Preparing Your iOS Device for the evasi0n iOS 6 Jailbreak

[Anthony Bouchard]

Well, it’s finally coming. The team of iOS hackers, known as evad3rs, have officially announced the evasi0n jailbreak tool for jailbreaking your iOS 6.0, iOS 6.0.1, iOS 6.0.2, or iOS 6.1 iOS devices. It will be out very soon! It will support all of the following iOS devices:

• iPhone 3GS
• iPhone 4
• iPhone 4S
• iPhone 5
• iPod touch 4G
• iPod touch 5G
• iPad 2
• The New iPad (third generation)
• iPad With Retina Display (fourth generation)
• iPad Mini

If you have one of these devices and you’re looking forward to jailbreaking it untethered on iOS 6, you’re not alone; we are too!

Should you want to prepare your iOS device for the imminent iOS 6 jailbreak, we’ve put together a few recommended and optional steps that you might want to follow so your iOS device(s) will be ready to be jailbroken on the latest iOS firmware.

Step 1: Back Up Your Personal Data

This is a pretty important step. You should always back up your data before a jailbreak just to ensure that you won’t lose any of your data if something goes wrong and you need to restore your device so you can start over. You can back up by one of two ways: 1. Via iTunes; or 2. Via iCloud. iCloud may be easier, but iTunes will be the most secure and fool-proof method.

Step 2: Download iOS 6.1 From iTunes, Not OTA

iOS 6.1 is the latest firmware that can be jailbroken by evasi0n. It’s also the most secure firmware, and the same firmware that most jailbreak developers will be working on jailbreak tweaks for. If you want to ensure that all of the about-to-be-released jailbreak tweaks you want to download after you jailbreak will be compatible with your iOS device, we recommend being on iOS 6.1 instead of staying at iOS 6.0 or iOS 6.01 or iOS 6.0.2. Some jailbreak developers may not have access to these legacy firmwares, and so jailbreak tweaks may not be created for them. So just do yourself a huge favor, and grab iOS 6.1!

Step 3: Do A DFU Mode Restore to iOS 6.1

A DFU mode restore is different than a regular restore, because when in DFU mode, your entire iOS image is replaced, while a regular restore just reverts all your old settings back to their factory defaults and keeps the original iOS image while replacing the user space and boot loader with new ones. The DFU mode restore helps ensure no corruptions, and this is exactly what you’ll want for a fresh jailbreak. To do this, just put your device in DFU mode, open iTunes, and Shift+Click (Windows) or Option+Click (Mac) the Restore button in iTunes and point iTunes to the iOS 6.1 firmware you downloaded in the last step.

Step 4: Restore From Your Backup

This is optional, as you can always set a device up as a new device if you want to, but if you backed up your data and want all of that data to carry over to your fresh install of iOS 6.1, you can restore from your backup either from iCloud or from iTunes. Just remember, restoring from your backup can re-introduce corruptions that may have been present in your backup to your freshly restored iOS 6.1 firmware. So be prepared to decide if restoring from the backup is worth it. Note that iCloud can automatically sync your Contacts, Notes, Passbook contents, E-mails, Calendars, Reminders, and Safari Bookmarks to your freshly-restored iOS device without the need to restore from a backup.

Step 5: Save Your SHSH Blobs for iOS 6.1

There is currently no use for iOS 6-iOS 6.1 SHSH blobs on most devices, since the APTicket vulnerability that was available in iOS 5 allowing us to restore between iOS 5 firmwares is not existent in iOS 6, however if hackers find a way to circumvent the system in the future, it would be a good idea to have your SHSH blobs saved. We recommend this as precautionary measure. You can save your iOS 6.1 SHSH blobs with either TinyUmbrella or redsn0w.

If you’ve followed the five simple steps above, then your iOS device(s) are nice and fresh and ready for the iOS 6 evasi0n jailbreak. ModMyi will keep you updated on the progress of the tool, and alert you upon its release. Stay tuned!

[b1997469]

I prepared by going back to 5.1.1 today as most of the jailbreak apps I use arn't IOS6 compatible so if your still jailbroken on 5.1.1 WAIT and make sure your apps are IOS6 compatible before updating then finding out you will loose all the apps you jailbreak for like I did.

Lucky enough I got an iPhone 4 and all the backups and stuff so I can downgrade to 5.1.1 without major hassle. (Until the power button breaks and then its a major hassle like I found out.)
Did you know if you got a broken power button you CANT downgrade and jailbreak? Nope you cant do it without sn0wbreeze and make a custom IPSW and jailbreak that way. RedSn0w refuses to work without DFU mode and as a broken power button cant get into DFU mode you cant use Redsn0w to jailbreak.

[Anthony Bouchard]

I prepared by going back to 5.1.1 today as most of the jailbreak apps I use arn't IOS6 compatible so if your still jailbroken on 5.1.1 WAIT and make sure your apps are IOS6 compatible before updating then finding out you will loose all the apps you jailbreak for like I did.

