How to Install iPhone 2.2.1 Firmware on Jailbroken and Unlocked T-Mobile iPhone

apple-iphone-firmware-22

Update #1: There is now a guide for installing, jailbreak and unlocking the iPhone 3.0 Firmware.

NOTE: This is an update to our Firmware 2.1 Guide, which was an update to our Firmware 2.0 Guide.

Outline

  1. Introduction
  2. Who is this Guide For
  3. Details You Should Know
  4. Getting Started
  5. Applying the Firmware Update
  6. Unlocking the iPhone w/ the 2.2.1 Firmware

Introduction

This document looks long and scary — but it’s not… I just tended towards too much information when writing it so no one went into this process missing the information they needed.

A lot of folks that have Jailbroken iPhones running on unsupported networks (like T-Mobile in the U.S.) usually get fearful of trying to upgrade the firmware of the phone — usually for fear of locking themselves out of the use of the phone or bricking it. Fortunately there are so many people with Jailbroken iPhones now, and the process (thanks to projects like QuickPWN) has gotten so easy, it’s a fairly safe bet now adays.

One of the biggest motivators for applying firmware updates to the iPhone have been new features that have slowly trickled out. Us Jailbroken folks don’t want to get left in the dust.

WARNING: That being said, it is always possible to have a firmware upgrade go bad. While I’ve not seen reports of people bricking their phones into an unrecoverable state, I’m sure it’s possible if you goof the process hard enough. Please backup all data before starting, and if you need your phone for your lively-hood, I’d suggest not messing with the update process unless you need the update.

Who is this Guide For

This guide is written for people using the iPhone on unsupported networks. That includes both Jailbreaking the phone as well as hacking the Baseband so it will connect to a non-supported network. If you have your iPhone on a supported network, but just want it Jailbroken so you can play with it more — I believe all you have to do is run the QuickPWN step and that’s it after upgrading the firmware through iTunes like a normal person.

This guide is also written for Windows users.

Details You Should Know

  1. In order to use your iPhone on a non-official network (e.g. T-Mobile in the U.S.) you have to hack the baseband on the iPhone. This is now done easily using the yellowsn0w application installed via Cydia using the Repository http://apt9.yellowsn0w.com/ once your iPhone has been Jailbroken.
  2. While yellowsn0w makes hacking the baseband easy, it does not support the latest baseband, 02.30.03, that is forcibly installed when installing Firmware 2.2.1 from iTunes — that means if you are on an unofficial network with your iPhone, you don’t ever want to install Firmware 2.2.1 directly from iTunes — it will upgrade your baseband to an uncrackable version (atleast not hacked yet) and you won’t be able to connect back to that network.
  3. What you need to do, is use PwnageTool to create a custom 2.2.1 firmware (*.ipsw file) that uses the 02.28.0 baseband (the crackable one) and then flash that custom firmware to your phone.
  4. UPDATE: Updating the Firmware on your iPhone will remove all apps installed via Cydia and Installer — these are unofficial apps and not backed up during the iTunes backup/sync process, so when the device is wiped and new OS installed, those apps will be erased.

Summary

A Summary of the information above is as follows:

  • If you have a 3G iPhone (2nd Generation), installing the 2.2.1 Firmware updates your baseband to 02.30.03, and blocks your ability to unlock the phone — allowing it to work on unsupported networks (like T-Mobile). You can still Jailbreak the phone however. So until unlocking this phone is supported, hold off on updating it using the normal Apple firmware — if you must update it, you can build your own custom firmware by using PwnageTool (Mac Only).
  • If you have a 2G iPhone (1st Generation) or a iPod Touch (1st Generation), installing 2.2.1 Firmware is fine — even though it updates your baseband, the way QuickPwn unlocks the phone still continues to work fine. So you are OK here in all cases.
  • If you have a iPod Touch (1st Generation), you can still apply this upgrade but you can only Jailbreak it while teathered to your computer. So you are still OK here.

I wanted to make sure to cover all that in detail to make sure no one got caught with their pants down (and locked out of their phones).

Getting Started

I am writing this guide using a 1st Generation iPhone (non-3G), on the T-Mobile network with the BlackBerry data plan and all the following software listed. If your setup is similar, you can probably follow this guide to a T. If you have a slightly different network setup, the steps should still work fine, but if you are have a different device, like the 3G iPhone or 2nd Gen iPod Touch, please read the red “Summary” above at the end of the previous section — it seems you might have to hold off on doing this update just yet.

What you will need before we get started:

NOTE: Here are download links for other firmware images that you might want. Keep in mind that if you are on the 3G iPhone there doesn’t seem to be support for unlocking that upgraded firmware to work on other networks right now (read the red “Summary” above).

