How to

Tutorial: Jailbreak iPhone 3G on 3.1 Using PwnageTool

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated October 3, 2009

This guide and tutorial will show you how to jailbreak your iPhone 3G running firmware 3.1, using PwnageTool for Mac OS X. So far, only PwnageTool is available for jailbreaking the 3.1 iPhone 3G and it is only for Mac. I believe a RedSn0w method for both Mac and PC will be available soon.

1. Make sure you have installed the latest version of iTunes (iTunes 9).

2. On your desktop, create a folder called "jailbreak" or whatever name you want to give it. It doesn't really matter. Download PwnageTool 3.1 and the 3.1 IPSW (iPhone1,2_3.1_7C144_Restore.ipsw) from here and save them into the "jailbreak" folder. Note that you should download the firmware using FireFox as Safari often brings up issues. Also note that the PwnageTool download link is a torrent and you will need a torrent downloader (ie. uTorrent) to download it.

3. Launch PwnageTool. It will give you some sort of warning. Just click OK. On the next screen, choose the "Expert Mode".

4. Select your iPhone model and click the blue arrow to continue.

5. Browse for the IPSW you downloaded in step 2. You should then get a green check mark.

6. You will now be offered several options. Choose "General". Make sure the "Activate the phone" box is left UNCHECKED if you use an official carrier (such as AT&T in the US, Roger in Canada, etc...). This is very important. If you are not using an official carrier, then CHECK "Activate the iPhone".

7. Increase the root partition size to 700 MB. This is not necessary but it is safer. Then click the blue arrow to continue. Click the blue arrow one more time to skip the bootneuter settings, which aren't available for the iPhone 3G.

8. You will now have the possibility to pre-install a few packages from Cydia so you don't have to do it manually later. I will skip this part. Click the blue arrow to go to the next step.

9. You will now be in the "Custom packages settings". Make sure Cydia is selected and you may want to select Icy as well. For what it's worth, I do not use Icy. I only use Cydia but you're free to select both if you want. Whatever you do, make sure at least Cydia is selected. Click the blue arrow to continue.

10. You can now set your own "Custom logos settings". I don't use any but again, you can choose the one pre-selected or you can even upload your own. If you choose to upload your own, remember the logo mustn't be bigger than 320 x 480. Click the blue arrow when done to continue.

11. It is now time to start the pwnage process. You should be on the main options screen offering you 6 different options. Choose "Build" and click the blue arrow to continue.

12. You will now have to save your custom IPSW file. Save it in the "jailbreak" folder we created in step 2.

13. Your custom IPSW firmware will now be built, which may take up to 15 minutes, so be patient.

14. You will most likely be asked for your administrator password. Fill in the blanks and click OK.

15. You will then be asked if your iPhone has been pwned before. Just answer "No".

16. Now is the most important step. You will first be asked to turn off your iPhone. Follow the instructions on your computer screen to put your iPhone into DFU mode. Basically, you have to hold the home and power buttons together for 10 seconds, then release the power button but still hold the home button. If done correctly, PwnageTool will tell you you successfully entered the DFU mode.

17. If iTunes hasn't launched automatically, open it. iTunes should tell you it has detected an iPhone in recovery mode. Click OK.

18. 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 window will pop up and you'll be able to choose the custom IPSW file you created in step12 that you saved in your "jailbreak" folder.

19. iTunes will now work on restoring your iPhone using the custom firmware.

20. Done! You will now be offered the option to set up your iPhone as a new phone or restore from a previous backup. I personally like to start fresh and I always choose to set it up as a new phone, but it's your choice.

21. You should now see the Cydia icon on the second page of applications on your iPhone. Congratulations, you just jailbreaked your iPhone 3G 3.1 with PwnageTool.

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

Fixed: iPhone Stuck On Apple Logo

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated January 9, 2020

Sometimes when jailbreaking an iPhone or after installing a jailbreak app, your iPhone will get stuck on reboot, or will hang on the Apple logo. This problem happened to me before and it was kind of a nightmare. In order to get your iPhone back on track, you will have to put it in DFU mode (Device Firmware Update mode). This will help you restore your iPhone without loading the OS first.

Could Not Activate Cellular Data Network: You Are Not Subscribed to a Cellular Data Service

Sébastien Page ∙ August 29, 2009

If you recently updated your iPhone firmware, or jailbroke/unlocked your iPhone to use it with a different carrier, you may have encountered the following error: Could Not Activate Cellular Data Network: You Are Not Subscribed to a Cellular Data Service

This error often appears after jailbreaking and/or unlocking and it is mostly characterized by the fact that your iPhone can't connect to the internet using the cellular data network, and you can't send text messages anymore.