Lucky enough I got an iPhone 4 and all the backups and stuff so I can downgrade to 5.1.1 without major hassle. (Until the power button breaks and then its a major hassle like I found out.)
Did you know if you got a broken power button you CANT downgrade and jailbreak? Nope you cant do it without sn0wbreeze and make a custom IPSW and jailbreak that way. RedSn0w refuses to work without DFU mode and as a broken power button cant get into DFU mode you cant use Redsn0w to jailbreak.

I highly recommend against waiting.

If Apple were to release a quick update like iOS 6.1.1 that couldn't be jailbroken any time soon, some users wouldn't be able to get to a jailbroken firmware.

And you saw how quickly they stopped signing iOS 6.0.2 this time.

Just wait for compatibility, that's my best advice for this situation.

[Xtafi2002]

Is step 3 required?

[Bradhowzer]

That's incorrect b1997469 - redsn0w has a feature that creates an IPSW file that puts the device in DFU mode then you can jailbreak/downgrade! Just restore to IPSW created by redsn0w!

[Anthony Bouchard]

That's incorrect b1997469 - redsn0w has a feature that creates an IPSW file that puts the device in DFU mode then you can jailbreak/downgrade! Just restore to IPSW created by redsn0w!

This cannot be done with iOS 6, unless you're using a limera1n device, which many of us are not anymore.

[Xtafi2002]

Is step 3 required?

[aidanharris]

Is step 3 required?

Yes. Better to be safe than sorry since there were so many different problems with the iOS 5 jailbreak due to minor inconsistencies between different devices and they way they were restored. It's better to be safe than sorry but with evad3rs taking their time that signifies that they want to get it right IMO and ensure that there will be no problems jailbreaking any device.

[2k1]

Thanks for the write up very handy

[rcm]

I have the same issue, I expect some cydia apps not to work when the jailbreak is released, but I know eventually they will be updated, and some actually work regardless of the ios version.

[ritchdan]

I prepared by going back to 5.1.1 today as most of the jailbreak apps I use arn't IOS6 compatible so if your still jailbroken on 5.1.1 WAIT and make sure your apps are IOS6 compatible before updating then finding out you will loose all the apps you jailbreak for like I did.

Lucky enough I got an iPhone 4 and all the backups and stuff so I can downgrade to 5.1.1 without major hassle. (Until the power button breaks and then its a major hassle like I found out.)
Did you know if you got a broken power button you CANT downgrade and jailbreak? Nope you cant do it without sn0wbreeze and make a custom IPSW and jailbreak that way. RedSn0w refuses to work without DFU mode and as a broken power button cant get into DFU mode you cant use Redsn0w to jailbreak.

If you are using a mac then in redsn0w you can create a ipsw that will make your iPhone go into DFU, its in Extras, then Evan more. Hope this helps.

[chriscoyne]

I'd recommend get a Cydia App iCleaner to clean your iPhone of old Temp Files etc. also, Cydia App PKGbackup and upload all your Cydia App and Mods and Tweeks to a Cloud Service. This way once Newly Jailbroken you can re-install PKGbackup and Restore all your Mods at once. Granted some Mods won't be 6.1 ready but you can remove those that cause issues. I think most are ready. Just Saying.

[filabeaner]

What should I do if I already upgraded OTA?

[thevmax]

I prepared by going back to 5.1.1 today as most of the jailbreak apps I use arn't IOS6 compatible so if your still jailbroken on 5.1.1 WAIT and make sure your apps are IOS6 compatible before updating then finding out you will loose all the apps you jailbreak for like I did.

Lucky enough I got an iPhone 4 and all the backups and stuff so I can downgrade to 5.1.1 without major hassle. (Until the power button breaks and then its a major hassle like I found out.)
Did you know if you got a broken power button you CANT downgrade and jailbreak? Nope you cant do it without sn0wbreeze and make a custom IPSW and jailbreak that way. RedSn0w refuses to work without DFU mode and as a broken power button cant get into DFU mode you cant use Redsn0w to jailbreak.

Get Your Power Button FIXED...

[Anthony Bouchard]

What should I do if I already upgraded OTA?

I would recommend following all 4 steps above

[pang2000]

can somone tell me how to backup my data and were it is saved?

[aidanharris]

can somone tell me how to backup my data and were it is saved?

Backup using iCloud or iTunes. If you are already jailbroken then use iCloud or iTunes for your application data and settings and get a backup application like pkgbackup or iBye.

[bcwyatt]

On step #3 ... What if i already update to 6.1 ( iPhone 4S ) on iTunes that i click right away without download firmware. Yes, my phone been jailbreak before. Do i download firmware from another site and start all over to step 3 ?

[Dirty Dobb]

Just did this and it worked out great!! Plus the good news is I got AT&T to unlock my phone 6 months ago and just now am able to use the unlock due to me updating to 6.1.

[rackha]

My iPhone 4 is jailbroken on 5.1.1 if I upgrade and restore to 6.1 through iTunes won't that wipe everything. So do I need to still do step 3 ?