How to Install iOS 9 on iPhone or iPad Manually with Firmware in iTunes
If you have decided you’d like to update an iPhone or iPad to iOS 9, you can install iOS 9.0.1 manually using firmware and iTunes. The manual firmware method is more advanced, making it perhaps best for specific reasons, like to resolve the frustratingly unresponsive “Slide to Upgrade” screen, to fix the Software Update Failed error, due to storage space limitations on the target device, because sometimes it’s just easier due to bandwidth constraints, or because you’re updating multiple of the same devices. Whatever the case, we’ll walk you through the entire process.
Note this will perform a software update to install iOS 9.0.1, it does not perform a clean install or a device reset.
You’ll need the following in order to update an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to iOS 9 with firmware:
- Download iOS 9.0.1 IPSW firmware from here, or download iOS 9 IPSW firmware for your device here, be sure to pick the exact model you wish to update
- iTunes 12.3 is strongly recommended due to bundled iOS 9 support, though iTunes 12.2 apparently works too
- USB / lightning cable for the iOS device, and a computer running the latest version of iTunes
Note that you can use iOS 9.0.1, or iOS 9.0 and then update to iOS 9.0.1 after installation is complete. For most users, you’ll want to use iOS 9.0.1 IPSW simply because it’s easier.
It doesn’t matter if iTunes is on a Mac with OS X or a Windows PC, the instructions are almost exactly the same.
Do note this firmware based method is intended for advanced users. The average iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch owner should install the iOS 9 software update through the Settings app in iOS, or through iTunes as usual. Using a firmware file offers little benefit to the average user and simply complicates an otherwise easy update process.
Updating to iOS 9 Manually with Firmware and iTunes
This will update a device running a prior version of iOS to iOS 9, as described here it will perform a software update, it does not restore or reset the device. Nonetheless, always backup before beginning a software update.
- Place the downloaded iOS 9.0.1 firmware file or downloaded iOS 9 firmware file somewhere easy to locate, like the desktop
- Launch iTunes after you have the latest version
- Connect the iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to the computer with a USB cable
- Select the device in iTunes
- Under the Backups section, either choose iCloud, or choose “Back up to this computer” and select ‘Encrypt iPhone backup’ , then click “Back Up Now” – don’t skip backing up! When finished backing up, continue
- Now you must choose to use an IPSW file by entering an alternate update method:
- For Mac: OPTION + Click on the “Update” button
- For Windows: SHIFT + Click on the ‘Update’ button
- Navigate in the file system to the IPSW file you downloaded and select it
- Confirm that you want to update to iOS 9 by clicking on ‘Update’
- Let the process complete, this can take a little while
iTunes will show a progress bar as it extracts the software from the IPSW file, updates the iPhone / iPad / iPod touch, and then reboots. DO NOT INTERFERE with the device when it is being updated, doing so may mess up the update.
When finished, the iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch will reboot itself automatically and enter the iOS 9 setup screens. You’ll be prompted to pick a six digit passcode, setup Hey Siri, and asked a few other questions. Run through the simple setup, and you’ll be presented with your device that is freshly updated to iOS 9. Enjoy!
I downloaded the update but itune is showing that “can not update iphone 4s because frimware file is not complete”.
Bala, here is an entire walkthrough dedicated to how you can update an iPhone to iOS 9 manually: https://osxdaily.com/2019/08/10/update-ios-9-manually-itunes-firmware/
hello.. im sure that im follow step by step correctly, but why i got error 3603 on my ipad? anybody can help me?
I was tired asking for people on how to Install iOS 9 on iPhone manually with Firmware in iTunes . Here is where I got all my questions answered The best facilitator I ever met.
THANK YOU!! This has helped soooo much
hello there i owned an iphone 5c but it fell and all of a started showing searching and the network bar has refused to come up. someone told me to upgrade that it might be a software upgrade issue and while upgrading from the phone itself it never installed after the download.
I used my pc using the steps above but it always stopped at “installing firmware” and it has never come up since then. what is the possible way out pls…
Hi, I’m currently on iOS 6.1.2 will this same method work if I wanted to upgrade say to iOS 7.1.2? Or only the latest version?
i have update my iphone 5s with ios 9.3.2 .why my camera does not work properly??
even i have again update with ios 9.3.4
please anybody help
Hi
Good Day !!
I am having Iphone 4S My current OS version is :7.1.2(11D257)
Is it possible to update IOS 9 by manually.
