Tutorials

How to Fix iPhone Errors 1600, 1601, 1602, 1603, 1604

Sébastien Page ∙ February 16, 2010

Many of you have been asking me about those annoying iTunes errors while trying to restore your iPhone using a custom firmware with PwnageTool or SnowBreeze. Usually, the error you get says:

The iPhone "iPhone" could not be restored. An unknown error occurred (1600 - 1601 - 1602 - 1603 - 1604)

There is an easy and quick fix for this. The downside is that it is Windows only (Mac version is in the work), and that it only works for iPhone 2G, iPhone 3G, iTouch 1G and iTouch 2G. In other words, no iPhone 3GS and iPod Touch 3G support.

iREB (iTunes Restore Error Bypasser) is a neat little tool that will help you fix these errors.

Step 1: Download iREB from here.

Step 2: Launch iTunes and put your iPhone in DFU mode (hold power and home button together for 10 seconds; release the power button and keep holding the home button until iTunes tells you it has detected an iPhone in recovery mode.

Step 3: Once iTunes has detected your iPhone in recovery mode, close iTunes and launch iREB.

Step 4: Select your device and wait for the screen to go red or white.

Step 5: Launch iTunes and hold the SHIFT key while clicking on restore. A window will open. From there just browse for the custom firmware you want to restore to.

You should be good to go. iTunes should restore your iPhone to the desired firmware without giving you any error.

How to Backup & Restore Your Jailbreak Apps

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated December 15, 2017

When jailbreaking your iPhone, you always take the chance of messing up with the settings and losing all your Cydia apps. If you "experiment" a lot with your iPhone, I'm sure you've had to restore your iPhone on many occasions.

The problem when restoring your iPhone is that you have to resintall all your Cydia apps, which can take quite some time, depending on howm many you have.

Thankfully, there are a few options available out there that will allow you to easily backup and restore your Cydia applications.

Backup & Restore Jailbreak Apps with PkgBackup

PkgBackup is a $3.49 application but I think it has to be the best out there thanks to its great UI and ease of use. In top of backing up and restoring your jailbreak apps, PkgBackup will also preserve the way your icons are arranged on your springboard.

iClarified has a great tutorial on how to use PkgBackup. Check it out here.

Backup & Restore Cydia Apps with AptBackup

AptBackup supposedly works the same way as PkgBackup except it doesn't save your icons arrangement. Personally, I was never able to get it to work, and it actually got me in serious troubles before.

You might be luckier than I am though. I know a few people who use AptBackup and never had any problem with it.

Manually Backup and Restore Your Cydia Applications

If you feel like messing around your iPhone folders and don't mind taking risks, there is a way to manually backup your jailbreak apps. I haven't done that myself, and to be honest, I probably never will, but I want to share this option with you.

Simon wrote an interesting tutorial on his blog on how to manually backup your jailbreak apps. Read it if you're interested.

My favorite way to backup jailbreak apps is still PkgBackup. Sure it costs a few bucks, but to me, it is from far the most reliable and easiest option.

Do you ever backup your jailbreak apps? If so, how do you usually go about it?

How to Make iTunes Believe You Are on Firmware 3.1.3

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated November 12, 2019

Are you tired of telling iTunes NOT to update to 3.1.3 every time you plug your iPhone in? Well, there's an app for that. It's called Fake 3.1.3 and it is ideal for people like me who don't like being bugged by recurring iTunes alerts.

Fake 3.1.3 will make iTunes believe that you are running firmware 3.1.3, although you will still be on 3.1.2 with the older baseband. It kinda reminds me of FWchanger, although this one just helped make the App Store believe you were on a different firmware.

Fake 3.1.3 is available for free on Cydia via the http://cy.sosiphone.com repo.

How to Turn Your iPhone Into A Wifi Hotspot

Sébastien Page ∙ February 12, 2010

I've always been a big fan of iPhone tethering, which has saved my butt a few times, especially during my travels. Today, a blog reader by the name of DarkN sent me a really nice tip about MyWi, a jailbreak app that allows you to both tether your iPhone AND create a Wifi Hotspot so you can share your Internet connection with computers around you.

This has to be the most useful app I've seen in quite a while. I had heard about MyWi before but I thought it was only an app to tether your iPhone so I didn't even look at it. But being able to use your iPhone as a wireless hotspot is just amazing!

