Jailbreak iPod Touch
Wednesday, November 7th, 2007 | Journal
Tags: apple, ipod, jailbreak
I did on mine on the same day I purchased. Of course, a lot of research had been done prior to that, to make sure it is safe and worthy. Personally, the possibility of jailbreaking is my main reason to purchase an iPod touch, and trust me a jailbroken iPod touch is so awesome, the possibility is infinite. Now, let me share with you what I have learned in the process.
Methods
Of course you can do it manually, following tons of steps and hoping that you don’t mess anything up, but the 13-year-old Arix made the entire process much less dreadful. I did mine using iJailBreak, the first time failed, but the second time was successful. As far as I know, iJailBreak works both on Macintel and PPC. If you prefer a video tutorial of iJailBreak, please take a look of this YouTube video. For a more detailed step-by-step tutorial, please refer to this article on Gizmodo. For Windows users, you can use touchFree.
Recently, a new method has popped out online, jailbreakme. I personally never tried this method, but it is better to know other alternatives, especially for iPod touch owners who are considering to jailbreak your device.
Concern
I know about your concern, I had it before I decided to jailbreak my iPod touch. The question is: Would jailbreaking my iPod touch brick my device? As far as my research shows, the answer is no. When my first attempt failed, I was able to successful restore my iPod touch to factory setting. Of course, when restoring you would lose all photo, music and video library. Here are the steps to unbrick your iPod touch:
- Press and hold the Stand-by button
- Before the Apple logo appears, press and hold the Home button
- After the Apple logo appears, release the Stand-by button
- Wait up to 30 seconds
- After the Connect to iTunes picture appears, you can release the home button. Your iPod is now in recovery mode.
After Jailbreaking
After jailbreaking your iPod touch, you will see Installer on your springboard. To have other 3rd party applications to appear in Installer, be sure to install Community Sources and reboot your iPod touch. After that, you should be able to see tons of applications available in Installer.
Happy jailbreaking your iPod touch!
November 18, 2007
1:26 pm on Sunday
So this is safe????
because it looks AWESOME and im getting a touch soon so i want to jailbreak it…is it completely safe?
November 18, 2007
5:39 pm on Sunday
Yes, it is safe. If anything goes wrong during the process, you can always restore to factory setting.
November 21, 2007
2:06 pm on Wednesday
asceticMonk do u have your ipod touch jailbroken? is it sweet?
November 22, 2007
3:50 pm on Thursday
Hi bobby, yes I do. My iPod touch is jailbroken, and I am loving it.
November 28, 2007
1:16 pm on Wednesday
i failed mine jailbreak and i could not go to my music and video what must i do
November 28, 2007
3:15 pm on Wednesday
Hi sergio, restore your iPod touch and start over. When I did mine, I failed in my first attempt too.
December 10, 2007
4:48 pm on Monday
so this thing wont get screwed up…cause i dont want to do it if its just gonna waste my 300 dollars
December 10, 2007
5:00 pm on Monday
Like I mentioned in the post, you can restore the iPod touch if somehow jailbreak fails.
December 15, 2007
12:08 pm on Saturday
would the jailbreak mess up on a apple update?
is it erasable after installation?
and
how much memory does it take up?
December 16, 2007
7:52 pm on Sunday
Hi juan! If you do a firmware update on a jailbroken iPod touch, the update will mess up the iPod touch. The jailbreak only allows you to install 3rd party apps on your iPod touch, so if you don’t want it anymore, you can simply follow the steps provided in this post to restore your iPod touch. Of course, songs, videos and other application data will be lost. Finally, I don’t think the jailbreak takes too much memory, however all the 3rd party apps you install later may take some memory depending how many of them you install.
December 22, 2007
4:22 am on Saturday
so just to make this clear
if i jailbreak my ipod then i want to run an apple update all i have to do is restore the ipod then run the update right?
December 22, 2007
6:48 pm on Saturday
Yes, David, you are right. Restore your iPod first then update to the latest firmware.
December 24, 2007
11:57 am on Monday
So after you jailbreak it, to update it you could restore the ipod and then can u load the jailbreak again??
December 24, 2007
2:18 pm on Monday
If you are updating to 1.1.2, then it is a different procedure. Here is a guide written for iPhone.
