Pretty much every iPhone model and baseband variant out there can now jailbroken and unlocked, however whilst carrying out a little research the other day we realised that the iPhone 3GS running baseband 5.16.05 was one exception – but there is a way around this!
People who have jailbroken and unlocked iPhone models in the past have probably come across redsn0w and ultrasn0w, well the good news is that these are the tools you need to carry out the jailbreak and unlock, but for some reason only a certain version of redsn0w worked for us while we tested out this method, the rest was pretty easy.
Before carrying out this method we connected the iPhone 3GS to the computer, updated it to iOS 5.0.1 and once that was installed we ran a factory reset to give the iPhone ‘a fresh start’, we’re not saying this is necessary, but this method worked for us.
Note: we carried out the following method using Windows not Mac OS X, also we can’t be held responsible if anything goes wrong, you are always taking a risk when jailbreaking a device, so don’t do it unless you are sure! Also some say that if your 3GS was built after the 45th week in 2009 you could brick your iPhone – so beware!
Now that your iPhone 3GS is running iOS 5.0.1 you should turn it off. Now download RedSn0w 0.9.10b4 via this link (Mac link here). Once downloaded extract the files and you should see a redsn0w.exe file, right click this and then select ‘Run as Administrator’ – redsn0w should now be open.
Click the ‘Jailbreak’ button, ensure your iPhone 3GS is off and plug it into your PC via the USB cable then click next, you may see a warning about your iDevice’s serial number, don’t ignore this and only continue if your iPhone doesn’t fall into the blacklisted serial numbers (you may have to briefly turn on your iPhone to check the serial number). redsn0w will now ask you to enter DFU mode, follow the on-screen instructions and then redsn0w will carry out the jailbreak. A few seconds later you should see some jailbreak options, ensure that ‘Install Cydia’ and ‘Install iPad baseband’ are both ticked, click next and then you will have to accept a warning to continue, the process will then finish and you will see your iPhone’s display showing the latter stages of the jailbreak – wait for this to finish and your iPhone should start-up running jailbroken iOS 5.0.1.
You now need to run a few checks, firstly swipe across to see if Cydia is installed, secondly go into Settings, General, About and scroll down to ‘Modem Firmware’ – here you should now be running baseband 6.15.00 – this means you have successfully installed the iPad baseband on your 3GS. Note: Some say that this baseband affects WiFi and GPS connectivity, but it worked just fine for us.
Finally load up Cydia, search for ultrasn0w, run it, reboot your iPhone and voila – you’re done. There are other methods out there which may work, but this is the only method which worked for us after 4 hours of trying different mehods. We didn’t have to install custom IPSW images or anything like that, just update to iOS 5.0.1, run a factory reset, jailbreak with redSnow 0.9.10b4 ensuring that you tick the iPad baseband (all other redsn0w versions failed for us) and then open up Cydia and run ultrasn0w – it’s simple when you know how.
Please leave us a comment below letting us know if this guide helped you! Likewise, if you are struggling with this, let us know and we will try to help you…
*Identifying Monetised Links - outgoing links that we monetise are marked with an '*' symbol.
