How to Downgrade iPhone 4s From iOS 9.3.5 to iOS 8.4.1 / iOS 6.1.3 (Without SHSH Blobs)

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Anyone who has used an iPhone 4s in the last couple years probably knows how painfully slow it can be. This isn’t just because it’s an old device though. The main reason the iPhone 4s performs so slowly these days is due to it being able to run iOS 9. It is pretty clear that Apple purposely made iOS 9 available for the iPhone 4s in order to slow it down, giving people a reason to update to a newer device. But what if you could get back to an older iOS version, instead of being stuck on iOS 9? With the release of the new Phoenix jailbreak, now you can!

Before the new jailbreak was released, it would only be possible to downgrade the device if it was running iOS 9.3.4 or below, which most weren’t. However, now that it is possible to jailbreak the latest version available for the iPhone 4s, any device can be downgraded. For this method, you don’t need to have backed up SHSH blobs in the past. You do however need to acquire some SHSH2 blobs for either iOS 6.1.3 or 8.4.1 (depending on which version you want to downgrade to).

Requirements & Notes

  • This will only work with the iPhone 4s.
  • A Mac computer is required. (Click here to see how to install macOS on Windows)
  • This guide will only show you how to downgrade to iOS 8.4.1 or iOS 6.1.3. It is possible to downgrade to other versions if you have SHSH blobs for them, but you would need to use different files.
  • Your device needs to be jailbroken in order to do this (it does not matter which iOS version). Click here to see how to jailbreak iOS 9.3.5.

Download Links

Written Guide

The first thing you will need to do is the ECID number of your device. This can be found in one of two ways:

Using iTunes (recommended):

  1. Plug your device into your computer using a lightning cable.
  2. Open iTunes on the computer.
  3. Navigate to the summary page for the device within iTunes.
  4. Click on the serial number until it changes to ECID.
  5. To copy the number click the Edit tab in the top tab bar and then click Copy ECID.

Using Cydia (no computer required):

  1. Open Cydia on your jailbroken iOS device.
  2. Search for and install UDID Calculator.
  3. Open the newly installed app and copy the ECID value within.

Downgrading the iOS Version

  1. Download one of the two downgrade kits from the links above. Make sure to get the one for the iOS version you want to downgrade to. Extract the .zip file to reveal the files needed to downgrade.
  2. Next you need to save an SHSH2 blob for the iOS version you want to downgrade to. For this you will need to use TSSChecker. Open the ‘Terminal‘ application on your Mac. In the command line, you need to navigate to the folder you just extracted. This can be done using the command below (replace ‘<path to folder>’ with the path to the folder you extracted*):

    cd <path to folder>

    *An easy way to insert the path into Terminal is to open the folder, click and hold on the folder icon at the top of the windows, then drag it onto Terminal.

  3. Now you need to use TSSChecker to save an SHSH2 blob for the iOS version you want to downgrade to. To do this, type the following command into Terminal (make sure to replace ‘<ECID>’ and ‘<iOS Version>’ with your device’s ECID number, and the iOS version you want to downgrade to):

    ./tsschecker_macos -d iPhone4,1 -e <ECID> -i <iOS Version> -o -s

    This should create a .shsh2 file for the iOS version you selected. If it does not work, make sure you entered the ECID (e.g. 83F5A037D52) and iOS (e.g. 6.1.3) version correctly.

  4. Open the Cydia app on your iPhone and tap on the ‘Sources‘ tab at the bottom. Once there, tap the ‘Edit‘ button in the top right, followed by the ‘Add‘ button in the top left. A pop-up should appear asking for a Cydia repo link. In this box, type ‘repo.tihmstar.net‘. Tap the ‘Add Source‘ button to add the repo to Cydia.
  5. Once the repo has been added, go back to the sources tab and navigate to the ‘tihmstar beta repo‘. In here, find the package called ‘kDFUApp‘ and install it.
  6. Exit out to the home screen, and open the new kDFUApp icon. In here you should see 4 toggle switches. You need to enable each of the switches one by one, starting at the top going down. Make sure each of the switches finish what they are doing before moving onto the next one. Once all switches have been turned to the on position, tap the green ‘enter kDFU‘ button at the bottom. This will put your device into kDFU mode.
  7. Make sure your iPhone 4s is plugged into your computer. At this point you now have everything you need in order to perform the downgrade.
  8. To start the downgrade, you need to go back to Terminal (if you closed it, make sure to follow step 2 again). Open the ‘Commands‘ text file in the folder you extracted. In here you will find the correct command to downgrade to your chosen version. It should look something like this:

