meh, February isn't that far away.

rasbach

@MercuryPDX: Like I said above, if you have any trouble all it should take is a regular restore to the latest firmware, which is very simple to do through iTunes. I haven't heard any reports of a phone unable to go through that restore process after trying to jailbreak.

Adam Pash, LH Senior Editor

Your disclaimers are not thick enough, so thank you in advance for the "My iPhone broke when I hacked it, so I demand a refund" stories bound to flood Consumerist in the next few weeks. :)

MercuryPDX

Why February?

Leandro Ardissone

these posts come out every 2 weeks.

Joseph

I finally did it. It's great, and I wish I'd done it sooner. I do have one complaint though: the jailbreak process doesn't "Just work" as so many Apple products promise.The steps were so convoluted I thought I might end up having to sacrifice a chicken before it was all over.

I doubt the Apple-blessed SDK software that comes out in February will be able to compete on the same level. All it's going to take is one killer app that Apple can't/won't bless (Skype client, anyone?) and everyone is going to run to the hacked side.

mullingitover

I hate the thought that I might have to do this in order to simply use my Touch for something I was using my Nano to do -- namely, wake to a playlist. That was the best wakeup advice I ever got, and the Touch killed it!

bovious

@ScottTFrazer: Thanks for the heads up on that, and sorry about the unclear instructions. I've updated the post to make it more clear.

Adam Pash, LH Senior Editor

I downgraded yesterday on a WinXP SP2 Machine with iTunes 7.5

Worked like a charm.

ScummVM, Notes and ToDo installed. Now I got something really usefull instead of a a simple music/video player.

Ah yes, also, I was in recovery mode when I did this, I found the instructions on ipodtouchhacks.com:

Instructions:
[www.ipodtouchhacks.com]

Firmware download:
[www.ipodtouchhacks.com]

Awesome, awesome toy.

Cheers!

Woodwater

@Leandro Ardissone: apple releases the iphone/touch software development kit in february.

firesign

I've tried this numerous times with my iTouch (v1.1.2), and it fails every time while extracting the restore file in an attempt to downgrade to 1.1.1. It gives me an error that the iPod cannot be restored, and an error code of '5', or '10'. No other explanation.

Oh well I suppose.

frojo56

Your instructions for booting into recovery mode are a bit misleading.

This worked better for me:

Unplug iPhone from computer. Turn the phone off (hold power down for 5 seconds, slide red "power off" slider). Hold down home while plugging iPhone into computer, wait for recovery image to come up.

That said, on the iPhone I just bought last weekend the process hangs at the Jailbreak.jar's "Rebooting... Sending commands..." progress bar. 10 minutes now with no change. Here's hoping I can restore 1.1.2

ScottTFrazer

anyone heard of using the wifi connection bluetooth and skype account to use the iphone without a cellphone plan?

cave12man

@ScottTFrazer: Hey Scott, I just re-tested this and updated the instructions... before you run jailbreak.jar or windows.bat after you've restored 1.1.1, be sure to completely close out of iTunes. That should do the trick.

Let me know if that does the trick!

Adam Pash, LH Senior Editor

How long is the "Rebooting... sending commands" window supposed to hang around? Mine has been sitting there for 30 min...

Thanks!

opus1971

The problem with not being able to downgrade the ipod touch is that you need to download the ipod touch 1.1.1 firmware which is located at [appldnld.apple.com.edgesuite.net],1_1.1.1_3A110a_Restore.ipsw instead of the iphone firmware

thatsjustandy

Can I downgrade my iphone using a Powerbook G4, or do I need an intel-based mac?

prasanna57

I haven't tested it yet but i think a problem with jail breaking the ipod touch is that you are having us download the iphone 1.1.1 firmware instead of the ipod 1.1.1 firmware

thatsjustandy

@bishopneo: Make sure iTunes is closed when you run jailbreak.jar or windows.bat to finish off the jailbreak. That could be where it's going awry.

