Hack Attack : Downgrade iPhone 2G From 2.0 to 1.1.4 And Unlock it

Jul 18, 2008

Hack Attack : Downgrade iPhone 2G From 2.0 to 1.1.4 And Unlock it

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iphone3g

While a lot of people are awaiting the release of Pwnage tool from iPhone Dev Team, there are equally that many people who accidentally got upgraded to 2.0 leaving their precious iPhone locked and unusable.

If you are one of those, then follow this guide to restore your iPhone 2G from firmware 2.0 to 1.1.4 and completely unlock it. This is of course is the only way you can use your iPhone 2G until the Dev Team releases Pwnage tool 2.0.

Follow the instructions below carefully, and you should be able to achieve the stated goal pretty fast. Trust me, it ain’t that hard….

Warning : This tutorial/guide is for the iPhone 2G only which have been accidentally upgraded to 2.0 needing to restore back to 1.1.4 and unlock the phone. Do not use this guide on your iPhone 3G.

Also this guide is currently only for the Mac OS.. I will add a guide for Windows when it is available and ready.

Alright lets get started then…. Download the following items at the start, you will need them during the course of the tutorial.

Download all of them and keep them handy.. Lets get started then with the real deal.. Get ready to free your iPhone

Install iTunes 7.7 and then uninstall it using AppZapper. This is to make sure you have the correct drivers and files necessary for the iPhone with firmware 2.0.
Open Terminal and type the following command. Enter the administrator password when prompted for it.
sudo rm -R /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/MobileDevice.framework
Now install iTunes 7.5 and reboot your Mac.
Rename iTunes folder in Music to iTunesOLD. Run iTunes and configure everything to your hearts liking and quit iTunes.
Plug in your iPhone using the dock connector. iTunes should now recognize the iPhone and prompt you telling that you need a newer version of iTunes. Just don’t bother and click OK.
Now the tricky part, you now need to put the iPhone in DFU Mode. Note that the iPhone is completely blank in the DFU Mode.
Here’s how to get into the DFU Mode, hold the home button on the bottom and the power button until the screen turns off and then count to 2 and let go of the power button on the top of the iPhone , but keep pressing home button until iTunes asks you if you want to restore your iPhone.
Now in iTunes option click Restore in the iPhone tab and choose the iPhone firmware file iphone1,1_1.1.4.4A102_Restore.ipsw you downloaded earlier.
iTunes will now restore 1.1.4 onto the iPhone. Once it is done you should get an error 1015 which is good sign.
Now put your iPhone in normal restore mode (not DFU). To go into normal Restore mode turn off iPhone, turn on with a tap on power while holding the home button and hold the home button until iTunes tells that you need to restore your iPhone. Now restore the firmware again just like in the previous step. Don’t bother about the error code.
Now quit iTunes and start Pwnage tool that you downloaded earlier and hit browse ipsw and select the firmware you downloaded earlier..
Hit iPwner, and after a while your iPhone will start showing text, loads of it. After a while it should restart and ask you to connect it to iTunes.
Hit Browse ipsw. Choose the file you downloaded earlier. Select ipsw builder and configure the options as shown below in the screenshot.
Hit Ok, and choose the two bootloader files from the rar archive you downloaded earlier. Choose a location to save your restore file.
Quit Pwnage tool, and fire up iTunes one last time.
Option click on restore in the iPhone tab (the alt key + mouse key) and choose the new custom restore file you created in Pwnage tool.
Once the restore is complete, your iPhone should be completely unlocked and jailbroken. You should be able to run any apps you wish and use any SIM.
Sync your iPhone, and enjoy your totally unlocked iPhone.

Well that is it, wasn’t that long isn’t it. Try it out and at the moment it is the best solution until Dev Team gets around to releasing Pwnage tool 2.0 that will unlock Firmware 2.0 on the iPhone 2G.

Meanwhile enjoy your hacked phone!! Special thanks to aRT in the forums for writing this guide.

Please let us know in the comments, as to how it goes for you. This wouldn’t be possible without the work of many hackers from around the world whose sole aim is to free up the iPhone.

