How to Install iPhone 2.2.1 Firmware on Jailbroken and Unlocked T-Mobile iPhone

Fri, Feb 13, 2009 (Technology)

apple-iphone-firmware-22

Update #1: There is now a guide for installing, jailbreak and unlocking the iPhone 3.0 Firmware.

NOTE: This is an update to our Firmware 2.1 Guide, which was an update to our Firmware 2.0 Guide.

Outline

  1. Introduction
  2. Who is this Guide For
  3. Details You Should Know
  4. Getting Started
  5. Applying the Firmware Update
  6. Unlocking the iPhone w/ the 2.2.1 Firmware

Introduction

This document looks long and scary — but it’s not… I just tended towards too much information when writing it so no one went into this process missing the information they needed.

A lot of folks that have Jailbroken iPhones running on unsupported networks (like T-Mobile in the U.S.) usually get fearful of trying to upgrade the firmware of the phone — usually for fear of locking themselves out of the use of the phone or bricking it. Fortunately there are so many people with Jailbroken iPhones now, and the process (thanks to projects like QuickPWN) has gotten so easy, it’s a fairly safe bet now adays.

One of the biggest motivators for applying firmware updates to the iPhone have been new features that have slowly trickled out. Us Jailbroken folks don’t want to get left in the dust.

WARNING: That being said, it is always possible to have a firmware upgrade go bad. While I’ve not seen reports of people bricking their phones into an unrecoverable state, I’m sure it’s possible if you goof the process hard enough. Please backup all data before starting, and if you need your phone for your lively-hood, I’d suggest not messing with the update process unless you need the update.

Who is this Guide For

This guide is written for people using the iPhone on unsupported networks. That includes both Jailbreaking the phone as well as hacking the Baseband so it will connect to a non-supported network. If you have your iPhone on a supported network, but just want it Jailbroken so you can play with it more — I believe all you have to do is run the QuickPWN step and that’s it after upgrading the firmware through iTunes like a normal person.

This guide is also written for Windows users.

Details You Should Know

  1. In order to use your iPhone on a non-official network (e.g. T-Mobile in the U.S.) you have to hack the baseband on the iPhone. This is now done easily using the yellowsn0w application installed via Cydia using the Repository http://apt9.yellowsn0w.com/ once your iPhone has been Jailbroken.
  2. While yellowsn0w makes hacking the baseband easy, it does not support the latest baseband, 02.30.03, that is forcibly installed when installing Firmware 2.2.1 from iTunes — that means if you are on an unofficial network with your iPhone, you don’t ever want to install Firmware 2.2.1 directly from iTunes — it will upgrade your baseband to an uncrackable version (atleast not hacked yet) and you won’t be able to connect back to that network.
  3. What you need to do, is use PwnageTool to create a custom 2.2.1 firmware (*.ipsw file) that uses the 02.28.0 baseband (the crackable one) and then flash that custom firmware to your phone.
  4. UPDATE: Updating the Firmware on your iPhone will remove all apps installed via Cydia and Installer — these are unofficial apps and not backed up during the iTunes backup/sync process, so when the device is wiped and new OS installed, those apps will be erased.

Summary

A Summary of the information above is as follows:

  • If you have a 3G iPhone (2nd Generation), installing the 2.2.1 Firmware updates your baseband to 02.30.03, and blocks your ability to unlock the phone — allowing it to work on unsupported networks (like T-Mobile). You can still Jailbreak the phone however. So until unlocking this phone is supported, hold off on updating it using the normal Apple firmware — if you must update it, you can build your own custom firmware by using PwnageTool (Mac Only).
  • If you have a 2G iPhone (1st Generation) or a iPod Touch (1st Generation), installing 2.2.1 Firmware is fine — even though it updates your baseband, the way QuickPwn unlocks the phone still continues to work fine. So you are OK here in all cases.
  • If you have a iPod Touch (1st Generation), you can still apply this upgrade but you can only Jailbreak it while teathered to your computer. So you are still OK here.

I wanted to make sure to cover all that in detail to make sure no one got caught with their pants down (and locked out of their phones).

Getting Started

I am writing this guide using a 1st Generation iPhone (non-3G), on the T-Mobile network with the BlackBerry data plan and all the following software listed. If your setup is similar, you can probably follow this guide to a T. If you have a slightly different network setup, the steps should still work fine, but if you are have a different device, like the 3G iPhone or 2nd Gen iPod Touch, please read the red “Summary” above at the end of the previous section — it seems you might have to hold off on doing this update just yet.

What you will need before we get started:

NOTE: Here are download links for other firmware images that you might want. Keep in mind that if you are on the 3G iPhone there doesn’t seem to be support for unlocking that upgraded firmware to work on other networks right now (read the red “Summary” above).

Apply the Firmware Update

Now that you have the two files downloaded that you need (QuickPwn and the 2.2.1 Firmware) our first step is to apply the firmware update.

