Some Jailbreaks End in Divorce

February 4, 2010 10:14 PM

I want to unjailbreak my iPhone. I didn't back it up before doing so. Can I just upgrade to the new firmware (3.1.3) and have it taken care of that way? [I'm on an iPhone 3G, if it matters].

I'd rather not have to deal with re-doing everything on my iPhone...I just want the new update and am no longer wedded to the jailbroken life. Quite simply, if I say "YES UPGRADE," will it REMOVE all of my jailbreak habidashery? Will I have an "unjailbroken" device, or will it all be swimming around inside my iPhone's hard drive?

posted by Franklin76 to Computers & Internet (3 answers total)

Doing a standard upgrade via iTunes should be perfectly fine and will leave you with a phone that is functionally non-jailbroken. This may not eliminate every trace that the phone was ever jailbroken, as iTunes backs up some things that persist even when restored to non-jailbroken phones. For example, I used some app from Cydia to change my carrier name, and whenever I restore my phone, even before jailbreaking, the carrier name I set appears. (In fact, I made the change on my first-gen iPhone, but when I restored to a newer 3g from the first-gen's profile the changed carrier name came through. That's how I know the change was backed up in iTunes somewhere.)

So, short answer: YES UPGRADE. If you notice any lingering traces of jailbreak you want eliminated, you may need to set the phone to not restore in iTunes from any old profiles.
posted by chudmonkey at 10:48 PM on February 4, 2010

Yes, if you upgrade the jailbreak will disappear. I actually just did this yesterday.
posted by chunking express at 12:29 PM on February 8, 2010

"If you notice any lingering traces of jailbreak you want eliminated, you may need to set the phone to not restore in iTunes from any old profiles"


Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but doesn't that mean you lose your data?
posted by jimmyjimjim at 5:06 PM on March 13, 2010