How to Jailbreak Your iPhone 3GS Using PwnageTool (Mac) [5.0.1]

POST

MAIL

Posted December 28, 2011 at 5:19am by iClarified

These are instructions on how to jailbreak your iPhone 3GS on iOS 5.0.1 using PwnageTool for Mac.

Step One
Make a folder called "Pwnage" on the desktop. In it, you will need a couple of things. PwnageTool 5.0.1, found here.

You will also need the 5.0.1 iPhone firmware found here.

When downloading the IPSW file, it is best to download it with Firefox since Safari often auto extracts it!

How to Jailbreak Your iPhone 3GS Using PwnageTool (Mac) [5.0.1]

Step Two
Double click to mount PwnageTool then drag the PwnageTool icon into the Pwnage folder.

Then from the Pwnage folder double click to launch the PwnageTool application

Click Ok if presented with a warning.

Step Three
Click to select Expert Mode from the top menu bar

Step Four
Click to select your device. A check-mark will appear over the image of the device. Click the blue arrow button to continue.

Step Five
You will be brought to the "Browse for IPSW" page. Click the Browse for IPSW... button.

From the popup window select your firmware from the Pwnage folder then click the Open button.

Step Six
You will then be brought to a menu with several choices. Click to select General then click the blue arrow button.

The General settings allows you to decide the partition size. Check Activate the phone if you are not with an official carrier then click the blue arrow button.

NOTE*: Deselect Activate if you have an iPhone legitimately activated on an official carrier.

The Cydia settings menu allows you to create custom packages so you do not have to manually install the necessary them later.

Click to select the Download packages tab. Then click the Refresh button to display all the available packages. Double clicking the package you want will download it and make it available in the Select Packages tab.

Checkmark the ones you want then click the blue arrow button.

The Custom Packages Settings menu displays listed package settings for your custom IPSW. For know leave these settings as is. Click the blue arrow button to continue.

Step Seven
You are now ready to begin the pwnage process! Click the Build button to select it then click the Blue arrow button to begin.

Step Eight
You will be asked to save your custom .ipsw file. Save it to your Pwnage folder you created on your Desktop.

Your IPSW is now being built. Please allow up to 10 minutes.

You will be asked to enter your administrator password. Do this then click the OK button.

Step Nine
Once your ipsw has been built you will be asked to connect your iPhone to the computer. Once it detects your device PwnageTool will guide your through the steps to putting your iPhone into DFU mode.

Press and hold the power and home buttons for 10 seconds.

Then release the power button and continue holding the home button for 10 seconds.

Once your iPhone is successfully in DFU mode, PwnageTool will prompt you to launch iTunes.

Step Ten
Once In iTunes, hold the Alt/Option key and click Restore.

Step Eleven
Navigate to the Pwnage folder on your desktop using the dialog window that appears. Select the custom IPSW that was created and click the Choose button.

Step Twelve
iTunes will now restore the firmware on your iPhone. This can also take up to 10 minutes. Once done you will be rebooted into jailbroken iOS 5.0.1!

***THANKS: Thank you to iPhone Dev-Team, Chronic Dev-Team, I0nic, and Geohot for their hard work in making this jailbreak and tutorial possible!

Follow iClarified

jay - March 11, 2013 at 5:02am

I followed the instructions to restore and jailbreak Iphone 3gs it has activated but it wont detect the sim card help

Reply · Like

melina - February 7, 2012 at 10:20am

Bought used 3gs. I unlocked and jailbroke on 3.1.2 on baseband 05.11.07. Followed all your steps everything was going well until the end of step 12. iTunes was processing like it was going to work until it came up with this message "the iphone could not be restored. this device isn't eligible for the requested build". I tried to option+restore it again and looked like it was processing it but then got error code 1601. Then I tried to restart the phone and now I get the "only compatible sim cards from a supported carrier may be used." TinyUmbrella now says: firmware 5.0.1 baseband 05.11.07-6.4_M3s2 serial number 85946xxxxxx Any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Sithu - March 11, 2012 at 2:28am

