Jailbreak iOS 5.01

Apple released iOS 5.0.1 this week and there’s already a way to jailbreak it. But there are a few things to keep in mind before you jailbreak your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad.

First, this is a tethered jailbreak, which means you’ll need to connect your device to a computer and run the software again anytime you need to reboot.

Second, you might not want to update to iOS 5.0.1 at all if you’re holding out hope for an untethered jailbreak. An exploit was discovered in iOS 5.0 which may be used in a future untethered jailbreak tool, but if you update now there’s no good way to roll back to iOS 5.0 so you may not be able to use the new tools once their available.

Third, there’s currently no way to jailbreak an iPhone 4S or iPad 2.

Fourth, the process is a bit more complex if you have a carrier unlocked device. You may want to wait to make sure that ultrasn0w is updated to support iOS 5.0.1 and you’ll need to preserve your older baseband before upgrading to iOS 5.0.1.

Finally, for now performing an untethered jailbreak requires you to manually select an older IPSW file. If you used iTunes to update your device to iOS 5 you should still have the correct IPSW on your computer. If not, you can download the iOS 5.0 IPSW for your device from the following links:

Alright, if you’ve made it through the warnings, here’s how you can jailbreak your device after updating it to iOS 5.0.1.

1. Make sure you’re running iTunes 10.5 or higher for Windows or Mac. It’s probably a good idea to use iTunes to backup your device before you get started as well.

2. Make sure you’re running iOS 5.0.1 on your device. You can do this by connecting to iTunes and following the prompts to update your software, or by going into the settings on a iOS 5.0 device, choosing General, and then tapping the Software Update optio nto check for updates.

3. Download redsn0w 0.9.9b8 or higher for Windows or Mac from the iPhone Dev Team.

4. Unzip redsn0w to a folder on your computer, open that folder, and run redsn0w. In Windows you do this by double-clicking the redsn0w.exe file.

5. Choose the “Extras” option from the main menu.

6. From the following screen hit the “Select IPSW” option and navigate to the folder where you’ve stored your iOS 5.0 IPSW file. Future versions of redsn0w may make this step unnecessary.

7. Click OK to dismiss the message.

8. Click Back to return to the main menu.

9. Make sure your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad is turned of (press and hold the power button until the “slide to power off” image appears on the screen, and then slide your finger across to turn off your device).

10. Select the Jailbreak button to start the jailbreak process.

11. A message will appear letting you know that the kernel is being patch.

12. Select your options from the following screen. At the very least you’ll probably want to install the Cydia store.

13. Hit the Next button.

14. Hit the Next button again and then follow the on-screen instructions to enter DFU mode. In case you miss them, here’s what you need to do. While your device is turned off and connected to your computer:

  • Press and hold the power button for 3 seconds.
  • Without lifting your finger from the power button, press and hold the home button for 10 seconds.
  • Release the power button, but not the home button. Continue to hold that one for another 15 seconds.

15. That’s almost it. Redsnow should do the rest for you and apply the jailbreak. But you’re not quite done yet, because you still need to perform your first tethered boot.

16. Go back to the redsnow main screen, select the Extras option, and click “Just boot” and follow the on-screen instructions.” (You may also want to select “Choose IPSW” again first and select your iOS 5.0 IPSW file. Redsn0w didn’t recognize my build the first time I tried booting without taking that step).

Now you’re done! You should see the Cydia icon on your home screen.

If you ever need to reboot your device, you’ll need to connect your device to your computer and run redsnow’s “just boot” utility again. Otherwise you will be unable to boot at all.

Alternately, you could install an app called SemiTether from the Cydia Store. It will allow you to reboot your device and use your phone without tethering — but you will not have access to most of the device’s functions, so it’s a temporary fix at best.

stuff

Brad Linder

Brad Linder is editor of Liliputing and Mobiputing. He's been tinkering with mobile tech for decades and writing about it since...

25 replies on “How to jailbreak iOS 5.0.1 on an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad (tethered)”

      1. Even after manually selecting the older IPSW redsnow still gives a error message aka Invalid build, xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx…

        Any Suggestions?

  1. If you download 5.0 you can then apply it to 5.0.1 version. I just did it to my ipod 4 and it was on the 5.0.1 version.

    1. so I need to download the http://appldnld.apple.com/iPhone4/061-9622.20111012.Evry3/iPod4,1_5.0_9A334_Restore.ipsw file first, then navigate the file after I click on the SELECT IPSW icon?then I just follow the step U gave above?sorry to ask so much, this is my first time jailbreaking.

      1. Yes — but make sure to backup your phone using iTunes and/or iCloud first. If you’ve never done this before there is a chance that something could go wrong.

        Fortunately you should be able to use iTunes to restore your phone to factory default settings and then restore from a backup if anything goes wrong. It’s pretty hard to mess up so badly that your device is completely unusable. 

  2. I used iTunes to upgrade my iPod touch 4G to IOS 5.0 last month & 5.0.1 yesterday. but how to navigate the folder of IOS 5.0 when I have to manually select my IPSW on redsnow on my computer? I don’t know where the folder IOS 5.0 is in my computer. 

  3. First Time Jailbreaking too , But What DO They Mean By “— but you will not have access to most of the device’s functions, so it’s a temporary fix at best” ??

    1. If you follow the link to the article about SemiTether, it explains that if you install that app it will let you reboot your phone and make phone calls — but you won’t be able to run most apps. You’ll still need to connect to a computer and run redsn0w again using the “just boot” tool to get everything working again.

      Since there’s currently no way to perform an untethered boot, semitether at least helps ensure that if you have to reboot your phone while you’re away from your computer you’ll still be able to make phone calls. It’s the best option for anyone that’s jailbroken iOS 5.0 and up so far… but it’s still far from ideal. 

    2. you wont be able to go on safari and youtube and stuff like that until you boot it teathred (connected to computer with redsn0w)

  4. Hey, you guys should really hang out on #iphone or #chronic-dev. There has been a new release from the chronic dev team. GreenPoison 2. Untetherd for everything. 4s/ipad2 supported.greenpois0n2 (dot) com

  5. this never workes for me im at my 5th time trying i give up everytime i install cydia and “just boot” i open cydia it instilates then i get a popup saying memory full (even though my iphone is a fresh restore) and it crashes resprings and i have no stock apps :S

  6. jailbroken but i had do the just boot thing and now the apple logo appears and them disappears then that wheel rotating wheel thing appears (loading). what happened? first time jailbreak.

  7. hello for those of you like myself that jailbreaks thier iphone 4 ios 5.0.1 when you jailbreak and get stuck at the apple and the loading circle all you have to do is put you ipone in dfu mode and go into resn0w and do a just boot after it does its thing your iphone 4 will work and will be jailbreaken… it work for me so it should work with all have this problem… thanks

  8. ok everyone calm down i gat your answer ok after you have jailbroken and cydia is white you have to go back to redsnow on your computer and select ispw click 5.0 again and then go to reboot my device and it will work

  9. Ok I have an iPod touch 3g and it’s running 5.0.1 now. I used the 5.0 ISPW to “jailbreak” it but when i try to reboot it it stays on the pineapple logo for like 10 minutes and then fades out to the regular apple logo and boots back like a normal iPod. When I get on the iPod after that the Cydia app is there but is still white. I’ve tried rebooting several times and it won’t fix the Cydia app. Can someone please explain to me what I need to do to fix this? Thanks.

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