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Sunday 27 May 2012

Jailbreaking iPhone 4S iOS 5.1.1

Please note that you can only jailbreak an iPhone 4S 5.1.1 if the firmware is currently installed on the phone; you cannot upgrade from 5.0.1 or downgrade from 6.0 as Apple has stopped signing iOS 5.1.1. My advise for you is to remain on your currently jailbroken iOS. If you want to do anything, then make sure you save your SHSH blobs and try Redsn0w as it now "supports" iPhone 4S (A5 chips); please read the details on their website.  [Added Jan 4th, 2013]

If you have updated to iOS 6+, please see my iOS 6.1.2 jailbreak post [Added Feb 20th 2013]


In this post, I will explain my process of updating jailbroken iPhone 4S iOS 5.0.1 to iOS 5.1.1 UNTETHERED jailbreak.


Save SHSH blobs
[approx 5mins]

Backup Cydia apps
[approx 10mins]
  • Using Cydia, install APTBACKUP, OpenBackup and iBye
  • Press backup in all programs. 
  • I recommend more than one as I have not found one that's 100% reliable yet.
  • Read my iPhone Backups blog post for details

Backup iPhone to iTunes
[10-20mins depending on when you last completed a backup]
  • Connect iPhone to iTunes
  • Right-click on iPhone in iTunes and click on Transfer purchases. 
  • Once complete, click on Backup. 
  • Read my iPhone Backups blog post for details and other methods
  • (Whist you are waiting to backup, download the IPSW file in the next step)

Update to iOS 5.1.1 
[approx 10-20mins depending on internet connection]
  • Download the IPSW file for your device: LINK
  • Put your phone into DFU mode: Link to Instructions
  • Connect your phone to the PC and load iTunes 
  • Hold Shift + click Restore button  (Alt/Option + Restore on Mac)
  • Point the file to the downloaded IPSW 

(Reset all content and settings - do this step if you updated iOS via another method)
[approx 5-10 mins]

Jailbreak iOS 5.1.1
[approx 5-10mins]

Install some Cydia apps
[approx 5mins]
  • AppSync 5+, APTBACKUP, OpenBackup, iBye
  • This will allow all your previous apps to be transferred back to the iPhone during the restore process. 

Restore your iPhone
[approx 1-2 hours - depending on how much data you had on your phone]
  • Connect the iPhone to iTunes and RESTORE to the most recent backup point. 
  • Then Wait... wait... and wait some more.... 
  • This process restored most of the settings & data e.g. email settings, photos, SMS. I needed to re-input my giffgaff phone network settings. 
  • Note: during the restore process, iTunes created a new backup point and my mac required 8gb of space for my iPhone which currently has 16gb of data.

Sync apps and media
[approx 20mins]
  • In iTunes, click on SYNC. 
  • Half way through, my phone rebooted itself without completely restoring all my apps. After it rebooted, I simply clicked SYNC again, and all my apps were back. 

Restore Cydia apps & tweaks
[approx 20-40mins depending on server load and how many tweaks/apps you have from Cydia]
  • As jailbreak for 5.1.1 has ONLY just come out, I believe the cydia servers have been very busy/slow. Please be patient. 
  • I initially loaded APTBACKUP and clicked on restore and gave up after 10mins. I wasn't sure if it was working or not as there is not progress bar. It may have possibly been extremely slow due to the server load(?)
  • I used OpenBackup and clicked restore. This restored about 50% of my Cydia apps and tweaks. 
  • Following this, I went into Cydia, added the sources, and queue the tweaks/apps in small batches at a time to install. The restore process actually kept all my settings so as soon as the Cydia app/tweak was re-installed, it worked exactly as I had set it up e.g. SBSettings had the correct theme. 

Done!

If you are wondering what Cydia tweaks/apps to install, or wondering why you should jailbreak your device, have a read of my previous post: pangosworld.blogspot.com/2012/04/free-your-iphone-jailbreak-it_06.html

Other useful iPhone related blog posts found here: http://pangosworld.blogspot.com/p/iphone.html

13 comments:

  1. Just passing by, wanna say thanks to you, exactly what I'm looking for!

    ReplyDelete
  2. i lost my phone :( is there a way to wipe all the memories from my phone:(? help:(

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Go to iCloud website and login. From there, you may be able to wipe your phone remotely if setup correctly.
      www.icloud.com

      Delete
  3. DO NOT use OPENBACKUP it will delete your cydia resources and Cydia will not load.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have not encountered this problem personally...

      However, although I encountered problems with APTBACKUP during the write up of my post, I have since found it works flawlessly. When APTBACKUP worked, I simply did not use OPENBACKUP.

      Hope this helps.

      Delete
  4. While the iPhone 5 has appeared recently, jailbreak iOS 6 seems almost to be unveiled. Indeed Planetbeing have discovered a loophole that will be exploited immediately to allow all users the latest Iphone who wish to unlock. Planetbeing provides on his Twitter have found a way to bypass the lock and version of the iPhone 4S, which supports iOS 6 would also be concerned with the jailbreak. can you unlock iphone 4

    ReplyDelete
  5. Now that iTunes 11 is out, can I still update my iOS 5.0 to 5.1.1 on the 4S and jailbreak it?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Unfortunately no... not using iTunes. Apple updates will only allow you to update to the latest available iOS; you have no choice. The only way you can do this now is to use redsn0w (as long as you have SHSH blobs). As I have not done this myself, I do not have a tutorial... However, information can be found on redsn0w's blog: http://blog.iphone-dev.org/

      Delete
  6. Hey, I while restoring to 5.1.1 I got this error in iTunes 'The iPhone could not be restored. An unknown error occured (3194).'

    Please help xD


    Thanks,
    John

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi John,

      What iOS are you currently on and are you to trying to restore to? 5.1.1 again or iOS6? Did you want to remove the jailbreak or keep it?

      If you are trying to stay on 5.1.1, the error may be due to Apple not signing iOS 5 any more.

      Have a read of this post which may help:
      http://pangosworld.blogspot.com/2012/10/restoringdowngradingclearing-iphones.html

      Delete
    2. Hey,

      I'm using 5.0.1 and I am trying to update it to 5.1.1.

      But it's good now, I just wasn't able to update it using iTunes, I used redsn0w in that party and overall your guide is pretty great. Especially when backing up your cydia apps. Also, I may have messed up backing up my SHSH blobs and in using TinyUmbrella lol

      Thanks for this great guide man! Keep it up!

      Delete