Doc your iPhone, let iTunes sync everything up for you (or sync it manually if you don’t have it setup to sync manually) and then go to the Device node for your iPhone, hold down the Shift key and click the Update button to bring up the file-selection dialog:

itunes-apply-iphone-221-firmware-update

Now select the iPhone1,1_2.2.1_5H11_Restore.ipsw file that we downloaded earlier:

select-iphone-221-firmware-ipsw-file

and click Open. iTunes will begin a series of 7 or so stages of applying the update to your phone. This includes uncompressing the IPSW file, installing the software, verifying it and so on. The exact series of little dialog status windows you will see look like the following (in-order):

1-extracting-ipsw-software

2-preparing-iphone-for-updates

3-waiting-for-iphone

4-updating-iphone-software

5-verifying-updated-iphone-software

6-updating-iphone-firmware

And after the firmware update is installed and applied, you will see a 10-second notice from iTunes that the phone is restarting:

7-restarting-iphone

After your phone has finished restarting, it will re-connect to your computer and iTunes will come up with a scary looking message about an unsupported SIM card that looks like this:

itunes-unrecognized-sim-card-phone-locked-error

Don’t worry about it though, we haven’t QuickPwn’ed the phone yet, so technically it is locked. So let’s go fix that!

Unlocking the iPhone w/ the 2.2.1 Firmware

UPDATE: If this step doesn’t work for you, we’ve had a few users tell us re-running this portion of the guide with the SIM card pulled out of the phone helped — but many have success just leaving the card in, so if you run into trouble, try both.

Now that we have our iPhone fully upgraded with the 2.2.1 Firmware, we need to fire up QuickPwn to do the dirty work of both Jailbreaking it and unlocking it (cracking the baseband so we can get this thing on the T-Mobile network).

Go find where you downloaded QuickPwn-225-2.zip to and unzip it into a new folder (or in-place if you want, it won’t create it’s own folder), resulting in the following contents:

quick-pwn-unzipped

Then drag and drop the two .bin files (for Bootloader 3.9 and 4.6) into the same dir just so they are easy to find, like this:

quick-pwn-unzipped-with-bootloaders

Then fire up QuickPwn.

The first screen you will see is the QuickPwn warning (not for commercial use):

quick-pwn-1-warning-screen

Click OK. Now you are instructed to make sure your iPhone is attached to your computer so QuickPwn can find it:

quick-pwn-2-device-detection-connect-to-usb

After making sure that step is done, QuickPwn will verify that it can see your iPhone connected to your computer, then ask you to select the iPhone firmware (IPSW file) that we used before in iTunes. In this case it is our iPhone1,1_2.2.1_5H11_Restore.ipsw file.

Click Browse…, go find it, select it and QuickPwn will do some verification on the file to make sure you selected the right onw:

quick-pwn-3-select-and-verify-ipsw-firmware-image

Once QuickPwn has verified the image you selected was correct, it will let you know and enable the blue “Next” arrow for you, so click it:

quick-pwn-4-verified-ipsw

Now QuickPwn will ask you what you want it to do for you. In this case we recommend:

  • Add Cydia
  • Add Installer
  • OPTIONAL: Unlock phone (if you are on an unofficial network, like T-Mobile in the U.S.)

quick-pwn-5-add-cydia-installer-and-unlock-phone-operations

Click next when done and QuickPwn will ask you for the Bootloader v3.9 and Bootloader v4.6 files that we downloaded from earlier. Select them:

quick-pwn-6-select-bootloader-files

and after you are done QuickPwn will verify the Bootloaders for you, allowing you to continue:

quick-pwn-7-bootloaders-verified

Now click the blue “next” button and QuickPwn will ask you to make sure your iPhone is still connected to your computer:

quick-pwn-8-ensure-device-connected

After confirming this, click the blue “next” button.

GET READY: The next part of QuickPwn will look like a list of things it’s doing, but it’s actually prompting you to do these items — and they won’t wait for you to read the prompts. So get ready for the next screen to appear:

quick-pwn-9-dfu-jailbreaking-prompts

NOTE: As your phone moves from state-to-state, QuickPwn may move to the next item in the list before the time counts down — that’s OK, go ahead and change what buttons you are holding to correspond with the prompts when that happens — don’t worry about the timer.

You will have about 5-8secs for the first prompt to finish — this is done automatically by QuickPwn for you (putting your phone into Recovery Mode), but then after the highlighted prompt changes to the 2nd item you have to get ready to:

  • Hold Home for 10 seconds (The round face-button at the bottom center of the phone)
  • Keep Holding Home, and now start holding the Power button for 10 or 15 seconds (Power button is on the top right corner of the phone)
  • Release the Power button, but keep holding the Home button for 30 seconds (In reality, the phone moves to the next prompt usually within 15 secs, and you can let go… but just incase wait until the prompt moves before releasing the Home button)

After you are done, your phone is in DFU mode and QuickPwn will take over, installing modified bootloaders, ramdisks and utilities to crack it:

quick-pwn-10-jailbreaking-ramdisk-recovery-mode

You can now sit back and watch. After QuickPwn is done sending files to your phone, your iPhone will begin displaying status bars processing the new files, the QuickPwn logo screen (with a pineapple on it) and then some baseband cracking UIs that automatically fill out and complete as you watch.