I have a 16g 3g Iphone. It is running 2.2 and is oajlbriken. I DO want to be able to unlock in the future (as when I sell it on ebay to get the lastest Iphone this summer!). I am using a PC but my wife has an Imac and her own Iphone 3g which she updated to 2.21 as is not interested in jailbreaking. So I want to upgrade to 2.2.1 but not change the baseband. I also do not want to do anything to screw up my wife's Iphone on her Mac. Can I download the PwnageTool on her Mac and create the custom .ipsw and then save and transfer that file to my PC? Then do I use Itunes to update to 2.2.1 and select UPDATE while holding down the shift key, and select the custom .ipsw file? Then use Quickpawn to jailbreak? Are those the correct steps?

matt - February 6, 2012 at 5:20pm

Wasn't clear about one thing, should I already be on OS 5 with my iphone 3GS before I Jailbreak using the Pwnage tool? Right now I have an 3GS with the factory settings. thanks,

Luis - March 11, 2012 at 3:28am

5221Bonjour, j'ai bien la mise c3a0 jour oficielle de mon nohpie 3gs, chose bizare mon gsm est desimlockc3a9 d'origine alors que au firmware 4.3.3 il etait encore impossible de lire ma sim sans jailbreakc3a9, petit soucis quand je lance redsnow pour jailbreakc3a9 il me dit impossible de le jailbreakc3a9 en untethered alors que j'ai un old bootrom, quelqu'un sait il m'aider pour passer ce problc3a9me ou a t il une solution c3a0 me proposer, merci d'avance

Hosny - March 13, 2012 at 3:11am

I'm quite pleased with the inforamiton in this one. TY!

Norm - January 30, 2012 at 1:57am

I have a Mac, 3GS, on 4.3.3 jail broken with Ultrasn0w unlock. Old baseband. Using Pwnage Tool and trying to go to 5.0.1 without success. My iPad 1 got to 5.0.1 simply as described in the tutorial. Easy, no problem. Can't say the same for the iPhone. It sort of worked the first time through with Activate The Phone unchecked but stalled asking for the AT&T SIM which I have. So then did a build using Activate checked. Getting either a 11 or 1600 error on restore. Went back to 4.3.3 without a problem. Can't get to 5.0.1 though. Any ideas welcome.

Philip - January 24, 2012 at 9:20am

I would love to use this guide with my iPhone 3gs. But I don't know how since my power button is busted and I can't put the phone in DFU. I have googled about putting the phone in DFU without the use of buttons, but I'm afraid it might brick my phone :-( Any help would be much appreciated!!! Has anyone been through this problem?

Philip - January 25, 2012 at 12:02pm

Found a guide which didn't work BUT fined tuned it and found a solution to my problem by myself. Read the guide and then my comment to succeed (by Philip) if you have the same problem as me. This link to the guide is: http://iphoneblogr.com/2011/08/how-to-enter-dfu-mode-without-home-or-power-button-tutorial/ Cheers, Philip

Ihor - March 11, 2012 at 11:33am

Desktop publishing is the model I've been konliog to. We have to go through the FrankenFont stage.Maybe the music industry is a better model. It is difficult to make money on an album any more, the musicians have to make their money performing now, and the recordings are ads for their live performances.This won't work with the Television and Film business as there is no concert revenue. So other means of capturing revenue need to be relied on. I think a lot of clever uses of sponsorships and embedded advertising will come into play.As soon as the theaters are all digital the cost of distribution will be extremely cheap. So the second to last stranglehold that studios had, the ability to front the money for prints and distribution, will be nullified.This leaves access to high end talent their last cornered market. You and I can't get Tom Cruise to be in our movie. Interesting days ahead, that's for sure. I can tell you if I was starting out now, with the tools that are currently available, I would have a larger body of work than Steven Spielberg by the time I reached my current age.

icecipher - January 18, 2012 at 11:42pm

i wish to know if this process is for a untethered jailbreak and do not change your baseband??