December 25, 2007
9:48 am on Tuesday
I went ahead and jailbroke my iPod touch yesterday. Everything went fine! The one question that I have is how do dowload games for the nes app? And I dowloaded an ebook but I can’t find it. U know where it is?
December 26, 2007
5:20 am on Wednesday
if i only jailbreak my touch and not restoring it will i lost my music and movies too? And one more thing, is there a good volume booster software that i can use with a pc?
Thanx in advance!
December 26, 2007
10:09 am on Wednesday
u mm. I was doing the Jailbreak and it failed during the process so i went to do it again and in doing that I closed all iTunes apple and iPod processes and it failed again so I went to restore it but iTunes said the apple mobile device thing was unavailavle so I couldn’t rstore. What now. Ugh.
December 26, 2007
2:47 pm on Wednesday
Ok So that unbricking process will work it will not fail and leave the ipod bricked?
December 26, 2007
2:52 pm on Wednesday
Ok im thinking about jail breaking my iPod touch tonight if i can get it downgraded to 1.1.1 are there any tips on what to do??? and i am still a little worried about this Bricking thing, how would you force restore your iPod touch? (just incase it doesn’t work)
December 27, 2007
3:58 am on Thursday
@garrett: Google for NES ROMs, and download the ROM files, upload the files in Medias/ROMs/NES folder. If you don’t have this folder, create it. Then, when you launch NES, you will see the listing of the games.
I don’t know about EBook, what apps are you using for viewing the EBooks?
December 27, 2007
4:14 am on Thursday
@macki: I am not sure, because I jailbroke mine right after purchase, with no music and video on it. However, from what I read online, if you already have stuff on your iPod touch, then you jailbreak it, all the music and video files should be there. Unless of course if the jailbreak process fails, and you have to restore it.
@ryann: Did you follow the unbrick procedure in the post? Also what was the firmware version of your iPod touch? Is your iTunes the latest version, which upgrades iPod touch to 1.1.2?
@Mike: I can’t give your the guarantee, however guides that I read claim that it always can be restored if anything goes wrong. I am talking about firmware version 1.1.1. When I did mine, the jailbreak process failed the first time, and I succeeded the second time.
@Eric: Check this YouTube video for a complete guide on jailbreaking a 1.1.2 iPod touch, and restore process is already written in my post.
December 27, 2007
8:11 am on Thursday
Thank you the video was a big help, and i thought there was another way of restoring but i guess not.
December 29, 2007
8:39 am on Saturday
If I jailbreak my touch will I then be able to install a flash player?
December 29, 2007
11:19 pm on Saturday
I don’t think you can install a Flash player even on a jailbroke iPod touch.
January 05, 2008
12:13 pm on Saturday
NOoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
MY ipod is bricked and your method isn’t working!
HElp me at cjvautour@gmail.com
January 08, 2008
6:19 pm on Tuesday
I don’t know how this happened but I lost about 1.2GB for my memory capacity so now its 14.8 as my max. can somone help me?
January 08, 2008
8:00 pm on Tuesday
hey um i tried the jailbreakme method and then it said to use summerboard i had to reboot my itouch (and yes my itouch is v 1.1.1) after i restarted it the apple start up logo went on and the backlight went turned on but they wont stop .. did i brick my itouch? and anyone know a way to fix it because i cant use the method up there……… thanks contact me at generalsnake@email.com
January 09, 2008
12:24 pm on Wednesday
@Jay: I had similar experience in my first attempt. My iPod touch was showing incorrect memory capacity after jailbroken. So, I advice you to restore it and jailbreak it again.
@christian: I will contact you through the provided email address.
January 09, 2008
7:17 pm on Wednesday
ok I have a few questions
1. Is this illegal? And if so, is there any way apple can find out about the jailbreak and persecute me?
2. After jailbreak of my touch, can I reset the iPod back to how it was prior to jailbreak?
3. And finally, will jailbreaking my iPod slow it down or make it glitch up more often
Thanks for the help in advance. As you can tell, I’m very concerned as to whether this is the right thing to do or not.
January 09, 2008
7:33 pm on Wednesday
1. Of course, Apple certainly discourage jailbreak. But to me, once you purchased your iPod touch, as owner you are free to do whatever you want. Keep in mind, jailbreaking an iPod touch would void your warranty. You can not walk in an Apple retailer store with your jailbroken iPod and demand any customer service. However, you can always restore it and there is no way to tell. Would Apple find out about you jailbreaking your iPod? I don’t think so, unless you tell and show them.