This whole time QuickPwn will be showing you this screen:

quick-pwn-11-iphone-rebooting-success

And you will just want to wait until your phone is done installing software and rebooting itself. After either 1 or 2 reboots it will eventually stop and just go to the standard charging/locked screen. Give it about 20 secs to make sure it’s done, then swipe your finger across the screen to unlock and viola! You are upgraded to the iPhone 2.2.1 firmware!

Conclusion

Congratulations, you are all done now and your phone is upgraded. In this guide (as opposed to our Firmware 2.1.0 guide) we did not try and do a new fresh install of the operating system, so there is no need to try and restore the phone’s data — we just upgraded the firmware, and the phone is ready to go with all our old data on it.

In fact I would encourage you to re-sync with iTunes after this process is done just to make sure it worked. I was able to sync the phone and make some phone calls right after this guide was written without a problem.

If you did run into any problems, please post below and we’ll try and help out. Be as specific as possible!

Troubleshooting

When we did our Firmware 2.1.0 Guide, a handful of people couldn’t get iTunes or their iPhone to recognize their SIM card after flashing the phone and a few other hickups. Most all those problems were discussed/covered in the Comments section of that guide if you want to review that first before posting here.

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This post was written by:

Riyad Kalla - who has written 1758 posts on The “Break it Down” Blog.

"Ultimately I just want to provide a resource that folks find useful."

Contact the author

303 Responses to “How to Install iPhone 2.2.1 Firmware on Jailbroken and Unlocked T-Mobile iPhone”

  1. alejandro de caprio Says:

    help please..
    i have 1st Gen iphone which have firmware 1.1.3 i bought in store here in the philippines, second hand. I’ve use almost 2 months and i download some apps on my iphone on cydia and intaller. but lately it prompt an error “need to restore, your iphone can’t make or recieved call. please contact http://www.iphone.com/support“.

    Then i restore to 2.2.1 firmware,jailbroke and unlock using quickpwn 2.25 it works but the carrier dosn’t. I can’t make a call and send and recieve text messages. On Carrier it prompt “No Service” on the top left window..

    What i have to do to fixed this. Sometimes if i insert a sim Smart or Globe still no service and if i refresh it repeatedly it prompt as i said “need to restore” and then if i restart it take a minuite and then it prompt as a virgin- like not jailbroken and unlock (“emergency call”) and then if I restart again its Ok again mean jailbroken and unlock but carrier are not.

    there are times the carrier is ok it detect my sim i can recieve a text messages and recieve call but i can’t make to send text messages and make a call.

    help me pls..what i have to do? and what program to use? please post your comment and suggestion here or send to my email at alejandro_decaprio@yahoo.com

    Reply

  2. Joe Says:

    works great. I updated my phone from 2.2 to 2.2.1 with no problems. I left my tmobile sim card in and followed the instructions. Although it should be mentioned that you’ll need itunes 8.1.1. My only complaint is that all my apps installed via cydia are now gone. =(

    Reply

  3. leland Says:

    Hey,

    Is it normally supposed to take like….20 minutes at the “2009-05-13 21:29:14 – Successfully built Quickpwn Ramdisk file.” stage.?

    1st gen iphone, using latest quickpwn on my mac. im still waiting..thanks

    Reply

  4. Geoff Says:

    Riyad

    Thanks for your response. Just to close this off and hopefully help others, I read through the notes again and noticed that running the jailbrak without the SIM card in the phone seemed to help some people.

    I tried it and hey presto, it worked. Phone now fully unlocked and running on both Virgin and Vodafone networks as well as O2.

    Thanks for you efforts in this area, it is really appreciated by us all.

    Geoff

    Reply

  5. Riyad Kalla Says:

    Joe & Geoff — Great suggestions, I’ve updated the guide with those extra bits of info in strategic places to hopefully help other folks running through this process.

    Leland — No I don’t think it’s suppose to take 20 mins, the whole process maybe takes 20 mins (lots of waiting) but not that 1 step.

    Reply

  6. JASON Says:

    Riyad,
    Quick question for you, I have a 3G and with ATT, but i want to be able to at least jailbreak it. Install Cydia & Installer, but my question is do I follow the same procedure as if i was unlocking it?? meaning will itunes read my current version and let me just install them, if not what exactly changes on my part??
    Thanks..

    Reply

  7. babayaga20000 Says:

    JASON, what you can do is download the latest quikpwn or pwned and update your iphone with itunes normally, since you already have ATT you dont need to unlock, just jailbreak, so

    Reply

  8. Harry Says:

    Worked flawlessly… Great Tutorial!

    Reply

  9. Mazen Says:

    Dear guys,

    I have been upgrading my iphone for all previous version until did the last 2.2.1 where my battery is draining like hell in less than five hours. I have heard Raghev is having similar issue in blog above. Could anyone help me why?

    I have now version 2.2.1 5H11 working but have the battery problem only. Please help !!!!

    Reply

  10. AAA Says:

    ok, im pretty young and the jailbreak thing is pretty new to me, but im great with comps, ive read all your instructions, and i want to make sure if this would work on my 1G 8Gb Iphone, that already has version 1.1.3 unlocked on a fido plan?

