Daily Archives: January 29, 2009

How I Downgraded from iPhone Firmware 2.2.1 to 2.2

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UPDATE: iPhone firmware 2.2.1 jailbreak released by QuickPWN.  Click here for information.

So, after upgrading to iPhone firmware 2.2.1, I needed to downgrade to iPhone firmware 2.2 so that my phone could be jailbroken. I posted the following blog entries highlighting my frustrations…

https://bcclist.com/2009/01/27/downgrading-iphone-2-2/

https://bcclist.com/2009/01/28/downgrading-iphone-2-point-2/

Peeps in the forums were saying the iPhone 2G downgrade from 2.2.1 to 2.2 was working ok. Or, if you had a 3G phone, you could downgrade to software 2.2 from 2.2.1 if you ejected your syncing phone at the right time.

Here’s what I did.  But, seeing that I started doing something I know nothing about at 2:00 am CST, the details may be a little foggy.  Maybe not a step-by-step guide but a good enough explanation…

  • Like everyone, my firmware was reading 2.2.1. So, I held down the Shift key on my keyboard and clicked Restore. I found the 2.2 ipsw file. See image here…
  • An error message popped. I don’t have an image of this error message. But, it said something about an unknown error (some number) occurring.
  • I ran QuickPWN 2.2.
  • The process jailbroke my phone. But, there were no contacts, music, email, movies, etc. saved.
  • So, I pretty much gave up and restored the phone from my 1/16/2009 backup. I’ve done this like 10 times over the past few days.
  • But, as the restore began on my jailbroken phone missing all my data, I noticed that the “Automatically sync when this iPhone is connected” box was still checked.
  • So, as my phone was restoring back to 1/16/2009, I went to Edit -> Preferences -> Devices and checked “Disable automatic syncing for iPhones and iPods.” See image here…
  • This checking of the box interrupted the restore and sync that was being communicated between iTunes and my iPhone.
  • The interruption allowed the jailbreak to remain in place (I had access to Cydia), my firmware to revert back to 2.2, and my iPhone 3G to retain all its music, movies, contacts, email, text messages, etc. See image here and here…
  • But, I didn’t have cellphone signal – only WiFi – and my clock was 2 hours behind. It was 4:50+ am and not 2:50+ am. See image here…
  • So, I restarted my computer and iPhone and restored (shift + restore) again from the .ipsw file and ran QuickPWN 2.2 again.
  • I had all my music, contacts, emails, text messages, etc. and cellphone service after restoring to the backup I saved earlier in the morning. My clock caught up as well.

The following is a final screenshot of my jaibroken iPhone 3G before I took off for work…

finally-jailbroken-again

Awesome!

P.S. Yes, I have some really random Apps from the App Store. I’ve deleted many of them – e.g. Google Earth – several times but the back-ups always restore to my previously installed Apps.  Soon to be deleted for good!

Update: Another screenshot of my jailbreak featuring the five icon dock from Cydia…