Apply the Firmware Update

Now that you have the two files downloaded that you need (QuickPwn and the 2.2.1 Firmware) our first step is to apply the firmware update.

Doc your iPhone, let iTunes sync everything up for you (or sync it manually if you don’t have it setup to sync manually) and then go to the Device node for your iPhone, hold down the Shift key and click the Update button to bring up the file-selection dialog:

itunes-apply-iphone-221-firmware-update

Now select the iPhone1,1_2.2.1_5H11_Restore.ipsw file that we downloaded earlier:

select-iphone-221-firmware-ipsw-file

and click Open. iTunes will begin a series of 7 or so stages of applying the update to your phone. This includes uncompressing the IPSW file, installing the software, verifying it and so on. The exact series of little dialog status windows you will see look like the following (in-order):

1-extracting-ipsw-software

2-preparing-iphone-for-updates

3-waiting-for-iphone

4-updating-iphone-software

5-verifying-updated-iphone-software

6-updating-iphone-firmware

And after the firmware update is installed and applied, you will see a 10-second notice from iTunes that the phone is restarting:

7-restarting-iphone

After your phone has finished restarting, it will re-connect to your computer and iTunes will come up with a scary looking message about an unsupported SIM card that looks like this:

itunes-unrecognized-sim-card-phone-locked-error

Don’t worry about it though, we haven’t QuickPwn’ed the phone yet, so technically it is locked. So let’s go fix that!

Unlocking the iPhone w/ the 2.2.1 Firmware

UPDATE: If this step doesn’t work for you, we’ve had a few users tell us re-running this portion of the guide with the SIM card pulled out of the phone helped — but many have success just leaving the card in, so if you run into trouble, try both.

Now that we have our iPhone fully upgraded with the 2.2.1 Firmware, we need to fire up QuickPwn to do the dirty work of both Jailbreaking it and unlocking it (cracking the baseband so we can get this thing on the T-Mobile network).

Go find where you downloaded QuickPwn-225-2.zip to and unzip it into a new folder (or in-place if you want, it won’t create it’s own folder), resulting in the following contents:

quick-pwn-unzipped

Then drag and drop the two .bin files (for Bootloader 3.9 and 4.6) into the same dir just so they are easy to find, like this:

quick-pwn-unzipped-with-bootloaders

Then fire up QuickPwn.

The first screen you will see is the QuickPwn warning (not for commercial use):

quick-pwn-1-warning-screen

Click OK. Now you are instructed to make sure your iPhone is attached to your computer so QuickPwn can find it:

quick-pwn-2-device-detection-connect-to-usb

After making sure that step is done, QuickPwn will verify that it can see your iPhone connected to your computer, then ask you to select the iPhone firmware (IPSW file) that we used before in iTunes. In this case it is our iPhone1,1_2.2.1_5H11_Restore.ipsw file.

Click Browse…, go find it, select it and QuickPwn will do some verification on the file to make sure you selected the right onw:

quick-pwn-3-select-and-verify-ipsw-firmware-image

Once QuickPwn has verified the image you selected was correct, it will let you know and enable the blue “Next” arrow for you, so click it:

quick-pwn-4-verified-ipsw

Now QuickPwn will ask you what you want it to do for you. In this case we recommend:

  • Add Cydia
  • Add Installer
  • OPTIONAL: Unlock phone (if you are on an unofficial network, like T-Mobile in the U.S.)

quick-pwn-5-add-cydia-installer-and-unlock-phone-operations

Click next when done and QuickPwn will ask you for the Bootloader v3.9 and Bootloader v4.6 files that we downloaded from earlier. Select them:

quick-pwn-6-select-bootloader-files

and after you are done QuickPwn will verify the Bootloaders for you, allowing you to continue:

quick-pwn-7-bootloaders-verified

Now click the blue “next” button and QuickPwn will ask you to make sure your iPhone is still connected to your computer:

quick-pwn-8-ensure-device-connected

After confirming this, click the blue “next” button.

GET READY: The next part of QuickPwn will look like a list of things it’s doing, but it’s actually prompting you to do these items — and they won’t wait for you to read the prompts. So get ready for the next screen to appear:

quick-pwn-9-dfu-jailbreaking-prompts

NOTE: As your phone moves from state-to-state, QuickPwn may move to the next item in the list before the time counts down — that’s OK, go ahead and change what buttons you are holding to correspond with the prompts when that happens — don’t worry about the timer.

