Confused, scared, cold, and lonely

[Lombardo Joe]

Aaaand dramatic.

So, I've been floating around these forums for a few days now, and I think I may have learned a few things. First of which is that I still feel like the transfer student who can't find his way around the halls, and that everyone will probably find out that he's not cool. This is quite depressing as high school ended years ago.

Firstly, I wanted to ask about ECID SHSH Blobs. When I finally made the decision to pursue jailbreaking, I immediately updated to 4.2.1; in retrospect this was probably a bad idea. Am I correct in thinking that without the SHSH, I absolutely cannot downgrade back to 4.1? Because if that's the case than all I can do is make sure to get my current SHSH for next time.
EDIT: I now know there is no going back.

My second question may be something that has been posted about, but if it is I've certainly overlooked it a few times. When I 'backup' with iTunes, I know my settings, apps, and music are saved. In terms of pictures/video/notes/whatever, those need to be done manually, correct? In a sticky I read something about a Cydia program called 'Pkgbackup', but having never jailbroken this would not be an option for me. What did you all do to get the full backup the first time you jailbroke? Also, say I have an app that saves my usernames and passwords (Password Keeper). Does information within those apps stay?

Lastly, if I don't plan on unlocking the phone, will baseband ever even matter to me? Don't tell anyone (I don't want to look foolish), but despite knowing what baseband is, I don't really know why I should care about it at this juncture in time.

Thanks for your patience if some of these questions are indeed recycled. This isn't exactly time sensitive stuff, since I don't plan on jailbreaking without an untethered method. I just want to be prepared.

[moon#pie]

First off, sorry that you don't feel welcome here. Come give papa a hug!

Answer to your second question. This is the best way to save app-data if you're jailbroken.
How to restore as "new", and keep your appstore app data/saved games

as for photos, import them using your favorite photos application. Under the info tab on your iphone in itunes you can select to sync notes.

I believe that pkgbackup is for cydia applications.

Feel free to ask if you have any more questions!

[Lombardo Joe]

First off, sorry that you don't feel welcome here. Come give papa a hug!

Hahahah, sorry, I didn't intend to come off that way. I absolutely do feel welcome here. My introductory post was hit with many welcomes from moderators as well as new people like myself. I meant that it feels like this site moves a mile a minute and I'm struggling to learn the basic principles of what I'll be looking at when I finally do jailbreak. I guess I thought that it would be as simple as jailbreak and enjoy. There are more details than I had anticipated.

But thank you again for your post!

[whereswaldo]

Welcome muchacho

[moon#pie]

No problem. Did i get your question answered?

Welcome muchacho

get out troll!!!

[iDigapwne]

Hey Joe!

Yep, if you don't need to unlock to switch your phones carrier, then you don't have to worry about the whole baseband thing.

Have a nice day!

[moon#pie]

Hey Joe!

Yep, if you don't need to unlock to switch your phones carrier, then you don't have to worry about the whole baseband thing.

Have a nice day!

He is correct. sorry i missed that one.

[Lombardo Joe]

No problem. Did i get your question answered?

Eh... Kind of? Your solution for app-data uses a method if you're already jailbroken. I can't use it, as I have never jailbroken. I kind of wanted to get it all locked down before I jailbreak, just incase I'm that 1% of people who bricks.

Yep, if you don't need to unlock to switch your phones carrier, then you don't have to worry about the whole baseband thing.

Thanks, brah!

[moon#pie]

Backing up will automatically save that app data. My solution is for those who need to do a clean restore (which you should always do when unjailbreaking or upgrading)

[Lombardo Joe]

Backing up will automatically save that app data. My solution is for those who need to do a clean restore (which you should always do when unjailbreaking or upgrading)

Clean restore... I've heard the term thrown around before. Are you saying that when you have a jailbroken iOS (let's say 4.1) and you want to upgrade to the new firmware (let's say 4.2.1), you should revert to a 'clean restore (pre-jailbreak) so that the upgrade to the new firmware is safer? And then you jailbreak again?

EDIT: Also, battery life. I've heard mixed reviews on what jailbreaking does for it. I noticed in the post you recently commented on (about the guy who ranted about how Apple needs to wake up) you mentioned something about the battery life that comes with a jailbreak. Is it really as bad as 20 minutes, or were you exaggerating?