Tags: firmware, guide, hack, iphone, jailbreak, tips, tutorial, unlock, upgrade

33 Comments, Comment or Ping

Roy Hagenaar

Hello,

I’m Roy from Holland and I got the same problem. Your guide is very clear, only my problem is that I haven’t got a mac.

Please let me know when your guide for windows is ready, because I got a beautiful, but unusable Iphone.

Greetings from Holland

Roy Hagenaar

Jul 19th, 2008
IanG

Good to see the Hack Attack back on your pages.
Keep up the good work.

Jul 19th, 2008
FireFox

Is there a hack for the 3G phone already ??

Jul 19th, 2008
FireFox

Jup Pwnage tool 2.0 has just been released !!

Jul 20th, 2008
Ram

I have the same issue of upgrading my unlocked iPhone to 2.0. Would be very glad to downgrade it using Windows.

Waiting for the giude to downgrade & unlock the iPhone, using Windows.

Jul 21st, 2008
twana

I am twana from iraq i have iphone 2g 1.1.4 firmware ..before three daye i updated my iphone to 2.0 firmware..so i doing this step you writted ..but there is an error” iphone could not be restored an unknown erro occurred 20″ this erro apear when i try to restor my phone..what is solution ..
very thanks for you

twana

Jul 21st, 2008
Brandon

I pwnd the iphone and everything and when i went to load the custom firmware, it shows error 1015. someone please help?

Jul 22nd, 2008
Yunus

Best guide available for sure, tried tens of times before finding this guide. BTW you explained the DFU mode starting sequence the best way.. THX alot..

Jul 22nd, 2008
Paul

one in thisi guide step that wasnt clear:

should appzapper have ‘keep applications safe’ checked or not?? i unchecked before zapping itunes 7.7 and now in DFU itunes 7.5 says “Software for this iPhone is currently not available” when I try to restore. Am not sure if that was because of that or from some other cause. Either way my iPhone is still in 2.0 and SIM locked….

Any tips?

PS it was a ziphone jailbroken 1.1.2 before I stupidly applied 2.0

Jul 22nd, 2008
Bik

I’v done everything above and it works perfectly. The only thing is that my SIM lock is still on and I cannot use my iPhone as a phone! Any help?

Bik

Jul 22nd, 2008
johan

I got a error message 1604 What’s wrong? With the custom file

Jul 22nd, 2008
Brian

I was reading another guide here

http://www.anewmorning.com/2008/07/20/how-to-downgrade-your-iphone-20-to-114/

according to this, you are able to do it with itunes 7.5, not 7.7 ?

Jul 23rd, 2008
keith

Well, I did my best to follow all the instructions carefully. I’m definitely far from technically clueless, but right now I’m left with an iPhone that boots into raw BSD and won’t be seen by iTunes. Yes, this guide - well-written though it seems to be - has effectively led me to brick my phone. Any chance of a guide on upgrading back to the damn 2.0 version?

[sigh]…

Looks like this was an expensive mistake. At this point I have to warn people to think at least twice before attempting to do this.

Jul 23rd, 2008
keith

Well, after some hours of either brick-ness or BSD text display the iPhone is back to 2.0 software. When I get my 3G model I’ll try this again, but I’ll set aside a few hours just in case, and I’ll be sure to try the downgrade on a different Mac from the one I use to sync. That’s what helped me get it recognised and restored to 2.0 again, eventually.

This still seems like a good set of instructions, but it is far from a straightforward process.

Jul 24th, 2008
jonathan

ok i installed itunes 7.5 and put my phone in dfu mode and i have the 1.1.4 firmware but when i click restore it says “software for this iphone is currently unavailable. make sure you have the latest version of itunes and try again.”what should i do?!

Jul 25th, 2008
Fred

How do you verify the firmware version on the iphone?

Jul 25th, 2008
Fred

Finally found the answer. Now to downgrade

Jul 25th, 2008
Nasirul

Thank you for the instructions. My iphone is doing everything like before but it does not recognize my sim card or network.
Does anyone have an answer?

