Hack the iPhone

Restoring to 1.1.4 firmware

intel Mac & PPC





Updating firmware is meaningless to hacked or unlocked iPhones. Sure, you can click the Update button in iTunes. It will go through the motions and promptly fail. You'll then be told you must restore your iPhone because a "problem" was encountered. So I won't be covering updating. Updating is really only for people who don't modify, or unlock their iPhones.

You can restore the iPhone to any firmware you want. It doesn't matter what firmware is currently on the iPhone. Restoring is for putting any version of firmware onto the iPhone, even putting older firmware onto it (also referred to as downgrading). Keep in mind, restoring erases the entire contents of the iPhone and puts all settings back to their default state. There is absolutely no reason to put any firmware on your phone other than 1.1.4.

Step 1.

Regardless of what firmware you are on, if you click the Restore button it will restore and update your iPhone to the latest firmware/software (if not already on the current firmware). This firmware is downloaded over your Internet connection from the Apple server. Since a new firmware could come out, it's safest to download the current firmware to your computer and keep it some place where it won't get deleted on accident. When you restore this way you are protected from accidentally restoring to newer firmware that could lock you out of your iPhone. It's also faster since iTunes doesn't have to download anything.

First, download 1.1.4 firmware from Apple here. Do not decompress this file. It should have a .ipsw file extension on it. If it decompressed, rename the .zip to .ipsw.

In this scenario I'm connecting an iPhone with 1.1.4 firmware on it, (that is already unlocked) and Option clicked Restore.




A file browser window opens. In this case I'm going to put 1.1.4 back on to the iPhone. I navigate to the folder where I have the 1.1.4 firmware already stored. I select the .ipsw file and click Open.




Here are all the messages that go by while this process takes place.




Once the restore is finished you will see this screen on iTunes (only if you put an AT&T SIM in it).









Here's what you'll see on the iPhone if restored to 1.1.4 firmware. You should have a carrier logo and signal bars, this restore will not wipe out your unlock since you are staying on the same firmware you unlocked on.




At this point simply follow my Step 1 tutorials and use either iLiberty+ or PwnageTool to reactivate, jailbreak, and unlock. If you used PwnageTool to unlock you should just restore with your custom ipsw and iTunes will automatically activate, jailbreak and unlock your iPhone.