    Just making sure becuase ime seeing alot of people having trouble

    thx

    Reply

  11. AAA Says:

    ps im trying to upgrade it to 2.2.1 from 1.1.3

    Reply

  12. Riyad Kalla Says:

    Mazen,

    Make sure WiFi is off and turn off Push if you don’t need it — turning those two things off increase my battery life 2-3x what it normally is. Push wakes the phone up every 10 seconds or so to check for incoming data — you can hear it if you are wearing headphones… there is this light static sound like a call is about to come in, then it goes back to sleep.

    Reply

  13. Riyad Kalla Says:

    AAA,

    Yes, a handful of people have done that exact upgrade and it worked fine.

    Reply

  14. AAA Says:

    lol thx just kinda hesitant…

    Reply

  15. AAA Says:

    hold up. i tryed the process and the quick pwn wouldnt open ???
    suggestions

    (the application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000135). Click on OK to terminate the application.

    so i did and every time i try to open it

    it will not work…

    Reply

  16. bikedogrun Says:

    THANK YOU / THANK YOU!!!

    Had used a different set of instruction to get from 1.1.4 to 2.2 with lots of issues, having to re-do 3-4 times, take out the sim etc.

    Your instructions worked PERFECTLY the 1st time, taking me quickly and painlessly up to 2.2.1

    You are to be congratulated for taking the time and putting in the energy to help others far less technical than you take this (sometimes) scary step with their beloved iPhones!

    Reply

  17. Riyad Kalla Says:

    bikedogrun,

    Excellent news, I’m glad it worked for you!

    Reply

  18. m Says:

    Hi,
    I hope you can help me with an unusual iphone problem. I have tried to find solutions all over the Internet but haven’t seen anyone with the same problem. I use a 2G iphone on Vodafone in Australia and I unlocked and jailbroke it with quickpwn and firmware 2.2.1. It works fine for 3,4 days, then it freezes and locks up again. Then I have to restore it with itunes and unlock again. This happens every time. Do you have any advice? Thanks

    Reply

  19. Deep69 Says:

    thnks dude!!

    Reply

  20. Maria Says:

    I am trying to update to 2.2.1 firmware. I update 2.1 successffuly. When i downloaded the 2.2.1 restore folder, and i extracted all the files. The ISPW file does not show up so i can restore my phone in itunes and update it. Why is that? What should i Do? Help would be appreciated. Please email me at marysiad@gmail.com.

    Thank you,
    Maria

    Reply

  21. Mazen Says:

    Dear Riyad,

    Thx for hte help but it didn’t solve. I had everything off and still battery drains too fast. I googled the problem and it seems common for some folks.

    I have been using my iphone for a year now and upgrading each new version using iclarified tutorial and yours with no problem.

    I discovered that if I put hte iphone in airplane mode the battery will function normal. Once I insert my sim card, the phone will start draining the battery like hell and within short time off…. another thing is whenever I receive a call the phone shuts down.

    I really like iphone and so dependent on its use. Please I need guidance on how to fix this probelm. Tried to downgrade the probem persist even before restoring my data.

    I thought at once that my battery is the problem but when I switched airplane mode things were different.

    my email is mazen_yehia@hotmail.com please I need all the help available.

    Great day.

    Reply

  22. Chris Says:

    Hi. I did the process and everything went fine except now the phone just stays on the boot screen- the black one with the white apple logo. it vibrates twice every 5 minutes or so, but stays on the boot screen. how long is it suppose to stay like this. It’s going on 20 minutes.

    Reply

  23. Scargo Says:

    Chris and everyone else don’t cha think the author is getting tired of answering the same questions over and over? I wrote this back in April!!

    Hey Everyone, I would just like to say that YOU NEED TO READ THIS BLOG FIRST!!! before asking questions. SECONDLY READ EVERY POST by the users because chances are your question has already been answered. I DIDN’T WRITE THIS BLOG!!! EVERYONE with a 3G Iphone YOU are taking a chance of LOCKING your Iphone to the AT&T network. RE-read the beginning of this blog again about the baseband.

    The BEST thing to do is PRINT THE DIRECTIONS OUT FIRST read and re-read them until you understand them.
    Make sure ITUNES is updated to the LATEST VERSION and your iphone is recognized
    Make sure quick Pawn is unpacked and looks like a pineapple in the downloaded files you will use and you know where they are
    Make sure your sim card is not locked with a pin # in Settings
    Make sure to turn passcode required off in Settings

    Reply

  24. Randone Says:

    Ok so I’m not sure if this was covered in the guide somewhere but when I right clicked to update my firmware to 2.2.1 it started updating it and then all of a sudden it said it had an error and now my phone won’t show up in iTunes anymore. The screen on my phone just keeps showing the USB socket and a little iTunes logo. Any ideas on what to do?

    Reply

  25. Raghav Says:

    HI Randone,

    Try restarting the computer and connect…You can ping me on Raghav_vicky23@yahoo.co.in for help.

    Reply

  26. Maria Says:

    Why isn’t anyone helping me?

    I am trying to update to 2.2.1 firmware. I update 2.1 successffuly. When i downloaded the 2.2.1 restore folder, and i extracted all the files. The ISPW file does not show up so i can restore my phone in itunes and update it. Why is that? What should i Do? Help would be appreciated. Please email me at marysiad@gmail.com.

