March 28, 2024

How to Jailbreak and Unlock Your iPhone 3G Using RedSn0w (Windows) [4.2.1]

Posted November 28, 2010 at 11:52pm by iClarified
GermanSerbian
These are instructions on how to jailbreak your iPhone 3G on the 4.2.1 firmware using RedSn0w for Windows. The Mac version of this tutorial is here.

IMPORTANT FOR UNLOCKERS
During this process you can update your baseband to the 06.15 version. If you are on 05.14 or 05.15 or higher you will need to do this to unlock. You do not need to do this for jailbreak only. Please read the following very carefully before deciding whether to do this.

1. There is no way to come back down from 06.15, and there’s no hiding the baseband version from Apple. You’ll be voiding your warranty in a very obvious way.
2. If some future baseband comes out with a critical fix, you won’t be able to update to it if it remains down in the 05.xx sequence (then again, you wouldn’t update to it if you wanted to keep your unlock anyway).
3. Starting with FW 4.2.1 if you have 06.15 on your iPhone you won’t ever be able to restore to stock firmware (it will fail). You’ll need to only restore to custom IPSWs (then again, if you’re unlocker you should already be doing that).
4. There are reports that 06.15 may disable your GPS. The iPhone Dev-Team is currently working on a fix.


Don’t update to 06.15 if you don’t need to! Only do this if you need the unlock and you’re stuck on 05.14 or 05.15, and you’re willing to assume the above risks.

Step One
Create a folder on your desktop called Pwnage

Download RedSn0w from here and place it in the Pwnage folder. Likewise, download the latest 4.2.1 firmware from below and place it in the same folder.

4.2.1 (3G): iPhone1,2_4.2.1_8C148_Restore.ipsw

Extract the redsn0w executable from the RedSn0w zip file into the same folder.
How to Jailbreak and Unlock Your iPhone 3G Using RedSn0w (Windows) [4.2.1]

Step Two
Connect your iPhone to the computer and launch iTunes.
How to Jailbreak and Unlock Your iPhone 3G Using RedSn0w (Windows) [4.2.1]

Select your iPhone from the list of devices on the left. Now hold down Shift and click the Restore button. Restore is preferred as it won't create any wasted space on your iPhone.
How to Jailbreak and Unlock Your iPhone 3G Using RedSn0w (Windows) [4.2.1]

Navigate to the Pwnage folder on your desktop and select the 4.2.1 firmware ipsw. Click the Choose button to continue.
How to Jailbreak and Unlock Your iPhone 3G Using RedSn0w (Windows) [4.2.1]

Step Three
Once iTunes has finished updating your iPhone to the desired firmware open the Pwnage folder on your desktop and launch the redsn0w application from the redsn0w folder we extracted earlier.
How to Jailbreak and Unlock Your iPhone 3G Using RedSn0w (Windows) [4.2.1]

Step Four
Once RedSn0w opens click the Browse button
How to Jailbreak and Unlock Your iPhone 3G Using RedSn0w (Windows) [4.2.1]

Step Five
Select the 4.2.1 firmware ipsw we placed in the Pwnage folder on our desktop then click Open.
How to Jailbreak and Unlock Your iPhone 3G Using RedSn0w (Windows) [4.2.1]

Step Six
Once the firmware has been verified click the Next button to continue.
How to Jailbreak and Unlock Your iPhone 3G Using RedSn0w (Windows) [4.2.1]

Step Seven
RedSn0w will now prepare the jailbreak data
How to Jailbreak and Unlock Your iPhone 3G Using RedSn0w (Windows) [4.2.1]

Step Eight
From this window you can select the jailbreak options you would like.
How to Jailbreak and Unlock Your iPhone 3G Using RedSn0w (Windows) [4.2.1]

Verbose boot displays detailed information on boot of your device and is generally only needed by developers and advanced users.

Make sure Cydia is selected. For this tutorial we will also select Custom boot logo and Custom recovery logo.

When you click to select each custom logo option a dialog window will appear asking you to select the image. Locate the image you would like to use then press the Open button.
How to Jailbreak and Unlock Your iPhone 3G Using RedSn0w (Windows) [4.2.1]

*Remember the rules for boot logos are: RGB or Grayscale format with Alpha channel and dimension below 320x480. If you would like to use the iClarified ones they can be found here: Boot Logo, Recovery Logo

Notice that RedSn0w can Enable multitasking, Enable homescreen wallpaper, and Enable battery percentage. If you do not need multitasking we would recommend deselecting it as it makes your iPhone 3G run very slow.

