How to Jailbreak Your iPhone 3GS Using PwnageTool (Mac) [5.0.1]

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Posted December 28, 2011 at 5:19am by iClarified · 158786 views

These are instructions on how to jailbreak your iPhone 3GS on iOS 5.0.1 using PwnageTool for Mac.

Step One
Make a folder called "Pwnage" on the desktop. In it, you will need a couple of things. PwnageTool 5.0.1, found here.

You will also need the 5.0.1 iPhone firmware found here.

When downloading the IPSW file, it is best to download it with Firefox since Safari often auto extracts it!

How to Jailbreak Your iPhone 3GS Using PwnageTool (Mac) [5.0.1]

Step Two
Double click to mount PwnageTool then drag the PwnageTool icon into the Pwnage folder.

Then from the Pwnage folder double click to launch the PwnageTool application

Click Ok if presented with a warning.

Step Three
Click to select Expert Mode from the top menu bar

Step Four
Click to select your device. A check-mark will appear over the image of the device. Click the blue arrow button to continue.

Step Five
You will be brought to the "Browse for IPSW" page. Click the Browse for IPSW... button.

From the popup window select your firmware from the Pwnage folder then click the Open button.

Step Six
You will then be brought to a menu with several choices. Click to select General then click the blue arrow button.

The General settings allows you to decide the partition size. Check Activate the phone if you are not with an official carrier then click the blue arrow button.

NOTE*: Deselect Activate if you have an iPhone legitimately activated on an official carrier.

The Cydia settings menu allows you to create custom packages so you do not have to manually install the necessary them later.

Click to select the Download packages tab. Then click the Refresh button to display all the available packages. Double clicking the package you want will download it and make it available in the Select Packages tab.

Checkmark the ones you want then click the blue arrow button.

The Custom Packages Settings menu displays listed package settings for your custom IPSW. For know leave these settings as is. Click the blue arrow button to continue.

Step Seven
You are now ready to begin the pwnage process! Click the Build button to select it then click the Blue arrow button to begin.

Step Eight
You will be asked to save your custom .ipsw file. Save it to your Pwnage folder you created on your Desktop.

Your IPSW is now being built. Please allow up to 10 minutes.

You will be asked to enter your administrator password. Do this then click the OK button.

Step Nine
Once your ipsw has been built you will be asked to connect your iPhone to the computer. Once it detects your device PwnageTool will guide your through the steps to putting your iPhone into DFU mode.

Press and hold the power and home buttons for 10 seconds.

Then release the power button and continue holding the home button for 10 seconds.

Once your iPhone is successfully in DFU mode, PwnageTool will prompt you to launch iTunes.

Step Ten
Once In iTunes, hold the Alt/Option key and click Restore.

Step Eleven
Navigate to the Pwnage folder on your desktop using the dialog window that appears. Select the custom IPSW that was created and click the Choose button.

Step Twelve
iTunes will now restore the firmware on your iPhone. This can also take up to 10 minutes. Once done you will be rebooted into jailbroken iOS 5.0.1!

***THANKS: Thank you to iPhone Dev-Team, Chronic Dev-Team, I0nic, and Geohot for their hard work in making this jailbreak and tutorial possible!

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jay - March 11, 2013 at 5:02am

I followed the instructions to restore and jailbreak Iphone 3gs it has activated but it wont detect the sim card help

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melina - February 7, 2012 at 10:20am

Bought used 3gs. I unlocked and jailbroke on 3.1.2 on baseband 05.11.07. Followed all your steps everything was going well until the end of step 12. iTunes was processing like it was going to work until it came up with this message "the iphone could not be restored. this device isn't eligible for the requested build". I tried to option+restore it again and looked like it was processing it but then got error code 1601. Then I tried to restart the phone and now I get the "only compatible sim cards from a supported carrier may be used." TinyUmbrella now says: firmware 5.0.1 baseband 05.11.07-6.4_M3s2 serial number 85946xxxxxx Any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Sithu - March 11, 2012 at 2:28am

I have a 16g 3g Iphone. It is running 2.2 and is oajlbriken. I DO want to be able to unlock in the future (as when I sell it on ebay to get the lastest Iphone this summer!). I am using a PC but my wife has an Imac and her own Iphone 3g which she updated to 2.21 as is not interested in jailbreaking. So I want to upgrade to 2.2.1 but not change the baseband. I also do not want to do anything to screw up my wife's Iphone on her Mac. Can I download the PwnageTool on her Mac and create the custom .ipsw and then save and transfer that file to my PC? Then do I use Itunes to update to 2.2.1 and select UPDATE while holding down the shift key, and select the custom .ipsw file? Then use Quickpawn to jailbreak? Are those the correct steps?

matt - February 6, 2012 at 5:20pm

Wasn't clear about one thing, should I already be on OS 5 with my iphone 3GS before I Jailbreak using the Pwnage tool? Right now I have an 3GS with the factory settings. thanks,

Luis - March 11, 2012 at 3:28am

5221Bonjour, j'ai bien la mise c3a0 jour oficielle de mon nohpie 3gs, chose bizare mon gsm est desimlockc3a9 d'origine alors que au firmware 4.3.3 il etait encore impossible de lire ma sim sans jailbreakc3a9, petit soucis quand je lance redsnow pour jailbreakc3a9 il me dit impossible de le jailbreakc3a9 en untethered alors que j'ai un old bootrom, quelqu'un sait il m'aider pour passer ce problc3a9me ou a t il une solution c3a0 me proposer, merci d'avance

Hosny - March 13, 2012 at 3:11am

I'm quite pleased with the inforamiton in this one. TY!

