

This action on Apples part effectively burnt the bridge for updating units at or below iOS 7. The signature is required to verify and validate a proper update.

The error code 9 problem started in October 2015 when Apple removed their signatures from all down level firmware. A device must be progressively updated through iOS levels of 5, 6, 7, and 8 before updating to 9. It is not possible to perform a direct update from iOS 4 to iOS 9. They have taken advantage of their customers who have not updated the iOS in their products in a timely manner. The root cause is Apple Computer has come up with a way to cause early obsolescence of perfectly functional products. There are hundreds of incidents reported on the Internet with this same problem. I have now spent several weeks researching the error code 9 issue resulting from trying to update a device at iOS 4.3 level to iOS 9 level.
