Apple has a policy of keeping its ecosystem up to date, and the company stops signing older iOS versions shortly after a new one is officially released, to ensure that all iPhone users are running the latest software on their devices. Something that has also happened with one of the latest iOS versions.

You can no longer install iOS 15.1.

Just last Tuesday, according to the iMore site, Apple finished signing iOS 15.1, which means that users who updated their devices to iOS 15.1.1 or iOS 15.2 beta can no longer downgrade to iOS 15.1. This comes a month after the company stopped signing iOS 15.0.2 firmware.

iOS 15.1 was released for all users at the end of October with some new features, such as the COVID-19 vaccination certificate in the Wallet app, SharePlay in FaceTime, ProRes for iPhone 13 Pro users, and more. The update also brought an option to manually disable Macro mode on the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max.

A few weeks later, Apple released iOS 15.1.1 to fix some bugs affecting iPhone 13 users. According to the company, older versions of iOS 15 have a bug that causes phone calls to drop unexpectedly.

You can't downgrade from iOS 15.1.1 down

Rolling back to previous versions of iOS is something that is often done by those who jailbreak their iPhones. Restoring an iPhone or iPad to a previous version of iOS can also be helpful for users who are experiencing major errors after updating to the latest version of iOS.

Therefore, if you have experienced any serious issues with iOS 15.1.1, you will unfortunately have to wait for a future update instead of downgrading to iOS 15.1, or opt to install the iOS 15.2 beta. In fact, users running iOS 15.2 beta can no longer downgrade to iOS 15.1 either. If you want to install the beta, we tell you how:

Install iOS 15.2 beta

You should start with a full backup of your data in iTunes, just in case. Luckily, you don't need iTunes for that anymore: just connect your iPhone to your Mac via cable and back up with Finder, or you can back up your iPhone to iCloud. This is essential because you are about to install beta software that is not quite final, so you could experience bugs.

Backup iPhone using iCloud

1. Go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud > iCloud Backup.
2. Turn on iCloud Backup. iCloud automatically backs up iPhone daily when iPhone is connected to power, locked, and connected to a Wi-Fi network.
3. To perform a manual backup, tap Back Up Now.
4. To see your iCloud backups, go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud > Manage Storage > Backups.
5. To delete a backup, select it from the list, then tap Delete Backup.

Backup iPhone using a Mac

1. Connect the iPhone to your computer via USB.
2. In the Finder sidebar on Mac, select iPhone. To use the Finder to back up your phone, you need macOS Catalina. With an earlier version of macOS, use iTunes to back up your iPhone.
3. At the top of the Finder window, click General.
4. Select “Back up all your iPhone data on this Mac.”
5. To encrypt the backup data and protect it with a password, select “Encrypt local backup”.
6. Click "Back Up Now".

Backup iPhone using Windows

1. Connect iPhone to your computer via USB
2. In the iTunes app on your PC, click the iPhone button at the top left of the iTunes window.
3. Click Summary.
4. Click “Back Up Now” (under “Backups”).
5. To encrypt backups, select “Encrypt local backup”, enter a password and click “Set password”
6. To see the backups that are stored on your computer, choose Edit > Preferences and click Devices. Encrypted backups have a lock icon in the list of backups.

Sign up for the beta

1. Visit Apple's beta software website using Safari and sign in with your Apple ID.
2. Once you're signed in, you need to enroll your iPhone by downloading the iOS 15 beta profile. To locate it, tap Downloads using the button on the top right, or use the dropdown menu on the left.
3. Look for the iOS 15 profile and make sure to activate the download.
4. Go to Settings > General > Software Update and then you should see the iOS 15 beta appear. Hit the "Download and Install" button.

List of iPhone models compatible with iOS 15.2