The first jailbreak for the iPhone 4S and iPad 2 became available to the public last week, and many are jailbreaking their A5-based iOS devices and trying out new tweaks from Cydia, the jailbreak equivalent of the App Store.
Whether you’re new to jailbreaking or an experienced veteran, it’s easy to run into problems. We’ve collected some useful tips and tricks for jailbreaking your iPhone 4S and iPad 2.
Tips And Tricks
Backup And Restore
Before you jailbreak with Absinthe, you want to back up your iOS setup and data to either iCloud or iTunes. If something happens to go wrong during or after the jailbreak, you’ll want to have a recent backup to restore to. If you backup to iCloud and restore your iOS device to jailbreak, you can easily restore from your iCloud backup and get all your data back once you’ve jailbroken.
You also need to save your device’s SHSH blobs (unique identifier for Apple) with TinyUmbrella on your desktop computer. Downgrading iOS versions will be impossible without saved SHSH blobs once Apple closes the signing window.
Once you have everything backed up, we recommend restoring to a stock version of iOS 5.0.1 for the optimal jailbreak experience. It’s better to not have anything installed (apps, personal data, etc.) or tweaked on your iOS device before you jailbreak, but it’s not absolutely essential to nuke iOS before you begin. In the Settings app, you can navigate to General > Reset > Reset all settings to restore all iOS system defaults and keep your personal data. This step is recommended if you don’t want to totally restore your device.
Getting Started
Make sure you have the latest version of iTunes installed when you plug your iPhone 4S or iPad 2 into your computer to jailbreak. It would be a good idea to restart your computer and iOS device before you run Absinthe.
If you’re on Windows, make sure to run Absinthe as administrator. On the Mac, just open the Absinthe app and wait till the tool recognizes your iOS device. You’ll want to be running the latest version of Absinthe, iOS 5.0.1 (although the jailbreak does work on 5.0 as well), and iTunes for this to work properly. Remember, Absinthe is only for A5-based iOS devices, meaning the iPhone 4S and iPad 2.
When you jailbreak, do not have a passcode set on your iOS device. Make sure you turn off your passcode and any VPN setups in the Settings app. Absinthe will not be able to jailbreak properly with these things turned on.
Bugs And Errors
My Camera Roll is empty after jailbreaking.
If you’re Camera Roll has mysterious emptied itself after jailbreaking with Absinthe, then you probably didn’t complete the jailbreak. Rerun Absinthe once to fix the error, and then another time to finish the jailbreak.
Absinthe crashes while jailbreaking my iOS device.
Reboot your iOS device if Absinthe crashes while jailbreaking on your Mac or Windows computer. Try jailbreaking again. If Absinthe is still acting up, restart your computer. Restarting your devices will fix most of these errors.
My app icons are randomly turning white.
While the latest version of Absinthe is supposed to fix this error, users have reported that reinstalling Mobile Substrate in Cydia also addresses the problem. If you’re already successfully jailbroken with Absinthe, re-jailbreaking with a new version is pointless. Open Cydia and search for “Mobile Substrate.” Then tap “Modify” and “Reinstall.”
Nothing is available to install in Cydia.
If you can’t search for any packages in Cydia, there’s a chance that serves could be down. However, there’s most likely a problem with your device’s libactivator package, and you need to reset your network settings to fix it. Navigate to Settings > General > Reset > Reset network settings.
Try Again
If all else fails, you can always restore iOS again, delete Absinthe from your computer, download the latest version, and try again. Don’t run Absinthe over and over on the same version of iOS, but there’s no harm in restoring everything until it works. This latest jailbreak is a pretty easy one, so you shouldn’t run into too much trouble.
In case you didn’t know, we have tutorials for jailbreaking the iPhone 4S and jailbreaking the iPad 2 with Absinthe. Check those out if you need more help.
We realize that there are other errors and bugs out there that people are experiencing, but these tips and tricks cover most of the issues that jailbreakers can run into when liberating the iPhone 4S and iPad 2. If you’re aware of another bug or tip you’d like to share, please let us all know in the comments below.