If yes please help how to update
Thanks for your Help.
Bala, here is an entire walkthrough dedicated to how you can update an iPhone to iOS 9 manually: https://osxdaily.com/2015/09/19/update-ios-9-manually-itunes-firmware/
It is detailed showing exact steps on how to update iOS 9 manually on an iPhone. You are welcome.
my iPhone 4 system is corrupted. so phone can not install any software like itune…so how can I solve
Thanks For your Help.
worst update ever 9.3, u cant even jailbreak some i really want to go back to ios 9.0 X(
Hi , i wana update my iphone iso 9 . How to install my iphone ?
Work ! Thank youuuuuuuuuuuu
Failed restore with code error 52 always.
How what to do ?
You really saved me. Wonderul post!
I enrolled my iPhone 5s in the public beta program a couple months before ios 9.0 officially deboued and was astonished by the capability of apples new ios bit as usual with minor flaws such as my apps would crash shortly after being launched I saw no problems an the app crashing problem was resolved in the official ios
Hi, I’ve tried downloading the IPSW files to update my iphone manually. But the download keeps getting stuck at 320MB out of 1.5GB. I tried restarting my computer but it still get stuck halfway.
hi, i did all the steps that are shown here but after the blue bar for extracting software fills up, it says error… what should i do?
My ipad4 went off, i connected it and it showed restore mode. i just downloaded new ios9.0.1, how can i use it to restore my ipad?
Is data on my iphone will be erased?
How long it took you to update your ipad 2 to IOS 9?
The progress bar on the ipad is stuck on the same spot (around 60%) for one hour…
Hi,
I tried this after everything else failed including turning off Find my phone through icloud & then updating. After upgrading my ipad to iOS 9.0, it just wouldn’t start. It would come on & not move beyond the swipe to upgrade screen. I checked with apple support ppl through chat & they asked me to upgrade to 9.0.1 through iTunes, which I did. After downloading 80% of 1.88GB, there was an error & the download stopped. So I tried the above method which you guys recommended. I want to THANK YOU BIG TIME since this worked & my iPad is back to normal after the 9.0.1 upgrade. With download accelerator I dwnldd 1.88GB in half the time, any day makes more sense to do it manually.
Thank you again!
I second that! Same thing happened to me because of slow rural internet (only got <250mb downloaded) iphone was stuck in restore mode for days, thank God for the writers of this tutorial! …and that my daughter's iphone works again, I'm serious u are a blessing, Apple support was no help
Do i need to trunoff my iPhone while I’m doing the update??
Not necessary.
iOS 9 is buggy
Can i move on to ios 9 public from ios 9.1 beta with this step?
No, but here’s how to move from iOS 9.1 to iOS 9
https://osxdaily.com/2015/09/17/revert-ios-9-1-to-ios-9/
iOS 9.1 runs better than iOS 9, it wouldn’t make much sense to downgrade
Loaded on iPhone 5S, mini iPad and iPad 2. No problems, find the new keyboard a lot clearer. Like to multi Windows. Still exploring but no problems to date.
I don’t like the new vision of the keyboard. The letters are less easy to pick out if you have any form of dyslexia and it takes time to pick them out.
What’s broken about it? I’ve been using since Wednesday with no problems. I think it’s a great update.
Same here. No problems after updating iphone 5 and ipad air 1. In fact I am typing this on my ipad running iOS 9. Only one app on the ipad failed to load, but it’s a 3rd party app so I guess that developer will have to release a new version of it (they do it anyway every time there is a new ios version).
Alert to those who use the Apple Camera Connection Kit to transfer images from digital cameras. After installing iOS 9 on my iPad Air 2 images from the Sony a6000 or its SD card were not recognised ib the iPad through the Camera kit. The screen showed empty squares with 3 dashes. This did not happen with the Canon PS A1400. I do not know the depth in the camera kingdom that this problem exists.
You should consider downgrading to iOS 8.4.1 while you can, but back up first.
iOS 9 is a mess, hard to believe this went through a developer beta and a public beta, it is just broken all around.
Using firmware to update, or iTunes to update, or OTA to install, whether upgrading, or a fresh install, none of it matters. iOS 9 is broken. Disappointing.
It’s not “Broken all around”. It works fine for me, and lots of other people.
Is this problem when using the Play Memories app? Maybe an update is coming for that.
Also, can you get the pictures into the Play Memories app via wifi?