How to jailbreak iPhone 4 running iOS 5.1.1 with Redsn0w on Windows

You may be one of the people having an iPhone 4 that is running the iOS 5.1 firmware and if you have a jailbroken iPhone 4 you may be wondering if you can update your firmware to the iOS 5.1.1 firmware (released on May 7, 2012) without losing the ability to Jailbreak your smartphone. You may be wondering the same question even if you are already running the iOS 5.1.1. firmware, which must be said is a nice improvement over the iOS 5.1 firmware, increasing stability when you are using HDR photos from the lock-screen shortcut, fixing a few bugs (like when switching from 2G to 3G and vice versa and an AirPlay playback bug) and offering a more reliable sync between Safari bookmarks and Reading List.? So you may want to take advantage of these improvements that the iOS 5.1.1 firmware brings to your iPhone 4.

And that brings us back to the topic at hand: would you be able to jailbreak your iPhone 4 if you were to update to the iOS 5.1.1 firmware or if you are already running this firmware on your iPhone 4? Well, you will be glad to know that yes, it can be done. You can Jailbreak your iPhone 4 tethered thanks to the Windows 0.9.10b8b version of RedSnow. If you are not familiar with the terms Jailbreak, or tethered or RedSn0w you may want to read on as we will explain what each means, so before the actual guide on how to jailbreak your iPhone 4 running iOS 5.1.1 with Redsn0w on Windows, we will first tell you what that actually means.

We will first explain what Jailbreak means in the context of an iPhone (well, the process is not actually exclusive to the iPhone; you can also jailbreak your iPad and iPod touch). Jailbreak is a means of getting full execute and write access on all of your iPhone (iPad / iPod touch) partitions by way of installing a software application. This is achievable in a particular way: you have to patch /private/etc/fstab in order to mount the System partition as read-write. A Jailbroken iPhone / iDevice has the advantages that come with a Jailbreak? (you can, for example, customize your iPhone’s themes and ring tones or use 3rd party tweaks and Apps) but can also function as it did before the jailbreak process: you can still access the App Store and iTunes. Please note that jailbreaking your iPhone is different than unlocking it, but to unlock it (if for example you bought your iPhone from another country, you will want to unlock it), you first need to jailbreak it.

Next we will explain a few things about RedSnow (which is the tool that you will use to jailbreak your iPhone). RedSnow works on Windows and OS X and is a tool used for jailbreaking iDevices. It used to be named QuickPwn, but as of version 0.7 its name was changed to RedSn0w and it also added the ability to unlock supported devices. The 0.9.10b8b version of RedSn0w can Jailbreak your iPhone 4 tethered running iOS 5.1.1. RedSn0w jailbreaks your iPhone / iPad / iPod touch by connecting to a personal computer (via a regular USB cable) and following a few steps that we will go over in detail in this article. We must also mention that RedSnow is a free tool.

Now that you understand what the notion of Jailbreak means and what the RedSnow tool is and what it does, we can explain what tethered jailbreak means. The term ‘tethered’, as you might guess, suggests that somehow your iPhone needs to be connected to your personal computer. To make it more clear, after you jailbreak your iPhone 4, if? it loses power, when you boot it again you will have to boot it by using the RedSnow tool to write code on it so that it can take advantage of the exploit. So every time you boot a tethered jailbroken smartphone, you will have to connect it (hence tethered) to your personal computer (using the dock connector) and use the RedSnow tool to write code on it. This happens because the jailbreak process makes it so there are parts where your iPhone 4 will fail one (or several) signature check. That is why a tethered jailbreak needs you to connect the iPhone to your computer and use the same tool that you used in the initial jailbreak (and select the ‘boot tethered’ option), every time you need to boot tethered.

Now that you understand what all these terms mean, we can continue to the actual ‘how to‘ guide. The guide will be structured in nine easy steps that will explain in detail how you can Jailbreak your iPhone 4 tethered on iOS 5.1.1. Please keep in mind that this ‘how to‘ guide is for the Windows version of RedSn0w 0.9.10b8b.

Step 1.