If you can't see the benefits of using your iPhone as a wireless router, then let me give you an example. My fiancee and I are currently in Thailand. Unfortunately our hotel doesn't offer wifi. I do however have a local SIM card and a data plan which I use to tether my iPhone. By creating a wifi hotspot with my iPhone, I literally turn it into a modem/wifi router and my fiancee can now connect to the internet with her iPod Touch.

How to Turn Your iPhone Into A Wireless Router

Step 1: Make sure your iPhone is jailbroken and that it is running at least OS 3.0.

Step 2: Launch Cydia and search for "MyWi". If you don't have Rock installed on your iPhone and you don't want it, choose the "MyWi (no Rock)" version.

Step 3: Purchase ($9.99) and install MyWi then reboot your iPhone.

Step 4: Launch MyWi and tweak the settings to your liking:

Change the hotspot name Change the channel Enable Wep security Enable USB/Bluetooth tethering

That's it. You should now be able to use your iPhone as a modem and share your internet connection with other computers or iPods around you.

Note that using your iPhone as a wifi router is an absolute battery killer. Make sure it is plugged in so you don't run out of juice in just a few minutes.

What is Jailbreaking?

Cody Lee ∙ Updated August 2, 2010

What Does Jailbreaking Mean?

Jailbreaking, or "hacking" is giving a user read/write access to otherwise locked OS files on your iPhone.

It allows you to "unlock" your iPhone and activate it on another GSM carrier that doesn't have bad Luke Wilson commercials. It gives you access to app stores like Cydia that offer programs that you won't see in Apple's popular counterpart. It'll even give you the ability to customize the background of your home screen and change the look of your icons and menu colors.

Starting in early fall after the summer 2007 release of the original iPhone, jailbreaking began as a fairly complicated multi-step process. Things have definitely evolved over the last few years and the online jailbreaking community for iPhones is estimated in the millions (if you're reading this article on this site, that number shouldn't surprise you) with hundreds of blogs and forums scattered throughout the web dedicated to this crazy thing called jailbreaking.

What Are the Benefits of Jailbreaking?

Up until recently, if you wanted to shoot video with your iPhone, you had to jailbreak and download an app called Cycorder from Cydia that would let you shoot and save video, because your iPhone out of box couldn't do it. Same with cut/copy/paste, MMS, all only available if you had jailbroken your iPhone.

Your probably wondering well then what in the heck do I need to do it for now? Well I jailbreak mine so I can have the application Backgrounder from Cydia, it allows you to multitask and do things like listen to Pandora while writing emails, something you can't do with your run-of-the-mill iPhone and iPod Touch.

I also have apps like Winterboard from Cydia that allow me to customize my home screen, change the look of my lock screen, and change the overall theme of my iPhone. I can make my iPhone look completely different than the way it does when you open the box for the first time. So much to the point where people will ask me what kind of phone I've got when it's in an unmarked silicon case.

Another good reason I would say to go for it is that it is easier than ever to jailbreak. In fact, programs such as BlackRa1n by GeoHot make jailbreaking as easy as plug and click.

What Are the Risks of Jailbreaking?

Now, although jailbreaking has become increasingly easier, there are still very complicated risks that go with it. If you have a newer iPod Touch or iPhone 3GS, or if you plan on unlocking your new device, remember what I am about to tell you...

An underground group of programmers known as the Dev Team, for the most part, spearheads all this jailbreak technology more or less without Apple's permission. Think of the Dev Team as the LA SWAT team with huge awesome guns trying to get into a barricaded building, which is the jailbroken iPhone software.

Every time they find a way in, Apple comes along and puts another barricade up with a software update that closes the entrance they had. Then they have to find another way in. They are currently working on jailbreaks for 3GS and iPod Touch software version 3.1.3, so if you upgrade to the newest version of the firmware, you will lose the ability to jailbreak at this time.

So it's just a best practice to check the latest firmware version jailbroken (see the Dev Team blog) versus your own (go to Settings > General > Status). Aside from the above mentioned risks, there's always the chance of your iPhone "bricking" or getting stuck in a non working state.

Several times during jailbreaks, mine would be stuck in phone purgatory for hours. Take just a few moments to browse any iPhone forum with jailbreaking topics and you're sure to find several comments along the lines of "help! I tried to jailbreak my iPhone and now it's been stuck on the Apple logo for hours, help!" or "Please help me, after jailbreaking my iPhone my GPS won't work."