You will have about 5-8secs for the first prompt to finish — this is done automatically by QuickPwn for you (putting your phone into Recovery Mode), but then after the highlighted prompt changes to the 2nd item you have to get ready to:

  • Hold Home for 10 seconds (The round face-button at the bottom center of the phone)
  • Keep Holding Home, and now start holding the Power button for 10 or 15 seconds (Power button is on the top right corner of the phone)
  • Release the Power button, but keep holding the Home button for 30 seconds (In reality, the phone moves to the next prompt usually within 15 secs, and you can let go… but just incase wait until the prompt moves before releasing the Home button)

After you are done, your phone is in DFU mode and QuickPwn will take over, installing modified bootloaders, ramdisks and utilities to crack it:

quick-pwn-10-jailbreaking-ramdisk-recovery-mode

You can now sit back and watch. After QuickPwn is done sending files to your phone, your iPhone will begin displaying status bars processing the new files, the QuickPwn logo screen (with a pineapple on it) and then some baseband cracking UIs that automatically fill out and complete as you watch.

This whole time QuickPwn will be showing you this screen:

quick-pwn-11-iphone-rebooting-success

And you will just want to wait until your phone is done installing software and rebooting itself. After either 1 or 2 reboots it will eventually stop and just go to the standard charging/locked screen. Give it about 20 secs to make sure it’s done, then swipe your finger across the screen to unlock and viola! You are upgraded to the iPhone 2.2.1 firmware!

Conclusion

Congratulations, you are all done now and your phone is upgraded. In this guide (as opposed to our Firmware 2.1.0 guide) we did not try and do a new fresh install of the operating system, so there is no need to try and restore the phone’s data — we just upgraded the firmware, and the phone is ready to go with all our old data on it.

In fact I would encourage you to re-sync with iTunes after this process is done just to make sure it worked. I was able to sync the phone and make some phone calls right after this guide was written without a problem.

If you did run into any problems, please post below and we’ll try and help out. Be as specific as possible!

Troubleshooting

When we did our Firmware 2.1.0 Guide, a handful of people couldn’t get iTunes or their iPhone to recognize their SIM card after flashing the phone and a few other hickups. Most all those problems were discussed/covered in the Comments section of that guide if you want to review that first before posting here.

Screenshot Gallery

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This post was written by:

Riyad Kalla - who has written 2266 posts on The Buzz Media.

Software development, video games, writing, reading and anything shiny. I ultimately just want to provide a resource that helps people and if I can't do that, then at least make them laugh.

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310 Responses to “How to Install iPhone 2.2.1 Firmware on Jailbroken and Unlocked T-Mobile iPhone”

  1. Maria 25. May, 2009 at 6:42 pm #

    Why isn’t anyone helping me?

    I am trying to update to 2.2.1 firmware. I update 2.1 successffuly. When i downloaded the 2.2.1 restore folder, and i extracted all the files. The ISPW file does not show up so i can restore my phone in itunes and update it. Why is that? What should i Do? Help would be appreciated. Please email me at marysiad@gmail.com.

    Thank you,
    Maria

  2. Randone 25. May, 2009 at 11:26 pm #

    Ok, so with the help of Raghav, i’ve gotten as far as getting to the part in Quickpwn where you can choose the bootloaders. After it gets to the screen where you end up putting your phone into DFU mode, I can’t get it to progress past the first step where it says “Wait for your iPhone to connect in recovery mode.” The screen on my phone shows that it’s in recovery mode and iTunes will tell me that there is an iPhone connected in recovery mode, but QuickPwn will not progress past that first step. I’ve tried with the Sim card in and with it out, multiple times. Does anybody have any helpful suggestions?

  3. Randone 26. May, 2009 at 12:08 am #

    Ok cool. I had to use multiple computers to get this to work, installing the update on one and then using QuickPwn on another, but it finally worked. Thanks Raghav for your help, and thanks Riyad for the walkthrough. Great work.

  4. Rajen 26. May, 2009 at 1:12 pm #

    Hi Riyad,
    I have IPhone 8GB which was unlocked and was working okay until I have downloaded and installed the new version of software from apple.com thru itune. Now the phone is showing SIM is not supported and allows only emergency no. I want to know what next to be done. Do you think the procedure you have mentioned in this blog can work ? Do I need to Restore it to factory level ? It will be a great help if you can let me know….

  5. Riyad Kalla 26. May, 2009 at 10:40 pm #

    +1 to what Scargo said, I know it can be time-consuming and dauting when you have a dead iPhone in your hand — but I *think* all the info everyone is asking for is either in the original post (I’ve included updates as folks have provided corrections) or down in these comments which have been an awesome source of info for different ways to get things going.

  6. Rajen 27. May, 2009 at 1:34 am #

    Hi Riyad, Thnx for the messgae reply, I tried to reset the phone and then reload as mentioned above. Congrats buddy, it worked in 1st shot….
    Thnx for helping the community and breaking the monopoly of the MNC’s.
    Hv a great day…..cheers

  7. Scargo 27. May, 2009 at 8:11 am #

    Maria, How about you try DOWNLOADING the files again to a folder on your desktop or use a different computer to download them and copy them to a flash drive.Read all the post on this blog, then maybe you will figure it out.

