With the imminent launch of the evasi0n jailbreak for nearly all iOS 6.x devices, one of the frequently asked question is what do I need to prepare for the jailbreak.
So in this article, I try to answer that question based on previous jailbreaks and the information provided by the evad3rs dev team.
Support:
Before preparing for the jailbreak, it is important to understand if your iOS device is supported. The good news is that the evasi0n jailbreak will support all iOS devices except for Apple TV 3. So as we’ve reported earlier, the following iOS devices will be supported:
- iPhone 5, iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS
- iPad 4, iPad 3, iPad 2, iPad mini
- iPod touch 5G, iPod touch 4G
- Apple TV 2
The evasi0n jailbreak will also support iOS 6.1, iOS 6.0.2 (iPhone 5 and iPad mini), iOS 6.0.1 and iOS 6.0.
It is also important to note that evasi0n will only allow you to jailbreak your iOS device and it won’t unlock your iPhone, if you depend on software unlocks then you should stay where you are and wait for tools like PwnageTool and Sn0wbreeze that allow you to update to iOS 6.1 without updating your baseband and also wait for Ultrasn0w to be updated for iOS 6.x.
Back up:
iTunes:
Back up your iOS device using iTunes. Connect your iOS device to the computer that you normally sync to, launch iTunes, then select your iOS device. Then click on the Back up Now button to manually take a back up of your iOS device,
PkgBackup:
If you have jailbroken your iOS device, then you can use jailbreak apps like PkgBackup that will take a backup of the Cydia tweaks, in addition to the preferences and SpringBoard files. It also gives you the option of storing your backup on Dropbox.
Restore to iOS 6.1:
As we have mentioned earlier, the evasi0n jailbreak supports iOS 6, iOS 6.0.1, iOS 6.0.2. So if you’re on iOS 6.0.x then you can choose to stay where you are or update to iOS 6.1.
If you want to update your iOS device to iOS 6.1, it is important to note that the evad3rs dev team has warned against updating over-the-air (OTA) i.e. updating directly from your iOS device.
They’ve strongly recommended to restore to iOS 6.1 using iTunes (and restore from the back up), which is the reason why I talked about taking a back up of your iOS device using iTunes.
The OTA is not recommended as it apparently adds additional encryption to the update package that will likely cause the jailbreak to fail. MuscleNerd also mentioned that OTA is more time consuming to test and it gives different SHSH blobs than the normal restore.
If you’ve upgraded your device to iOS 6.1 using OTA update then don’t worry, you can still use the same approach. Take a back up of your device and restore using iTunes (and restore from the back up).
If you still hit an issue when the jailbreak is released then you may have to do a clean restore, which is not ideal as you end up losing all your data and settings, but is the only solution.
Save SHSH blobs:
As always, it is always a good habit to take a backup of the SHSH blobs, so you always have the option to downgrade back to iOS 6.1, if you accidentally update your iOS device to a new iOS software update (whenever Apple releases one).
You can check out our step-by-step guide on how to save SHSH blobs. Remember to deslect the “Request SHSH from Cydia” option in the Advanced tab if you’ve never jailbroken your iOS device.
That’s it. Your iOS device should be all set for the evasi0n jailbreak, which may be released on Sunday, February 3. We’ll keep you updated on the latest jailbreak news so please don’t forget to join our Facebook Fan page or follow us on Twitter or add us to your circles on Google+ or subscribe to our RSS feed.
Hope this helps. If you’ve any questions, please feel free to ask them in the comments section below.