2. Speaking strictly from my personal experience, jailbreaking 1.1.1, I was able to reset my iPod touch when jailbreak failed. However, some commenters shared a different story, I don’t know what happened to their iPods.
3. Currently, I am still using my jailbroken iPod touch on a daily basis. I noticed no slow down and so far never experienced any glitches.
January 10, 2008
5:50 pm on Thursday
ok so if I didnt’ want jailbreak anymore and wanted the standard software back I would just reset it?
January 10, 2008
11:47 pm on Thursday
Yes, restore your iPod using the steps in my post, except you would lose all the data.
January 12, 2008
6:17 am on Saturday
All the Data on your Ipod touch only or would u lose all your data in itunes too? After you Restore it.
January 12, 2008
6:20 am on Saturday
Also if you Restore your ipod is the warrenty still Void or do u get it back?
January 12, 2008
7:52 pm on Saturday
to restore ipod just plug into comp and go to itunes. go to devices and hit restore
January 12, 2008
9:05 pm on Saturday
@Brian: 1. Only the date on your iPod Touch. 2. If you restore it, I think your warranty is still good.
January 18, 2008
8:55 pm on Friday
does it make a difference if I have an 8gig because if the jailbreak and apps take up too much memory I’d rather not go thru with it..
January 19, 2008
1:04 am on Saturday
Don’t worry cristian. I have a jailbroken 8GB iPod touch, and the apps does not take too much space. You will still have plenty of space for your music, video and photos.
January 19, 2008
10:06 am on Saturday
i have just brought an ipod touch as i am a dj and needed a new ipod. unfortunately i dont make much money and would not be able to afford a new one if jailbreaking it messes it up. is it guarenteed to be ok?
January 20, 2008
11:12 am on Sunday
around how many apps do you think I can download on a jailbroken 8gb iPod and still download around 1000 songs and 10 hours of Video or something
January 20, 2008
5:14 pm on Sunday
@jim: Which version is your firmware currently running on your iPod?
@Orhizzle: I don’t really how many, since I never uploaded so many songs and videos on my iPod. Currently, I have two screens of apps installed, 368 songs and 12 video files.
January 22, 2008
11:52 am on Tuesday
were can I go to downgrade my iPhone from 1.1.3 to 1.1.1 so that I can get the jailbreak
January 22, 2008
12:25 pm on Tuesday
Hi kwin, try this guide, never tried myself, but I hope it works for you.
January 24, 2008
1:41 am on Thursday
Hi battery waste and wi-fi problems after jailbrake… I was very happy about the freedom to install so many apps on my touch, but suddenly it started to literally “eat” the battery to the bone. I have tried shutting down the apps once finished using but it did not work either.
So I restored the thing to 1.1.3 and installed the 4 commercial apps from apple, but the problem is still there. Also, the wi-fi that worked very smoothly stopped doing that. Now it is very hard to catch signal and even at my house I am unable to connect it to my router, both in open and protected mode.
So, now that my warranty is void, anyone has a suggestion?
thanks.
January 24, 2008
1:26 pm on Thursday
Giuseppe, now that you have restored to 1.1.3, I don’t think your warranty is voided. You can receive tech support at any Apple store, as long as you don’t tell them that you previously jailbroke your iPod touch.
January 25, 2008
1:36 am on Friday
Thanks Amonk, I have already contacted them. I hope they can replace it.
January 26, 2008
10:04 pm on Saturday
@ asceticmonk
i’m having the same problem as cristain where my ipod only shows the white apple logo
my email is tcaruth@gmail.com
any help would be greatly appreciated
February 01, 2008
6:50 am on Friday
I went to the website and i have the update on my ipod, but when i click install appsnapp it goes to a screen with a blue box. Why? i never did any other jailbreaks before, why does it do that?
February 01, 2008
2:22 pm on Friday
I need some more info Dean. Is your iPod touch successfully jailbroken? If it is, were you trying to install apps from the Installer?
February 13, 2008
8:19 am on Wednesday
Hi i’ve got an 8gig ipod touch… that has been jailbroken… by a mate… and it has seemed to take up about 4gig of memory… in the others category… i have only got one page of apps… and i had 1000 songs on it even with 2 and a half pages of apps before… what could’ve gone wrong??? And if i have to restore it… how easy is it to jail break the ipod touch???