  8. Riyad Kalla 27. May, 2009 at 9:06 am #

    Rajen,

    Glad to hear it worked!

  9. marco 27. May, 2009 at 12:54 pm #

    Thank you!!
    I get really upset when I saw that “I don’t like your SIM” msg!
    It really Helped!

    Thank you!

  10. ramesh 27. May, 2009 at 5:14 pm #

    we 2g iphone but that was one problem it’s not working apple symble only come to not on that mobile

  11. eva 28. May, 2009 at 1:26 am #

    i have a 8GB unlocked iphone 2G version 1.1.2 and want to update to version 2.2.1. Will I not lose my SMS messages, contacts and photos if I follow the steps above? Thanks a lot in advance.

  12. Riyad Kalla 28. May, 2009 at 10:31 am #

    eva,

    If you have iTunes setup to sync your Photos and Contacts from your iPhone you should be fine there, but you will loose your SMS messages.

    Good question, I haven’t seen anyone ask that one yet.

  13. m 28. May, 2009 at 4:31 pm #

    Hi, I asked for help earlier but no one answered. It looks like there is no solution to my problem…?
    I just want to add that I tried to restore my 2G phone with firmware 2.1, unlock it with Quickpwn and then upgrade to 2.2.1 But that relocked the phone. I also tried restoring with 2.2.1 firmware directly, but that had the same result. What could be wrong with the phone? Hardware/software fault? As I said before, it works perfectly for 2,3 days and then it freezes and locks up again. Also, can I restore from itunes directly, or do I have to use custom firmware?

  14. Scargo 30. May, 2009 at 3:56 pm #

    Hi M,
    Maybe you can find some answers at one of these two websites!
    http://blog.iphone-dev.org/ or try this one http://iclarified.com/
    for your current problems or maybe someone can help you,Good Luck!!!

  15. stephan 01. Jun, 2009 at 8:00 pm #

    hey i got the iphone unlocked but the data is not working from the tmobile network is there a way to fix that…. email me at triniboy24@gmail.com with your answers

  16. Riyad Kalla 01. Jun, 2009 at 10:04 pm #

    Guys,

    For anyone having data problems it seems that the APN has changed to:
    internet2.voicestream.com

    I’m still able to use the old APN referenced in this original article, but some folks I know on T-Mobile in the US on iPhone have had to change it to that new APN to get EDGE data working.

    Hope that helps.

  17. hernan 06. Jun, 2009 at 7:53 pm #

    Hey, i need help!
    when i go to the second step in quickpwn the check for the unlock phone is not there, i just have cyndia and installer and the replace boot, but the unlock the phone one never comes up.
    What do i do? plz
    THanks you

  18. suhesh 08. Jun, 2009 at 10:27 pm #

    Hey, i need help!
    when i go to the second step in quickpwn the check for the unlock phone is not there, i just have cyndia and installer and the replace boot, but the unlock the phone one never comes up.
    What do i do? plz
    i to have same problem plzz help me yaar

  19. Sarah 12. Jun, 2009 at 9:36 am #

    If I have and unlocked and jailbroken 1st Gen iPhone and am on already using an AT&T sim, would I be okay with upgrading to the 2.2.1 update? I would not care for the jailbreak but would like my unlock to stay in place. Also what will happen with all the jailbroken applications already installed on my iPhone?

  20. islandzboy 12. Jun, 2009 at 10:21 am #

    hey riyad

    i have an ipod touch 1G 16 gb. When i press shift and click update, an error pops up saying “the ipod could not be updated because the firmware is not compatible”

    please help me…. hope u will reply soon…

    thanx…
    islandzboy

  21. Anthony 13. Jun, 2009 at 6:29 am #

    i have a unlocked iphone wit 2.2.1 firmware, and i cannot go online it was working lioke a week ago and now i cant download anything from cydia or anything someone please help.

  22. Riyad Kalla 14. Jun, 2009 at 11:15 am #

    Anthony,

    It could be your APN settings — search this page for the phrase “APN”, there is the well-known one for T-Mobile and then a newer one as well I posted a week ago if you are having trouble connecting to the normal voicestream one.

  23. Riyad Kalla 14. Jun, 2009 at 11:23 am #

    islandzboy,

    Ahh! Yea you don’t want to use these firmwares linked in this story, they are for iPhones.

    You *might* be able to go grab the official 2.2.1 iPod Touch firmware and still use the rest of this guide, I’m really not sure, I’ve never tried it.

