iOS7... and iOS9

[Black Hole]

...and thee next question I need to look into is whether I can "downgrade" the iPad Air I have acquired for an eldery friend to iOS7!

 

[Wallace]

You will not be able to 'downgrade'. There are usually a couple of weeks (max) after an update to iOS before Apple stop 'signing it'. After that time, you cannot 'downgrade'.

 

[Black Hole]

Bloody sods!

They've "helpfully" removed the "reply all" option on emails (presumably only those for which there are two participants) - but I had a purpose* for that! If I wish to continue a conversation, but I was the last to reply previously, I need to reply-all and then remove myself from the to-list. Now there is only the reply option, so I am replying to myself unless I manually add the recipient of the previous email to the to-list.

* Notice I avoided "use-case"!

 

[HarveyB]

Are you referring to the standard iOS mail app. I am using an iPad Air 2 and iPhone 6 running iOS 9.2.1 both still have "reply all" option.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Black Hole]

Yes - so why am I not being offered it then? Try going into your sent mail, find one you sent to somebody, and click the reply icon - do you still get the "reply all" option?

 

[Wallace]

Using the suggestion of BH above, I too am only offered a 'reply' button, not a 'reply all'.

That's on iOS 9.2.1, iPhone 6s.

EDIT:

I have just tried the same to a message I had received from RyanAir, and I had both the 'reply' and 'reply all' buttons available.

 

[Black Hole]

My findings are that I am offered "reply all" only if there is more than one recipient in the To and CC fields together (not tested with BCC), regardless of whether the message I am replying to is in my inbox or the sent folder.

If a message is from me to X, and I reply, iOS7 used to (sensibly) realise I probably meant to X and default to that (sometimes it didn't), but in any case "Reply All" was available.

iOS9.2.1 only offers reply, and it replies to me. On the other hand, if there is more than one recipient for the message I am replying to (from me), "Reply All" gets it right! Idiots.

 

[HarveyB]

I get reply all when I access an email that I sent to multiple people. I don't have such an example with cc though so can't test yet.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Black Hole]

I find Safari incredibly laggy at times, particularly accessing the forum. Page loads grind to a stop. I think it is something to do with the ad server, but iOS 7 was never as bad as this. I don't find it easy to use an alternative browser, because there is no way to stop Safari being the default browser, and there is no guarantee another browser doesn't use the same underlying engine (in fact I'm pretty sure they do), but I will compare. I have Mercury installed at the moment.

I get the impression iOS 9 is geared towards devices with more grunt - possibly deliberately to "encourage" upgrading!

 

[Wallace]

I agree with your last comment. As much as I like Apple products, I am in no doubt that they build in obsolescence. My iPad Air was working just fine on iOS 8.x. As soon as I updated to iOS 9.x I noticed that quite a bit of lag. It has not improved with the subsequent minor updates.

 

[Black Hole]

It's actually more pleasant to use my PC! Not what I expect or require at all.

 

[Black Hole]

I'm having no better an experience with the Mercury browser either. Back to Safari, and the hummy.tv page loads are appalling - and now the keyboard has lost most of its extras and gone all slow - I can type ahead, but it responds at about one character per second!

I hate this. I'll see if I can get back to iOS7 from a back-up. The worst thing is I will have to teach an elderly lady how to use her iPad - with iOS9 on it

 

[af123]

I'll see if I can get back to iOS7 from a back-up.

I think someone has already mentioned but you are unlikely to have any luck as Apple have now stopped signing this. If you backed up your signing certificate before upgrade you can do it but otherwise... - see https://www.theiphonewiki.com/wiki/SHSH

 

[Black Hole]

This is way beyond my current knowledge. What I took from the previous mention was that I would not be able to download iOS7 - I didn't realise I would not be able to restore a backup image from iTunes on my PC, nor do I understand how that is done! Does this mean that even a local restore process somehow goes out to Apple for authorisation?

I feel a strongly worded letter of complaint coming on...

 

[af123]

Does this mean that even a local restore process somehow goes out to Apple for authorisation?

Yes, itunes talks to Apple to fetch a signing certificate specific to your device and they are no longer issuing certificates for version 7 and modern-ish iPads.

 

[Black Hole]

I can't say I'm getting on with Chrome any better than I did with Safari.

 

[Black Hole]

I think I've found the fount of my iOS9 woes.

Looking into ad blockers, I discover the infrastructure to support them is only present in iOS9 - that's good, and it partially explains why I haven't had one before (apart from internal ethical debates). However, on a review I found of Adblock Fast, it said this:

You’ll need to be running an iOS 9 device with a 64-bit chip. On the iPhone side, that’s the iPhone 5s or later. For iPad users, that’s the iPad Air, iPad Air 2, and the iPad mini 2 and later.

Does that apply to all ad blockers? I'm running an iPad3, so if this is saying iOS9 is optimised for 64-bit, no wonder I'm having a hard time (and Apple should not have approved 9 for anything less than an Air).

 

[Brian]

Are you using the Ad Block extension built into the Mercury browser? This is quite effective, even on a third generation iPad.

 

[Black Hole]

I didn't know about that, I'll try it.

 

[Black Hole]

Oh yes, that's much better!

Thanks