The first, and the most obvious step, is to Download the 0.9.10b8b version of RedSn0w for the Windows Operating System. Since, as we explained earlier, RedSn0w is the tool you will use to Jailbreak your iPhone 4, you can’t do anything without it so go and download RedSn0w 0.9.10b8b (Windows) from our Jailbreak Downloads section. There is another thing you need to do in this step. You need to download the iOS 5.1.1 firmware for the device you want to Jailbreak: your iPhone 4. You can find the iOS 5.1.1 firmware in our downloads section here. If your iPhone 4 is already running the iOS 5.1.1 firmware, then you obviously don’t need to download it.

Step 2.

In this step, you need to extract the RedSn0w 0.9.10b8b archive. After you have downloaded the tool, go to the location where the RedSn0w file is and right click on it. From the menu choose the ‘extract to folder‘ option and the tool will be unpacked. When it finishes extracting, find the redsn0w.exe file and double click to stat it. Note that you may need to run it with administrator rights; you can do this by right clicking the redsn0w.exe file and choosing the ‘Run as administrator‘ option.

?Step 3.

Now comes the fun part. With the RedSn0w program running, we can start the Jailbreak process. You will see two options in the RedSn0w menu: the first option is Jailbreak and the second option is Extras. The option you will choose, is of course Jailbreak so go ahead and click it.

?Step 4.

Now that you chose the Jailbreak option, you will be presented with a screen that will ask you to enter DFU mode. We will do a bit of explaining: DFU is an acronym that stands for Device Firmware Update. On this screen you will be given instructions on how to enter your iPhone 4 into DFU mode and we advise you read them carefully. To summarize, you will first need to makes sure that your iPhone 4 is plugged in to the computer and after that you need to turn it off. Only after both these conditions are met (your iPhone 4 is plugged in and turned off) you can press the next button to enter the DFU mode.

Step 5.

Now you are ready to enter DFU mode. You will be presented with on screen instructions in real time that will guide you through the process. These are the real time instructions that you need to follow:

• You will first have to hold down the power button for five seconds; the power button is in the corner.

• After the five seconds pass, without releasing the power button you will have to hold the Home button. Both the Home button and the Power button should be held for ten seconds.

• Next, you should keep holding the Home button but you can release the Power button; however, you should keep holding the Home button for another 15 seconds

Now you should be ready for the next step.

Step 6.

Your iPhone 4 should be in DFU mode now and RedSn0w will start precessing the iOS firmware. At this point, if everything went right you should see a message on the screen informing you that RedSn0w is “Preparing jailbreak data“.

Step 7.

When RedSn0w completed processing the iOS firmware, the Jailbreak process is ready to begin, but not before asking you to choose a few options for the Jailbreak process. The available options to choose from are: ?Install Cydia?, “Install custom bundle” and “Deactivate“. It is very important to make sure that the ?Install Cydia? option is checked. You should leave the other two options unchecked. After you ticked the “Install Cydia” box you can press next and the Jailbreak process will begin.

?Step 8.

Now the Jailbreak process should be ongoing. During this time, we strongly recommend that you do not stop the process and do not use your personal computer for anything else as it me lead to unwanted consequences. When the Jailbreak process is complete, your iPhone 4 will be automatically rebooted. However, you may notice that it won’t get past the Apple logo. You shouldn’t panic; we explained the reason for that earlier: this is a tethered Jailbreak so that means that you will have to put it into DFU mode again, and use? RedSn0w 0.9.10b8b to boot your iPhone 4.

Step 9.

In case you closed the RedSn0w 0.9.10b8b tool, open it again. Once RedSn0w is opened, to boot your tethered Jailbroken iPhone 4, you have to first click on the ‘Extras’ button and then, from the list of options click on the ‘Just Boot’ button. Please note that you will have to repeat this step every time you reboot your iPhone 4.

If you completed all the steps successfully, you should now have a Jailbroken iPhone 4, . Your iPhone 4 is now running iOS 5.1.1 firmware and is ready for all the tweaks available on a Jailbroken iPhone and also for Cydia. If you have any questions or suggestions, you can use the comments section below.