    I’d suggest googling for “iPod Touch quickpwn” and see if people say that is the way to jailbreak the Touchs… if it is, this guide should work.

  24. Walid Baalbaki 16. Jun, 2009 at 6:44 am #

    Hi Riyad ,
    If i press Shift > on restore not on Update , and choosing ur same file , it will work ?

    Thx :)

  25. Walid Baalbaki 16. Jun, 2009 at 6:49 am #

    If my SIM card is MTC Touch Lebanon , does that work ??

  26. vinay 16. Jun, 2009 at 7:48 am #

    hi i unlocked successfully but my phone not recognizing the sim card what what the steps i have to follow for that

  27. JJ 16. Jun, 2009 at 11:56 am #

    Hey Riyad,
    Do you know when you’ll be able to break down for us “how to install 3.0″
    Thanks!!

  28. Riyad Kalla 16. Jun, 2009 at 5:04 pm #

    JJ,

    In about 2 weeks I’ll write a new guide for iPhone OS 3.0 — right now early jailbreaking is working, but I haven’t gotten a definitive thumbs-up on the base-band unlocking so folks can run on un-authorized networks.

    Once I see the all-clear there I’ll get to work and get you guys a new guide.

  29. JJ 17. Jun, 2009 at 11:22 am #

    Hey Riyad,
    Thanks for the quick response. will the same procedure apply to the new 3G S the 32G?? just wondering if that one is going to be jailbroken soon.. Again thanks for the response.. JJ

  30. Linda 17. Jun, 2009 at 3:15 pm #

    Hi, Did this tutorial a few months ago, worked GREAT and loved it… until recently. Strange things started happening: first, the icons would wobble – pretty often – for no reason, it’s SUPER s-l-o-w, and takes time to load everything, and now today all my voicemails, both new and saved were erased. I was dealing with all this stuff but decided to downgrade after deleting the few apps and screensaver didn’t help. Any info on how to do this downgrade to my older, jailbroken (1.3, I believe) version without losing my unlock (I’m w/T-mobile) would be greatly appreciated. If it can’t be done, I’ll continue to plod along.

    Baby steps would be appreciated (similar to the tutorial) for me.

    Thanks very much
    Linda

  31. Riyad Kalla 18. Jun, 2009 at 5:48 am #

    JJ,
    My expectation is that yes the same process will be pretty similar to what we do for the 3G S — I’m just waiting for the whole process to get rolled into QuickPwn so we can make it dead-easy with no fancy hacking required.

    Linda,
    Sorry to hear the phone has gone wonky — it doesn’t sound like the upgrade did that though, your voicemails are stored server side so if those got erased something might be going on with your account. If you’ve never hard-restarted your phone before, that might be a good idea. Hold down power button for 8 secs and slide it to off then back on.

    The other option is to do a totally clean reinstall of 2.2.1 to see if it’s cruft on the phone causing all the weird behavior (it is basically a little computer, so sometimes an OS reinstall can help).

    Or you can hang in there another few weeks and we’ll get a 3.0 guide out an you can upgrade to that :)

  32. Linda 18. Jun, 2009 at 7:16 am #

    Riyad,

    Thanks so, so much – again!! I did the off 8 second trick and that seemed to have speeded up things a bit. I’ve also tapped & tapped and so far, no wobbly icons so hopefully it fixed that issue too. I’m sure you’re right about the voicemail server thing since these other 2 issues seem ok (for now) with the hard restarting; I’ll play with it today to see if the wobbly icons come back. I’ll also check back and probably do the upgrade to 3 when your guide comes out. Thanks again for all the great work you do and help you give here.

    Linda

  33. RoAdHoGg 19. Jun, 2009 at 3:03 pm #

    Hi I have just purchased a 1st gen 8 gig Iphone and didn’t realise it was jailbroken 1.1.2 and unlocked, I Just want to install OS 3.0 and I’m not botherd about being unlocked or jailbroken. I’m I going to brick the iphone by installing the official 3.0 update

  34. Pepe 19. Jun, 2009 at 5:13 pm #

    I hope this helps someone.
    while doing the update, at one point I got an error 14 message, then i could update anymore, i only had the option to restore.. i tried to do that and an error 13 popped up, so i couldnt restore any way, and the iphone was stuck in some screen…
    reading around i found out for some reason the process can get messed up if you are connecting your iphone to the pc via a USB port in the front of your PC, so I switched to one on the back, and voila, worked like a charm…
    just thought I’d post it for anyone with a similar prob

  35. Pete 19. Jun, 2009 at 6:46 pm #

    Hi Riyad, your instructions worked great when I updated my iPhone 2G to 2.2.1. Any chance you’ll do the same for the iPhone 3.0 software that’s just been released????

    • Riyad Kalla 30. Jun, 2009 at 8:45 am #

      Pete, absolutely. Should have it written this week.

