TLDR - If you’ve installed iOS 18 public beta, without creating a full iOS 17 backup on your computer, you can restore an iOS 18 backup to iOS 17 by modifying the Product Version in Info.plist file present in the local backup.

I recently gave it to the curiostiy and went ahead with installing iOS 18 beta on my iPhone (all thanks to the Apple beta software program I had signed up for years ago), without being careful enough to create a iOS 17 archive backup in case I need to revert back.

After trying out the beta, I began searching for ways to revert back to the regular iOS 17 version. After reading through a couple of tutorials ^{1 2} , I had 2 big revelations:

• I did not bother creating a local archive backup on iOS 17

• I cannot use an iCloud backup to restore since it’s overwritten by iOS 18

After digging through a couple of Reddit threads, I came across this article through which I was able to create an iOS 18 backup and then restore iPhone back to iOS 17 alongwith all the data from the same backup.

Sources:

1. https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/downgrade-from-ios-18-beta-to-ios-17/

2. https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/ios-18-beta-second-thoughts-the-no-stress-way-to-go-back-to-ios-17/

3. https://reincubate.com/support/how-to/restore-ios-backup-to-older-ios-device/