Apple Stops Signing iOS 16.4.1 to Prevent Downgrading

Following the launch of iOS 16.5 on May 18, Apple has stopped signing iOS 16.4.1, the previously available version of iOS. Now that iOS 16.4.1 is no longer being signed, iPhone users are prevented from downgrading to that software version.

iOS 16
Apple routinely stops signing older versions of iOS after new releases come out to encourage customers to keep their operating systems up to date, so the fact that iOS 16.4 is no longer being signed is not unusual.

Released on April 7, iOS 16.4.1 was a minor bug fix update that came just under two weeks after the launch of iOS 16.4, an update that introduced new Emoji, Safari Web Push notifications, Voice Isolation for phone calls, and more.

iOS 16.5, the current publicly available version of iOS, brought some important bug fixes and a couple of feature additions, including a dedicated Sports tab in Apple News and a Pride Collection wallpaper for Lock Screens. Apple is also testing iOS 16.6 with developers and public beta testers.

Related Forum: iOS 16

Popular Stories

Early Black Friday Deals 1

The Best Early Black Friday Apple Deals on AirPods, Apple Watch, iPad, and More

Saturday November 8, 2025 6:16 am PST by
We're officially in the month of Black Friday, which will take place on Friday, November 28 in 2025. As always, this will be the best time of the year to shop for great deals, including popular Apple products like AirPods, iPad, Apple Watch, and more. In this article, the majority of the discounts will be found on Amazon. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When ...
2024 iPhone Boxes Feature

Apple Adjusts Trade-In Values for iPhones, iPads, Macs, and More

Thursday November 6, 2025 11:12 am PST by
Apple today updated its trade-in values for select iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch models. Trade-ins can be completed on Apple's website, or at an Apple Store. The charts below provide an overview of Apple's current and previous trade-in values in the U.S., according to its website. Maximum values for most devices either decreased or saw no change, but the iPad Air received a slight bump. ...
All Screen iPhone 2027 Feature 1

Apple to Hide Selfie Camera Under Display of 20th Anniversary iPhone

Monday November 10, 2025 1:55 am PST by
Apple will conceal the front-facing camera under the screen of its 2027 iPhone, a Chinese leaker said today, corroborating reports that Apple's 20th anniversary iPhone will have no visible cutouts in the display. Weibo-based account Digital Chat Station said Apple's development of under-screen camera technology was progressing as planned for adoption in 2027, one year after it will...
Apple fitness plus feature

Future of Apple Fitness+ 'Under Review'

Sunday November 9, 2025 5:30 am PST by
The future of Apple Fitness+ is "under review" amid a reorganization of the service, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. In the latest edition of his "Power On" newsletter, Gurman said that Apple Fitness+ remains one of the company's "weakest digital offerings." The service apparently suffers from high churn and little revenue. Nevertheless, Fitness+ has a small, loyal fanbase that...
m1 chip slide

Five Years of Apple Silicon: M1 to M5 Performance Comparison

Monday November 10, 2025 1:08 pm PST by
Today marks the fifth anniversary of the Apple silicon chip that replaced Intel chips in Apple's Mac lineup. The first Apple silicon chip, the M1, was unveiled on November 10, 2020. The M1 debuted in the MacBook Air, Mac mini, and 13-inch MacBook Pro. The M1 chip was impressive when it launched, featuring the "world's fastest CPU core" and industry-leading performance per watt, and it's only ...
Liquid Glass General Feature

Apple Shares Liquid Glass Design Gallery

Thursday November 6, 2025 2:45 pm PST by
Apple is promoting the new Liquid Glass design in iOS 26, showing off the ways that third-party developers are embracing the aesthetic in their apps. On its developer website, Apple is featuring a visual gallery that demonstrates how "teams of all sizes" are creating Liquid Glass experiences. The gallery features examples of Liquid Glass in apps for iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Mac. Apple...
iOS 26

iOS 26.1 Available Now With These 8 New Features

Monday November 3, 2025 5:54 am PST by
Following more than a month of beta testing, Apple released iOS 26.1 on Monday, November 3. The update includes a handful of new features and changes, including the ability to adjust the look of Liquid Glass and more. Below, we outline iOS 26.1's key new features. Liquid Glass Toggle iOS 26.1 lets you choose your preferred look for Liquid Glass. In the Settings app, under Display...
iPhone Satellite Feature

