How to Jailbreak and Unlock Your iPhone 3G, 3GS Using BlackSn0w [Mac]

POST

MAIL

Posted November 3, 2009 at 11:54pm by iClarified

These are instructions on how to jailbreak and unlock your iPhone 3G and 3GS using BlackRa1n and BlackSn0w for Mac.

These instructions will work with the latest 3.1.2 firmware, the 05.11.07 baseband, and iPhones which require hactivation. If you have already jailbroken following these instructions will be easier.

For those with a new iPhone 3GS (updated Bootrom), BlackRa1n only supports a tethered jailbreak. This means that once jailbroken you should not let your battery die. If it does die you will need to reconnect it to the computer and use BlackRa1n to boot it.

Before continuing make sure you are on the 05.11.07 baseband by following this tutorial. If you are on 5.12.01 or higher, unfortunately you CANNOT jailbreak as of yet. If your baseband is lower than 05.11.07 then you must restore to the 3.1.2 firmware for the iPhone 3G or 3GS. You can do this by opening iTunes, selecting your iPhone from the list of devices on the left, then hold down the Option key and click Restore.

You can find the Windows version of this tutorial here. Ok lets begin...

Step One
Open your web browser of choice and navigate to http://www.blackra1n.com. Click the Apple logo at the bottom of the screen.

How to Jailbreak and Unlock Your iPhone 3G, 3GS Using BlackSn0w [Mac]

Step Two
When prompted save the download to your desktop

Step Three
Then double click the downloaded blackra1n zip file to extract the application, then double click the application icon to launch the program

Step Four
Make sure your iPhone or iPod is connected to the computer then click the large make it ra1n button

Step Five
You iPhone will now be placed in recovery mode.

You will see a picture of GeoHot that replaces the regular recovery mode screen on your device.

blackra1n will run and then your device will reboot.

A popup message will appear informing you that BlackRa1n is free software and if you appreciate it you can donate to GeoHot at geohot@gmail.com.

Step Six
Once your device reboots it will be jailbroken and you will notice a blackra1n icon on the Springboard. Make sure you have an internet connection and press to launch the application.

Choose the installer application of your choice then press to select sn0w if you would like to unlock your device. Press the Install button at the top right of the screen to begin.

BlackRa1n will begin to download and install the packages you selected.

If you chose to unlock device using blacksn0w you will be presented with a Post Install log for sn0w. CommCenter will be restarted and there is no need to reboot. If your carrier doesn't support 3G then disable it. Press the Close button to continue.

Step Seven
Once complete BlackRa1n will respring your iPhone and you will find the installer package of your choice on the Springboard.

Step Eight
Once you have confirmed your installer package is working correctly you may use the Uninstall blackra1n button inside the BlackRa1n app to remove it from your springboard.

***THANKS: A big thanks to Geohot for making this jailbreak and unlock possible. Also thanks to those who contributed to making it a success. You can donate to Geohot using the button below. Please note these donations go to Geohot and not to iClarified.

Follow iClarified

rremosson - November 24, 2013 at 7:03pm

My attempt to unlock a 3G was unsuccessful as I only got to Step 5 but no "picture of Geo Hot". Any suggestions? many thanks seabees@box.az

Reply · Like

summer s - August 23, 2013 at 6:56am

SUMMER S. ANGELES CITY PH MY CEL# +639192616111====SMS ONLY

jiohn paredes - September 15, 2012 at 10:17pm

gracias

bro - June 30, 2010 at 7:37am

Is there any chances that BlackRa1n will totally jailbreak the new iPhone 3GS (updated Bootrom) instead of tethered jailbreak??? Because I've been connecting and jailbreak my new iPhone 3GS (updated Bootrom) to my laptop everytime the battery runs out for a year now.

CA - April 28, 2010 at 11:23pm

Worked great thank you (just had to do the reset network settings to get wifi up no big deal)... any known issues going to the newest iTunes 9.1.1?

tracer123 - April 27, 2010 at 4:00am

Yes...BUT THE PHONE DOES NOT REBOOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Eliyahu - April 21, 2010 at 6:00pm

When can we expect to Jailbreak and Unlock for iPhone 3Gs with Baseband 05.12.01?

indga - April 18, 2010 at 4:04am

I couldn't connect to Cydia (kept on getting connection errors) and couldn't download blacksn0w either, but I unlocked my phone 3G, 3.12, 5.11.07 by following Vikram's words found at http://www.hackint0sh.org/f230/95865.htm: 1. downloaded PhoneDisk (free until September) 2. downloaded blacksn0w at http://www.mediafire.com/file/qlwymezmyzw/blacksn0w.deb 3. jailbroke with PwnageTool 4. Extracted .deb and found the necessary files in the /data folder 5. Copied files to the iPhone using PhoneDisk (put files in data/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.CommCenter.plist and data/usr/lib/blacksn0w.dylib) 6. Restarted the iPhone and my carrier came up. Now, I'm going to back up and restore my iPhone but without using iTunes. PhoneDisk, iPhone Backup Extractor, and SQLite Database Browser makes it all possible! My last restore from backup took 54 hours; my last backup took 29 hours. I'm not ever going to backup using iTunes. I've compiled a set of instructions from browsing the web and they will help with backup and restore. Freedom!!! F R E E D O M!

anna - April 17, 2010 at 10:36pm

I've once used blacksnow to reboot my iphone cuz I forgot to charge the phone and since that time, the iphone is unable to connect to wifi anymore, is there any way to fix this problem?