    Thank you,
    Maria

    Reply

  27. Randone Says:

    Ok, so with the help of Raghav, i’ve gotten as far as getting to the part in Quickpwn where you can choose the bootloaders. After it gets to the screen where you end up putting your phone into DFU mode, I can’t get it to progress past the first step where it says “Wait for your iPhone to connect in recovery mode.” The screen on my phone shows that it’s in recovery mode and iTunes will tell me that there is an iPhone connected in recovery mode, but QuickPwn will not progress past that first step. I’ve tried with the Sim card in and with it out, multiple times. Does anybody have any helpful suggestions?

    Reply

  28. Randone Says:

    Ok cool. I had to use multiple computers to get this to work, installing the update on one and then using QuickPwn on another, but it finally worked. Thanks Raghav for your help, and thanks Riyad for the walkthrough. Great work.

    Reply

  29. Rajen Says:

    Hi Riyad,
    I have IPhone 8GB which was unlocked and was working okay until I have downloaded and installed the new version of software from apple.com thru itune. Now the phone is showing SIM is not supported and allows only emergency no. I want to know what next to be done. Do you think the procedure you have mentioned in this blog can work ? Do I need to Restore it to factory level ? It will be a great help if you can let me know….

    Reply

  30. Riyad Kalla Says:

    +1 to what Scargo said, I know it can be time-consuming and dauting when you have a dead iPhone in your hand — but I *think* all the info everyone is asking for is either in the original post (I’ve included updates as folks have provided corrections) or down in these comments which have been an awesome source of info for different ways to get things going.

    Reply

  31. Rajen Says:

    Hi Riyad, Thnx for the messgae reply, I tried to reset the phone and then reload as mentioned above. Congrats buddy, it worked in 1st shot….
    Thnx for helping the community and breaking the monopoly of the MNC’s.
    Hv a great day…..cheers

    Reply

  32. Scargo Says:

    Maria, How about you try DOWNLOADING the files again to a folder on your desktop or use a different computer to download them and copy them to a flash drive.Read all the post on this blog, then maybe you will figure it out.

    Reply

  33. Riyad Kalla Says:

    Rajen,

    Glad to hear it worked!

    Reply

  34. marco Says:

    Thank you!!
    I get really upset when I saw that “I don’t like your SIM” msg!
    It really Helped!

    Thank you!

    Reply

  35. ramesh Says:

    we 2g iphone but that was one problem it’s not working apple symble only come to not on that mobile

    Reply

  36. eva Says:

    i have a 8GB unlocked iphone 2G version 1.1.2 and want to update to version 2.2.1. Will I not lose my SMS messages, contacts and photos if I follow the steps above? Thanks a lot in advance.

    Reply

  37. Riyad Kalla Says:

    eva,

    If you have iTunes setup to sync your Photos and Contacts from your iPhone you should be fine there, but you will loose your SMS messages.

    Good question, I haven’t seen anyone ask that one yet.

    Reply

  38. m Says:

    Hi, I asked for help earlier but no one answered. It looks like there is no solution to my problem…?
    I just want to add that I tried to restore my 2G phone with firmware 2.1, unlock it with Quickpwn and then upgrade to 2.2.1 But that relocked the phone. I also tried restoring with 2.2.1 firmware directly, but that had the same result. What could be wrong with the phone? Hardware/software fault? As I said before, it works perfectly for 2,3 days and then it freezes and locks up again. Also, can I restore from itunes directly, or do I have to use custom firmware?

    Reply

  39. Scargo Says:

    Hi M,
    Maybe you can find some answers at one of these two websites!
    http://blog.iphone-dev.org/ or try this one http://iclarified.com/
    for your current problems or maybe someone can help you,Good Luck!!!

    Reply

  40. stephan Says:

    hey i got the iphone unlocked but the data is not working from the tmobile network is there a way to fix that…. email me at triniboy24@gmail.com with your answers

    Reply

  41. Riyad Kalla Says:

    Guys,

    For anyone having data problems it seems that the APN has changed to:
    internet2.voicestream.com

    I’m still able to use the old APN referenced in this original article, but some folks I know on T-Mobile in the US on iPhone have had to change it to that new APN to get EDGE data working.

    Hope that helps.

    Reply

  42. hernan Says:

    Hey, i need help!
    when i go to the second step in quickpwn the check for the unlock phone is not there, i just have cyndia and installer and the replace boot, but the unlock the phone one never comes up.
    What do i do? plz
    THanks you

    Reply

  43. suhesh Says:

    Hey, i need help!
    when i go to the second step in quickpwn the check for the unlock phone is not there, i just have cyndia and installer and the replace boot, but the unlock the phone one never comes up.
    What do i do? plz
    i to have same problem plzz help me yaar

    Reply

  44. Sarah Says:

    If I have and unlocked and jailbroken 1st Gen iPhone and am on already using an AT&T sim, would I be okay with upgrading to the 2.2.1 update? I would not care for the jailbreak but would like my unlock to stay in place. Also what will happen with all the jailbroken applications already installed on my iPhone?

