Guide (step-by-step): How To Downgrade iOS 4.1 iPhone 4, 3GS, 3G and iPod touch to iOS 4 / iPhone 3.1.3 / 3.1.2

Hosts file in OS XThe following step by step guide will help you rollback to iOS 4, iPhone 3.1.3 and 3.1.2 from iOS 4.1 Beta as long as you have SHSH blobs saved for the respective firmwares for iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 3G and iPod touches.

If you have an iPhone 3G and you have this feeling that upgrading to iOS 4 has slowed down your device and that you want to go back to iPhone 3.1.3 / 3.1.2.

Or if you are one of those iPhone 3GS (new bootrom) or iPod touch 3G / 2G (MC model) user who has upgraded to iOS 4 only to find out that you cant jailbreak it can follow the instructions posted below to downgrade iOS 4.0 to iOS (formerly iPhone 3.1.3 or 3.1.2).

Step 1: Download the old iOS 4 ipsw firmware files. (Download links can be found here)

Step 2: Put your device into DFU mode (not recovery mode).

  • Connect your iPhone to your computer.
  • Turn iPhone off.
  • Start iTunes.
  • Hold Power and Home buttons together for 10 seconds or so.
  • Release Power button but keep holding the Home button until your computer recognizes a new USB device.
  • iTunes will now recognize your iPhone.

Note: Your iPhone screen at this time should be blank (black in color), if not, then you are most likely in Recovery Mode, not DFU mode.

(Step 3 is for iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS users only. If you are on iPhone 3G or iPod touch 2G (non-MC model), skip Step 3 and continue from Step 4)

Step 3: This step is applicable to iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPod touch 3G and iPod touch 2G (MC model) which have their SHSH blobs (ECID SHSH) saved on Cydia for the firmware you downgrading on. If you don’t have your SHSH files saved, you cannot downgrade the mentioned devices.

So what we will do is to trick iTunes into thinking that it is watching Apple servers, while in real, we are going to change the address to Saurik’s server.

  • Navigate to C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\ and locate “hosts” file.

Hosts file in Windows

Mac users can get to “/etc/” directory by going through “Go –> Go to Folder” from Finder.

Hosts file in OS X

  • Open this “hosts” file in Notepad (for Windows) or TextEdit (for Mac OS X) and add this
74.208.105.171 gs.apple.com

line as shown in the screenshot below:

21

Now simply save this file and you are good to go!

NOTE for Windows 7 and Vista: Start “Notepad” with Administrator privileges by right clicking on “Notepad” app, and click on “Run as Administrator“ option.

Step 4: You will now have to restore your iPhone or iPod touch to the firmware you downloaded in Step 1. Click on your phone icon from the sidebar in iTunes. Now press and hold left “alt” (option) button on Mac (Left “Shift” button on Windows) on the keyboard and then click on “Restore” (Not “Update” or “Check for Update”) button in the iTunes and then release this button.

iTunes

This will make iTunes prompt you to select the location for your downloaded firmware file. Select that ipsw file and click on “Open”.

Step 5: Now sit back and enjoy as iTunes does the rest for you. This will involve a series of automated steps. Be patient at this stage and don’t do anything silly. Just wait while iTunes installs firmware on your iPhone or iPod touch. Your iPhone screen at this point will be showing a progress bar indicating installation progress. Now at some point, iTunes will throw 1011, 1013 or 1015 error at you. This is normal, just ignore this error as the firmware has already been successfully installed on the device.

Step 6: Now you will need to exit your device from Recovery Mode. To do this, download a program called RecBoot (Windows / Mac). Run it and the click on “Exit Recovery Mode” button. Your device will now restart normally.

RecBoot

This is it, you should now be able to jailbreak your device on this older OS. 

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  • Cnet2999

    This doesn’t really work with downgrading os4.1 back to any other firmware without the shsh blobs! I did’nt know about the shsh blobs before upgrading my damn firmware to 4.1 on the iphone! With this tutorial it’ll show the firmware you downgraded to in the “about” in the general setting but really it’s still stuck at os 4.1. Cydia will not work on it! If you try to jailbreak with redsnow and put in the old firmware as the firmware you got on the iphone it will not recogonize it! But it will recogonize firmware 4.1 cause you never downgraded when you got one of those errors durring the process!

  • Dereck

    Awwwwwwwwweeeeeeeeeesome! I was able to downgrade and jailbreak. @ Mike, You need to send your notepad to your desktop and right click on it. Run as administrator. But first go to the hosts file on your C drive and open it, copy all by CTRL A and CTRL C. Now, go back to your notepad on your desktop, right click it Run As Administrator and open the notepad on your desktop. Paste what you copied from the host on your C drive and add the 74.208.105.171 gs.apple.com as explained above. Save as in your C drive where the original hosts was at. Overight and its going to save. When it saves you good!

  • Mike

    I am not able to save the changes in hosts even after changing to read write and adding admin or myself with rights.

    What can I do?

  • pathibulaire

    salut a tous
    j’ai restauré mon iphone4 et quand je veux l’activer avaec sa puce d’origine il me met le message suivant :

    We’re unable to complete your activation
    this device is not registered as part of the iphone developer program.
    if you are member of the program, please register your device in the iPhone developer Program portal

    pouvez vous m’aider svp?

  • MateSMC

    I need LibUSB installed. What about this? Pls help.