Should you pull the trigger on the iOS 9.3.3 jailbreak?

Pangu iOS 7.1.1

It’s very nice to have a jailbreak for the purpose of modifying your iOS device(s) any way you want to, but should you move forward with the iOS 9.2-9.3.3 jailbreak in its current state?

In this article, we’ll talk about whether or not you should.

Choosing whether or not to jailbreak iOS 9.3.3

The jailbreak for iOS 9.2-9.3.3 just came out of nowhere. Nobody was expecting the jailbreak to drop over the weekend when it did, and because of that, very little is known about the nature of the jailbreak and just how reliable it is going to be over time.

There are some pros and cons to this jailbreak that need to be considered before you even attempt to jailbreak your daily driver. We’ll do our best to cover most of them in this piece.

The ups of jailbreaking iOS 9.3.3

For those of you that haven’t had a jailbreak for months because you accidentally updated your iOS version or something went wrong when you were jailbroken and you were unable to downgrade back, this is the jailbreak for you. This is your chance to have something to hold you over until iOS 10 is released.

The jailbreak is fully functional and lets you take control of and modify your device how you want to. With it, you get full access to your iOS device’s filesystem, and you can modify lines of code to change the normal look and behavior of your device.

Jailbreaking iOS 9.3.3 has also been made ultra-simple, as not only do you have the choice of jailbreaking from a Windows PC or a virtual machine on your Mac, but you can even jailbreak the device directly from your Safari web browser just like you could with JailbreakMe 3.0 in 2011.

Pangu has also released an English version of the jailbreak tool that works on all platforms (OS X, Windows, and Linux) and lets you jailbreak your iOS 9.2-9.3.3 devices.

As another plus, iOS 9.3.3 has all of the latest new features, bug fixes, and security updates of all of Apple’s recent iOS releases, and as a result, there’s a big advantage in usability and peace of mind when jailbreaking iOS 9.3.3.

On the other hand, there are some cons to the jailbreak for iOS 9.3.3 as well, so let’s touch on those next.

The downs of jailbreaking iOS 9.3.3

If you’re already jailbroken with iOS 9.0.2, then you’re enjoying what’s called an untethered jailbreak. This means you can reboot your device as much as you want to, and Cydia is always going to be there for you, ready to launch and utilize.

Of course, the iOS 9.3.3 jailbreak isn’t as luxurious. Here, we get what’s known as a semi-untethered jailbreak, which means you can still reboot your device as much as you need to, but every time you do, you will need to re-run the Pangu app from your Home screen in order to revitalize Cydia. Otherwise, it’s just going to crash every time you open it.

For most people who have been without a jailbreak for so long, the semi-untethered jailbreak is a small price to pay for convenience of modifying your device in any way you want to. But for others, who are already comfortably jailbroken at iOS 9.0.2, upgrading to iOS 9.3.3 and jailbreaking with this semi-untethered jailbreak is going to feel very much like a downgrade.

If you’re using a 32-bit device like an iPhone 4s, iPhone 5, or iPhone 5c, then you can’t jailbreak at all right now. These devices are unsupported by the tool, as only 64-bit devices can be jailbroken whilst on iOS 9.3.3.

Some who have successfully jailbroken their devices are even seeing bugs where lots of apps on their devices are crashing more often, and this may be due to a corruption during the jailbreak process that happened because the process is still buggy.

And the grand-daddy of all the cons of this jailbreak is that it relies on certificates. These are little files that expire after some time, and when they do, you will be forced to re-run the jailbreak tool to refresh your certificates. If you don’t, the jailbreak will expire and your jailbreak will become dysfunctional until you re-run the tool.

Free certificates expire after 7 days, while full developer certificates will last 1 year.

Meeting in the middle: the compromise

Despite the pros and cons, there are some compromises that can make things either worth it, or not:

  1. Apple ID: Despite the fact that you need to sign in with an Apple ID to jailbreak iOS 9.3.3, you can always make a phony Apple ID on Apple’s website and use that Apple ID to sign into Pangu. This way, you don’t trust unknown entities with your personal information.
  2. Safari method: The Safari jailbreak method is significantly more convenient than the Windows method. It doesn’t require an Apple ID, and the developers behind them can run certificates with extended expiration dates, which may be preferred by users.
  3. Semi-untether: Although the semi-untether isn’t the most convenient form of a jailbreak, it’s still much better than having a tethered jailbreak. You may remember the rednsn0w days when you would actually disable your device when you turned it off until you connected it to a computer and re-ran redsn0w. Well with a semi-untether, that will never happen.
  4. 3rd party app store: A third-party app store is installed with the iOS 9.3.3 jailbreak hosted by 25PP, but it’s super easy to remove so you can just focus on what’s important: Cydia. The English Pangu jailbreak tool doesn’t bundle the store with it.
  5. Bugs: Bugs are an unfortunate reality of every single jailbreak released in the history of this community. Things are always rocky at the start, but after a while, enough updates are pushed for the jailbreak that it’s stable enough for everyone to use. So just remain patient.

My opinion

Because I want the choice to be as simple as possible for everyone out there, I firmly believe that those with an untethered jailbreak on iOS 9.0-9.0.2 should stay where they are. I think the untethered jailbreak is a very valuable jailbreak and isn’t worth giving up for something like this just yet.

On the other hand, if you have no jailbreak at all, then a semi-untethered jailbreak is always better than no jailbreak, so if you fall under this distinction, then I say go for it!

I’m sure that within a week or two, this jailbreak will become more stable and the process to keep it up and running will become a second nature to everyone involved in the community. By the time iOS 10 is launched, it hopefully won’t be long before another untethered jailbreak sees the light of day.

Wrapping up

So should you jailbreak? Ultimately, the choice to jailbreak iOS 9.3.3 is up to you, and I can’t change your mind, but I do think that waiting a few more days until more stable jailbreak tools, or better yet an English version from Pangu themselves, are released.

Also read:

Have you jailbroken your iOS 9.3.3 device yet? Share in the comments!