  36. Kevin 22. Jun, 2009 at 12:29 pm #

    I am trying to upgrade a 2nd Gen that was on 1.1.4, but when I tried to bring it to 2.2.1 I got an error 14. Itunes now states that I have to restore to original factory settings. Do I have to download an older firmware file, or can I just continue on with the 2.2.1 file I downloaded at the top of the instructions?

    Do you have to be connected to the net to be successful?

  37. Kevin 22. Jun, 2009 at 4:40 pm #

    I restored using the 2.2.1 file I downloaded at the top of the file. That worked OK. Other problem I encountered was during QuickPwn. I ntever went into recovery mode so it never advanced the “button sequence”. I exited out of quickpwn and rebooted the iphone. It automatically rebooted into recovery mode and quickpwn did its thing. Another successful unlocked Iphone. Thanks for a great tutorial Kevin.

  38. Loso 23. Jun, 2009 at 6:27 am #

    Ok I have a 1G iphone with T-mobile and it has been working beautifully. I recently made an ass outta myself and updated it to 2.2.1 from i-tunes. I read up top that it will be “uncrackable”?? Does that mean I can’t re-unlock it?? I have two jobs (probably like everyuone else) and I heavily rely on my phone day to day. I really need my phone up and runing again!! Please help!!!

  39. Riyad Kalla 09. Jul, 2009 at 10:08 am #

    UPDATE: Thank you to everyone for being patient, the new iPhone 3.0 Firmware jailbreaking/unlocking guide is now up!

  40. irena 21. Jul, 2009 at 11:51 am #

    i updated my phone long time ago and i followed the exact steps but something happened and now i have to install it again but it takes forever to connect my phone to recovery..its been almost 20 minutes and nothings happening…any ideas?

  41. zoomi 22. Jul, 2009 at 2:53 pm #

    hi everyone…..everything went right but the quickpwn is not giving me the option of unlocking while i m getting other three option….cydia, installer and reboot logo……any idea….is it something relted to quickpwn….where should i get the latest one which will work with my firmware 2.2.1.
    thnx

  42. Riyad Kalla 23. Jul, 2009 at 10:05 am #

    zoomi,

    I’ve not heard anyone complain about that before (not seeing the Unlock) — are you sure you grabbed all the resources linked from this guide?

    Also, don’t forget, we put up a guide for installing, jailbreaking and unlocking iPhone 3.0 OS on your iPhone just recently if you want to follow that one instead.

  43. ehsan 27. Jul, 2009 at 9:01 pm #

    it doesn’t worked
    It says
    firmware error string

  44. zoomi 28. Jul, 2009 at 8:14 am #

    hi riyad

    thanx for ur reply…..last time my frend unlocked iphone and he was told not to upgrade it further bcoz his iphone wont work anymore….is it right?…….and secondly i have already done jailbroken and unlocked and using it on unsupported network but now my iphone just got froozen on the apple logo……so i followed ur instruction to reboot it may be thats y quickpwn is not giving me option of that unlock……should i proceed further if i m not getting this option???????is it safe?

  45. Riyad Kalla 28. Jul, 2009 at 9:34 am #

    @ehsan,
    I *think* you get that error either when your firmware download is corrupted, or you downloaded the wrong firmware for your device. Double-check to make sure you grabbed the correct firmware for your device (for example, you don’t want to grab the 3G iPhone firmware for a 1st generation, 2G iPhone)

    @zoomi,
    If you follow the new iPhone 3.0 guide, you start off by doing a factory restore of the phone with the official iPhone firmware — and then you crack that open with redsn0w… I think that might be the way to go since your phone is currently in a funky state.

  46. zoomi 29. Jul, 2009 at 12:25 pm #

    hi riyad….

    if i dont see the unlock option in quickpwn…..should i proceed further….wt will happen????

  47. Riyad Kalla 29. Jul, 2009 at 1:38 pm #

    zoomi,

    You’re killing me buddy… I have no idea what will happen if you proceed with QuickPwn not showing you the “Unlock” option, nor do I know why it’s not showing you that option — that’s why I’ve recommended using the iPhone 3.0 firmware guide we put up instead.

  48. Rom 17. Aug, 2009 at 11:05 am #

    Hi folks, i have recently bought a jailbroken 2g iphone off someone, so it did not come with a T-mobile sim card. Would i be able also to do the above mentioned upgrade. I am running 1.1.4 firmware.

  49. Rom 17. Aug, 2009 at 11:17 am #

    update my to earlier enquiry…..

    as a mater of fact the guy took out his phone card…so it really didn’t come with any phone card in it! I already have a sim card, so do i just put in the sim card i have and try the upgrade?