So things definitely can go wrong, but generally it's user error. Usually plugging in your iPhone to your computer, starting iTunes, and holding power for 5 seconds, power and menu button for 10 seconds, and then just menu for 20 seconds, tells iTunes your phones fried and it will do a fresh install of your most recent iPhone software. For more information on getting your iPhone out of the constant reboot cycle, read this article.

Is Jailbreaking Legal?

UPDATE: Jailbreaking is now officially legal in the US

Now you're probably wondering if it's legal. Um… yes and no! The fact of the matter is that Apple has verbally announced that they believed jailbreaking to be illegal and an infringement on their copyrights by way of complaint to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, or EFF last January.

But, the EFF sided with the consumer and stated that the "reverse engineering is a fair use when done for purposes of fostering interoperability with independently created software," saying that yes, even though jailbreakers are using Apple's copyrighted code, they are doing so in a way that allows them functionality that Apple doesn't provide access to on their own.

On top of that, Apple's legal team is probably too busy dealing with Nokia, Fujitsu, and Psystar to chase after people who are trying to customize their home screens.

To be honest with you I'm sure Steve Jobs and company have sat down and gone over the risk/threat of jailbreakers and have discovered how much it really fuels iPhone/iPod touch sales. Don't believe me? Run a 24 hour poll on your blog and ask if users would still purchase iPhones if they couldn't be jailbroken in any way.

What to Keep in Mind

But the cat and mouse game with Apple shows no sign of stopping as the Dev Team is furiously at work to break into the latest iPhone software to release to the public. Jailbreaking gives you complete control over your iPhone from customizing to 3rd party apps that didn't for one reason or another end up on Apple's App Store.

In fact the Cydia store is home to a lot of misfit apps that fell victim to Apple's ever popular App screening process. Well, now that you've heard some background on jailbreaking, you've learned some of the benefits and risks, you may now make the choice, to jailbreak or not to jailbreak, that is the question.

If you decide to jailbreak, generally any app by the Dev Team such as PwnageTool or RedSnow is a safe bet, as long as the versions are compatible with your iPhone or iPod Touch firmware.

Lately BlackRa1n has been working well for me. It was literally a plug into usb port, launch program, click the button. I know Sebastien's got some great tutorials on how to jailbreak as well as BlackRa1n and other downloads that will get you started.

Still completely lost? Drop a comment or a tweet and myself or Sebastien can lend a hand.

Downgrade iPhone Baseband 05.12.01 to 04.26.08

Sébastien Page ∙ February 10, 2010

Last week I wrote about downgrading iPhone firmware 3.1.3 to 3.1.2 using an old trick. Unfortunately, this hack worked for downgrading the firmware but it didn't help downgrading the 05.12.01 baseband that comes with firmware 3.1.3 and makes it impossible to unlock the iPhone.

If you accidentally updated your iPhone 3G to 3.1.3 and lost your unlock, you're in luck! There is now a way to downgrade iPhone baseband 05.12.01 to 04.26.08 in a few simple steps thanks to Fuzzyband, an application available through Cydia.

Please note that this only works with the iPhone 3G on OS 3.1.3 with baseband 05.12.01 and the older bootloader 05.08. Let me repeat this so it's clear. This trick will only work for iPhone 3G 3.1.3 baseband 05.12.01 with bootlloader 05.08. This will not work for the iPhone 3GS.

If you're not sure about your bootloader, simply download and launch Fuzzyband and it will give you more info about your bootloader.

How to Downgrade iPhone Baseband from 05.12.01 to 04.26.08

Step 1: In order to downgrade your iPhone baseband from 05.12.01 to 04.26.08, you must first jailbreak your iPhone using RedSn0w, PwnageTool, or even Sn0wBreeze.

Step 2: After jailbreaking, launch Cydia, then search for and install Fuzzyband.

Step 3: Launch Fuzzyband then tap "Downgrade", which will start the downgrading process.

Step 4: Reboot your iPhone.

Congrats, you successfully downgrading your iPhone baseband from 05.12.01 to 04.26.08. You should now be able to unlock using UltraSn0w. If you're not sure how to do that, check out my tutorial on how to unlock iPhone 3.1.3.

How to Unlock iPhone 3.1.3

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated August 31, 2010

This guide and tutorial will show you how to unlock iPhone 3.1.3 using UltraSn0w or BlackSn0w, depending on your iPhone baseband.

