macOS 10.15.7 Catalina, iOS 14.0.1, iPadOS 14.0.1, watchOS 7.0.1, and tvOS 14.0.1 Squash Bugs

[Will_M]

First, @fritz, I’m sorry to hear about iTunes turning on your hotspot. That seems completely inappropriate.

@fritz

(this is because I like to do a local backup of the iOS device before upgrading in case I want to revert)

Sorry if I’m being dense here. Earlier in the thread, I asked about doing just what I think you described, and I understood @Simon to say it wasn’t possible (at my level of expertise).

@Will_M

Would a possible solution be to back up my iPhone or iPad, archive the backup, install the new release, back up again, archive, then restore the previous release (keeping careful notes, of course)?

@Simon

I think the backup/restore approach can work, but only as long as Apple is still signing the older version. IIRC in some cases they have been quite aggressive to stop that, like after ~1 week.

You still need to get your hands on the older OS version so you can install that to your device. The backup does not include that (or any other content that is considered ‘synced’).

Still earlier, in a different thread that I don’t recall, I had asked about obtaining older versions of iOS, and I understood the answer to be that it wasn’t possible (at my level of expertise and perhaps not at all).

Keeping in mind that I’m ignorant and need things to be spelled out, would someone please explain how to restore a previous version of iOS (if I have a backup) or confirm that it is to complicated for me? Thanks.