  50. Riyad Kalla 18. Aug, 2009 at 8:39 am #

    Rom,

    Put the SIM card in, make sure the phone actually works first. If it doesn’t, or says something like “incompatible SIM”, then it may be jailbroken, but it’s not unlocked (to work on other networks).

    If the phone works great, then yes, you can follow this guide. But if you are going to upgrade anyway, I’d just recommend following the iPhone 3.0 firmware guide instead and get the latest.

  51. Rom 19. Aug, 2009 at 1:49 pm #

    Thanks a mil Riyad Kalla , iT wokred just the way u said it should. You guys are the best.

    Let the iphone irock(LOL)…WAAPPAXXX

  52. Shariq 02. Sep, 2009 at 3:24 pm #

    I made mistake and realease home button when quickpwn was asking to hold it.I tryed so many time from the begning but it always struck on the same promt saying ‘wait for your iphone to connect in recovery mode… Now i cant connect to itune to install the firmware again because it does not connect to my iphone.pls Help

  53. Zimyad Mastoi! 14. Sep, 2009 at 8:43 am #

    Thankssssss alot……………………
    i have upgraded now its working bt how can i open menu??????
    menu is not opening i am just receiving msgs n calls nothing more

  54. J.D. 28. Oct, 2009 at 9:04 pm #

    Riyad,
    I have a iphone 2g, if my phone is already unlocked and jailbroken w/winpwn to 2.02 can I just restore it to 2.2.1 in? itunes or do I have to unkock it again w/QuickPwn?

    • Riyad Kalla 28. Oct, 2009 at 11:02 pm #

      J.D.,

      As soon as you do the restore in iTunes, it’s wiping out the unlock and jailbreak on the phone and laying down the official operating system (firmware) again — so you’d have to re-unlock it and re-jailbreak it.

  55. alvin 15. Nov, 2009 at 9:01 am #

    hey, quickpwn gets to the final stage and says uploading exploit bootloader but then it just stay like that and never changes.

  56. ron 02. Dec, 2009 at 5:45 am #

    i tried this and my phone said error and know it says i have to restore to the newest version 3.something and it failed on the first step :(

  57. ron 02. Dec, 2009 at 6:46 am #

    sorry im an impatient bastard it worked flawlessly

  58. Riyad Kalla 02. Dec, 2009 at 7:50 am #

    Ron, no worries, just glad it worked.

  59. Manny K 15. Dec, 2009 at 11:17 am #

    okay SO this is the thing. I have been using my already unlocked 2nd gen iphone for awhile. But i seemed to have accidentally upgraded it on iTunes and it went back into its original state. So I am stuck with a Tmobile SIM card and a AT&T LOCKED iphone. Am i going to have to get a at&t sim card to unlock it, relock it, and THEN load up the software???

    • Riyad Kalla 15. Dec, 2009 at 1:28 pm #

      Manny, you might need to get an older firmware, like 2.2.1 or 3.0 (not 3.1), use the Shift-CLICK trick in iTunes when clicking on “Restore Firmware” and flash that firmware on there and see if you can crack it then. Unfortunately I’m 90% sure the Firmware 3.1 upgrade forcibly upgrades the baseband on the iphone 1-way that is not currently hackable and you cannot downgrade it, even if you force an older firmware on there.

  60. Manny K 16. Dec, 2009 at 4:28 pm #

    i see i see. but when I go and connect my iphone into itunes it says I need to put in a valid SIM card which i do not have. Will any AT&T sim card be able to unlock the phone itself so I can actually install the older software???

  61. Ed 21. Dec, 2009 at 2:00 am #

    Hi, I just used this guide to update my iphone 1st gen from jailbroken 1.1.4 to 2.2.1, and I had the ‘no service’ trouble at first, but I realized that since I’m on a no-data ATT plan, I still needed to unlock the phone. So after I ran quickpwn again with the unlock option checked, everything worked. I think if the guide were updated to state that even if you’re on ATT, you still need to unlock it if you don’t have a data plan (i.e., paid internet). Hope I’m clear! Thanks for the guide

  62. Jen 01. Jan, 2010 at 12:36 pm #

    i was wondering.. How long does the first step:
    “Wait for your iPhone to connect in Recovery Mode”
    take?
    its been taking me quite a while now.

  63. Jen 01. Jan, 2010 at 3:53 pm #

    why wont it get passed the first step?

  64. Andy 11. Feb, 2010 at 4:39 am #

    I have a jailbroken iphone 3gs that was done whilst on 3.01 i want to install some apps that only work in 3.12, how do i upgrade my firmware? I have tried downloading 3.12 and updating via holding shift but itunes says in cannot update

    Thanks

  65. doctor x 12. Feb, 2010 at 11:46 pm #

    hi txs four you help ive read all your instructions, and i want to make sure if this would work on my 1G 8Gb Iphone, that already has version 1.1.3 unlocked and Jailbroken.
    txs four your time.

