How to Uninstall Certain Software Updates on Your iPhone When You Have Performance Issues

While most iOS updates will only make your iPhone experience better, some of them can do more harm than good. If an update unexpectedly breaks or degrades certain features of your iPhone, you may be able to roll back to a previous version of the software.

Like Windows computers, Apple has a rollback feature available for the iPhone in case you need to uninstall certain iOS updates, but it wasn’t always there. It’s only available in iOS 16.0 and later and iPadOS 16.1 and later for iPad, and only applies to Apple’s new first responders.

What is Rapid Security Response?

Rapid Security Responses are designed to fix significant iOS security vulnerabilities, such as more damaging zero-day exploits, as soon as possible. They can even fix vulnerable system files, issues with Safari and WebKit, and vulnerable supported accessories like AirPods.

Once the RSR is available, Apple will send it to your device and your iPhone will automatically download and install it. You can also go to Settings -> General -> Software Update to manually download and install RSR if it hasn’t already been done automatically.

These software updates are primarily used to patch and fix issues that require immediate attention, but they can cause problems of their own. This is because RSR updates are recklessly designed and sent out as quick patches for serious problems. These can be further tweaked before they arrive in the next minor iOS 16.X update, but if you’re having issues before then, you can remove RSR.

Removing Rapid Security Response

Quick Security Answers is enabled on your iPhone by default, and you can check the settings by going to Settings -> General -> Software Update -> Automatic Updates -> Security Answers & System Files. If you prefer the risk of possible attacks through known vulnerabilities over potential performance issues, you can disable the switch to prevent automatic installation of RSR updates.

If you keep the toggle on but experience problems after the RSR update installed itself (or after you manually installed it), you can always uninstall it from your iPhone and wait for any improvements in the next minor iOS software update..

To do this, go to Settings -> General -> About -> iOS Version and then click on “Remove Security Response”under the installed RSR, which will be below the basic iOS version information. Then click “Delete”at the prompt to confirm that you want to remove the update from your iPhone.

Your iPhone will remove the update and you will have to restart your iPhone to complete the removal process. It should automatically restart your iPhone after a short amount of time, but you can click “Restart Now”on the prompt to do so right now.

Once backed up and running, the RSR update will be gone and you can confirm this by going back to Settings -> General -> About -> iOS version.