The first step is to jailbreak your iPhone 3.1.3, either with RedSn0w or with PwnageTool. Note that PwnageTool is the preferred method as it helps preserve the baseband.

You can use UltraSn0w to unlock these basebands:

04.26.08 05.11.07 05.12.01 05.13.04

To find out what your baseband is, go to Settings > General > About > Modem Firmware.

How to unlock iPhone 3.1.3 with UltraSn0w Launch Cydia. Add the following source to Cydia repo666.ultrasn0w.com (note there is a “0″ in sn0w, not an “o”). After installing this source in Cydia, search for “ultraSn0w”. Install UltraSn0w and reboot your iPhone. How to unlock iPhone 3.1.3 with BlackSn0w Launch Cydia. Add the following source: http://blackra1n.com. After installing this source in Cydia, search for "BlackSn0w". Install BlackSn0w and reboot your iPhone.

Your iPhone should now be unlocked. If you have questions or comments on how to unlock iPhone firmware 3.1.3, please leave a comment.

UPDATE: This post is outdated. Check out our unlock section for the latest information about iPhone unlocking.

Jailbreak iPhone 3.1.3 with PwnageTool

Sébastien Page ∙ February 7, 2010

The Dev Team released PwnageTool 3.1.5 just a few hours ago. In this guide and tutorial, I will show you how to use PwnageTool to jailbreak iPhone 3.1.3.

Before we get into the details, please make sure you read this article by the Dev Team. It will explain to you what you can and cannot do. It is a very important piece of information that you should not overlook.

If at any point in time you updated your iPhone to firmware 3.1.3, then you also updated your baseband to 05.12.01. If that's the case, you will be able to jailbreak by downgrading to 3.1.2 first, but you will not be able to unlock.

PwnageTool will jailbreak the following 3.1.3 devices:

iPhone 2G iPhone 3G iPhone 3GS (old bootrom) iPod Touch 1G iPod Touch 2G (old bootrom)

If you don't care about unlocking, RedSn0w is still an easier and quicker way to jailbreak.

Note that this tutorial to jailbreak iPhone 3.1.3 with PwnageTool is for Mac and Mac only. There is no Windows version of PwnageTool and they will most likely never be. If you don't have a Mac, ask around and see if a friend of yours can help you out and create a custom firmware for.

Again, please make sure you read the information given by the Dev Team. It will answer most questions you may have.

How to Jailbreak iPhone 3.1.3 with PwnageTool

Step 1: Make sure you have the latest version of iTunes installed on your computer. If not, download and install it, then reboot your computer. Now make sure you backup your iPhone by syncing with iTunes, just in case something goes wrong.

Step 2: Download PwnageTool 3.1.5 and your iPhone firmware from our downloads page. Save these 2 files to your desktop.

Step 3: Launch PwnageTool. It should give you a warning message. Click OK.

Step 4: Select “Expert Mode”.

Step 5: Select your device then click the blue arrow to continue.

Step 6: If PwnageTool doesn’t automatically find the correct IPSW file, click “Browse for IPSW” and locate it (it should be on your desktop).

Step 7: You will now have several options. Choose “General” and click the blue arrow to continue.

Step 8: Under “General Settings”, you have the option to activate the phone or not. This is a very important step so please read carefully.

If you have a contract with an official carrier (such as AT&T in the US, or Orange in France, etc…), do not activate.

If you do not have a contract with an official carrier (ie. you want to unlock for another carrier), you have to activate. Then you will have to install UltraSn0w or BlackSn0w from Cydia in order to fully unlock the phone.

You will know you didn’t choose the right option if you don’t have signal after jailbreaking.

You don’t have to, but I suggest increasing the root partition size to somewhere around 700MB, just to be on the safe side. When you’re done, click the blue arrow to continue.

Step 9: You are now taken to the “Bootneuter settings”. All of them should be greyed out. Click the blue arrow to continue.

Step 10: You are now taken to the “Cydia settings”. From here, you may download packages so you don’t have to manually do it later. For example, you may download WinterBoard, which would be installed during the pwnage process. Let’s keep things simple and skip this step which is not necessary. Click the blue arrow to continue.

Step 10: You are now taken to the “Custom packages settings”. Make sure "Cydia" is selected.