  66. jahree 10. Mar, 2010 at 4:54 pm #

    i have a iphone 3g with a tmobile sim card in it..and i tried to plug it into itunes first instead of jailbreaking it first..now my screens stuck on connect to itunes and i can only make emergency calls i cant even get into the phone.PLEASE HELP

    • alejandro 11. Mar, 2010 at 7:16 am #

      hi..stuck into emergency call?you have to jailbreak you iphone just download redsnow or blacksnow which you can search on google which is compatible to your the firmware you have now and then you will use the phone again.

  67. Anonymous 27. Mar, 2010 at 2:55 am #

    Dummy question: I accidentally hit the upgrade button installing the latest iPhone software on my jailbroken 1st gen iPhone (which was never sold or supported here in Belgium).
    Result: everything gone, only emergency calls.
    Will I ever be able to recover some of my data (I did have a backup of my text messages but not my contacts and notes)?
    Or should I just start from scratch and don’t bother.

    • Riyad Kalla 27. Mar, 2010 at 4:53 am #

      If you accidentally installed the 3.1.3 update via legit iTunes you might be in trouble. Last time I crawled my way through the “how to upgrade a jailbroken iphone” jungle (about 3 weeks ago) there was no baseband crack for 3.1.3 yet, which means you are locked out if you took that upgrade.

      Everything up until 3.1.2 had a baseband crack available as well as jailbreak support. That doesn’t seem to have changed yet per the iPhone Dev Blog and those guys are the crackers to watch. So if you see a “3.1.3 crack” out there, stay away until they give the green light.

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. How to Install iPhone 2.1 Firmware on Hacked T-Mobile iPhone | The "Break it Down" Blog - 13. Feb, 2009

    [...] Update #2: We have completed an updated Guide to installing the iPhone 2.2.1 Firmware on a Jailbroken/Unlocked iPhone. [...]

  2. Riyad Kalla - 13. Feb, 2009

    iPhone 2.21 firmware guide: http://tinyurl.com/cxmxoz

  3. Riyad Kalla - 13. Feb, 2009

    iPhone 2.21 firmware guide: http://tinyurl.com/cxmxoz

  4. AT&T Cell Network Sucking Hard for the iPhone Recently? | The "Break it Down" Blog - 19. Feb, 2009

    [...] know all my friends that had wanted the phone really bad but refused to get on the network, simply Unlocked their phones onto other networks (like [...]

  5. emellid - 13. Mar, 2009

    Reading: “How to Install iPhone 2.2.1 Firmware on Jailbroken and Unlocked T-Mobile iPhone ( http://tinyurl.com/cxmxoz )

  6. Abdallah N. Ahmad ? - 19. Mar, 2009

    http://www.thebuzzmedia.com/how-to-install-iphone-221-firmware-on-jailbroken-and-unlocked-t-mobile-iphone/

  7. iPhone jailbreaking 2.2.1 - Iam8up Blog - 05. Apr, 2009

    [...] http://www.thebuzzmedia.com/how-to-install-iphone-221-firmware-on-jailbroken-and-unlocked-t-mobil... No comments for this entry yet… [...]

  8. Iphone 3g having trouble with service - Hackint0sh - 21. Jun, 2009

    [...] to download a firmware with 2.2.1 with baseband 02.28 i will suggest download it from this link: How to Install iPhone 2.2.1 Firmware on Jailbroken and Unlocked T-Mobile iPhone | The "Break it… Hope it helps and u install Yellosn0w from Cydia to make it run If u have 2g then just ugrade [...]

  9. How to Install iPhone 3.0 Firmware on Jailbroken and Unlocked T-Mobile iPhone | The "Break it Down" Blog - 09. Jul, 2009

    [...] This is an update to our Firmware 2.2.1 Guide, which was an update to our Firmware 2.1 Guide, which was an update to our Firmware 2.0 [...]

  10. Michael Carmody - 14. Oct, 2009

    @Jamiesafc these things can go wrong though
    http://tinyurl.com/cxmxoz

  11. Michael Carmody - 14. Oct, 2009

    RT @Jamiesafc these things can go wrong though
    http://tinyurl.com/cxmxoz

  12. How to Update iPhone 2G with Firmware 3.1.2, Jailbreak and Carrier Unlock Guide | The Buzz Media - 23. Jul, 2010

    [...] how to keep your iPhone firmware updated, jailbroken and carrier unlocked for firmwares 2.0, 2.1, 2.2.1, 3.0 and 4.0 – but we never had one for 3.1 which seemed [...]

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