How to restore everything to how it was before I updated?

[teamew]

Ok, so I have updated to 4.2 from 3.1.2 and it's on my top 10 list of biggest mistakes of my life. Nothing seems to work as I want, half of my favourites from Cydia do not function in 4.2, and for some reason when I apply a theme like ILLUMINE, it covers 5% of my icons.

Is there any way to just restore it to what it was earlier today?

I spent the entire evening trying to fix everything instead of doing something important and I just feel like crap for upgrading/thinking it would be nice... Damn I wish there was a reverse button in life.

[iYeow]

Jailbreak at 4.2.1 without sound knowledge = Disaster.
You didn't mention you device ?
You will need shsh to downgrade, without it , nothing can be done.

[teamew]

I've got an iPhone 3GS. I will look into downgrading with SHSH - will everything be reset to normal?

Thanks bud

[iYeow]

No , downloading shsh with the help of tiny umbrella only tell you that you can proceed to downgrade if you have shsh blobs.

[teamew]

Thank you for the answer iYeow. Still, my question remains - does this reset my iPhone to what it was earlier today?

[iYeow]

NO, Your iphone stays at what you are, nothing change until a restore is performed.

[teamew]

Let me rephrase my question - after I do all this (including a restore) will it change things to what it was earlier today?

Or am I better off doing a complete restore and just write down all my contacts/save pictures and restart from the beginning at 3.1.2 firmware?

[iYeow]

After a restore, you will be seeing an iphone like you just bought it from the store.
You can sync with itunes to get back your contacts, photos , notes and videos. Emails , you will have to set up your account again.

Same principle as you format and reinstall your computer OS.

[teamew]

Ok, thank you. My problem is that I have formatted my PC several times since I synced my phone with iTunes. I made a backup today in iTunes though before I updated etc. If I restore to factory default, how do I use this backup? To at least get notes etc.

[iYeow]

After the restore, you can setup as a backup restore but your newly restored firmware has to be equal to or greater than the fw you used to back it up.

[teamew]

Ok, thank you. My brain is exhausted, I feel terrible so I'm going with that. If I have lost all my data and the backup isn't successful, I will not use my iPhone anymore. Thanks for your help iYeow, I really appreciate it