Yeah - January 15, 2012 at 7:38pm

I get "Device Unknown" "This iPhone may be damaged and cannot be activated for service. Please visit your nearest Apple Store for more information." Whats this junk about?

Kaloyan Kolev - January 9, 2012 at 3:00am

Everithing fine.. but findmyiphone on icloud does not work - why?

Sebastian - February 19, 2012 at 4:49am

Stay inofrmtaive, San Diego, yeah boy!

Marcelo - January 4, 2012 at 2:40pm

i have a 3gs 6.15.00, created the custom ipsw for 5.0.1 and restored in iTunes. Restore was successful and now my iPhone needs to be activated before I can access the home screen and use Cydia. It says only supported carrier may be used to activate iPhone, but I don't have the original SIM (and don't even know what carrier it's originaly from). Should i just boot it with Redsn0w or try to activate it while conected to iTunes? tks

willi - January 4, 2012 at 10:26pm

i have the same problem here with 6.15.00 baseband, 3GS and updating from 4.2.1 to 5.0.1. Sim card is being rejected after trying many different approaches. no success, sad situation for me

HarryProa - January 6, 2012 at 11:48pm

I had the same outcome with my previously pwned 3GS. i used the new pwnage tool to jailbreak so i could use ultrasn0w to unlock and the phone failed to activate (saying it needed a valid SIM to do so). I tried restoring from DFU mode to the custom firmware bundle again and got the 1600 error others have seen. I then followed the advice on iPhone Dev Team's blog (http://blog.iphone-dev.org/) and re-jailbroke the phone using the latest Redsn0w (being sure to uncheck the install Cydia box) and bingo - activated and now unlocked via ultrasn0w!

Marcelo - January 10, 2012 at 8:14pm

thank you so much, it worked for me as well :-) activated and unlocked via ultrasn0w!

Smitty - January 16, 2012 at 12:39am

i have a 3gs 6.15.00 running i0S 4.3.1. Should I do run pwnage or go straight to RedsnOw? I've resisted for weeks, cause I need my phone and can't have it not working.

Marcelo - January 19, 2012 at 11:24am

there's always a risk that it won't work. I've tried redsn0w and pwnagetool and both didn't work at the first try. Then I tried pwnagetool again and it worked, but couldn't activate, so I used redsn0w to redo the jailbreak and finally got it. I personally prefer redsn0w. Anyways, whatever tool you decide to use, I strongly recommend that you use an original Apple data cable and connect it directly into the computer (don't use your keyboard USB inlet port, for example)

noel - January 25, 2012 at 2:44am

what article in dev team's blog did you use? i couldnt find one related to this specific issue. Also when i try to upgrade with my custom file thru itunes, it shows 2 iphones under devices.

Marcelo - January 25, 2012 at 11:18am

i think he refered to the "untethered holidays" article where it says "If youre already at 5.0.1 with a tethered jailbreak, you have two choices: either run redsn0w 0.9.10 over your current jailbreak (deselect Install Cydia if you do that), or install the Cydia package prepared by the chronic devteam" and also updates #2 and #3

Noel - January 25, 2012 at 12:13pm

Thanks Marcelo, but im not quite there yet.. After much tinkering i finally got the phone to come out of dfu, i have ios 5.0.1 installed, but i cant activate, and i dont have the sim card that came with the phone. Redsn0w has given me 2 kinds of erros so far, one while trying to reboot the phone and another while fetching the phone info. I am at work right now but i will post the accurate error description when i get home... Thanks again

noel - January 25, 2012 at 2:52pm

Update * When attempting to unlock my phone with redsn0w i get "Unexpected error" when trying to put the phone in DFU mode using the option Jailbreak, and install cydia. When i go to extras and select preserve baseband with a custom IPSW i get "Custom IPSW creation Failed" General Error. If i select a custom IPSW with the install cydia option a get "USB Connection Problem" Same error if i uncheck the install cidya box. I installed the ios 5.0.1 using the ISPW provided in this post, following the guide to do it with the Pwnage Tool And iTunes. Please help