    ./futurerestore_macos -p BuildManifest.plist -b Trek-3.4.03.Release.bbfw --use-pwndfu -t <Blob>.shsh2 iPhone4,1_6.1.3_10B329_Restore.ipsw

    In the text file, replace ‘<Blob>’ with the name of the SHSH2 blob you saved in step 3. After the name has been added, copy the entire command and paste it into the Terminal window. Once it is in there, press the enter key on your keyboard.

  9. If everything was done correctly, your device should now begin restoring to your chosen iOS version. Make sure not to unplug your device or turn off your computer during this process. After about 10-15 minutes, your device should boot up in either iOS 6.1.3 or 8.4.1!

Video Guide

ALSO SEE: How to Jailbreak iOS 9.3.5 Without a Computer Using Phoenix on iPhone, iPod touch or iPad (32-bit)

34 COMMENTS

  1. The downgrade kit file is taking a lot of time to download, the speed is very slow. Is there some way to download it faster? Thanks!

  2. hi there. thanks for posting the instructional.
    I am working on an iPad one downgrade. All steps above work however since the iPad one was not LTE capable it would have no need for the iPhone 4 baseband item.
    When attempting to toggle on the kDFUApp the App errors out stating ‘Error: No bundle for this device’

    can you please message back with any corrective steps that I will need to follow to complete the downgrade of iPad mini Wifi-only model ?

  3. Thank you downgrade kits from 9.3.5 to 6.1.3. my old phone feels much much better with the more optimized ios. Can you make a kit for iOS 7.1.2?

  4. Hi.
    I did the process and it works thanks, but i want do the same with another 4s but the phoenix App cannot finish the install because apple did not sign the app anymore since monday, so what should i do?

  5. Is this method still working? as Ben said “Downgrade not possilbe since yesterday. Apple is blocking connection to TSS ” on SEPTEMBER 25, 2017 AT 8:21 AM

  6. After entering into the KDFU mode, I performed Step 8 with iPhone connected to the laptop. However, i got the following error:

    Odysseus Support: yes
    ERROR: Device is in an invalid state
    [INFO] 32bit device detected
    [Error] can’t init, no device found
    Failed with errorcode=-3

    I tried rebooting the mac and reconnecting the device as well, yet the error still occurs. Any suggestion pls?

  7. I did the down grade with another method and after all i can’t sincronize the iphone and can’t transfer any music, apps nor pictures to the iphone. Is this going to happend with this method? Can i sincronize my iphone with the mac after doing this? Thanks

  8. Thank you very much for this useful description. I just did it after many many attempts

    I wasted so many times trying other methods

  9. I am getting this error from terminal while tss command

    ugurs-iMac:iOS 6.1.3 Downgrade Kit (from iPodHacks142.com) ugur$ ./tsschecker_macos -d iPhone4,1 -e myecid -i 6.1.3 -o -s
    Version: 0f19839f2d0e9c8a707b20d27c8dc0dc1d711f38 – 244
    [TSSC] manually specified ecid to use, parsed “XXXXXXXXXXXXXX” to dec:XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX hex:XXXXXXXXXXXXX
    [TSSC] opening ota.json
    [JSON] counting elements
    [JSON] parsing elements
    [WARNING] [TSSC] error parsing cached ota.json. Trying to redownload
    [TSSC] opening ota.json
    [DOWN] downloading file https://api.ipsw.me/v2.1/ota.json/condensed
    [Error] failed to download file from=https://api.ipsw.me/v2.1/ota.json/condensed to=/tmp/ota.json CURLcode=28
    [JSON] counting elements
    [JSON] parsing elements
    [Error] [TSSC] parsing ota.json failed

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