Adam Pash, LH Senior Editor

Gah... I get stuck at 'Uploading Installer.app files...' when trying to install the 1.1.2 Jailbreak. (yes I followed the rest of the instructions)

bishopneo

I downgraded my ipod touch to 1.1.1, WinXP SP2 machine running iTunes 7.4.3.1. I heard somewhere that iTunes 7.5 won't install 1.1.1? I'm not sure, but I'm not updating iTunes until February when the SDK comes out. I have yet to upgrade to 1.1.2, though. For the calendar add events function new for iTouch in 1.1.2, I used Touch Calendar Fix v1.0, available in Installer.app under Tweaks. Hope this helps someone.

hayden0103

Do I need an intel-based mac to do this? Or can I use my powerbook G4?

prasanna57

Is there a site somewhere which lists what the available apps are for the iPhone and Touch?
I wouldn't mind jailbreaking my Touch but it all depends on whats out there and if I'd use it!

hls811

Dang...I wish I would have tried this after you updated Adam. I sat like OPUS1971 for almost an hour. Finally gave up. It's reinstalling 1.1.2 now.

I night try later.

brenttrf

@Adam Pash, LH Senior Editor:

By the way - should iTunes ever report that it is set at 1.1.1?

theilliniguy

@Adam Pash, LH Senior Editor:
OK Adam I'll try this and report back in a while. Thanks.

theilliniguy

@theilliniguy: Try this link for the iPod touch firmware. I've updated it in the post above, but the change is taking its sweet time to go live.

Adam Pash, LH Senior Editor

Boy - I can't seem to get the downgrade to 1.1.1 done. I get to the iTunes error message, can run the windows.bat (checking SSH) to completion. When I go to jailbreakme.com and install to app, Safari never quits, or returns to menu. When I check the iTouch in iTunes again, it seems to still register 1.1.2??

Please post any help ideas - or clearer steps if I'm missing something. Thanks.

theilliniguy

@thatsjustandy: Thanks a lot for the heads up on the iPod touch link, I've updated the post.

Adam Pash, LH Senior Editor

One thing I did before I started was to restart my ipod touch by holding the home and power button. So I was jailbreaking on a freshly restarted ipod. Not sure if that had anything to do with it or not, but I didn't get an error after going back to 1.1.1. So I didn't bother running jailbreak.jar at that time. Hopefully there wasn't any other reason to run it.

Thanks for the instructions Adam. Having them backed by the Lifehacker brand gave me the confidence to tweak my brand new toy!

nad

Thanks Adam, I just saw that in your instructions. I downloaded using Safari and it unzipped the file for me which wasn't very helpful! I had to right-click and select Download Linked File As.
Thanks for the quick reply.

nad

@nad: It's the file you download above, which for the iPhone is:

iPhone1,1_1.1.1_3A109a_Restore.ipsw

The iPod touch filename will look like this:

iPod1,1_1.1.1_3A110a_Restore.ipsw

@theilliniguy: Yes, if you've downgraded successfully it should show up as 1.1.1 in the summary tab.

Adam Pash, LH Senior Editor

Trying to get to 1.1.1 - what is the name of the file I should browse to after Option Clicking on Restore?

nad

I did have to use the right-click SAVE AS... to get the iPod file, and then I had to rename it because Safari added a ".zip" extension.
I opened iTunes and option-clicked the restore, pointed to the newly renamed file, and the 1.1.1 update proceeded smoothly. No error at the end.
The jailbreakme.com site loaded AppSnap first try.
The Installer loaded OKtoPrep - no problem.
I opened iTunes and it offered an upgrade (I said yes)
Meanwhile, installed backgammon and beat the iPod while waiting for download to complete.
iTunes installed the update to 1.1.2 - alas, no more installer.
Ran the jailbreak.jar and pressed the jailbreak button.
My iPod rebooted at least three times (one very quick, 2 slow).
Now the Installer is back.

Happy Camper 1 - February 0

Thanks, Adam!

JimmyMTL

Worked great for me! Amazing, now my music player is a full fledged PDA!

armeck

Dunno if anyone is still reading this, but I have a question. On Ipod Touch, I downgraded to 1.1.1 and used jailbreakme.com to get installer.app. Now I have a ton of crap on my ipod that I love, but was wondering, if I update to 1.1.2 will I lose everything already installed after I update and jailbreak?

Also, the first time I ran the windows.bat (which I didn't have to do with 1.1.1 touch), it seemed to do nothing but hang at updating ipod.... Will it do it the same? I don't wanna risk updating to 1.1.2 and finding out I can't get installer, and have to do the whole (albeit simple) process over again...

Scazza

I did it with iTunes on Windows Vista, but iTunes just restored and installed the last formware, i couldn't select the firmware 1.1.1 i've downloaded...

