Attention: jailbreakers. A new hack has just hit the Cydia App Store that allows you to “unjailbreak” your iPhone. And it’s surprisingly useful.
Jailbreaking your iPhone has become a task of increasingly diminishing returns, given the constant improvement of iOS’s built-in capabilities. Never the less, the prospect of a jailbroken iPhone has a lot of allure for some people, who want to live on the fringe of what their device is capable of… with or without Apple’s direct approval.
Once you jailbreak your iPhone, though, you lose the ability to perform a system restore. Since Apple patches jailbreak exploits quickly, it means that if you have a jailbroken iPhone that’s getting a little sluggish, there’s no way to clear it out with a quick restore without updating to a new, unjailbreakable version of iOS.
A new hack by Saurik, creator of the Cydia App Store, allows jailbreak users to perform a system restore, removing their jailbreak and returning iOS to a “stock” state, without actually upgrading the version of iOS running on it. It’s called Cydia Impactor.
So, for example, let’s say your iPhone’s running a little sluggish, and you want to wipe it to factory settings. Using Cydia Impactor, you could do so, then easily reapply the jailbreak, even if it’s a past version of iOS.
This looks like a very useful tool for jailbreakers looking to troubleshoot their devices. You can find it on the Cydia App Store, and it works with iOS 8.3 and 8.4 only.
Via: iDownloadblog
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
15 responses to “Here comes the iOS 8.4 unjailbreak… wait, what?”
I’d be surprised if it was named clearly as to be found in one seach. “cydia impactor”, yes, that’s it!
UnJailbreak? It’s been around for years. It’s called “Restore”.
Or you could just download the IPSW of the jailbreakable version you want and keep it. Then do a manual restore and reapply the jailbreak. Then you don’t have to re-download the full IPSW every time.
Or you could just use iOS as Apple intended like the vast majority do. Then you don’t have to deal with the instability of a jailbroken iPhone.
No because Apple could stop signing that IPSW version.
And Apple could also send a signal to shut down your jailbroken iPhone.
Considering the versions this is compatible with, speculation makes you look like a fool.
Except that my friend, would be illegal.
Nope, not illegal. Jailbreaking breaks the ToS you agree to when purchasing and using an iPhone. Apple can choose to enforce them at any time it wants.
“Jailbreaking your iPhone has become a task of increasingly diminishing returns, given the constant improvement of iOS’s built-in capabilities”
Lol are you kidding me? Apple is so behind in implementing features. Who wants to wait for a full system update to get the same feature that someone can code and release instantaneously?
People that value system stability over “features”. In other words, the vast majority of users. Enjoy your dumb themes.
Someone is butthurt to the max. What did your Android break? Sad face.
I know, right. You should stop making yourself look like a pathetic asshole.
Jeez, PMB. Calm down.
You first.
Dude you’re crying. I’m not even mad, you just claimed you are though. c:
Red herring. Try again, dum dum.