Jul 29th, 2008
Fred

Pwnage 2.0 is available now I really do not see any reason to do a down grade I used it on 2 2g phones and a 3g and it works like a charm. Here is the website with step by step directions : http://www.modmyifone.com/wiki/index.php/Pwnage_2.0_Guide

Jul 29th, 2008
skj

evn m facin the same problem as nasirul. everything is working execpt the sim. please help.

Jul 29th, 2008
Roberto

Hi, I have accidentally upgraded to 2.0 and cannot revert to 1.1.4 as iTunes 7.5 won’t detect my iPhone.
Have tried with Pwnage 2.0.1 but when I attempt to upload the hacked version of the update I get a message saying that this iPhone cannot be updated.
Any ideas much appreciated.
Thank you.

Jul 30th, 2008
Fred

Roberto
I had the same problem. I had to upgrade without the option key so that it loaded the correct iphone version of 2.0. then it too 3 times to get the pwnage pgm to work. the bootnuter app would not run until the 3rd attempt. good luck…

Jul 30th, 2008
siddhanth

Hi
i read the above tricks to unlock
but i updated the unlocked version of 1.1.4 to 2.0 and then i tried using ziphone but it didnt work even pwnage didnt work

now i am getting an icon of itunes with usb symbol and i cant restore

plz tell me what to dooo

plz email your comments if you have any solution

Aug 6th, 2008
Jay

I have an unlock 8g Iphone, When I put in my T Mobile sim card. It does not work. it jus shows like 4 little dots there. I try to turn of the phone and putting the Sim card in. And still nothing !!! Pls help. and the phone is Jail broken 1.1.4 unlock pls help me out with this problem.

Aug 7th, 2008
Gav

The file: “iphone1,1_1.1.4.4A102_Restore.ipsw” is a folder, it won’t let me choose it!!

Any advice?

Aug 24th, 2008
Gav

OK. I unzipped the file in error. Got past that bit.

Still wouldn’t restore from custom file!! Can I just use the phone after the original 1.1.4 restore, after the “error 1015 bit?”

>:o[

Aug 24th, 2008
Gav

OK. FYI This method would NOT work on my MacBook.

I successfully used iFuntastic instead. Very easy to use.

Aug 24th, 2008
Gav

I used iFuntastic after the phone locked in restore mode.

Aug 24th, 2008
Adel

hi there,
i followed all the steps succefully, but i’m stuck in the very last step, i fired up iteunes, but it won’t allow me to restore, should i put it in the restore mode manually??? please advise as i don’t wanna make a mistake.
cheers.

Aug 26th, 2008
God-Poing

Hello! i have an iphone 1.1.4 and i have a Mac.
i download itunes 7.7 and uninstall and install itunes 7.5
i need to know can i make a restore to 1.1.4 again using itunes 7.5 ? i download the 1.1.4 firmware.

I was using 7.7 now i uninstall it and downgrade to 7.5. my iphone was unlocked with ziphone 3.0

Can i Option + Restore and select the firmware 1.1.4 with no problema and then use ziphone again to unlock ? Thank!

Aug 27th, 2008
Alexander

Great guide only 1 thing didnt work for me the pwnage part. My iphone works great now thanks to 3 different guides. I use a mac so after the 1st 2 recorvery’s i used ziphone to put in restore and dfu mode. I used ziphone 3.0 then your iphone works. Only no network then you have to get a patched version Of it just google and ERASE your baseband only possible with patched version. Then maybe 1 more time normal ziphone and works like a charm.

Aug 29th, 2008
nick

I followed all these instructions and got to restoring the custom ipsw. it didn’t restore and said error 1600! damn it! what do i do?

Aug 30th, 2008
Rajiv Sharma

You Guys Rock!!!!!!!!

Sep 6th, 2008
Rajiv Sharma

Let me know if anyone need help with this process…..Yahhoooo..i was able to unlock my phone.
i hate AT&T…they suck..now i can breath freely

Sep 6th, 2008