Jailbreaking has certainly changed over the years. Older jailbreak tweak developers have left the scene to pursue bigger and better things in the professional world, while newer jailbreak tweak developers have filled that vacuum time and time again; effectively passing the torch down, so to speak.
While the authors of many classic jailbreak tweaks aren’t still with the jailbreak community today, some of those jailbreak tweaks live on with support for iOS & iPadOS 14 on the handful of jailbreaks available to users today.
iDownloadBlog typically points the spotlight at newer jailbreak tweak releases, but today we’ll be doing something a bit different. More specifically, we’ll be curating a list of classic jailbreak tweaks that are either still actively maintained today, or that have been reincarnated by modern jailbreak tweak developers.
So if you’re ready to evoke that glory days feeling on your jailbroken iOS or iPadOS 14 device in 2022, then we’ve got a spicy list of oldies, but goodies, that you might want to check out. Do keep in mind that while some of these are actively maintained, not all of them are, and may ‘just work’ or only partially work on iOS or iPadOS 14. With that out of the way, let’s get started!
Classic jailbreak tweaks that still work on iOS 14
Springtomize
Perhaps one of the most sought-after add-ons for jailbroken handsets ever made, Springtomize is an all-in-one jailbreak tweak originally released by Filippo Bigarella, and now maintained by Janosch Hübner.
This tweak was always an endless project in which the active developer at the time would work around the clock to add new features and customization options. Options spanned from customizing the Home Screen, to the Dock, to Folders, to Notification Center, to the Lock Screen, and so much more.
Springtomize is currently on iteration number five, and while it doesn’t carry as many options as the original release once did, it’s still actively maintained and fully compatible with iOS & iPadOS 14 devices.
Learn more about Springtomize 5 and where you can get it from in our full review post.
Barrel
An iconic jailbreak tweak that many veteran jailbreakers will remember was Barrel – you know, that one tweak that caused unique animations involving your Home Screen’s app icons to happen whenever you’d swipe from one page to another?
With it, your app icons might swirl in a circle, slither like a snake, or flip like the page of a book every time you swipe left or right between your many Home Screen pages. There were seemingly endless animation options to pick from, with each one being as entertaining to look at as the last.
Barrel itself isn’t maintained anymore, but a couple of different reincarnations have surfaced in recent memory by modern-day jailbreak developers and are still actively maintained, including Cylinder Reborn and Cylinder Remade, each by Ryan Nair.
Learn more about Cylinder Reborn and Cylinder Remade in our full review post.
OpenSSH
A longtime favorite for advanced jailbreakers is OpenSSH, an add-on that lets you open an SSH connection to your jailbroken iPhone or iPad via another device, be it another iPhone or iPad, an Android handset, or even your Mac or Windows PC.
OpenSSH is actively maintained by Sam Bingner and already supports iOS & iPadOS 14. Having said that, this is a classic that won’t fizzle out simply because of just how useful it is when things go wrong with your jailbreak.
You can find out more about OpenSSH from the post we ran in 2011 about it.
Apple File Conduit 2
On the other side of OpenSSH is Apple File Conduit 2, which allows you to browse your jailbroken iPhone or iPad’s filesystem over a wired connection instead of over an SSH connection.
OpenSSH is still actively maintained by Cannathea even today, despite originally being released by Jay Freeman himself.
You can learn more about Apple File Conduit 2 and how it works in this post.
TetherMe
Cellular carriers used to enjoy charging an arm and a leg for permitting tethering (A.K.A. Personal Hotspot) on their cellular networks. While most of today’s cellular plans include at least a basic tethering package, not all of them do, and not all tethering packages fit all users’ needs.
TetherMe was a classic jailbreak tweak for circumventing your carrier’s tethering restrictions, as it unlocked the Personal Hotspot section in your device’s Settings app even if your carrier didn’t allow it on your current plan. It also attempted to hide your tethering activity from your cellular carrier.
TetherMe is still actively maintained by Sam Bingner and continues to work even on iOS 14 devices.
Learn more about TetherMe in our full review post.
Activator
Power users can often benefit from being able to perform actions from anywhere on their device with custom gestures, whether it’s launching specific apps or toggling features on or off.
Activator is a classic jailbreak tweak by Ryan Petrich that lets you do exactly that, and while it hasn’t received a true update to support iOS & iPadOS 14, another jailbreak tweak called ActivatorCrashFix14 makes it usable on all versions of iOS & iPadOS 14 despite the fact that some gestures work and others don’t.
Even on these types of devices, Activator is an invaluable resource for getting things done with the gestures you want to use.
You can find out more about Activator in our full review post.
BioProtect
BioProtect was a jailbreak tweak by Elias Limneos that originally launched following the debut of Touch ID, and it allowed users to protect individual apps from being opened or tampered with without the user authenticating themselves each time first.
The tweak was ideal for when you hand your unlocked device to someone else, such as when showing them photos or videos, and when you wanted to prevent them from being nefarious.