[i.Annie]

1) clean restore usually means to set the phone up as new and not restore from backup, HOWEVER, prejailbreak restoring from backup is usually harmless. I've restored from a prejailbroken back up and my devices are fine. But I don't recommend restoring from back up on a device that has been jailbroken before as the leftovers from jb can be causes of problems b/c it carries over some things.

2) battery drain with the new unlock is usually the problem and not with the jailbreak itself. Since you won't be unlocking, that's not a concern for you.

P.S. good job on doing your research, you've seem to have a good understanding we usually appreciate people who search before posting lol, it's easier for us to help.

[Lombardo Joe]

1) clean restore usually means to set the phone up as new and not restore from backup...

Ahh. Formatting. Gotcha.

P.S. good job on doing your research, you've seem to have a good understanding we usually appreciate people who search before posting lol, it's easier for us to help.

Thank you, miss. I moderated a pHp/BBCode-style forum for a few years; I remember the headache of people blowing right over the stickies.

[i.Annie]

Lol who reads stickies anyway?

[iYeow]

Most of members who are desperate for help don't read the sticky..LOL

[glttrgrl]

Hi Joe,

I'm really new here too, although I've been lurking since August. I first JB my phone (3G, then 4) this summer and I think it's definitely worth it. But the thing I most feared was the clean restore! Got forced into doing one of those in October when my iphone 4 boot looped after installing something from Cydia. It was not the end of the world but it would've seemed like it had I not pre-researched what to back up.

JB or not, a clean restore will also:

-erase all of your SMS and MMS messages
-erase your contacts
Neither of which are possible to re-install from an iTunes backup in a clean restore scenario (someone else here, please correct me if I'm wrong about the contacts).

Depending on how you feel about this, it may or may not be an issue. I text all the time and like having a little archive, it's almost like a diary. So I back them up separately from time to time with a small program that I bought before I JB, when I knew a lot less about my iphone. I think there may also be free ways to do this on a non-JB phone, I'm not sure.

I sync my contacts through the Contacts Sync app/ my.memova.com which has worked great for me after restores on multiple devices and importing them to my new iPad. I would recommend it highly if you don't sync your contacts to your computer via MobileMe or Exchange or google. So texts and contacts are the two things, besides photos, that you'll perhaps want to manage by backing up manually, because a clean restore will wipe them out.

It's good to have these things backed up anyway since even if you're not JB, if you have to call or go to Apple for help, one of the first things they will ask you to do depending on the problem is a clean restore (they'd probably call it "restore and set up the iphone as a new phone" or something like that, similar to the wording in iTunes when you need to check that option during the process). And if you mess around with JB enough, awesome and fun and useful as it is, at some point you probably will hit a snafu that leaves you no choice but to do a clean restore. Backing up for me = way less anxiety and potentially sadness over lost pics or contacts.
Hope that helps.

[i.Annie]

Just FYI contacts are easily synced with iTunes. Just go to info tab and sync to either a third party or the windows address book. Saves the contacts to your pc, once you've set up as new just sync them from the address book right back in.

[blkcadi]

Just FYI contacts are easily synced with iTunes. Just go to info tab and sync to either a third party or the windows address book. Saves the contacts to your pc, once you've set up as new just sync them from the address book right back in.

Thought that was common knowledge, but I guess not.
Great job Annie.

Most of members who are desperate for help don't read the sticky..LOL

Prolly 1 out of 10 times perhaps, most just start the same thread that has been asked/posted quite a few times already. lolz

[i.Annie]

Lol yes but the previous poster wasn't aware.

[blkcadi]

Loved the title of the thread too, cute.

[glttrgrl]

What are the third party options for syncing contacts? I have a PC but don't use MSExchange for email and don't have it (or want to have it) set up for any use, since mine's Office 2003. I use gmail for all my mail and calendar needs, but I don't want to use google to sync contacts and have my gmail contacts merged in, or have my iphone contacts purged/rewritten. I haven't looked into this for a while but when I first set up my 3G I think that's why I went the route I described. I didn't want to use Exchange or Google, or pay for MobileMe. (This was also before they changed something about syncing with google to make it somehow easier, not sure of the details but I remember the announcement).

Sorry, don't mean to hijack this thread, just trying to learn.