If you read the warning above and you would like to update your baseband to the 06.15 iPad version for unlock then check Install iPad Baseband. Click Yes when prompted to confirm your decision.
How to Jailbreak and Unlock Your iPhone 3G Using RedSn0w (Windows) [4.2.1]

Click the Next button to continue
How to Jailbreak and Unlock Your iPhone 3G Using RedSn0w (Windows) [4.2.1]

Step Nine
Please plug your iPhone into the computer and make sure its OFF then click the Next button
How to Jailbreak and Unlock Your iPhone 3G Using RedSn0w (Windows) [4.2.1]

Step Ten
RedSn0w will now guide you through the steps to get into DFU mode. You can find more help with DFU mode here
How to Jailbreak and Unlock Your iPhone 3G Using RedSn0w (Windows) [4.2.1]

Hold down both the Home button and the Power button for 10 seconds.
How to Jailbreak and Unlock Your iPhone 3G Using RedSn0w (Windows) [4.2.1]

Release the Power button and continue holding the Home button until RedSn0w detects the device.
How to Jailbreak and Unlock Your iPhone 3G Using RedSn0w (Windows) [4.2.1]

Step Eleven
RedSn0w will now downloaded the iPad baseband if needed and your iPhone will reboot
How to Jailbreak and Unlock Your iPhone 3G Using RedSn0w (Windows) [4.2.1] How to Jailbreak and Unlock Your iPhone 3G Using RedSn0w (Windows) [4.2.1]

Step Twelve
RedSn0w will then begin uploading the new RAM Disk and Kernel.
How to Jailbreak and Unlock Your iPhone 3G Using RedSn0w (Windows) [4.2.1]

Step Thirteen
Once this is complete you will be notified that RedSn0w is done. Click the Finish button. When your iPhone finishes rebooting (5 minutes or so) it will be jailbroken with Cydia on the SpringBoard.
How to Jailbreak and Unlock Your iPhone 3G Using RedSn0w (Windows) [4.2.1]


NOTES:
If you have problems with RedSn0w on Windows Vista or Windows 7. Right click the executable and set it to run as administrator in Windows XP compatibility mode.

UNLOCK:
You can now follow this tutorial if you want to unlock your device.