BioProtect lives on today as BioProtect XS, which offers full support for not only Touch ID, but for Face ID too. The tweak is fully compatible with iOS & iPadOS 14 too!
You can learn all about BioProtect XS in our full review post.
Signal
An insanely popular app from way back in the day was Signal by planetbeing, which allowed users to see nearby cell towers, including the one they were currently connected to, on the device’s native Maps app interface.
Signal stopped being maintained some time ago, but Amy While came out with Signal Reborn several years ago to revive the popular feature on newer iterations of iOS.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Signal Reborn works on jailbroken iOS 14 devices, so it’s a wonderful reincarnation of the classic tweak so many users enjoyed using so long ago.
You can learn more about Signal Reborn in our full review post.
AndroidLockXT
When I first started jailbreaking, showing off that you could unlock your iPhone just like an Android phone was all the rage, and AndroidLockXT was once hands-down the best way to go about that.
But since AndroidLockXT isn’t maintained anymore, we’d instead direct you to try an alternative called LockDroid by Julio Verne, as this tweak supports jailbroken iOS & iPadOS 14 devices.
You can find all the information about LockDroid you could ever need in our full review post.
iFile
Remember the iFile app? It was one of the most popular filesystem browser apps ever conceived, and while it doesn’t work on iOS or iPadOS 14 due to having not been updated in many years, a competing filesystem browser certainly does.
Filza by TIGI Software is just as capable of a filesystem browser as iFile, and continues to work on iOS & iPadOS 14 devices. With it, you can browse the filesystem, add or remove files, and even edit existing files.
You can learn more about how to use a filesystem browser app, such as Filza, in our post denoting five ways to make the most of these types of apps.
WinterBoard
Theming is one of the hallmark perks of jailbreaking, and those who’ve been theming since the beginning of time will remember WinterBoard by Jay Freeman.
This app worked as the framework for theming iPhones and iPads. With it, developers could make themes and offer them as one-click applications for end users who wanted to download the hottest new look for their handset(s).
WinterBoard is no longer maintained today, but an alternative called SnowBoard by SparkDev and Dennis Bednarz continues to work with iOS & iPadOS 14 even as theme creators continue to develop and update themes for pwned devices.
You can learn more about SnowBoard in our full review post.
iCleaner
Those who like keeping their handsets spick and span after installing and uninstalling jailbreak tweaks, loading up their apps’ caches, and the likes will remember and appreciate an app called iCleaner by Ivano Bilenchi.
This handy add-on has been around for as long as I can remember, and it’s effectively the CCleaner of the iOS & iPadOS world, despite having no affiliation with the desktop-class program.
iCleaner removes unwanted file clutter with the tap of a button, effortlessly freeing up much-needed storage space. Best of all, the app is actively maintained to this day, so it fully supports iOS & iPadOS 14 devices.
Learn more about iCleaner in our step-by-step tutorial showcasing how to use it.
SwipeSelection
SwipeSelection was a popular classic by Kyle Howells that made it possible to select text with swipe-based gestures. It made text editing a breeze, especially when editing larger bodies of text.
SwipeSelection isn’t maintained or supported anymore, but a free alternative called Marker by MiRO offers comparable functionality for jailbroken iOS 14 devices.
Learn more about Marker and how it works in our full review post.
vWallpapers
A longtime favorite jailbreak tweak of mine when I first got into it was vWallpaper by skrew, an app for pwned handsets that permitted the end user to set videos as their Home Screen’s wallpaper.
While Apple has certainly provided more wallpaper options than ever before with the introduction of Live Photos and Dynamic Wallpapers, that still leaves a massive void where jailbreakers would use video files as their wallpaper.
Since vWallpapers is no longer maintained today, it only seemed appropriate to mention the next best thing for iOS & iPadOS 14 devices, a tweak called Eneko by thatcuda.
You can find out more about setting videos as your wallpaper with Eneko in our full review post.
MobileTerminal
One of the first things that jailbreakers have been doing with their pwned iPhones and iPads over the past decade or longer is changing their root user password to strengthen the security of their handset, and one of the most popular ways to do that, along with all kinds of other commands, was with an app called MobileTerminal.
The MobileTerminal app stopped receiving updates after iOS 7, so it should come as no surprise that this handy app was reincarnated many times over the years to support modern versions of iOS & iPadOS. The latest iteration, dubbed NewTerm 2 by HASHBANG Productions, fully supports even iOS & iPadOS 14.
You can find out more about what’s possible with NewTerm 2 in our MTerminal review.
Conclusion
The evolution of the mobile operating system we tweak with our jailbreak means that older jailbreak tweaks tend to fall off the face of the Earth. These classics, on the other hand, have either stood the test of time or have been reincarnated to work on modern version(s) of iOS and iPadOS.
Also read: iOS 15 ‘borrowed’ these features from the jailbreak community
Those looking to evoke a déjà vu vibe from the glory days of jailbreaking can certainly do so with the add-ons discussed above, but we’re also curious to know if you might be using any jailbreak tweaks akin to classics that we forgot to mention in this piece. Having said that, please feel free to drop a comment below.