If your device shows a screen telling you to connect the device to iTunes, retry these steps.

Once Finder or iTunes detects your device in DFU mode, click OK, then hold down the Option key (on macOS) or the Shift key (on Windows) and click the “Restore…” button.

Select the IPSW file you previously downloaded, and wait for the restore process to complete.

Restore Your Data

If You Have a Backup from iOS 18.5

Things are much easier if you backed up your device before installing the iOS 26 beta. Just click Restore Backup… in Finder or iTunes, then choose the backup you made on iOS 18.5.

If You Only Have a Backup from iOS 26 Beta

By default, Apple doesn’t allow you to restore a backup made on a newer iOS version to a device running an older version. For example, a backup from iOS 26 beta won’t be compatible with iOS 18.5. However, there are some workarounds that can make the backup compatible.

That said, using these tricks can lead to various issues, including but not limited to:

Incorrect icons in the Settings app
Lost health data
Call history not showing up
Wallpaper turning black
Partial or complete data loss
Missing photo albums and images
Restore failures
Unexplained errors

You should only follow the steps below if you’re fully aware of the risks and are willing to accept them.

UPDATE on June 22:
I’ve added a simple tip to recover all lost data after restoring from a backup, check it out at the end of this guide.

If you’re using a Mac, open Finder, press Command + Shift + G, then enter the following folder path:

~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup

If you’re using a Windows PC, open File Explorer and navigate to the following folder:

C:\Users\<Your-Windows-Username>\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup

Inside, you’ll see a folder named something like 0xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. This folder contains all the data from your iPhone backup.

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Open that folder, then look for the file named Info.plist and open it with any text editor, such as TextEdit on Mac or Notepad on Windows.
Search for the line <key>Product Version</key>, just below it, you’ll see:<string>26.0</string>, change 26.0 to 18.5 and save the file.

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Next, find <key>Build Version</key>, below it, you’ll see something like <string>XXXXXXXXX</string>, replace the XXX… with 22F76 and save the file.

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Finally, connect your iPhone or iPad to your Mac or Windows PC. Open Finder or iTunes, then click Restore Backup… and select the most recent backup.

Wait for the data restore process to complete — once it’s done, your downgrade and data recovery are successfully finished.

UPDATE on June 22:
There’s a simple way to get all your data back after restoring from a backup, just sign out of your Apple account and sign back in.

Thanks to @salgado666 for this great tip!

Go to Settings > [Your Account Name] , scroll down, and tap Sign Out .
Make sure to keep a copy of your data on the iPhone by selecting all the available options on this screen.
Tap Sign Out .
Then, sign back in and wait a bit, your data should reappear on your device.

I hope this guide helps you successfully downgrade your iPhone or iPad. If you have any questions about this guide, please leave a comment below

Judhea_Banning · June 15, 2025, 5:27am

I followed these instructions for windows (the one where backup was made on iOS beta and changed the Product Version to 16.6 from 17.0) but it did not work. It still kept saying that it could not be restored because an error occurred.

betaprofiles · June 15, 2025, 5:27am

A few devices can be restored this way, but some cannot. This method is to trick Apple’s authentication system and it’s possible they have patched it. So I always encourage people to back up their devices before updating to any betas.

Geisterhose · June 15, 2025, 5:27am

IMPORTANT: on windows its the shift key. WICHTIG: unter Windows ist des die Umschalt-Taste

Geisterhose · June 15, 2025, 5:27am

hold the shift key

therealabeeb · June 15, 2025, 5:27am

Hey, I have a question. I completely understand this process, as I’ve done it before. In my situation, I have been on 18.2 beta, the one that last supported Apple Intelligence, on my iPhone 15. I have gotten the annoying popup, forcing me to update. Issue is, my OTA was turned off, so I cannot update from the settings. Will this method work to update my iOS, from 18.2 beta to 18.3 stable release, WITHOUT losing my data?

betaprofiles · June 15, 2025, 5:27am

Updating from iOS 18.2 to iOS 18.3 is even simpler.

You just need to download the IPSW file for your iPhone 15, then connect your iPhone to a Mac/Windows computer with iTunes installed (or Finder for Mac). Next, hold down the Shift key (Windows) or Option key (Mac) while clicking the “Check for Update” button, select the downloaded IPSW file, and wait for the update process to complete.

You won’t lose any data by doing this, but I always encourage everyone to have a backup via iCloud or iTunes/Finder.

therealabeeb · June 15, 2025, 5:27am

This will even work if I’m going from 18.2 Developer Beta to 18.3 Stable Release?

betaprofiles · June 15, 2025, 5:27am

That’s right, it works with both the beta and stable versions.

jflechuga · June 15, 2025, 5:27am

Excellent explanation!!!

noah · June 15, 2025, 5:27am

i followed all of the steps and it said that it was partially setup, but it doesn’t look like there is any data. it looks like the default iOS 18.5 setup

betaprofiles · June 15, 2025, 5:27am

I see a few solutions here, you might want to check them out: https://www.reddit.com/r/jailbreak/comments/1bc7wya/iphone_partially_set_up_screen_shows_up_even/

noah · June 15, 2025, 5:27am

Thank you. For anyone who also is having trouble, I’ll explain my steps.

Restore from the ipsw just as the article says
Modify the backup file to 18.5 like it says
Setup your iPhone as if it was new, just skip everything you can until you get to the Home Screen.
Start restoring from a backup. Your finder/iTunes should have a progress bar and your iPhone should say restore in progress.
Once the restore is complete, you will see a hello screen on your iPhone. Do not open your iPhone, just unplug it from your computer. It should restart and show an install screen similar to the updating screen. Once it’s done, it should say restore complete. You may see some icons are the same (modified by apple to look 3d) but they will be reinstalled to go back to normal.

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betaprofiles · June 15, 2025, 5:27am

Thanks for sharing how you do it, that’s really helpful

noah · June 15, 2025, 5:27am

No worries. I have found a problem, though. In my health app, I’m not able to find any categories or my data. I have health data in iCloud, which restored correctly before I did the steps I listed before and it said partially setup. Reinstalling didn’t help.

noah · June 15, 2025, 5:27am

betaprofiles · June 15, 2025, 9:54am

Does toggling Health sync in iCloud Settings help?
It seems that not all data will be restored, some users have reported losing certain albums in Photos as well. I’ve also listed some of the risks involved when using this backup restore workaround.

noah · June 15, 2025, 3:30pm

No that did not help

qvantyy · June 16, 2025, 6:00am

everything is great, all the programs are there, contacts, photos, everything is generally restored, the problem was only with the Manifest.plist file, I had to convert it to XML via the terminal, I don’t know what the reason was, but it helped me find and replace Product Version and Build Version, everything is greatstrong text

noah · June 16, 2025, 6:07pm

Fitness app also doesn’t work. Obviously there will be no data if health doesn’t have data, but when you first start the app it will show the welcome screen and will freeze when you press continue. If you wait it will have you set up again then next time you open it will infinitely load or ask to setup again.