How do I fix push notifications on my jailbroken, unlocked iPhone 3gs?

May 4, 2012 4:55 PM

How do I fix push notifications on my jailbroken, unlocked iPhone 3gs 4.3.3?

I have 4.3.3 iPhone 3gs, that was unlocked with redsn0w or something like that. I have tried http://www.pushfix.info/ push fix. and i tried push doctor http://cmdshft.ipwn.me/apt/

Neither seemed to work.

Anyone know a working fix for loss of push notifications after unlocking/jail breaking on iPhone 3gs 4.3.3?

posted by crawltopslow to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

Best answer: Is your iPhone officially carrier-unlocked (factory unlocked), or is it a carrier-locked iPhone that has been unofficially carrier-unlocked using ultrasn0w?

There's a common situation on unofficially carrier-unlocked iPhones that causes push notifications to not work: "hacktivation" instead of official activation, which means that the iPhone can't get proper push "certificates" from Apple. Here's a bit more about activation (from a site I help maintain).

If your iPhone 3GS didn't have an original carrier SIM in it last time it was restored, and then somebody (maybe you!) ran redsn0w on it to unofficially activate it, it's been hacktivated. That's OK - it means you can use the phone - but push notifications, iMessage, and Facetime won't work, and the battery will drain a bit since the phone will keep looking for proper certificates.

You have a couple options for fixing activation: officially activate it, or fake official activation:

1. Officially activating it means putting in a SIM from the original carrier (it doesn't need to be a SIM with active service), opening up redsn0w, only checking the box for "deactivate", and then letting redsn0w do its thing. That'll deactivate the device, and then plug it into iTunes and let the official SIM activate it.

2. To fake official activation, you can use a tool called SAM. I haven't used it myself, but here's a guide to it.

OK! After that, push notifications should work.
posted by dreamyshade at 7:10 PM on May 4, 2012 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks for the advice, but SAM fails to successfully install every time I try to install it. it says:

"Failed in buffer_write fd 8 ret =-1

sub process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code 1)

I tried uninstalling and re-installing it several times.
Same error code every time.
posted by crawltopslow at 9:46 AM on May 5, 2012

That error can mean "no space available to install this." Make sure you have a reasonable amount of space available on both partitions - in Cydia, go to Manage -> Storage to check this.
posted by dreamyshade at 11:26 AM on May 5, 2012

Response by poster: YEP it says 750M, and 100% full, no free space, but I can't figure out how to make free space. If I just try to delete cydia apps, it won't let me, or remove packages, it won't let me, because it gives me that same error!

"Failed in buffer_write fd 8 ret =-1

sub process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code 1)
posted by crawltopslow at 3:16 PM on May 5, 2012

Response by poster: ok i used cyberduck to erase some foreign language packs to make enough room to install "sysclean" from cydia, which cleared up about 200mb of space. Now I am using redsnow to deactivate my phone so I can attempt to use SAM to fake an official activation?
posted by crawltopslow at 10:48 AM on May 6, 2012

Oh cool - I was stuck trying to think of which things could be safely deleted on the system partition, since there isn't much on there.

Yes, just make sure to read the SAM instructions before deactivating - you'll have to know your device's original carrier, etc. If you can't successfully fake-activate it with SAM, you can always run redsn0w again (with no checkboxes checked) to hacktivate it again.
posted by dreamyshade at 11:02 AM on May 6, 2012