Mo - April 27, 2010 at 9:09am

Try restoring the network settings.

anna - April 5, 2010 at 3:01pm

I use black snow to reboot my 3GS since the battery went out last night, but it has problem in connecting to the internet, it cannot find WIFI conncection, can someone tell me how to fix it?

leO - February 23, 2010 at 1:36pm

hi.i jailbreak and unlock mi iphone-3GS-3.1.2. work is good,only one problem,when i tern power off and next mornig tern power on, mi phone go to recoverry mode,and i need using blackSnOw ageIn ??? PLEASE HALP ME.

mauurenaa - February 23, 2010 at 2:23pm

You have to use Blacksn0w again to turn it on. That's why you don't let the batterie die.

leo - February 24, 2010 at 3:18pm

wot,every time after i tern phone on i need use blacksnow???

mauurenaa - February 24, 2010 at 3:38pm

Yep!, that's very annoying. On the 3GS that's the way it works. With the 3G you don't have that problem. However there is this one iPhone 3GS 14GB I unlocked and works just fine, doesn't matter how many time you turn it off and on you don't have to use the software; don't know why I didn't do anything different. Good Luck!

Xandersfury - January 28, 2010 at 12:50pm

T-Mobile customers! FOR MMS go to http://www.joe-hickman.com/t-mobile-iphone-mms-fix-the-media-content-was

TeamLCL - January 28, 2010 at 8:15am

I bought the new 3gs and followed the tutorial "How to Jailbreak and Unlock Your iPhone 3G, 3GS Using BlackSn0w [Mac]". It goes right. I can used my iphone on other carrier, use wifi, used the GPS, connect youtube thought wifi. But I am not able to activate 3G. I all ready check wth my new carrier. every think is right in his side. Does anyone has an answer to this problem?

Xandersfury - January 26, 2010 at 9:40am

Just followed these directions plus did the LEGACY t-mobile download from Cydia to get picture messaging. Works GREAT!! But!!!!! PLEASE HELP-- Even when I'm on WIFI it says YOUTUBE CANNOT CONNECT. Does anyone know how to fix this? 3G Unlocked iphone on T-mobile

mauurenaa - January 26, 2010 at 3:41pm

Yeah, follow the steps on this link. http://www.redmondpie.com/youtube-fix-for-iphone-3.1.2-blacksn0w-unlock-9140104/

Xandersfury - January 28, 2010 at 10:16am

Thanks! It worked!

aaron - January 21, 2010 at 10:43am

I get a "you do not have internet connection" error. I am currently in China, and no option to connect to ATT :) But, I do have wifi connected. I have a 3GS with 3.1.2 Any suggestions? -Aaron www.codes4discount.com [for discounts on zagg skins]

Craig - January 18, 2010 at 5:26am

I have a jailbroken iPhone 3GS which I have powered off completely and rebooted several times using Blackra1n, today however the same process no longer works!! When I click 'make it ra1n' the GeoHotz picture comes up as normal, after about 30 seconds or so it restarts again and comes up with the itunes connect screen, it just does this over and over! Anyone else having this problem? can anyone help? it was working fine up to today!

alexxxey - January 27, 2010 at 9:42pm

kill the ituneshelper.exe , moove blackrain.exe to the root of disk c then run blackrain again

leo - February 23, 2010 at 2:15pm

how i kill my itunes???

Nestor - March 18, 2010 at 1:00pm

Yes, I've got the same problem and I don't know how to solve it.

anna - January 17, 2010 at 4:55pm

i just got the 3gs and i tried to jailbreak and unlock using blackra1n several times but it didn't work. there is a window showed that the phone is jailbroken but the phone itself never reboot, it always asked for restore...i have waited a long time to see if it will reboot, but didn't happen. plus i checked the version and the firmware is correct. now i have no idea, please help

Amin - January 18, 2010 at 1:54am

If u just bought the iPhone frm apple store then restore the phone once, and then use blackra1n to JB it. After receiving the message that ur phone is jailbroken, leave ur phone connected and close the blackra1n. When u see the iTunes logo on ur phone n says that u need to restore ur phone, just reopen the blackra1n again n u should be fine.

Donna Thrower - February 10, 2010 at 11:48am

I've had the same problem. Downloaded black ra1n, it came up with the message saying it had worked. It never rebooted, came up with the connect to itunes message on screen. Did that, and itunes told me to restore to factory settings as it was in recovery mode. Why it did not reboot I do not know, but now have lost a lot of things that I would rather have not lost!!!!! Won't be trying this again in a hurry.

Diego - March 2, 2010 at 11:09pm

That's exactly what happened to me. Can anybody help?

Diego - March 2, 2010 at 11:32pm

Never mind, already solved it. If your phone wont reboot just run blackra1n again. That's all. Thanks for the help :-P

sam - January 13, 2010 at 1:59am

please please someone help me!!! I got my iphone 3gs exchanged today from Apple because i was having some problems. i JB and unlocked the new phone, every things seem work great. BUT as soon as it turn off, the phone lock back again. plz help me. what should i do??

Noiz - January 8, 2010 at 6:39pm

I ran the program and followed the instructions and it worked for me. The only issue I have is that when I try to run programs such as DiskAid, or Iphone Browser, it shows my device as Unlocked, when clearly I just used the blackra1n program to jailbreak my phone. Is there any way to get it so my phone can be seen as jailbroken, so that I'm able to use those programs to change system sounds. Thank you for any suggestions.

eng_alobaydee81 - January 4, 2010 at 1:54am

hi for all, please i need your help, i have a friend will come form us, he will bring me iphone 3gs 16gb, i living in malaysia, can i do a jailbreak for it, and what about if i will go to us later on, i can use it there or how. i am waiting your help, thanks. regards alobaydee.

More Comments