    Reply

  45. islandzboy Says:

    hey riyad

    i have an ipod touch 1G 16 gb. When i press shift and click update, an error pops up saying “the ipod could not be updated because the firmware is not compatible”

    please help me…. hope u will reply soon…

    thanx…
    islandzboy

    Reply

  46. Anthony Says:

    i have a unlocked iphone wit 2.2.1 firmware, and i cannot go online it was working lioke a week ago and now i cant download anything from cydia or anything someone please help.

    Reply

  47. Riyad Kalla Says:

    Anthony,

    It could be your APN settings — search this page for the phrase “APN”, there is the well-known one for T-Mobile and then a newer one as well I posted a week ago if you are having trouble connecting to the normal voicestream one.

    Reply

  48. Riyad Kalla Says:

    islandzboy,

    Ahh! Yea you don’t want to use these firmwares linked in this story, they are for iPhones.

    You *might* be able to go grab the official 2.2.1 iPod Touch firmware and still use the rest of this guide, I’m really not sure, I’ve never tried it.

    I’d suggest googling for “iPod Touch quickpwn” and see if people say that is the way to jailbreak the Touchs… if it is, this guide should work.

    Reply

  49. Walid Baalbaki Says:

    Hi Riyad ,
    If i press Shift > on restore not on Update , and choosing ur same file , it will work ?

    Thx :)

    Reply

  50. Walid Baalbaki Says:

    If my SIM card is MTC Touch Lebanon , does that work ??

    Reply

  51. vinay Says:

    hi i unlocked successfully but my phone not recognizing the sim card what what the steps i have to follow for that

    Reply

  52. JJ Says:

    Hey Riyad,
    Do you know when you’ll be able to break down for us “how to install 3.0″
    Thanks!!

    Reply

  53. Riyad Kalla Says:

    JJ,

    In about 2 weeks I’ll write a new guide for iPhone OS 3.0 — right now early jailbreaking is working, but I haven’t gotten a definitive thumbs-up on the base-band unlocking so folks can run on un-authorized networks.

    Once I see the all-clear there I’ll get to work and get you guys a new guide.

    Reply

  54. JJ Says:

    Hey Riyad,
    Thanks for the quick response. will the same procedure apply to the new 3G S the 32G?? just wondering if that one is going to be jailbroken soon.. Again thanks for the response.. JJ

    Reply

  55. Linda Says:

    Hi, Did this tutorial a few months ago, worked GREAT and loved it… until recently. Strange things started happening: first, the icons would wobble – pretty often – for no reason, it’s SUPER s-l-o-w, and takes time to load everything, and now today all my voicemails, both new and saved were erased. I was dealing with all this stuff but decided to downgrade after deleting the few apps and screensaver didn’t help. Any info on how to do this downgrade to my older, jailbroken (1.3, I believe) version without losing my unlock (I’m w/T-mobile) would be greatly appreciated. If it can’t be done, I’ll continue to plod along.

    Baby steps would be appreciated (similar to the tutorial) for me.

    Thanks very much
    Linda

    Reply

  56. Riyad Kalla Says:

    JJ,
    My expectation is that yes the same process will be pretty similar to what we do for the 3G S — I’m just waiting for the whole process to get rolled into QuickPwn so we can make it dead-easy with no fancy hacking required.

    Linda,
    Sorry to hear the phone has gone wonky — it doesn’t sound like the upgrade did that though, your voicemails are stored server side so if those got erased something might be going on with your account. If you’ve never hard-restarted your phone before, that might be a good idea. Hold down power button for 8 secs and slide it to off then back on.

    The other option is to do a totally clean reinstall of 2.2.1 to see if it’s cruft on the phone causing all the weird behavior (it is basically a little computer, so sometimes an OS reinstall can help).

    Or you can hang in there another few weeks and we’ll get a 3.0 guide out an you can upgrade to that :)

    Reply

  57. Linda Says:

    Riyad,

    Thanks so, so much – again!! I did the off 8 second trick and that seemed to have speeded up things a bit. I’ve also tapped & tapped and so far, no wobbly icons so hopefully it fixed that issue too. I’m sure you’re right about the voicemail server thing since these other 2 issues seem ok (for now) with the hard restarting; I’ll play with it today to see if the wobbly icons come back. I’ll also check back and probably do the upgrade to 3 when your guide comes out. Thanks again for all the great work you do and help you give here.

    Linda

    Reply

  58. RoAdHoGg Says:

    Hi I have just purchased a 1st gen 8 gig Iphone and didn’t realise it was jailbroken 1.1.2 and unlocked, I Just want to install OS 3.0 and I’m not botherd about being unlocked or jailbroken. I’m I going to brick the iphone by installing the official 3.0 update

    Reply

  59. Pepe Says:

    I hope this helps someone.
    while doing the update, at one point I got an error 14 message, then i could update anymore, i only had the option to restore.. i tried to do that and an error 13 popped up, so i couldnt restore any way, and the iphone was stuck in some screen…
    reading around i found out for some reason the process can get messed up if you are connecting your iphone to the pc via a USB port in the front of your PC, so I switched to one on the back, and voila, worked like a charm…
    just thought I’d post it for anyone with a similar prob

    Reply

  60. Pete Says:

    Hi Riyad, your instructions worked great when I updated my iPhone 2G to 2.2.1. Any chance you’ll do the same for the iPhone 3.0 software that’s just been released????

