May 5 2010

Walkthrough: How to Jailbreak iPhone 3.1.3 with Spirit

Posted by admin in Iphone Apps, Iphone News, Iphone Reviews

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So with the release of the Spirit jailbreak for iPhone, 3.1.3, it’s only appropriate to post a quick how-to, so here it is. And of course, with a jailbreaking tutorial, here comes the disclaimer:

If you’re not sure what you’re doing and have misgivings about jailbreaking, you probably should stray away. I will say, out of all the jailbreaks that have been released, this one is one of the simplest, and I’m talking blackra1n easy. Walkthrough and video after the break!

First, jump on over to download the Spirit jailbreak software onto your computer. The download can be found here. Download whichever version corresponds to your OS. For those wondering, this WILL work with any version of iTunes, up to the current 9.1.1 version (that’s what I have on both my Macs and it works just fine).

Before doing anything else, back up ALL your data via iTunes. I have had a few jailbreaks go downhill and it’s always good to have everything backed up just in case you have to restore or your phone gets stuck in DFU mode and you’re forced with no other option but a restore (and yes, it happens). Spirit has an issue early on that apparently deleted people’s photos. That’s supposed to be fixed by now, but I’d back up pictures just to be on the safe side.

Next, quit iTunes and launch Spirit. Just click the button and wait! After a minute you’ll see a status bar complete and you should be fully jailbroken! You’ll be able to tell when you see the Cydia app on one of your homepages. This is the icon you’ll want to look for:

Cydia Installed

For anyone who is new to the jailbreak scene, you’ll want to open Cydia and download a few key things to enhance your experience:

Winterboard (an essential for theming out your phone)
Themes! (check out our jailbreak forums for some suggestions)
Rock App (if you’d prefer it over Cydia, search “RockApp”)
SBSettings (allows a quick swipe to access all your main toggles)

There are a lot of neat apps and tweaks to download (including several plug-ins for SBSettings). Look for coming reviews as well as past ones for jailbroken app reviews. All the ones listed above are free to download. I personally prefer Rock over Cydia as Rock has a very convenient backup system within it to keep track of all your licenses and downloads. It was nice to not have to restore everything I had jailbroken and just click restore from backup. Cydia has ways to backup as well, I just find Rock’s interface much nicer. But again, it’s a matter of opinion.

If you’d like the ability to SSH into your phone and edit themes, as well as other files, you’ll also need to download Terminal and OpenSSH. I only recommend SSH’ing for those who have a pretty decent knowledge of the iPhone OS and how to SSH. Deleting certain files or altering them can be disastrous if you aren’t sure what you’re doing. So again, approach with caution. And as always, anytime you ever have software installed on your phone that allows remote access, change your root password! If you need help doing that, jump over to the TiPb jailbreak and unlock forums .

YouTube link