How to jailbreak an iPhone with a broken Home button

Although there have been methods in the past geared towards skirting around a broken Home button in order to jailbreak an iPhone, I don’t remember any of them being as easy as this.

If your Home button is on the fritz, then chances are you have problems getting into DFU mode, which is a prerequisite to using most jailbreak software. Fortunately, the iPhone Dev Team has come up with a simple, yet ingenious method for easily pushing your device into DFU mode using their latest update to the RedSn0w jailbreak tool.

RedSn0w 0.9.14b2 allows you to create a firmware file that will push your device into DFU mode once a normal restore through iTunes is completed. Check out our full tutorial inside for the step-by-step video walkthrough…

[tube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpjADB2Ags4[/tube]

Step 1: Download and open RedSn0w 0.9.14b2

Step 2: On RedSn0w’s main window click Extras > Even more > DFU IPSW, and click OK on the pop-up dialogue.

Step 3: Browse for a valid signable IPSW file from Apple. For instance, if you have an iPhone 4, you want to select the iOS 5.1.1 firmware, since that’s the only firmware that Apple is signing at the moment for this device (as of 7/5/2012). If you don’t have this firmware file, remember you can download firmware from our downloads page.

Step 4: Once you select the file, RedSn0w will go through the process of creating a new IPSW firmware file that will place your device into DFU mode upon restore. This firmware file will be placed in the same location as your original firmware file, and be named with the prefix ENTER_DFU. For instance, if I selected firmware for my iPod touch 4th generation for iOS 5.1.1, my original file should look like: this iPod4,1_5.1.1_9B206_Restore.ipsw, and my new file should look like this: ENTER_DFU_iPod4,1_5.1.1_9B206_Restore.ipsw.

Step 5: Connect your device to your computer and open iTunes. Select your device in the iTunes sidebar, and hold the Option key (shift on Windows) and click the Restore button. Find your newly created ENTER_DFU IPSW file, and click OK. This will restore your device and place the device into DFU mode upon restore. You should just see a black screen once the restore is finished.

Step 6: Your device is now in DFU mode, with a freshly restored IPSW. You can now jailbreak your device using our easy to follow RedSn0w tutorials.

What do you think? Have you been dealing with broken Home button? If so, let us know your thoughts on this easy to use workaround.