*As usual a big thanks to the iPhone Dev-Team for their hard work and contribution to the iPhone community.
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Comments (275)
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leatherneck3112
leatherneck3112 - January 29, 2016 at 7:06pm
I followed this procedure 10 times and each time it failed. The failure presents itself after I've placed my phone in DFU mode and the software is indicating it is installing the iPod baseband software. I receive the "please wait" dialog but after a few moments RedSnow just shuts itself down without any message (error or otherwise) being displayed. I tried running in XP compatibility mode and as an administrator but it didn't work. Any suggestions on hot to get around this?
leart78
leart78 - October 13, 2016 at 5:19pm
its tethered, you must use the redsn0w used in the tutorial, not the latest one :P
krishnakanth
krishnakanth - May 15, 2015 at 6:34pm
hi, i have jailbreaked iphone 3g 4.2.1 but the iphone is not turning on somebody can help me
Bryann
Bryann - November 2, 2014 at 9:06am
How about if the lock button dont work or power button '??
Asad Rafi
Asad Rafi - May 3, 2015 at 11:48am
then you download redsnow 0.9.15.b3 then open it and click on extras then even more and then dfu ipsw then select ipsw and restore with that ipsw and iphone will enter dfu mode
Gregski
Gregski - October 15, 2014 at 10:15am
Best FAQ on the Internet. Thanks a lot.
DOC
DOC - July 2, 2014 at 1:04am
where do i get the redsnow compatible firmware for iphone3GS?
Michael_sp
Michael_sp - May 17, 2014 at 6:34pm
Thank you so much, I successfully installed jailbreak on my iPhone 3G iOS 4.2.1. Restore firmware with iTunes takes about 12 minutes until it asks to activate with a SIM card. Note that I has issues with battery, so as soon as redsn0w finished I plugged the iphone to wall charger.to prevent yellow screen. It's mandatory to start firmware flashing with high battery.
John
John - May 14, 2014 at 12:13pm
Thanks a lot to this guide!!!
Exceptional Khan
Exceptional Khan - March 17, 2014 at 8:39am
Very Nice Guide. Both of them guides Worked beautifully. Thumbs up:
Thomas
Thomas - February 28, 2014 at 4:02am
Link for redsn0w is dead... I can see when I mouseover it was linked to v0.9.6rc8... should I get that version? or something else/newer? Most newer versions seem to be Beta.
Thomas
Thomas - March 1, 2014 at 10:08pm
Worked with v0.9.6rc8... it froze at uploading ramdisk (step 12)... after 10min it shut down. Closed everything, started redsn0w again, as soon as started I clicked ctrl+alt+del and went into task manager, then the processes tab. Found redsn0w in the list, right-click, went to Set Affinity, in there it listed processors... multicore system... so I unchecked everything except CPU 01, then ran the steps from there and worked perfectly fine.
leart78
leart78 - October 13, 2016 at 6:23pm
wtf dude, it worked lol ;)
NeonEmily
NeonEmily - October 15, 2013 at 4:16am
Hello guys, i try to jailboke my iphone 3G and when it start jailbroking that white text on black screen apears and its scroling downs i see everything fine but i minute text stopt scrolling down and last word was on that text: image not found and it stuck like this i tryed to jailbroke again and same thing again. Can you help me? i'm using redsn0w. Thank you :)
NeonEmily
NeonEmily - November 19, 2013 at 1:07pm
I solved my problem a long time ago so don't reply everything is fine :) sorry for bad english i'm lithuanian
Quynhnguyen
Quynhnguyen - August 9, 2015 at 4:43pm
how did u do to fix it ?? thank u
iran
iran - October 5, 2013 at 12:42pm
when I'm gonna DL redsnow, it says the file is not available any more!!!! can any one help me plzzzz ???
Kasparas
Kasparas - August 16, 2013 at 11:30am
In step eleven, while fletching iPad baseband files, redsnow just turns off. what's the problem?
Lauralucky77
Lauralucky77 - September 2, 2013 at 5:06am
THIS IS PERFECT FOR PEOPLE WHO NEED STEP BY STEP... LOVE THIS SIGHT!
Danusa
Danusa - July 26, 2013 at 10:37pm
Thank You!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)
andrea stansbury
andrea stansbury - June 22, 2013 at 8:16pm
ok... my husband just got an iphone 3g. we need to put facebook on it so we need to upgrade the ios to 5. do I need to mess with the baseband at all... the phone was factory unlocked will doing this mess with that? we currently have the phone active on net10.
nastychild
nastychild - July 23, 2013 at 3:01pm
iOS 5 is not being supported on iPhone 3G.
Diyath
Diyath - November 17, 2013 at 7:12am
No you don't need to upgrade.. There is an earlier version of facebook.. iPhone automatically installs it
Francis
Francis - May 6, 2013 at 2:09am
Hey guys, could you still give me a hand? There's no ipsw file in the link right in the step 1. Can someone, please, give another link? Merci.
Francis
Francis - May 6, 2013 at 3:57am
I have already done that. Just changed folder settings. Thanks a lot.
Vinaydvd
Vinaydvd - February 28, 2013 at 12:10pm
I have not been able to unlock my Iphone 3G with several attempts. I am on 4.2.1 with Modem Firmware 6.5.1. After finishing the "ultrasn0w" process in Cydia , I get a " Cannot Comply" message with Dependency shown as "IOS Firmware >= 3.0. Can someone please help me with this ?
Pawel
Pawel - April 15, 2013 at 1:05pm
This is so out of date, if you guys want to unlock any ATT phones, such as the new 5 firmware6, go check attiphoneunlocking.com.
Max Blade
Max Blade - February 19, 2013 at 2:41pm
after step 11 when phone says " wait for reboot", my phone stuck into it and having problem in rebooting.... please help me.....
C C
C C - January 27, 2013 at 1:53am
Correction...the latest version 9.15b3 did not work. Didn't try 9.6b5 as pictured in the tutorial. Sorry!
C C
C C - January 27, 2013 at 1:48am
This version does not work. You need to go back at least 1 or 2 versions. Ran this and BB was not changed. Could not unlock or modify themes. Ran Redsn0w 9.12b2 and everything works like a frickin' charm! iPhone 3G.
krunal
krunal - January 20, 2013 at 7:38am
thank uuuu sooo muchhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
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