JailBreaking is the art of hacking iPhone to unlock supreme and unimaginable features. However, apple does not support jailbreaking and thus it is not very easy to find a solution to jailbreak the iPhone. So I have made up a Jailbreak Guide with Jailbreaking F.A.Q. here, where I will try my best to answer all your questions related to Jailbreaking iPhone and iPad. Please bookmark this page for future reference. It will be Updated for new Jailbreaks. Please select a question from the list below.

Questions

• What is Jailbreaking?
• Why should I Jailbreak?
• Is Jailbreaking reversible?
• Is Jailbreaking legal?
• Difference between Tethered and Un-tethered Jailbreak
• How to jailbreak iPhone and other devices?
• How to start installing jailbreak apps and hacks
• For all other questions and queries, Contact Us.

Why do we need a Jailbreak Guide?

Apple iOS keeps on changing, and so do the jailbreaks. Thus, new things are continuously evolving and new questions keep on arising. A jailbreak guide is needed to answer such questions. You can click on any question from the above list to know about it. If you want to know anything that we have not involved, please ask it in the comment section.

What is JailBreaking?

Before we get to know how to jailbreak, let us first understand what on earth Jailbreaking means. iOS is the operating system in mobile apple devices like the iPhone. Now iOS is a very secure and closed Operating System. Thus, no apps can modify anything in the system or any system feature. Apps can only be installed from the App Store and they can not change anything in the system like themes or looks or colors. This barrier is removed by Jailbreaking the iPhone. Or in other words, the process of removing this limitation on the iOS is known as Jailbreaking. After removing this limitation, one is free to do anything with its iPhone’s system and not only what is present in the app store.

Why Jailbreak?

Now the question arises what is the need of Jailbreaking. What the App Store contains is more than required but that is not all. There are numerous other things that you may need to Jailbreak for. Anything which you cannot do with any app from the app store can be done by Jailbreaking. Lets discuss a few examples so that you understand why it is useful to jailbreak.

Suppose you want to add a theme to your iPhone, like other mobiles can do. But you can not do it with iOS basic options. So, you can Jailbreak and then you can access over 1000 themes which you can add to your iPhone, some of which can completely change the way you look at your Phone.

Suppose that you want a custom ringtone for your iPhone, and not a ringtone from the default library. You ask yourself this question that you can do this in cheap and local Nokia phones and not in your iPhone? But if you Jailbreak your iPhone you will be able to do this.

If you jailbreak, there are applications that let you do what you would not have imagined. For Example, a Jailbreak app Activator lets you set custom functions for various gestures. With the jailbreak app Activator, you can set your iPhone to open your contacts when you shake your Phone. Some Jailbreak apps allow you to modify existing apps to add functionality etc. These are just very few of what you can actually do with a Jailbreak. Check out our Hacks Category to see what you can do with Jailbreaking your iPhone.

Is Jailbreaking Reversible?

One of the biggest things that concerns people thinking about Jailbreaking is that if they could reverse Jailbreak or simply unjailbreak their devices. The answer is yes. It is very easy and safe to reverse a jailbreak on your iPhone or iPod.

For information on how to reverse a jailbreak of un-jailbreak your device, please refer to this post that we posted.

• How to Reverse an iPhone Jailbreak

Is Jailbreaking legal?

Another question the arises in people who want to jailbreak is if jailbreaking is legal or not. The answer to this question depends on how you interpret jailbreaking. Many people think that jailbreaking means getting all apps from the app store for free. This is not the truth. Yes, you can get pirated apps by jailbreaking but that does not mean the you can only use jailbreaking for piracy. Therefore, jailbreaking your iPhone and using all sorts of hacks like Activator and is legal, but using jailbreak to download pirated apps that are already on the app store is illegal. Thus, you must use jailbreak only to use third-party apps and hacks and not to download pirated apps.

Please do not use Jailbreaking for piracy. It is illegal and discouraged.

Please note that if you do not download apps present on the app store, jailbreaking is legal.

Tethered vs Un-tethered Jailbreak

Before we go into Jailbreaking, you need to know the two basic types of jailbreak. The two types are called Tethered and Un Tethered Jailbreak. In tethered jailbreak, once you restart or reboot your iPhone, you will loose your jailbreak. On the other hand, untethered jailbreak is permanent on your machine and it remains even if you restart your machine. This does not mean that you cannot remove untethered jailbreak. You can reverse or remove untethered jailbreak by restoring your iPhone from iTunes. Please read this post to know how you can remove an untethered jailbreak : How to Reverse an iPhone Jailbreak.

Of the two classifications of jailbreak, untethered jailbreak is better and is more preferred as it is permanent and it is not removed by restarts and reboots. Tethered jailbreaks are preferred for Temporary jailbreakers.

How to Jailbreak your iPhone

So now the main question arises that how to Jailbreak iPhone and other apple devices (iPad and iPod). Because apple keeps on fixing vulnerabilities, new loopholes and flaws have to be detected to Jailbreak new devices. There can not be an all in one solution to Jailbreak all iPhone and iPad. Thus this list will be updated whenever there is a new version of iPhone and iPad mentioning how to Jailbreak it. Please refer to the list below with your iPhone model and iOS version to know how to jailbreak an iPhone. Also, before updating to new iOS check here if it can be jailbreaked.

My device is running…

iOS 5.1.1

iPhone 4S ,  4 or 3GS |  iPad 1 , 2 , 3 | iPad 1 , 2 , 3 -

• Jailbreak iOS 5.1.1 Tethered using Absinthe 2.0

iOS 5.1

iPhone 4s, iPad 2 & 3 – Update to iOS 5.1.1 and follow above procedure.
Other Devices - Update to iOS 5.1.1 and follow above procedure.

iOS 5.0.1 

iPhone 4S, iPad 2 – Absinthe (untethered)
Other Devices –  redsn0w and corona.

iOS 4.2.6 – 4.2.8 or iOS 4.3 – 4.3.3

All devices – Open Jailbreakme.com on your iPhone with safari.

Other iOS 3.xx etc.

All Devices - Open Jailbreakme.com on your phone with safari and look for options.

Disclaimer – Let it be known that we are not the developers of these apps or jailbreaks. The guide is intended to be used for educational purposes. The authors are not responsible for any loss or damage of data and your iPhone / iPad respectively. Our purpose is solely to educate people about jailbreaking and not piracy. We are against piracy and strongly discourage it.

Please share your experience of jailbreaking below. You may also ask queries via comments below. If you have some information on jailbreaking or questions, please comment below to add it to the jailbreak guide.