The act of acquiring and installing a previous iteration of Apple’s mobile operating system on an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch allows users to revert their device’s software to a state prior to the current, publicly available release. For example, an individual might seek the installation files for iOS 14 after upgrading to iOS 15, if encountering compatibility issues with newly introduced features.
This process can be driven by several factors, including user preference for a familiar interface, concerns about performance degradation on older hardware resulting from newer operating system requirements, or the desire to utilize apps that are no longer supported or optimized for the latest software. Historically, the ability to downgrade has been important to users who require a stable and reliable environment for mission-critical tasks, or those seeking to bypass restrictions implemented in more recent updates.