Possible to restore data from iOS 4.3.3 to iOS 4.1 downgrade?

[dshoup]

My 3GS recently died an untimely death. My most recent backup was on a jailbroken version of iOS 4.3.3. A friend is letting me use an old 3GS until my contract ends. His phone was on iOS 4.1 when I got it. I used TinyUmbrella to backup SHSH blobs for 4.1. Given that Apple is only signing blobs for 4.3.5 and beta 5.0's (which require tethered jailbreaks) I would like to stay at 4.1 and restore my old phone's data to a jailbroken iOS 4.1. I have successfuly used TinyUmbrella to restore the phone to a jailbroken version of 4.1. However, after iTunes installs the firmware and asks me to select a backup to restore, it tells me the backup cannot be installed because the software on the iphone is too old. Is there any way around this? I'd really like to get my backed up data (from iOS 4.3.3.) onto 4.1 if it is possible.

[Scoops98]

I think you're hooped. Gonna have to do a fresh 4.1 and start again. I don't know of any why to extract data out of the backups.

[keenpois0n]

know if it's an old bootrom 3GS? if it is you get untethered 4.3.5. check with idetector I think its called

[xboxbml]

Yeah apple still signing 4.1 for 3GS...if u don't have blobs for THAT phone for 4.3.3 ur sol...won't be able to restore to 4.3.3....didn't u have everything sync'd in iTunes? I always have apps and music and vids on my pc, and always copy down my pics n vids I took with phone to pc in pictures folder, delete off phone camera roll, then sync back. I Sync with outlook calendar and contacts. So I could chuck this phone and still have everything...sync back to new one without dealing with an iTunes backup! No version issues!....if u don't have everything backed up somehow outside of an iTunes backup, sorry....can't help much..

[dshoup]

Well, I got lucky...my replacement phone is an old bootrom model so I am happily jailbroken with no tethering on 4.3.5. In case it will help others, I did find that you can edit an iTunes backup to try and make it compatible with an older iOS version. I'll give the instructions in case someone following this thread in the future can use this. You need to go to C: \Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\[backupfolder] where [username] is the username on your computer (i.e., parent directory for your "my documents" folder if you use WindowsXP) and [backupfolder] is the name of the folder from the most recent backup you want to use. You need to find the Info.plist file in that directory and edit it with a text editor like wordpad (make a backup copy first). The info I found online suggested just changing build version and product version, but that did not work for me. I tried to change everything I knew which included:

<key>Build Version</key>
<key>ICCID</key>
<key>IMEI</key>
key>Product Version</key>
<key>Serial Number</key>

The proper string for each of these can be easily found by going to the configuration utility on the phone and selecting general then about. Once I changed all of these, iTunes was willing to restore that backup. Unfortunately, it did not work well...it restored music, pics, and apps, but did not restore app data or settings (e.g., wallpaper and such). However, this is much better than starting from scratch if you have no other options.

[xboxbml]

Wow...good to know. Thanks for the info....so what iOS version did u end up on??

[dshoup]

I'm on iOS 4.3.5...and it is untethered because the phone I am borrowing is a 3GS with the old bootrom (newer 3GS and all iPhone 4's would be tethered on 4.3.4 and 4.3.5). Some times it's better to be lucky than good.

[Itai Y. Zemah]

It's not an old baseband, it's the BootROM/iBoot