Ivy

ugh... I had a jailbroken unlocked iPhone running 1.1.1 and I read this and thought I could upgrade to 1.1.2.
I think it is important that you not that jailbreaking is not the same as unlocking... and that by jailbreaking you are not also unlocking the phone (something I unfortunately had to learn the hard way)
I was able to upgrade to 1.1.2 following this guide, with no problems... of course, I couldn't make any calls, because the upgrade reset my unlocking... so now I have a wonderful jailbroken locked iphone.
In the process of unlocking the 1.1.2 phone I've gotten stuck in some sort of reloading loop.

Ravinss

Don't know if any one is still reading this, but some ADDITIONAL notes...

1. Make sure you have the latest JAVA installed otherwise it won't work
2. In Windows, make sure you close iTunes AND all iTunes related processes (e.g., iTunesHelper, etc.) from the Task Manager
3. Move your jailbreak folder to the root folder in Windows (e.g., C:\) and the desktop on the Mac (you may also have to rename your hard drive on the Mac temporarily to MacintoshHD)
4. It may not work the first time you try. If not, restore and start over.
5. Nothing bad is going to happen if you just remember you can always force restore and get back to the original firmware.

If you still have problems with the jailbreak, visit iLounge or iPod Touch Fans Forum - there are plenty of people there who can help you work out any problems...

Indiana Derek

How about the really clear step-by-step instructions at modmyifone.com? Their guides led me to success with every firmware version starting from 1.0.2. (YMMV; I am on a Mac in Canada and I sure don't use AT&T.)

kiwinerdgrrl

I performed the downgrade to 1.1.1 through iTunes on my Macbook Pro, and followed the suggested steps to run jailbreak.jar from the desktop.

When I use the "Boot from recovery" option, it reboots the iPhone. The iPhone shows the "Activate iPhone connect to iTunes" screen, and the jailbreak.jar app shows the "Rebooting" progress bar. It's been at least 10 minutes as this has been running - I assume that's not normal?

So basically, I can't get to Safari in order to perform the 1.1.1 jailbreak. Thoughts? Thanks in advance.

lateplate

Do you think it is possible that when 1.1+ or 1.2+ comes out that they will render the touch a brick if you upgrade from a jailbreaked version?

kylehayes

I had just finished "booting from recovery" when my iphone claims it lost a signal and couldn't be activated. I had just downgraded to 1.1.1, can anyone help me out?

saifuzz

I did everything to downgrade to 1.1.1, got the error message, and hit "Boot from Recovery" when i ran the windows.bat file. My iPhone started to re-activate itself then claims it lost a signal and cannot activate again. Can anyone help me out?

saifuzz

I guess I'm one of those that wasn't able to get this to work. I did the downgrade to 1.1.1 and that seemed to take OK, but then my iPhone wouldn't activate with AT&T. I tried a couple of times, then did a restore back to 1.1.2. I then had to pop my SIM card out and reboot inorder to re-activate.

Any ideas? Or am I now in the "wait and hope until february to get to pay for apps through itunes" group of n00bs?

camron

Does this working with iPhones that came preisntalled with 1.1.2? E.g. UK iPhones?

danzor

I'm not able to downgrade to 1.1.1. The downloaded file after unpzipped are stored in a folder called iPhone 1,1_1. There are 3 dmg files that require a password. Ans it seems that iTunes automatically updates to 1.1.2. Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?
thanks!

semmie

To me, a toy like the iPhone or the iPod Touch is just a tick too expensive to tinker with. Just wait till Apple enables the SDK and all will be fine. I don't see what the rush is (my iPod Touch does just fine without 3rd-party tinkers).

acesomeone

does the jailbreak allow me to use my existing at&t (cingular) sim without having to change my plan?

capoeira

It would be nice if you included precautions and steps that people must take when they are using their iPhone on T-Mobile (or any other GSM carrier that Apple does not want the iPhone to work with). I am pretty sure that there are extra steps required because these users can not readily access mobile Safari after updating firmware because the phone will require carrier activation again.

siestaguy

Forgive me if I post this twice:

I couldn't get the Restore to 1.1.1 to work. iTunes kept giving me an error message (1015, I think) and the only option I have is to restore to 1.1.2. Any thoughts?

Tenor05

I can't get my iPhone to downgrade. When I run the Restore using 1.1.1, iTunes gives me an error (1015, I think.) The only thing I can seem to do is restore back to 1.1.2. Any thoughts?

Tenor05

Does this work with iPhones that were recently bought, that come with 1.1.2 natively?

I heard it does not work for those phones.