    Reply

  61. Kevin Says:

    I am trying to upgrade a 2nd Gen that was on 1.1.4, but when I tried to bring it to 2.2.1 I got an error 14. Itunes now states that I have to restore to original factory settings. Do I have to download an older firmware file, or can I just continue on with the 2.2.1 file I downloaded at the top of the instructions?

    Do you have to be connected to the net to be successful?

    Reply

  62. Kevin Says:

    I restored using the 2.2.1 file I downloaded at the top of the file. That worked OK. Other problem I encountered was during QuickPwn. I ntever went into recovery mode so it never advanced the “button sequence”. I exited out of quickpwn and rebooted the iphone. It automatically rebooted into recovery mode and quickpwn did its thing. Another successful unlocked Iphone. Thanks for a great tutorial Kevin.

    Reply

  63. Loso Says:

    Ok I have a 1G iphone with T-mobile and it has been working beautifully. I recently made an ass outta myself and updated it to 2.2.1 from i-tunes. I read up top that it will be “uncrackable”?? Does that mean I can’t re-unlock it?? I have two jobs (probably like everyuone else) and I heavily rely on my phone day to day. I really need my phone up and runing again!! Please help!!!

    Reply

  64. irena Says:

    i updated my phone long time ago and i followed the exact steps but something happened and now i have to install it again but it takes forever to connect my phone to recovery..its been almost 20 minutes and nothings happening…any ideas?

    Reply

  65. zoomi Says:

    hi everyone…..everything went right but the quickpwn is not giving me the option of unlocking while i m getting other three option….cydia, installer and reboot logo……any idea….is it something relted to quickpwn….where should i get the latest one which will work with my firmware 2.2.1.
    thnx

    Reply

  66. Riyad Kalla Says:

    zoomi,

    I’ve not heard anyone complain about that before (not seeing the Unlock) — are you sure you grabbed all the resources linked from this guide?

    Also, don’t forget, we put up a guide for installing, jailbreaking and unlocking iPhone 3.0 OS on your iPhone just recently if you want to follow that one instead.

    Reply

  67. ehsan Says:

    it doesn’t worked
    It says
    firmware error string

    Reply

  68. zoomi Says:

    hi riyad

    thanx for ur reply…..last time my frend unlocked iphone and he was told not to upgrade it further bcoz his iphone wont work anymore….is it right?…….and secondly i have already done jailbroken and unlocked and using it on unsupported network but now my iphone just got froozen on the apple logo……so i followed ur instruction to reboot it may be thats y quickpwn is not giving me option of that unlock……should i proceed further if i m not getting this option???????is it safe?

    Reply

  69. Riyad Kalla Says:

    @ehsan,
    I *think* you get that error either when your firmware download is corrupted, or you downloaded the wrong firmware for your device. Double-check to make sure you grabbed the correct firmware for your device (for example, you don’t want to grab the 3G iPhone firmware for a 1st generation, 2G iPhone)

    @zoomi,
    If you follow the new iPhone 3.0 guide, you start off by doing a factory restore of the phone with the official iPhone firmware — and then you crack that open with redsn0w… I think that might be the way to go since your phone is currently in a funky state.

    Reply

  70. zoomi Says:

    hi riyad….

    if i dont see the unlock option in quickpwn…..should i proceed further….wt will happen????

    Reply

  71. Riyad Kalla Says:

    zoomi,

    You’re killing me buddy… I have no idea what will happen if you proceed with QuickPwn not showing you the “Unlock” option, nor do I know why it’s not showing you that option — that’s why I’ve recommended using the iPhone 3.0 firmware guide we put up instead.

    Reply

  72. Rom Says:

    Hi folks, i have recently bought a jailbroken 2g iphone off someone, so it did not come with a T-mobile sim card. Would i be able also to do the above mentioned upgrade. I am running 1.1.4 firmware.

    Reply

  73. Rom Says:

    update my to earlier enquiry…..

    as a mater of fact the guy took out his phone card…so it really didn’t come with any phone card in it! I already have a sim card, so do i just put in the sim card i have and try the upgrade?

    Reply

  74. Riyad Kalla Says:

    Rom,

    Put the SIM card in, make sure the phone actually works first. If it doesn’t, or says something like “incompatible SIM”, then it may be jailbroken, but it’s not unlocked (to work on other networks).

    If the phone works great, then yes, you can follow this guide. But if you are going to upgrade anyway, I’d just recommend following the iPhone 3.0 firmware guide instead and get the latest.

    Reply

  75. Rom Says:

    Thanks a mil Riyad Kalla , iT wokred just the way u said it should. You guys are the best.

    Let the iphone irock(LOL)…WAAPPAXXX

    Reply

  76. Shariq Says:

    I made mistake and realease home button when quickpwn was asking to hold it.I tryed so many time from the begning but it always struck on the same promt saying ‘wait for your iphone to connect in recovery mode… Now i cant connect to itune to install the firmware again because it does not connect to my iphone.pls Help

    Reply

  77. Zimyad Mastoi! Says:

    Thankssssss alot……………………
    i have upgraded now its working bt how can i open menu??????
    menu is not opening i am just receiving msgs n calls nothing more

    Reply

  78. J.D. Says:

    Riyad,
    I have a iphone 2g, if my phone is already unlocked and jailbroken w/winpwn to 2.02 can I just restore it to 2.2.1 in? itunes or do I have to unkock it again w/QuickPwn?

