Apple recently released iOS 16.6 for the general public, and following the trend, the company has now stopped signing the previous iOS 16.5.1. While the change might not be of value to everyone, it is worth noting that you can no longer downgrade from iOS 16.6 to iOS 16.5.1. The news is pretty usual for anyone who is content with the latest offering from Apple but for those who want to jailbreak their iPhone, you might want want to consider downgrading.

You can no longer download from iOS 16.6 as Apple has stopped signing iOS 16.5.1 - Can you still jailbreak your iPhone?

Apple usually stops signing an iOS update soon after it released a subsequent build. Luckily for Apple, the jailbreak community has been silent for a while, and no new jailbreak tool has been released that supports the latest iOS 16 builds. However, for older iPhone models, the scenario is different. We have previously reported that the Palera1n jailbreak community has updated their tool with support for iOS 16.2. However, not all iPhone models will be able to take advantage of it.

The iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X are the last devices that are eligible for jailbreak. This is because these specific iPhone models feature a hardware-based exploit or a bootrom exploit. What this means is that no matter how many times Apple tries to fix it via software updates, it can not be fixed. All models that launched after the iPhone X do not house the exploit and can not be jailbroken.

If you do have an iPhone X or iPhone 8 series, you can use the Palera1n tool when it is available for iOS 16.6 to jailbreak your device. Furthermore, Apple's decision to stop signing iOS 16.5.1 will have no impact on your decision to jailbreak or not. The reason why Apple stops signing a specific firmware build is to keep users on the latest update. While users can enjoy new features and improvements, the latest update also offers various security updates that will protect your device from potential threats.

While jailbreaking is great, it has lost most of the excitement in the past few years. Apple itself is now offering a wide range of customization tools with iOS 16 and iOS 17 that users will find interesting. Nonetheless, the jailbreak community is always actively hunting for the next exploit and potentially working on one, but details are scarce at this stage. Henceforth, we will keep you guys posted on the latest, so be sure to stick around.