Dracoy

I'm such a Mac-noob; when I downloaded the iPhone 1.1.1 firmware (linked above at time of post) with Firefox, it must have automatigically appended a .zip to the file name. If you end up with a .zip, just remove the .zip from the filename (..._Restore.ipsw.zip becomes _Restore.ipsw). Don't be a moron and unzip the file and browse the ipsw, like "someone" tried doing.

Happy Holidays,

/mla

ps, you lose extra credit points for the shameless book plug, Adam. ;)

hiwhoru

I really wigged out there for a minute; when I downgraded to 1.1.1, and rebooted out of recovery mode, the phone got picked up by iTunes and it activated it; but my "AT&T bars" in the upper-left corner of the phone weren't showing anything.

They were showing no bars, and no AT&T logo. I was using my home wifi, though, and was able to get to [jailbreakme.com] and followed the rest of the tutorial.

For me, everything seemed to go off without a hitch (aside from the above; hardly a problem). Here's to hoping everybody else reading this is the same. Happy Holidays, and good hacking!

benkreeger

i followed all the steps that was posted on here but im stuck on one part... i downgraded to 1.1.1 on the iphone and then i got it out of the error and stuff with the windows.bat (since i run windows vista) but the problem is i cant get any signal to go to jailbreakme.com it says Waiting for activation this may take a while and then i wait and nothing happens... so im confused if i did anything wrong or what ... can any1 help if so thanks :)

exterminat25

Windows users with a new iPhone (meaning 1.1.2 was there by default), these instructions mostly work.

I did the 1.1.1 downgrade as described in the main post. I did get the 1015 error. I tried using the Jailbreak application, and it hung on re-booting. This is probably where a lot of you are stuck, and I thought I was done for at this point.

I re-connected my iPhone to iTunes, and let it restore to my last save, and re-activate. I noticed it was listing 1.1.1 as the firmware. Awesome.

So, I went to the jailbreakme website via mobile Safari, and it ran flawlessly. The Installer.app showed up and I installed the OkToPrep app.

Right now, I'm in the process of doing the 1.1.2 update again. It's a 160MB download, so it'll take a few minutes. We'll see what happens after that.

Ebdain

@Adam Pash, LH Senior Editor:
That did it Adm - the Touch file is different than the Phone file. I did not get an error after downgrading either. Thanks!

theilliniguy

Tried to downgrade then jailbreak. Phone didn't activate. Rather than mucking around I decided to go back to 1.1.2 it works fine now but not jailbroken. anyone have a solution for those of us who get the no activation problem after downgrading?

pm3000

@acesomeone:
"my ipod touch does just fine without third party..."
How many times do people comment expecting the rest of the world to be in the exact same boat they're in? It's a big world, with millions of users - they're not all in the same boat. If I couldn't hack this thing I wouldn't want it. It becomes a million times more valuable to me when I can transfer files on and off it wherever I am. YOU might not have that need - but it's somewhat insular to think that nobody else does either.
People waiting for the SDK might find the released apps are everything they want. I doubt the apps will be as powerful as the ones I've installed already. This devices is a computer. Using it as anything less than that would be frustrating to me. But I recognize that everyone has their own needs. It's amazing how many people think everyone is just like them!

nad

Update:

Update to 1.1.2 went without a hitch. 1.1.2 jailbreak went without a hitch.

I now have a 1.1.2 Jailbroken iPhone.

Ebdain

I'm still running 1.0.2 on an iPhone. I've been curious about upgrading to 1.1.1 but fear losing the applications I already have installed. I have a couple I love that are no longer available. :/ I'm pretty sure upgrading to the next firmware version means I get wiped and have to get all the apps again.

Anyway, I can't wait for the SDK to see what new options will be available for me.

SorceressJade

For everyone who is worried about their phone not activating: go all the way through the jailbreak and after you install the 1.1.2 update, it will activate within a few seconds. I got scared when I couldnt activate my 1.1.1 phone and plowed through and then it worked like magic as soon as I updated to 1.1.2

milomindrbindr

AWWW MAN!!!

Hey all. Did anyone ever figure out how to get the phone working after the downgrade? I downgraded and "Activated" but it actually never activated and the signal is dead. How do i get this working again? Thanx all!