Apple Developing These 5 New Satellite Features for iPhone

Sunday November 9, 2025 6:07 am PST by
Apple is working on a series of new satellite connectivity features for the iPhone, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports. In this week's "Power On" newsletter, Gurman revealed that the new features in development include: Apple Maps via satellite: Navigation in Apple Maps without cellular or Wi-Fi connectivity. Photos in Messages via satellite: Support for sending photos in the Messages...
iphone air thinness

iPhone Air Sales Are So Bad That Apple's Delaying the Next-Generation Version

Monday November 10, 2025 11:41 am PST by
The thin, light iPhone Air sold so poorly that Apple has decided to delay the launch of the next-generation iPhone Air that was scheduled to come out alongside the iPhone 18 Pro, reports The Information. Apple initially planned to release a new iPhone Air in fall 2026, but now that's not going to happen. Since the iPhone Air launched in September, there have been reports of poor sales...
maxresdefault

In-Depth iPhone Battery Experiment Pits Slow Charging Against Fast Charging

Friday November 7, 2025 1:19 pm PST by
HTX Studio this week shared the results from a six-month battery test that compared how fast charging and slow charging can affect battery life over time. Using six iPhone 12 models, the channel set up a system to drain the batteries from five percent and charge them to 100 percent over and over again. Three were fast charged, and three were slow charged. Another set of iPhones underwent...

Top Rated Comments

ratspg Avatar
32 months ago
We’re ready for WWDC iOS 17 Betas let’s gooooooo!!!
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Yr Blues Avatar
32 months ago
I want to downgrade to 15 or 14. I hate how changing wallpaper is so difficult now. So many little things made worse for no reason.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
retta283 Avatar
32 months ago

I want to downgrade to 15 or 14. I hate how changing wallpaper is so difficult now. So many little things made worse for no reason.
Strongly agree. I find iOS 14 to be by far the best of the recent versions, wish I could've kept my iPhone on it. For now I'm on 15 which is still mostly fine. 16 is junk, plain and simple. Battery life is awful, the new lock screen customization makes it a pain to do the things that used to be easy for those of us who don't care to customize ours (and I still think none of the fonts/sizes for time are as good as the 15 default) and I will never understand the notifications being at the bottom of the screen. Complete nonsense.

I am extremely stubborn when it comes to UI changes though, and I bet that by the time I am used to all of this they will change it again the next year...
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Apple Fan 2008 Avatar
32 months ago

We’re ready for WWDC iOS 17 Betas let’s gooooooo!!!
My iPad is still on the iOS 16 beta ?, I barely use it
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
fmillion Avatar
32 months ago

The iPad is a service, not a product. Use the Mac if you want a product on which you have the proper degree of control (although it's getting more services-like with the years, but it's still a product). And show your opposition to services by not paying for them, but for products that you can control instead. I think I'd love the iPad if it was a product: the iPad would be great if you could control it like a Mac (but Apple is going the other way around, and slowly turning the Mac into an iPad instead of what they should do).
Follow the money trail. Subscriptions and services make way more money than products. Even when I was in high school, I understood the idea of "you'll make more money if you can make something that lots of people pay a small amount of money for on a regular basis, than something that some people pay a big amount of money for one single time."

I despise locked down products and subscriptions with a passion, but I'm not sure how we stop it. Even if everyone were to stop buying locked down devices and only bought open devices right now, the overall profit would still be much lower in the long term (and the economists know it), thus the incentive to push people back to subscriptions in any way possible would never go away. Of course in reality a lot of people don't have a choice but to buy service-type devices - the fact that every major software vendor (Adobe, Microsoft, now Apple, etc.) have all moved to subscription software is part of it. Plus there are many kinds of things we do on our devices that depend on a service model - the simplest example is that we need a cellular network to connect our cell phones to, so there will always be a "service" component at play. Every example, even in the OSS world, of someone putting out a fully open device is consistently proven not to be financially viable in the long term, and/or users don't like that they can't use it with their favorite SERVICES (can't watch Netflix at HD quality on open-source Android versions is an example). It will likely not be long before you simply CANNOT buy a device that isn't a subscription-based locked-down service device. (Wasn't Apple talking about moving the iPhone itself to a lease model, where you never actually own the physical phone? That's where I fear we're ultimately heading.)
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
reezekeys Avatar
32 months ago
So much for those needing to downgrade so they can use their USB3 CCK until Apple updates 16.5 (and who's to say the bug will be fixed then?)
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)