The first thing to do in that case is to reset the network settings and reboot your iPhone. If it still doesn't work, then there is a more radical fix that will put everything back on track.

First, get on wifi and visit this website http://www.unlockit.co.nz/#_Custom from your iPhone. You should see this page, which will allow you to create a custom APN.

Under "Carrier", tap the drop down menu and choose your carrier. Note that there are many carriers listed there and that it might take you a bit of scrolling down to get you where you want. So choose the right carrier and tap "Done". This should populate the custom APN info.

Once the custom APN fields are populated, tap "Create Profile" and wait a bit. It will exit Safari, and take you to the settings application. Finally, just tap “Install” and this will set up your custom APN on your iPhone. Reboot your iPhone and you should now have Edge and 3G connectivity.

Edit Videos on Your iPhone 2G or iPhone 3G

Sébastien Page ∙ August 21, 2009

iPhone Download Blog reader kper sent me a very good hack for iPhone 2G or 3G owners who would like to have the same video editing capabilities as the iPhone 3GS. Basically, this allows you to view the videos you record with Cycorder or VideoRecorder directly in your Camera Roll. Additionally, you can trim the videos, exactly like on an iPhone 3GS.

How to Sync Yahoo Calendar With Your iPhone Calendar

Sébastien Page ∙ August 19, 2009

A couple months ago, I wrote an article on how to sync Google calendar with your iPhone calendar. Until now there was no way to sync Yahoo calendar with your iPhone calendar but Yahoo wrote a blog post about how to do that over the air.

It's very simple but it does require you to run the latest 3.0 firmware. It is also important to note that "once you start syncing your Calendar with your iPhone you will be upgraded to Yahoo! Calendar Beta automatically. You will not be able to go back to the old calendar product once this is complete".

How to sync Yahoo calendar with the iPhone:

1. Go to Settings > Mails, Contacts, Calendars >Add Account > Other

2. Tap "Add CalDAV Account"

3 . For the Server settings, simply type "yahoo"

4. Type in your Yahoo! username and password you use to signin to your calendar.

5. Click "Next" and it should verify your information.

6. You're done :)

Next time you open the calendar app on your iPhone, you will be able to choose to view your Yahoo calendar. Every time you will load the yahoo calendar, it will sync over the air.

How to Fix Cydia Crashes

Sébastien Page ∙ August 14, 2009

A lot of people who recently jailbroke their iPhones are having issues with Cydia crashing when launching it. There is a quick and dirty fix for that and it requires to either SSH into your iPhone or use iPhoneBrowser and delete a few files.

Apparently the problem is caused by some corrupted repositories that make Cydia crash within the first few seconds of loading it.

To fix this, simply navigate to /var/lib/apt/lists and delete all the files in this folder except for the folder called "partial".

Then reboot your iPhone and launch Cydia. It should load without crashing.

GeoHot Releases PurlpleSn0w iPhone 3GS Unlock

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated January 29, 2016

A few days after releasing PurpleRa1n, the first iPhone 3GS jailbreak, GeoHot has now created his own iPhone 3GS unlock called PurpleSn0w.

Wifi fails? Battery fails? Unlock fails? You need purplesn0w, the geohot 3GS unlock solution. Now I know you here a lot about different colors of sn0w, but I'm here to tell you why purplesn0w is the best. First off, what is purplesn0w? It's a soft unlock for your 3GS that I'd actually use day to day. It's not a daemon that takes any resources, and it doesn't add a task to your baseband. It's very close to a true unlock. All it does is patch three files, CommCenter, lockdownd, and your wildcard activation plist(which you need, activate w at&t sim first, no hacktivation support yet).

Many users reported losing wifi connection and not being able to get any signal after unlocking their iPhone with UltraSn0w, so hopefully PurpleSn0w will get better feedback.

Follow these steps to install PurpleSn0w:

First your iPhone has to be jailbroken (see jailbreak guides) Launch Cydia and add this source: http://apt.geohot.com Install the com.geohot.purplesn0w package Reboot your iPhone Done!

If you want to unlock your iPhone for T-Mobile, make sure you disable 3G in the settings.

GeoHot also posted technical information about PurpleSn0w. If you're into dissecting lines of codes, GeotHot made the source code available for you to play with.

Protect Your iPhone With An Alphanumeric Password

Sébastien Page ∙ July 13, 2009

You can easily passcode protect your iPhone by going to Settings > General > Passcode Lock. However, this only gives you the ability to set up a 4-digit code. If you're a security freak and want to add an extra layer of protection to your iPhone, there is a simple hack that will let you create an alphanumeric password of as many characters as you want.