Email me if anything grem28 [at] gmail.com

grem28

Hey all, i found out the solution, for all those who are interested. Upgrade the whole thing. Go to v 1.1.2 with oktoprep. Make sure you follow the whole thing and you'll be straight

grem28

I had activated my phone a few days ago. When I read this article today, I decided that it looked like it was fairly safe to perform. So, I set out and followed each line verbatim... only to find out that when I flashed my new (1.1.2) phone to 1.1.1, it no longer was activated... or so it seemed.

I continued the steps (all the while, freaking out), hoping that it would fix the mistake in judgment I made. Fortunately, when I flashed it back to 1.1.2, it remembered my phone number and re-loaded my ringtones :)

Heucuva

UK iPhone 1.1.2 - the procedure eventually worked perfectly, though there was some deviation from the steps listed here.

1. iTunes didn't detect the iPhone when it was in Recovery mode, so I left it in standard mode and simply did a Shift+Restore with 1.1.1.
2. iTunes reported that the update (downdate?) was unsuccessful, but this is to be expected - the Boot from Recover Mode step worked (attention TENOR05 & FROJO56 - read the instructions!).
3. The Jailbreakified iPhone needed to be activated, so I restored it from the iTunes backup and activated the phone (you can't get to iTunes' Update option without this).
4. Updating to 1.1.2 took forever and failed the first time I tried it, leaving the iPod in recovery mode. Running the Jailbreak app and using Boot from Recovery again fixed it. The update worked the second time.
5. Success, though the final Jailbreak step takes a long time.

I then restored the iPhone back to stock 1.1.2 firmware, just to ensure that I could, then did the whole thing again successfully.

Call me Kenneth

Just did this.. amazing result. I only ran into one snag whilst jailbreaking. Now running 1.1.2 jailbroken!! :)

dirtywater99

Hi
Maybe it's just my fault, but i had a working, jailbroken and sim free 1.1.1 version (from 1.0.2 via iphone.unlock.no). After that i installed OktoPrep en went along with the iTunes update published here.

Now my phone says i have an incorrect SIM and downgrading to 1.1.1 results in errorcode 1015...

Can anyone help?

WaZ

okie, i restored the 1.1.1 software, the error message came up on iTunes, i quit iTunes, started the jailbreak,jar file, and the phone restarted, and is on the "Activate iPhone screen" and the jailbreak.jar is is stuck on "waiting for reboot...".....why is it stuck? what did i do wrong?

djamo

Help! everything goes fine until the final jailbreak of 1.1.2 it says that the jailbreak is complete and my phone will reboot a couple of times. it only reboots once and installer never shows back up. what am i doing wrong?

420dork

I got an iTouch for Xmas, and i was a little afraid to jailbreak it at first. After about a day, though, knowing i wouldn't always have wireless connextion around me for things like Youtube, i downgraded it and jailbroke it, and it's working great. I installed the SMB first and customize right after, and they seem to be the best. But am i able to use the Apolla IM on an iTouch? Btw, if anyone can help, can you tell me HOW i install 3rd party apps from my computer? I really need to know. And also, if you have any SMB Pref wallpapers or anything, please send them to me at sashi.yeager@gmail.com. Thanks!

Yeerby

Hi.
I have successfully jail break my new OTB 1.1.2 iPhone to 1.1.1
However I when I followed the last instructions to update it to a 1.1.2 jailbreak iphone, it went back to unlock and unjailbreak. I close the itunes, updated the phone to 1.1.2 and open the jailbreak.jar and somehow it keeps saying waiting to reboot... so in the end i revert back to 1.1.1
please help!

Janet52

For the most part these steps work but its the "option click the restore button" thats getting me stuck....

Kareem21

BY SEMMIE AT 12/28/07 05:51 AM
I'm not able to downgrade to 1.1.1. The downloaded file after unpzipped are stored in a folder called iPhone 1,1_1. There are 3 dmg files that require a password. Ans it seems that iTunes automatically updates to 1.1.2. Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?
thanks!

Does anyone know the solution to this? I am having the same problem

nestler16

You have no idea how much I want to hug you right now! <3

quintwinsfan

Must be sunspots or something ... I just put up a bunch of notes about hacking my iPod Touch, including jailbreaks, dealing with the free space issue, and getting Mail and other forbidden apps running.

Kareem21: if you're on a PC, shift-click the Restore button. If you're on a Mac, option-click.

Y'all: as far as I can tell, you don't need to go through the hold-both-buttons-down-until-you-get-recovery-mode rigamarole unless your iTouch or iPhone has been bricked. Plug it in, shift-click or option-click the Restore button, and the top-secret file menu should pop right up.

kentbrew