How to downgrade your iPhone4S, iPad2 or iPad3

[Jmills87]

This tutorial will walk you through downgrading your iPhone4S, iPad2 or iPad3 using your previously saved SHSH blobs. If you are an iPhone4S user that unlocks with Gevey, please do not use this method as this method first upgrades your phone to 5.1.1 before downgrading to 5.0.1(which will update your baseband and cause you not to be able to unlock.

First you will need to download 5.1.1 and 5.0.1 IPSW files from here and Redsn0w 0.9.11b1 from here.

Step 1: Download Redsn0w 0.9.11b1 from above. Also download the iOS5 firmware file you wish to downgrade to(5.0.1) and ALSO download the latest firmware available for your device(5.1.1 currently). NOTE FOR 4S USERS: The iPhone-Dev Team forgot to include the 9A406 version of the 5.0.1 firmware in this release, so please download the 9A405 version for now(you will also need SHSH for the 9A405 version). This will be addressed in the next release.

Step 2: Now open Redsn0w and go to and select the new Restore utility which can be found under Extras -> Even More -> Restore

Step 3: Now click the "IPSW" button and Redsn0w will ask you to browse for the IPSW you want to restore. The first IPSW you need to select is the one you ultimately want to end up on. In my case I will be restoring to 5.0.1 so I can jailbreak my 4S so I will select the 5.0.1 firmware first. Immediately after selecting the 5.0.1 firmware, I will then select the 5.1.1(most current firmware) that I downloaded earlier.​

Step 4: After Redsn0w has verified both firmware files you selected, you will then need to select your saved SHSH blob for the firmware you are downgrading to. If your SHSH are saved on Cydia(listed at the top of Cydia) you can simply use the "Remote" option which will pull them from Cyida, otherwise use the "Local" option which allows you to select your TinyUmbrella SHSH blobs directly from your computer.

Step 5: Now this is the great part, after selecting your firmware and your SHSH blobs, Redsn0w will do the rest of the process for you automatically. That's right, no need for iTunes, Redsn0w has the entire restore process built right in. First Redsn0w will install the modified 5.1.1 firmware and then it will downgrade you to 5.0.1.

Step 6: After Redsn0w has completed, that's basically all there is to it. You should now be on a factory 5.0.1 firmware(or whatever firmware you downgraded to) and you can go ahead and jailbreak with Absinthe or jailbreak with Redsn0w, whichever tool you'd like!

 

[dbcv]

Did not work for my iPad 2. iTunes error 37

 

[Jmills87]

You're doing something wrong if you got an iTunes error.... this tutorial does not use iTunes at all, everything is done within Redsn0w.

 

[dbcv]

I strictly followed the instructions. Do I need to manually turn off and take my device to DFU before starting Redsn0w operation?

 

[pianoman]

I strictly followed it too, JMills (and THANK YOU!! but), same error. There's something you've left out??

 

[Jmills87]

Nope, used this exact tutorial on a friend's 4S this morning and it worked perfectly on the first try. Make sure you are selecting the 5.0.1 firmware for your device first, and then select the 5.1.1 firmware for your device second. If you tried with Cydia SHSH the first time, try with local SHSH this time(or vice versa)

Also if you're a Windows user, make sure to run Redsn0w as administrator(per usual)

I strictly followed the instructions. Do I need to manually turn off and take my device to DFU before starting Redsn0w operation?

No, you do not need to enter DFU mode at all for this downgrade method. You can do it straight from the device's springboard.

 

[pianoman]

Nope, used this exact tutorial on a friend's 4S this morning and it worked perfectly on the first try. Make sure you are selecting the 5.0.1 firmware for your device first, and then select the 5.1.1 firmware for your device second. If you tried with Cydia SHSH the first time, try with local SHSH this time(or vice versa)

Nope. That's what I did. Hmm. Well it's my ipad3 which was at 5.1 when I got it so I haven't lost anything really. I'll wait to hear others feedback before I try again. So far it's 2 against 2., lol!! You and your friend against myself and the other poster here. There's a reason it's not working for everybody- we just need to find it. Oftentimes when tutorials are written the writer leaves out a step that would be "obvious" to him but it's not obvious to the rest of us. That's actually happened a couple of times on this forum with tutorials. So, here's to hoping!

 

[sondo8]

JMills, thank you so much. I followed it word for word and it worked perfectly. I'm back!!! Man there's a lot of new tweaks and apps in cydia in the 2 months I've been gone with the new stupid updates.

Coming from a huge webOS homebrew community fan, your instructions were very easy to follow compared to others I've seen in the past.

It's good to be back!!!!!!! JMills you are the Man!! Thanks Bro!

 

[KrayzieZay]

I just recently purchased my iphhone 4s and its running 5.1 can I use this to downgrade to 5.0.1 and then jailbreak my iphone

 

[bakerman1]

I was recently jail broke with my 4s on 5.0.1 and after awhile I wanted to see if I would get better battery life so I updated to 5.1. Am bummed that I did I didn't save my blobs? But I here you say that cydia does? So can I follow your instructions and just point it to cydia and be good? Would love to go back to a jb iPhone. Thanks for your help.

Ken

 

[Jmills87]

I was recently jail broke with my 4s on 5.0.1 and after awhile I wanted to see if I would get better battery life so I updated to 5.1. Am bummed that I did I didn't save my blobs? But I here you say that cydia does? So can I follow your instructions and just point it to cydia and be good? Would love to go back to a jb iPhone. Thanks for your help.

Ken

If Cydia has your 5.0.1 blobs on file, then you can use this method.

 

[Jmills87]

It's good to be back!!!!!!! JMills you are the Man!! Thanks Bro!

You're welcome! Glad you are back jailbroken, I'm about to downgrade another friend's 4S right now!

 

[bakerman1]

IT WORKED!!!!! Thank you so much! I love having my jailbreak back Ken

 

[Jmills87]

No problem

 

[elitegamer767]

I jailbroke when I was on 5.01 and accidentally updated when 5.1 come out do you think cydia auto saved my shsh blobs so I can downgrade?