A lot of users experienced issues with activation after downgrading. Apple seems to have fixed this issue and users can once again downgrade freely.

Apple opens activation for legacy devices

As you already know, Apple started signing a lot of firmware versions a few days ago. This bizarre move gave a lot of users the opportunity to go back to jailbreak-able versions.

The downgrade party didn’t end well for some users who downgraded from iOS 10 due to activation problems. The users who changed their MAC address somehow managed to pull through.

A6 and A6X Devices

For some unknown reason, you can again activate A6 and A6X devices properly if you downgraded from iOS 10.

This development was confirmed by many legacy developers such as eob2000 and Alitek123.

A6/X DEVICES SEEM TO BE ACTIVATING ON LOWER FIRMWARES AFTER BEING ON 10 RIGHT NOW, GO DOWNGRADE. Thanks to @ImNathansTech for pointing this out pic.twitter.com/HaCutjpilp

— eob2000 (@eob2000mk1) January 20, 2018

A5 and A4 Devices

Later, A5 and A4 devices owners also posted about similar activation issues. This includes the regular SIM activation method, which suggests that something went horribly wrong with Apple’s activation servers.

Generally, this happens before Apple is about bungle up their firmware signing servers. However, this wasn’t the case this time as a lot of users were hoping for.

Restore your mac address

If you downgraded with a modified MAC value, it’s safe to change it now. You will get no error whatsoever because Apple’s servers now support signing.

Here’s what you need to do now –

• Change your MAC address back to its stock value.

• Reboot your device.

• Reactivate using your stock MAC address.

Remember, this will not work with devices having the A7 chip or above. The reason behind this is that Apple enabled activation only for specific legacy models.

Downgrade to older versions

If you have SHSH Blobs saved for a particular version, you can now downgrade freely and activate it. For those who own a legacy 32-bit device can easily downgrade requiring SHSH Blobs.