Norm - January 30, 2012 at 1:57am

I have a Mac, 3GS, on 4.3.3 jail broken with Ultrasn0w unlock. Old baseband. Using Pwnage Tool and trying to go to 5.0.1 without success. My iPad 1 got to 5.0.1 simply as described in the tutorial. Easy, no problem. Can't say the same for the iPhone. It sort of worked the first time through with Activate The Phone unchecked but stalled asking for the AT&T SIM which I have. So then did a build using Activate checked. Getting either a 11 or 1600 error on restore. Went back to 4.3.3 without a problem. Can't get to 5.0.1 though. Any ideas welcome.

Philip - January 24, 2012 at 9:20am

I would love to use this guide with my iPhone 3gs. But I don't know how since my power button is busted and I can't put the phone in DFU. I have googled about putting the phone in DFU without the use of buttons, but I'm afraid it might brick my phone :-( Any help would be much appreciated!!! Has anyone been through this problem?

Philip - January 25, 2012 at 12:02pm

Found a guide which didn't work BUT fined tuned it and found a solution to my problem by myself. Read the guide and then my comment to succeed (by Philip) if you have the same problem as me. This link to the guide is: http://iphoneblogr.com/2011/08/how-to-enter-dfu-mode-without-home-or-power-button-tutorial/ Cheers, Philip

Ihor - March 11, 2012 at 11:33am

Desktop publishing is the model I've been konliog to. We have to go through the FrankenFont stage.Maybe the music industry is a better model. It is difficult to make money on an album any more, the musicians have to make their money performing now, and the recordings are ads for their live performances.This won't work with the Television and Film business as there is no concert revenue. So other means of capturing revenue need to be relied on. I think a lot of clever uses of sponsorships and embedded advertising will come into play.As soon as the theaters are all digital the cost of distribution will be extremely cheap. So the second to last stranglehold that studios had, the ability to front the money for prints and distribution, will be nullified.This leaves access to high end talent their last cornered market. You and I can't get Tom Cruise to be in our movie. Interesting days ahead, that's for sure. I can tell you if I was starting out now, with the tools that are currently available, I would have a larger body of work than Steven Spielberg by the time I reached my current age.

icecipher - January 18, 2012 at 11:42pm

i wish to know if this process is for a untethered jailbreak and do not change your baseband??

Yeah - January 15, 2012 at 7:38pm

I get "Device Unknown" "This iPhone may be damaged and cannot be activated for service. Please visit your nearest Apple Store for more information." Whats this junk about?

Kaloyan Kolev - January 9, 2012 at 3:00am

Everithing fine.. but findmyiphone on icloud does not work - why?

Sebastian - February 19, 2012 at 4:49am

Stay inofrmtaive, San Diego, yeah boy!

Marcelo - January 4, 2012 at 2:40pm

i have a 3gs 6.15.00, created the custom ipsw for 5.0.1 and restored in iTunes. Restore was successful and now my iPhone needs to be activated before I can access the home screen and use Cydia. It says only supported carrier may be used to activate iPhone, but I don't have the original SIM (and don't even know what carrier it's originaly from). Should i just boot it with Redsn0w or try to activate it while conected to iTunes? tks

willi - January 4, 2012 at 10:26pm

i have the same problem here with 6.15.00 baseband, 3GS and updating from 4.2.1 to 5.0.1. Sim card is being rejected after trying many different approaches. no success, sad situation for me

HarryProa - January 6, 2012 at 11:48pm

I had the same outcome with my previously pwned 3GS. i used the new pwnage tool to jailbreak so i could use ultrasn0w to unlock and the phone failed to activate (saying it needed a valid SIM to do so). I tried restoring from DFU mode to the custom firmware bundle again and got the 1600 error others have seen. I then followed the advice on iPhone Dev Team's blog (http://blog.iphone-dev.org/) and re-jailbroke the phone using the latest Redsn0w (being sure to uncheck the install Cydia box) and bingo - activated and now unlocked via ultrasn0w!

Marcelo - January 10, 2012 at 8:14pm

thank you so much, it worked for me as well :-) activated and unlocked via ultrasn0w!

Smitty - January 16, 2012 at 12:39am

i have a 3gs 6.15.00 running i0S 4.3.1. Should I do run pwnage or go straight to RedsnOw? I've resisted for weeks, cause I need my phone and can't have it not working.

Marcelo - January 19, 2012 at 11:24am

there's always a risk that it won't work. I've tried redsn0w and pwnagetool and both didn't work at the first try. Then I tried pwnagetool again and it worked, but couldn't activate, so I used redsn0w to redo the jailbreak and finally got it. I personally prefer redsn0w. Anyways, whatever tool you decide to use, I strongly recommend that you use an original Apple data cable and connect it directly into the computer (don't use your keyboard USB inlet port, for example)

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