    Reply

    • Riyad Kalla Says:

      J.D.,

      As soon as you do the restore in iTunes, it’s wiping out the unlock and jailbreak on the phone and laying down the official operating system (firmware) again — so you’d have to re-unlock it and re-jailbreak it.

      Reply

  79. alvin Says:

    hey, quickpwn gets to the final stage and says uploading exploit bootloader but then it just stay like that and never changes.

    Reply

  80. ron Says:

    i tried this and my phone said error and know it says i have to restore to the newest version 3.something and it failed on the first step :(

    Reply

  81. ron Says:

    sorry im an impatient bastard it worked flawlessly

    Reply

  82. Riyad Kalla Says:

    Ron, no worries, just glad it worked.

    Reply

  83. Manny K Says:

    okay SO this is the thing. I have been using my already unlocked 2nd gen iphone for awhile. But i seemed to have accidentally upgraded it on iTunes and it went back into its original state. So I am stuck with a Tmobile SIM card and a AT&T LOCKED iphone. Am i going to have to get a at&t sim card to unlock it, relock it, and THEN load up the software???

    Reply

    • Riyad Kalla Says:

      Manny, you might need to get an older firmware, like 2.2.1 or 3.0 (not 3.1), use the Shift-CLICK trick in iTunes when clicking on “Restore Firmware” and flash that firmware on there and see if you can crack it then. Unfortunately I’m 90% sure the Firmware 3.1 upgrade forcibly upgrades the baseband on the iphone 1-way that is not currently hackable and you cannot downgrade it, even if you force an older firmware on there.

      Reply

  84. Manny K Says:

    i see i see. but when I go and connect my iphone into itunes it says I need to put in a valid SIM card which i do not have. Will any AT&T sim card be able to unlock the phone itself so I can actually install the older software???

    Reply

  85. Ed Says:

    Hi, I just used this guide to update my iphone 1st gen from jailbroken 1.1.4 to 2.2.1, and I had the ‘no service’ trouble at first, but I realized that since I’m on a no-data ATT plan, I still needed to unlock the phone. So after I ran quickpwn again with the unlock option checked, everything worked. I think if the guide were updated to state that even if you’re on ATT, you still need to unlock it if you don’t have a data plan (i.e., paid internet). Hope I’m clear! Thanks for the guide

    Reply

  86. Jen Says:

    i was wondering.. How long does the first step:
    “Wait for your iPhone to connect in Recovery Mode”
    take?
    its been taking me quite a while now.

    Reply

  87. Jen Says:

    why wont it get passed the first step?

    Reply

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. How to Install iPhone 2.1 Firmware on Hacked T-Mobile iPhone | The "Break it Down" Blog - 13. Feb, 2009

    [...] Update #2: We have completed an updated Guide to installing the iPhone 2.2.1 Firmware on a Jailbroken/Unlocked iPhone. [...]

  2. Riyad Kalla - 13. Feb, 2009

    iPhone 2.21 firmware guide: http://tinyurl.com/cxmxoz

  3. Riyad Kalla - 13. Feb, 2009

    iPhone 2.21 firmware guide: http://tinyurl.com/cxmxoz

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    [...] know all my friends that had wanted the phone really bad but refused to get on the network, simply Unlocked their phones onto other networks (like [...]

  5. emellid - 13. Mar, 2009

    Reading: “How to Install iPhone 2.2.1 Firmware on Jailbroken and Unlocked T-Mobile iPhone ( http://tinyurl.com/cxmxoz )

  6. Abdallah N. Ahmad ? - 19. Mar, 2009

    http://www.breakitdownblog.com/how-to-install-iphone-221-firmware-on-jailbroken-and-unlocked-t-mobile-iphone/

  7. iPhone jailbreaking 2.2.1 - Iam8up Blog - 05. Apr, 2009

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  8. Iphone 3g having trouble with service - Hackint0sh - 21. Jun, 2009

    [...] to download a firmware with 2.2.1 with baseband 02.28 i will suggest download it from this link: How to Install iPhone 2.2.1 Firmware on Jailbroken and Unlocked T-Mobile iPhone | The "Break it… Hope it helps and u install Yellosn0w from Cydia to make it run If u have 2g then just ugrade [...]

  9. How to Install iPhone 3.0 Firmware on Jailbroken and Unlocked T-Mobile iPhone | The "Break it Down" Blog - 09. Jul, 2009

    [...] This is an update to our Firmware 2.2.1 Guide, which was an update to our Firmware 2.1 Guide, which was an update to our Firmware 2.0 [...]

  10. Michael Carmody - 14. Oct, 2009

    @Jamiesafc these things can go wrong though
    http://tinyurl.com/cxmxoz

  11. Michael Carmody - 14. Oct, 2009

    RT @Jamiesafc these things can go wrong though
    http://tinyurl.com/cxmxoz

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