PS: the problem occured after i started putting images for the album covers on itunes… as soon as i conected my ipod again… it said i had 4gig of memory in the others files… then i deleted the images on the songs… but the problem is still there… any help??? Thanks
February 15, 2008
2:06 pm on Friday
@DodgeyJames I would recommend to restore it and jailbreak it again.
March 13, 2008
5:00 pm on Thursday
if i jailbrake my itouch is it possible to just drag and drop music, videos and other files to it?
March 13, 2008
5:54 pm on Thursday
Hmmm…I am not sure if I understand you Kris, but I assume you are asking about adding files to iPod touch without iTunes. If that’s your question, the answer is no. After jailbreaking, you still add music, video and picture files to iPod touch through iTunes.
March 14, 2008
2:35 am on Friday
so i really have to download the music from the itune website?
because if i have to it’s gona suck my life away because i have to pay for every bit
March 14, 2008
12:45 pm on Friday
No Kris, you can import existing music files in your computer into iTunes, and then transfer them to your iPod touch.
March 14, 2008
2:25 pm on Friday
ow… my bad.. i haven’t received my touch so i went around to ask. so i just download the music then use the itune to put the songs? if it is THAT IS GREAT. What other application would you recomend me to use? ow one question, does touch got radio on it? or can i put an application to put a radion on it?
March 14, 2008
5:07 pm on Friday
does kail breaking an ipod touch void the warranty?
March 15, 2008
2:28 am on Saturday
as “AsceticMonk” said. it will void the warranty BUT you can just factory reset it and it should be all good again. AND if you send it to apple for repair just dont tell them you jail break your itouch so that you’ll be safe
March 17, 2008
3:17 am on Monday
Kris, there is no radio on iPod touch.
March 18, 2008
5:50 am on Tuesday
i have recently reset my factory setting and i lost all my data.plz tell a mathed so that i can get my all data back
my email address is aster_ibis@yahoo.com
March 19, 2008
5:03 am on Wednesday
once ipod touch is reset all data will be lost and there is no chance of getting anything back. you should have know that.
March 21, 2008
10:17 am on Friday
I have a 16gig touch w/1.1.4 and i heard that 16 gig touches cant be jailbroken is that true?I want to jailbreak my ipod touch but im afraid its gonna get messed up,now if i just hit the restore button in itunes that should fix it if something were to go wrong with it right?where is a good site to go to jail break my 16gig 1.1.4 ipod touch (keep in mind i have a pc running windows vista)How long does it take for the jailbreaking process?
March 30, 2008
3:21 am on Sunday
Jailbroken or not…with the current operating system it is not possible to download pictures from the Ipod touch’es hard drive, straight to internet based e-mail or site. Right?
If I’d have an Ipod touch that would have the e-mail application instlled in it, would it be possible to attach pictures from the hard drive to e-mails and sent them to web sites designed for mobile pictures?
Thank you.
March 31, 2008
3:13 pm on Monday
Hi jiipeex, if I understood your questions correctly, I think the answer is no.
March 31, 2008
8:35 pm on Monday
sure it is
I believe the apps you need are IMGSaver(might require you to add another source, google it to find out) and SendPics (allows you to send full resolution pictures through MobileMail.app)
April 01, 2008
2:04 am on Tuesday
I guess I am wrong. Cool, learned something new today. Thanks for pointing it out tcaruth!
April 01, 2008
5:31 pm on Tuesday
Does jailbreaking affect my ipod touch battery? Can I jailbreak ipod update 1.1.4?
April 01, 2008
5:39 pm on Tuesday
Is it really worth it to update to the latest firmware or should I just jailbreak my ipod at firmware 1.1.2?
April 01, 2008
6:11 pm on Tuesday
Hi John! Personally, I am still on 1.1.1, but I do know that 1.1.4 can be jailbroken. After jailbreaking it, I think it does affect the battery life, since you have more stuff running on it, and I tend to do multiple stuff on it instead of just listening to music. Of course, I have no data to back it up, it is just my feeling.
Like I said, I am still on 1.1.1, and I am not really eager to update the firmware, maybe when 2.0 comes out.