Max - February 2, 2012 at 3:28pm

Hello HarryProa! I have the same problem as you had. But I do not manage to fix it as you did. First tried to Jailbreak it by Pwnagetool. When I did this i got the activation grey screen. Then I tried to use redsn0w, with the cydia box unchecked and still the same grey screen. Any advice? Thanks

Max - April 4, 2012 at 8:45am

I managed to jailbreak my 3GS (06.15.00) using redsnow. For some of you who had the same problem as me. Try to reflash the baseband and jailbreak. Then it should be fixed. Greets M

kathy - January 2, 2012 at 11:09pm

now getting error 10 when trying to restore old 3GS with 5.0.1 pwnage custom restore. can anyone help? I cannot use my phone :(

HarryProa - January 6, 2012 at 11:51pm

Hi Kathy - check out my reply to Marcelo just after your last post. I had what you have and all is well now...

kathy - January 2, 2012 at 8:52pm

OK, i got pawnage to work but keep getting error 1600 when trying to restore with custom IPSW. does anyone have an answer?

Rodrigo Manta - January 3, 2012 at 2:03pm

I was getting the same error 1600. My solution was create the custom firmware using PwnageTool and put in DFU using redsn0w.

Terrin - January 5, 2012 at 12:33am

I am on a Mac. My solution was editing the host file. There is a line that might say: 74.208.10.249 gs.apple.com You want it to say: #74.208.10.249 gs.apple.com Essentially, apps like Pawnage modify the Host file so that when iTunes thinks it is calling Apple it is really calling Cydia. This is helpful for when you downgrade. However, when you upgrade, you actually want iTunes to contact Apple. Placing the # modifier in front of the aforementioned section of the host file solves the problem. There is a similar solution for Windows users, but you will need to do an Internet search to figure it out.

Sh - January 15, 2012 at 6:15am

When using the Pwnage Tool select Cydia installer from custom packages and not from the Cydia packages (do not click Cydia packages). Then create the custom ipsw. It will work.

Adrian S. - February 5, 2012 at 6:27pm

Thanks for your suggestion. It actually worked using the resnOw pwned mode.

Linda - March 8, 2012 at 10:30pm

I had this same problem after trying the jailbreak about 4 times. I finally tried the Redsn0w and it worked. Then I still couldn't get my phone to recognize my T-mobile sim card. Cydia did not have Ultrasn0w installed. I went thru every item in Cydia until I found it to download and install on the phone and now my iPhone is working again. Whew!

Prize - March 13, 2012 at 5:45am

Your post is a timely contribution to the dbaete

kathy - January 2, 2012 at 7:34pm

I have not been able to launch the 5.0.1 pawnage tool. it will not open when I double click it. any help is appreciated

Kennsen - January 2, 2012 at 6:13pm

Hi everything worked fine, except for my sim card. I have no original sim card, so I stuck in the configuration. Any ideas? Do I have to downgrade to 4.3.5?

Kennsen - January 3, 2012 at 9:32pm

I found a sim card from my original carrier. I got through the configuration, but when i switched my sim card back to my own one, it got "no serivce" :-( I've already installed ultraSn0w. Any other ideas?

chiuyjoe - January 1, 2012 at 3:55am

My Iphone 3gs already jailbreak (pwnaga tool ) but doesn't work cydia. I try so many time ??? Can u tell me Thank

Sh - January 9, 2012 at 4:56am

When using the Pwnage Tool select Cydia installer from custom packages and not from the Cydia packages (do not click Cydia packages). It will work.

Jim - December 31, 2011 at 4:13am

Thanks guys! 2 3gs' Jailbroke and freed from their bondage!