How to enable MMS on iPhone 3G 3.0 With T-Mobile

Sébastien Page ∙ July 11, 2009

iPhone Download Blog reader Charlie sent me this simple hack to enable free MMS on the iPhone 3G running 3.0 with T-Mobile. Note that this hack only works for T-Mobile on the iPhone 3G.

First, go to Settings > General > Network > Cellular Data Network.

Add the following in MMS field:

APN: wap.voicestream.com Username: leave blank Password: leave blank MMSC: 216.155.174.84/servlets/mms MMS Proxy: 216.155.165.50:8080 MMS Max Message Size: leave blank MMS UA Prof URL: leave blank

Again, this only works if you have T-Mobile. It does not work with other carriers.

Feel free to contact me should you have iPhone tips and tricks you want to share.

Tutorial: Unlock iPhone 3GS With UltraSn0w

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated August 1, 2009

This short tutorial will show you how to unlock your iPhone 3GS using UltraSn0w. Unlocking your iPhone 3GS will allow you to use your iphone with any cellphone carrier in the US and in the world, assuming they use SIM cards.

Before starting, make sure this is the latest tutorial on unlocking the iPhone 3GS by visiting this page.

Unlock iPhone 3GS Guide:

First you have to jailbreak your iPhone 3GS. Read my RedSn0w tutorial on how to do that first. It should take about 10 minutes and it is a necessary step to be able to unlock your iPhone.

After jailbreaking your iPhone 3GS, follow these simple steps to install 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.

That's it :)

Tutorial: Jailbreak iPhone 3GS Using RedSn0w

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated July 31, 2009

This guide and tutorial will show you how to jailbreak your iPhone 3GS using RedSn0w. After jailbreaking your iPhone 3GS, you will be able to unlock it using UltraSn0w should you want to.

Note that this tutorial is for the iPhone 3GS but the steps are the same for the iPhone 2G, iPhone 3G and iPod Touch 2G. Read this for more information about the jailbreak that best fits your needs. This was done on a PC but I assume the steps are the same for Mac and Linux.

Jailbreak iPhone 3GS Guide:

1. First, make sure you have the latest version of iTunes installed on your computer. If you have to update iTunes, make sure you restart your computer after installing the latest iTunes.

2. On your desktop, create a folder called "jailbreak iPhone 3GS" or whatever you want to call it. In this folder, download firmware 3.0 for your iPhone 3GS and RedSn0w 0.8 from here. Unzip the RedSn0w folder.

3. Launch RedSn0w and browse for the 3.0 firmware you downloaded in the previous step. RedSn0w should be processing the chosen firmware and tell you that the IPSW was "successfully identified". Click Next.

4. RedSn0w will start working for a few seconds and then will ask you what you would like to install. You can install Cydia and Icy. I highly suggest you only install Cydia. Choose Cydia and click Next.

5. We'll now have to connect the iPhone 3GS in recovery mode. To do so, unplug it from your computer, turn it off and wait a few seconds. Then hold the home button while plugin your iPhone to the USB cable. Keep holding the home button until the "Connect to iTunes" image appears.

6. Your iPhone will then go into recovery mode and that's when the magic happens... RedSn0w will install the jailbreak, which may take a few minutes.

7. Your iPhone will restart and install a bunch of stuff. . Even though RedSn0w says "Done!", wait until the very end to click "Finish".

8. After a few minutes, your iPhone will restart. Then click "Finish".

9. Go to your iPhone springboard and you should see the Cydia icon. Note that the icon may be on the second or third page on your springboard.

10. Done!

It took me about 10 minutes to jailbreak my iPhone 3GS, including time to take screenshots and write this tutorial. It was from far the quickest and most painless jailbreak.

iPhone Jailbreaking and Unlocking Guides

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

I just added 2 new pages to the blog's navigation bar: jailbreak and unlock. I will make sure to keep these pages up to date with the latest tutorials on how to jailbreak and/or unlock your iPhone.

If you have a look at these pages, you will see that it's pretty straightforward: look for the firmware you want to jailbreak/unlock, then choose your device (2G, 3G, or 3GS) and click on the appropriate guide.

I decided to create these 2 pages because it might be a little hard for newbies to figure out what they're supposed to do or even how to search for information on this blog. This way, I make it dead simple for everyone to find relevant and clear information on both jailbreaking and unlocking the iPhone.

Note that I am starting this page with the latest 3.0 firmware. By now, most people have updated their iPhone to 3.0 and it wouldn't make much sense to list previous tutorials I wrote.