April 01, 2008
6:54 pm on Tuesday
HOW DO I GET FLASH ON MY IPOD !!!!! ipod touch that is…
April 02, 2008
5:09 pm on Wednesday
James, no flash on current iPod touch.
April 03, 2008
7:47 pm on Thursday
hi. I want to to jailbreak my iPod but I am afraid that I will lose my warrranty. please let me know by sending me an e-mai. thanks
April 24, 2008
12:34 am on Thursday
I’m on my second IPod touch. The first one wouldn’t connect to the internet;and I had to take it back.
I was considering jailbreaking this one, but with the problems I have had I don’t know if I should try. I did figure out that when I wasn’t getting a WiFi connection I had to turn my router off to reset it and then my IPod would find the connection. I have had to restore it 3 times all ready just to get it to work right. I really like it, but it’s frustrating to keep having these problems of showing a full signal on the WiFi and then saying it can’t find the server all the time.
I wondered if jailbreaking helps any of this?
I keep having to put all my stuff back in and I’m about to give up on it.
Thanks
April 25, 2008
2:17 pm on Friday
I am very interested in jailbreaking my ipod touch. It definitly sounds worth it, but i am worried abut breaking it and wasting my 300 dollars. What can go wrong during the proccess? If so, what can I do to fix it? If this is safe, what is the best way to do it? Please answer, your help will be greatly appreciated.
April 25, 2008
6:56 pm on Friday
Hi Drew, the questions in your comment are actually answered in my blog entry. If you are jailbreaking 1.1.4, please refer to this new entry I wrote recently.
May 02, 2008
4:37 pm on Friday
hello im about to jail break my ipod but kinda nervous i have version 1.1.4 so should i be concerned since its 1.1.4 im not sure because a friend jailbroke on 1.1.3is there a differece?like what exactly does 1.1.4 have thats different
May 02, 2008
5:14 pm on Friday
According to official report, 1.1.4 contains a lot of bug fixes, but 162.1MB of update probably lays the foundation for the upcoming SDK release in June. Evelyn, if you are going to jailbreak your iPod touch, refer to Jailbreak iPod Touch 1.1.4.
May 14, 2008
8:24 am on Wednesday
was wonderin if jailbreaking would fix my backlight n wi-fi search. u see i was at the beach n fell i mean the ipod still works but no backlight brings u back to the gameboy color dayz, strainin to see the screen. so if it does confirm if not cud u plz tell me how at least to fix it myself. (not a us resident so warrantyz wont work in my case)
May 14, 2008
4:53 pm on Wednesday
I assume that your iPod touch is probably damaged when you dropped in the water, so I don’t think jailbreak will fix your iPod touch.
May 24, 2008
7:18 am on Saturday
Hi,
I just got an ipod touch for my bday. It’s an 8 gig one.
I want to jailbreak it to install other programs, and hope you could answer a few questions.
1) How do I check what version it is? e.g. 1.1.4 and does it matter?
2) Most of the comments read above are from a while ago, do they still apply? i.e. has apple somehow stopped ppl from doing it?
3) Is it still safe to jailbreak my touch and does the factory restore method you mentioned above still work?
Thanks!
Jen
May 29, 2008
9:17 pm on Thursday
Have you heard of anyone’s ipod touch completely going to what appears to be some sort of boot up screen? In attempting to jailbreak something must have gone wrong. Not able to restore following any tips found so far. Not even able to get anything to load – so no screen functions are available. When we start it up, after apple logo, just keep getting white text against black background like it’s trying to boot. After a lot of fast moving, “boot up” looking data, it then gets stuck on the following line of text:
BSD root: md0, major 2, minor0.
Keeps repeating this same line of text. Have no idea what to do. HELP!
May 30, 2008
12:44 am on Friday
@Cassie Sorry to hear, but I never experienced such scenario, so I can’t be helpful to you.
@Jennifer 1) You can check the version of your firmware in Settings -> General -> About 2) I like to recommend to you my recent blog entry, Jailbreak iPod Touch 1.1.4.
June 05, 2008
5:03 pm on Thursday
cassie the same thing happened to me if anyone could help contact me at Bradyk25@gmail.com
June 08, 2008
5:34 pm on Sunday
omygosh. im having the same problem with my touch.!!
HELP ME!!!
jennybeesbee@yahoo.com