As usual, Apple has stopped signing the iOS 17.6.1 software version, preventing iPhone users from downgrading to this update. This is a well-known Apple technique, which forces users to stay on the latest software version that is considered more beneficial and secure for them.
Why does Apple block downgrade?
Apple regularly stops signing older versions of iOS in order to prevent users from downgrading to less secure versions of the software. This is an action commonly called “downgrading” in English which allows users to return to a previous state in the event of instability, incompatibility or battery problems for example.
Apple typically blocks older versions to ensure customers have the latest security patches installed. But it also does this to block jailbreaking.
iOS 17.7 is currently the latest public version available. Then, we have to move on to iOS 18 which brings a ton of new features and several important security fixes.
The upcoming version
At the moment, the iOS 18.1 cycle has not yet started, Apple has released several betas aimed at testing the new features of the update, but it will probably take a few more weeks. For now, it is not known if before iOS 18.1 an update will be released, it is possible that Apple will release a transit update like iOS 18.0.1 that will focus on bug fixes.