Step 11: You are now taken to the”Custom logos settings”. You can choose to add the default logos (see below) or you can add your own logos. If you choose to add your own, make sure the images are not larger than 320 x 480.

Step 12: We’re almost done! You now have to build the custom IPSW. Click “Build” and click the blue arrow to continue.

Step 13: Save your custom IPSW to your desktop.

Step 14: PwnageTool will now start building your custom IPSW. Be patient… It can take up to 15 minutes.

Step 15: PwnageTool will ask you if your iPhone has been pwned before. If you’re not sure, just click NO.

Step 16: If your iPhone was previously jailbroken, you can skip to step 19. If your iPhone wasn’t already jailbroken, follow the following directions. If your iPhone isn’t plugged to your computer yet, plug it. Don’t open iTunes. If iTunes launches automatically, close it. PwnageTool will now deliver the payload.

Step 17: After successfully delivering the payload, PwnageTool will put your iPhone in recovery mode. Click OK.

Step 18: iTunes should pop up saying it has detected an iPhone in recovery mode and that you must restore. Click OK.

Step 19: We are going to restore your iPhone using the custom IPSW you built. In iTunes, hold the “Alt/Option” key and click “Restore” at the same time. DO NOT click “Restore” without holding the “Alt/Option” key! A dialog box will pop up and you’ll be able to choose the custom IPSW file you created that was saved to your desktop.

Step 20: Navigate to the “jailbreak” folder and select the custom IPSW we created.

Step 21: iTunes will now restore your iPhone using the custom firmware which could take a while, so relax. When done, your iPhone will reboot and you will now have a jailbroken iPhone.

That's it! Your iPhone 3.1.3 should be fully jailbroken, thanks to the good work of the Dev Team and PwnageTool.

In the future, make sure you do not update your iPhone firmware when there is a new one coming out. It will avoid many issues. Besides, these updates are very minor and useless. For what it's worth, I'm still on iPhone OS 3.0, and happy to be.

If you have any question or comment, please leave a comment.

How to Downgrade iPhone 3.1.3 to 3.1.2

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated August 31, 2010

As always when a new firmware is being realeased, there is always a few unlucky people who "accidentally" update or restore to the latest firmware, thus losing their jailbreak and unlock.

In this case, you'd usually want to downgrade your iPhone from 3.1.3 to 3.1.2 simply by downloading 3.1.2 and SHIFT + Restore in iTunes so that you can choose your own firmware to restore to.

The problem is that Apple recently stopped signing all previous firmware versions making it impossible for you to downgrade.

Fortunately, Saurik has been smart enough to create a system to bypass Apple's signature and making it possible for you to downgrade from 3.1.3 to 3.1.2. To do so, you will need to have your SHSH on file. To see if it's on file, launch Cydia and look at the top. Mine says "This device has SHSHs on file for iPhone OS: 3.0, 3.1, 3.1.2".

If you don't have this, make sure you look for a link that says "Make my life easier" on Cydia. This will allow you to save your SHSHs.

This being said, downgrading an iPhone 3GS from 3.1.3 to 3.1.2 is easier said than done. It's actually a pretty painful process that I detailed in a tutorial a few month ago. I originally wrote this tutorial to downgrade from iPhone 3.1 to 3.0 but the steps are exactly identical (MuscleNerd confirmed this).

If you're one of those who need to downgrade your iPhone firmware, then check out my tutorial, or simply wait for the Dev Team to come up with a reliable jailbreak for 3.1.3. Something tells me PwnageTool is not too far ahead of us ;)

UPDATE: If you have an iPhone 3G, you can now downgrade from baseband 05.12.01 to o4.26.08.

UPDATE 2: This post is slightly outdated. Check out this page for the latest information about downgrading your iPhone.

Jailbreak iPhone 3.1.3

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated August 31, 2010

Hours ago, Apple released iPhone OS 3.1.3 and as usual in this case, I recommended that you do not update if you care about your jailbreak or unlock.

Turns out we have some good news from the Dev Team. It is currently possible to jailbreak the iPhone 2G, iPhone 3G, and iPod Touch 1G running OS 3.1.3.

Update 1: [Don’t go near this if you have 3GS, newer ipt2G, or any ipt3G] Thanks to daring experimenters in the comments, we can confirm that yesterday’s redsn0w works for today’s 3.1.3 update for iPhone 2G. Just point it at the 3.1.2 iPhone 2G IPSW after doing update or restore to 3.1.3. So far we’ve only confirmed this for iPhone 2G. (Note that if this does work for iPhone 3G too, you can *only* use it if you don’t care about the unlock.)

