Comments on: My Epic Jailbreak Fail, and How You Can Learn From It

By: Jim

Jim — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 19:52:21 +0000

jhrogersii, you are the man. Jdonner, your life sounds upset.

By: jhrogersii

jhrogersii — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 04:54:35 +0000

Ah, a real “expert” in our midst. The next time I hear of someone looking for an IT guy that never makes a mistake or falls victim to their own arrogance, I will be sure to pass your name along. Unless, of course, the job also requires someone who can comprehend sarcasm and self-depricating humor.

By: Jdonner

Jdonner — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 23:29:53 +0000

And what’s up with using Windows XP with its DLL hell and security issues anyway? “Expert” my ass….

By: Jdonner

Jdonner — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 23:09:56 +0000

Just the history of Windows and its upgrades should have been a hint that things would probably not be a whole lot different with this iOS4 Iphone project.

By: Jdonner

Jdonner — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 23:06:33 +0000

I’m an expert myself, working in the IT since ’87, but I have seriously doubts about your self-proclaimed “expertise” if you didn’t jailbreak a clean machine instead of one that was already jail-broken. Seriously, how could you’ve acted so noobish….sigh

By: jhrogersii

jhrogersii — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 05:06:23 +0000

Thanks Solange. I almost mentioned Backboard in my article, but ended up deciding not to. I actually had it installed briefly, but removed it after I had issues with Winterboard crashing. I don’t do jailbreak themes, so I had no interest in trying to get it to work. Backboard requires Winterboard to be installed, so it went with it.

I know I heard people complain the Winterboard caused crashes and severe issues, so I am still a little leary of it. How has your experience with it been, overall?

Thanks for the iFunbox recommendation. I’ve heard of it before, but I have always just used WinSCP. However, while it works fine, it isn’t the most intuitive program in the world. I think I may just have to switch. I will just use it in conjunction with AppBackup, as it compresses its backup files.

Thanks for the complement iGnome. I appreciate it. I am not sure where those files are stored on the device. If anyone else out there has an idea, feel free to let us all know. That would be a great thing to save out individually when setting up an iOS device as new.

By: iGnome

iGnome — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 23:57:28 +0000

Very useful article- after spending so much time on your jailbreak I think it’s great that you went the extra mile to write this so thank you very much.. When I went from 3.12 to 4.0 I restored from a back up and was pretty sure that my battery life took a big hit. So when I went from 4.0 to 4.1 I set up from new. The thing I found most irritating was all of my wifi networks that I no longer automatically connected to because I had lost the stored access passwords. Is there any way of finding the list of these and where they are stored and anyway of loading them all back in? Thanking you all in advance….

By: Solange

Solange — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 19:41:51 +0000

I always restore as new, just to be on the safe side. I used Backboard, and didnt even have to set up my folders or app screens again, it put them all back in their place, it saved me a ton of time. Instead of using Appbackup to backup the data of some of my game apps, I just used Ifunbox to SSH in and backed up the folder of the app itself, and then after installing my apps in I just replaced the contents of the new folder with the old folder, and all my games were as they were.

I bought Pkgbackup and used it to restore my Cydia repos and apps. It also claims to backup your pictures from Camera Roll, but that didnt work for me and I ended up losing my pics. But for just Cydia stuff, it was worth it.

I really thought alot of just staying on 4.1, but I wanted to be able to use free Mobileme tracking, and not have problems with certain apps in the appstore telling me that I have to upgrade to 4.2 just to let me install. Im glad I upgraded to 4.2, I have mobileme, can install all apps with no problem, and all the cydia apps I use seem to be compatible. Im glad I made the jump….

By: jhrogersii

jhrogersii — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 19:15:11 +0000

Ricardo, I not exactly following you. When you do the upgrade from 4.x to 4.2.1, you have two options after the initial upgrade process is finished and your phone restarts. The first is to restore from a backup. This is the default option in iTunes after an upgrade. It automatically selects your most recent backup, and if you just hit next, that is actually what you are doing. You also have the choice to select a different backup file from a drop down menu if you have more than one.

