This guide and tutorial will show you how to jailbreak your iPhone 2G, 3G or 3GS running OS 3.1.2 using RedSn0w 0.9.
If you are new to the whole jailbreaking thing, I really suggest you read this information about RedSn0w 0.9. It will tell you everything you need to know about RedSn0w before starting.
I know that some of you won’t bother reading the more info link about RedSn0w 0.9 so here is probably the most important information about this jailbreak:
If you have a late-model iPhone 3GS, or if you have an iPod touch 2G whose serial number begins with “MC”, you can use redsn0w to jailbreak but you are currently restricted to “tethered” rebooting. That means you need to connect your device to a computer to complete the boot after a reset. Also, these devices cannot have custom logos.
redsn0w will ask you whether or not you fit in this category when used with the iPhone 3GS or iPod touch 2G. If you have a late-model device and don’t give redsn0w the correct answer, you will likely need to do a system restore to recover from the mistake.
To do a tethered boot after your late-model device resets for some reason, either run redsn0w again and select “Just boot tethered right now”, or run blackra1n.
This RedSn0w tutorial was written for Windows but I assume the steps are identical for a Mac.
Step 1: Download RedSn0w 0.9 for Mac or PC as well as the correct 3.1.2 firmware for your iPhone from here. To make things easy, save those 2 files on your desktop.
Step 2: Make sure you have the latest version of iTunes installed on your computer, then restore your iPhone to the latest firmware 3.1.2. Restoring is the preferred way to go about it as simply updating could cause issues later on.
Step 3: Launch RedSn0w and browse for the 3.1.2 firmware you downloaded to your computer in Step 1.
Step 4: RedSn0w will automatically check if you chose the right firmware (IPSW). It will then patch the file.
Step 5: For iPhone 2G only (other please skip to step 6)! You will then be offered several options. If you have an iPhone 2G and you want to unlock, now select “Install Cydia” and “Unlock”. You will have to download the bootloaders 3.9 and 4.6 from here. If you just want to jailbreak, disregard this and go to step 6.
Step 6: You will now have the option to “Install Cydia” as well as “Custom boot logo” and “Custom recovery logo”. For the purpose of this tutorial, I suggest you only choose “Install Cydia”.
Step 7: Make sure your iPhone is plugged to your computer. RedSn0w will now dictate you a few steps to have your iPhone enter DFU mode. Follow the onscreen instructions very carefully.
Step 8: Your iPhone will reboot when successfully jailbroken.
Congratulations! You just jailbroke your iPhone using RedSn0w 0.9. If you want to unlock your iPhone 3G or 3GS, simply install UltraSn0w from Cydia.
Any question or concern, please feel free to ask in the comment section below. Happy jailbreak 🙂
UPDATE: People have encountered quite a bit of problems when running RedSn0w o.9 beta 3 with an iPhone 3GS. Thankfully MuscleNerd has been updating RedSn0w and the 3GS issues should now be gone. You can download the latest RedSn0w from our iPhone downloads page.