Update 2: [Don’t go near this if you have 3GS, newer ipt2G, or any ipt3G] Can confirm that this method works for iPhone 3G and iPod touch 1G too. Don’t do it for iPhone 3G if you need an unlock though (really, don’t!). For older iPod touch 2G, we’ll need a small (1-character) change in redsn0w source.

What does that mean? It means that if you have an iPod Touch 1G, an iPhone 2G or an iPhone 3G, you can use RedSn0w to jailbreak your iPhone 3.1.3. If you care about ever unlocking your iPhone, DO NOT do this. Just wait and stay away from the update.

Here is what you have to do to jailbreak your iPod Touch 1G, iPhone 2G or 3G. First, update to the latest 3.1.3 firmware from iTunes, then simply follow the directions in my RedSn0w tutorial. Download the latest version of RedSn0w and when asked to choose for a firmware, make sure to choose 3.1.2.

This method reportedly works for jailbreaking the 3 devices mentioned above. It doesn't work for the iPhone 3GS and for other iPod Touches.

The Dev Team is currently working on it. I will update you as soon as we get more info. Make sure to check the jailbreak section for up-to-date information about jailbreaking.

UPDATE: This post is outdated. Check out our jailbreak section for the latest information about iPhone jailbreaks.

Jailbreak Your iPhone 3.1.2 Using Sn0wBreeze

Sébastien Page ∙ January 23, 2010

I had heard several times about Sn0wBreeze but I never really paid attention to it because it seemed to be one of these tools that would never get out of beta. I was wrong!

Today I received a couple emails from readers of the blog with more info about Sn0wBreeze, and Thomas even sent me a pretty detailed tutorial (thanks Thomas).

Sn0wBreeze is a jailbreaking tool developed by some underground developer and from what I understand, it's pretty much a rip off of Dev Team's PwnageTool, except it works on Windows. As a side note, it's important to highlight that the Dev Team came up with an update to RedSn0w (see RedSn0w tutorial here).

Just like PwnageTool, Sn0wBreeze will create a custom firmware for iPhone OS 3.1.2. This is the perfect solution for people who want to upgrade to OS 3.1.2 without updating their baseband.

I haven't tried this myself but as I said above, I got reports from 2 different people that it works flawlessly. Obviously, you should be cautious if using Sn0wBreeze...

This version of Sn0wbreeze only supports the iPhone 2G, 3G and 3GS (non MC) as well as the iPod touch 1G and 2G (non MC) so far.

This step-by-step guide and tutorial will show you how to jailbreak your iPhone 3.1.2 by creating a custom firmware with Sn0wBreeze.

Step 1: Make sure you have the latest version of iTunes installed on your PC. If not, download and install it, then reboot your PC.

Step 2: Download Sn0wBreeze as well as the right firmware 3.1.2 for your device from our download page. To make things easier, I suggest you place these 2 files on your desktop.

Step 3: Launch Sn0wBreeze and select "Simple Mode".

Step 4: SnowBreeze will then ask you to browse for your IPSW file. Click "Browse" and select the 3.1.2 IPSW file you downloaded to your desktop in Step 2.

Step 5: Sn0wBreeze will then verify your IPSW. Click Next to continue.

Step 6: Sn0wBreeze will now ask you if you want to activate your iPhone. If you are on an official carrier (ie. AT&T in the US), say no. If you are not on an official carrier, then click yes.

Step 7: SnowBreeze will now create the custom firmware for your iPhone.

Step 8: Now launch iTunes and we will restore your iPhone using the custom cooked firmware we just created. To do so, hit the SHIFT key on your keyboard while clicking on RESTORE. It's very important that you hold the SHIFT key while clicking! iTunes will ask you the location of the firmware you want to use to restore your iPhone. Browse for the custom IPSW (most likely on your desktop) and select it.

Step 9: Your iPhone will now be restored using the custom firmware. This might take a while so don't stress out.

Done! You have successfully jailbroken your iPhone using Sn0wBreeze. Next step for you might be to unlock your iPhone. Follow this guide to figure out how to unlock your iPhone, depending on what model you have.

Jailbreak iPhone 3.1.2 with RedSn0w 0.9

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated January 31, 2010

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.