Richie - December 29, 2011 at 11:18pm

Hey I was reading up on this and I bought a 3GS that was pre-loaded with iOS 5, running 05.16.05 as my modem firmware. Am I able to use this method to jailbreak and unlock on my firmware??? Please and thank you!

diridiri - December 28, 2011 at 7:31pm

iphone 3gs new bootroom running ios 4.1 ipad baseband, could i perform this tuturial without any problems? i would like to know if this tuturial need and iphone 3gs on ios5.0.1 . Or just update with custom ipsw from pwnage tool Regards

Terrin - December 28, 2011 at 6:12pm

I get a 1600 Error. Any clues, how to get past that?

Severus - December 29, 2011 at 9:56am

same here. I had 3GS on IOS 4.21 with 5.15 baseband jailbroken previously with greenpois0n. now i have a brick which is stuck in preparation stage with error 1600. i have an official SIM from Fido in Canada and unchecked the Activation box, while the configuration of custom IPSW. any ideas?

hfg1955 - December 29, 2011 at 2:01pm

Well - if you are now stuck with the DFU mode - you can restore to your working version of the phone by downloading the most recent version of TinyUmbrella (v. 5.10). With your phone plugged into the computer open TinyUmbrella and after the program sees you phone, click on the "EXIT RECOVERY" button on the top of the page. This should take your phone out of DFU and allow your phone to re boot. Good luck with this.

hfg1955 - December 29, 2011 at 2:06pm

I got the same error number after carefully following instructions as outlined above. It looks like the phone never got past the Apple verification stage. I wonder if Pwnage 5.0.1 may not be quite ready for primetime. I have an iPhone 3GS with an older boot rom and IOS 4.3.3 with ultrasnow unlock.

Terrin - January 5, 2012 at 12:37am

I solved the problem. Pwnage modifies the host file for when people downgrade iTunes calls Cydia and not Apple. For some people, the host file might need to be further altered. You might see a line like this in the host file: 74.208.10.249 gs.apple.com You want it to be like this: #74.208.10.249 gs.apple.com Once you make the change, you will need to refresh the browser a few times or reset the cache.

alvaro mendes - December 28, 2011 at 5:47pm

i did everything like said here, i couldn't pass the activation phase, so i have to use a sim from the original carrier of the phone.. then i access to cydia, but when cydia try to refresh for download ultrasn0w.. it crash installing repo.. any idea? i tryed to reinstall firmware and cydia but dosnt work

gerrit - December 28, 2011 at 3:33pm

I can't get passed the activation phase. I have an iPhone 3GS, No official carrier. But it says my sim card is non, anyone else has this problem?

R - December 29, 2011 at 1:58am

I have the exact same issue. And I am from a country without an official carrier. I am following every single step and I am activating the iphone but I keep geting the 'Sim not valid' message. What's happening?

rooney - December 29, 2011 at 4:31am

I have the same issue. I don't think hacktivation is working with pwnage.

hfg1955 - December 29, 2011 at 7:51am

Activate with your original (ATT) sim card first. After activation you can swap out and place the sim card of the carrier of your choice. It should work now.

gerrit - December 29, 2011 at 9:10am

I have an official AT&T sim card but it doesn't work, so I ordered a new one on ebay, i'll let you guys know if this helps (maybe the old one has expired?) thanks anyway for your reply

d - December 29, 2011 at 9:35am

yep, same here. done the custom firmware, installed it. now phone is stuck on activation screen. don't have at&t card. how do I get past that now??

Mathio - December 30, 2011 at 8:47pm

If you stuck in activtion screan... Try with redsn0w.. http://www.trickyways.com/2011/12/download-redsn0w-0-9-9b9d-for-windows-and-mac/ It was help me.. ;)

EJ - December 31, 2011 at 12:03am

I too had this problem. Any solutions would be appreciated.

More Comments