Second, you can set your iOS device up as new. You have to actually go in and select this. Unless I am mistaken, there isn’t another way to do an iOS upgrade.

As for my experience, I am now wondering if it has to do with my long-running save file. I can’t tell you when the last time I set my device up as a new phone. I have never done it on my iPhone 4, and I honestly don’t remember doing it on my 3GS. I should probably do it the next time out, however. There are almost certainly artifacts left from several previous jailbreaks of different sorts hiding in that backup.

By: Ron McCall

Ron McCall — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 19:12:16 +0000

Wish I had found this article before I spent the past weekend in much the same quandry as described here. I finally managed to un-brick my phone, using my son-in-law’s computer to complete the 4.2.1 upgrade, then re-jailbroke the phone. I had run PkgBackup, which stored everything in DropBox. However, doing a full restore from there did not go so well. I have been chasing gremlins for the past couple of days, and think I finally have the device functioning as I want it to. My worst problem: probably due to having installed Wi-Fi Sync on the iMac, which prevented it from validating the upgrade. Have since learned how easy it is to fix the iTunes Error: 1013.

All in all, this description sounds much like my experience for my upgrade this past weekend.

By: Erik

Erik — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 17:40:42 +0000

I had the same 1013 error, when I tried to update my software from 4.1 to 4.2.1. It forced me to have to do a restore. So I restored, still same error. So I look into the error and find its the TinyUmbrella host file issue. So I change the host file, two times mind you because I forgot you have to run notepad as administrator to save the changes. Then I tried to restore again and it worked this time! I did restore from backup. Jailbreak went smooth, cydia installed fine. I chose to manually install all my packages in cydia as i usually do. Just made a list prior to all of this, then after my fresh jailbreak I installed them all manually. Didn’t take too long honestly. In the future I’m going to pass on Tinyumbrella for backing up shsh’s, I just use shshit in cydia for now.

By: Ricardo

Ricardo — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 16:39:44 +0000

I don’t know if this would work on the phone but I just did the untethered jailbreak on my iPad. When i did the restore to 4.2.1 in iTunes, I unplugged it when it finished. I did not set up as new or restore from backup. I just went to Greenpois0n. After Greenpois0n did it’s thing, I connected to iTunes and restored from backup. I had no issues.

By: Jay

Jay — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 15:20:58 +0000

Excellent article! This would have served me well when I struggled with my jb on iOS 3.1.3

I successfully used Greenpois0n to jb after upgrading to 4.1.2 – and didn’t restore as a new device! YIKES! I guess I got lucky!

By: jhrogersii

jhrogersii — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 13:54:52 +0000

Thanks guys. In retrospect, if you don’t have an Apple TV or a particular HP printer, then jailbreaking on 4.2.1 probably isn’t going to be a big deal. The main features you gain are AirPlay, which I think is cool but don’t really have a use for, and AirPrint, which is still crippled. 4.3 will be here soon, and I would hope an untethered jailbreak for it will come faster this time.

Anyway, I’m glad my suffering will help someone. Good luck with your jailbreak, Rob.

By: Renkman

Renkman — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 10:41:55 +0000

Another_EPIC_review–good job! Thanks for the invaluable, well documented insight. I will go into my JB later tonight armed and dangerous.

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 09:25:03 +0000

Great article fella.
I have decided to keep at jailbreak 4.1 and not bother upgrading.
Apart from being at the bleeding edge and having 4.2.1 i dont see what actual day-day advantages it offers me so I’ll stick with a stable iphone and save myself the hassle!

You just saved another human.

By: Tweets that mention My Epic Jailbreak Fail, and How You Can Learn From It | iSource -- Topsy.com

Wed, 09 Feb 2011 08:04:46 +0000

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