Jailbreaking your iPhone means removing all the limitations that Apple imposes on their devices. Jailbreaking is quite easy these days. Most of the time, all you have to do is to download an app made for jailbreaking and sideload it onto your Apple device, like your iPhone.
Our phones are one of the most important gadgets that we own. With it, we can keep in contact with family, friends, or coworkers. We can even do powerful things with it, like create artwork or trade in the stock market.
But what if you want more from your phone, and your phone doesn’t allow it? iPhones, for example, are very strict when it comes to limiting what users can do with their phones and users can only install apps from the Apple Store. iPhones also don’t allow for customizations beyond what the manufacturer allows.
But if you want more flexibility in how you use your device, jailbreaking might be for you. In this article, we’ll tell you how to jailbreak iPhone on your own.
What Is A Jailbroken iPhone?
In a nutshell, a jailbroken iPhone removes manufacturer limitations, making it completely customizable by the user.
By jailbreaking, users can find applications designed by other creators that can alter the fundamental software of the iPhone. For example, users can download a third-party app that allows them to change the design of stock applications, like the Messages app.
Why You May Need To Jailbreak An iPhone
Jailbreaking allows you to modify the appearance and function of your iPhone in ways frowned upon by Apple. For instance, you can change the size of your icons, text, and even the design of your UI. Plus, with a jailbroken iPhone, you can use a different cell provider and bypass the activation lock.
There are also some instances where jailbreaking is a prerequisite to achieving the kind of functionality that you want.
One example is the use of spy apps like mSpy or FlexiSpy, which needs an iPhone to be jailbroken before it can operate to full functionality. Spy applications monitor a target phone and send the operator useful information, such as a record of their messages (even from secret Facebook conversations, in the case of mSpy) and social media.
These apps are useful if you’re a concerned parent who wants to ensure the safety of your children. And again, in most cases, these kinds of applications need a jailbroken iPhone for them to work properly.
That said, if you’re interested in jailbreaking your iPhone, you have to do it at your own risk.
Not only does Apple implicitly prohibit the jailbreaking of their devices and punish users by voiding the warranty of jailbroken phones, jailbreaking also leaves users open to malware and phone attacks. Also, if you somehow damage the software of a jailbroken iPhone, fixing could be more difficult since you’ve altered your phone’s software.
How To Jailbreak An iPhone – A Step-By-Step Guide
Before we get into the actual step-by-step guide, it’s important to understand the difference between the most common jailbreaking methods.
Tethered Vs Semi-Untethered Vs Untethered
There are several kinds of jailbreaking methods, but by far the most common are tethered, semi-untethered, and untethered. There are subtle differences between the three of them that are important to understand.
A tethered jailbreak is only good for one boot-up. Once the phone is turned off, it will lose the jailbreak. Not only that, but the phone won’t even boot without the help of a jailbreaking app. To boot a tethered jailbreak, you have to ‘tether’ the phone to your computer and run the jailbreak app from there, hence the name.
A semi-untethered jailbreak, like what we are going to use in this guide, is somewhat of an improvement. You will still lose the jailbreak every time you shut down or reboot your phone, but you can boot up your phone on its own without a problem.
You can re-jailbreak your phone with the app you originally used for jailbreaking from the home screen of your device.
Semi-untethered jailbreaks are also related to semi-tethered jailbreaks, wherein you lose the jailbreak every time you shut down, but you can re-jailbreak your phone using a computer.
An untethered jailbreak is the best kind of jailbreak around. It allows your phone to remain jailbroken, even after it’s been rebooted. In other words, you only need to do the jailbreak once and your phone will stay jailbroken, even if you reboot or turn off your phone.
Step-by-Step Guide To Jailbreaking Your Phone
For this guide, we will teach you the fastest and easiest way on how to jailbreak an iPhone 5 with the jailbreak tool, H3lix.
Take note that there are plenty of other methods out there that could work depending on the specific tool that you decide to use, but this is by far the quickest way to jailbreak your iPhone 5.
This jailbreak method works for iPhone 5 and 5c, and any 32-bit iPhone or iPad device with iOS 10.3.3 or 10.3.4.
- First, go to your iPhone browser and type in tutubox.io. Tutubox is an alternative app market software where you can download things you normally can’t on the Apple Store. You can download other things on the site than what we will recommend with this tutorial, but understand that you do so at your own risk.You will be asked to either sign up for VIP access or risk getting revoked. Unless you want to pay, click “Risk Revoke.”Scroll down until you see the “Jailbreaks” button.You will find h3lix listed in one of its recommended software at the bottom. Click the “Get” button beside the h3lix logo.Unfortunately, your phone will not immediately allow you to download h3lix because it’s considered risky.To allow your phone to install it, go to Settings and click General.Next, click Device Management.In the Device Management tab, you will find a button that says “Trust ‘Green Lite Global Trading, Inc.” Go ahead and tap this.You will be prompted to confirm your decision. Go ahead and tap “Allow.”Once you have done that, Tutubox should have no problems installing h3lix on your iPhone.Once the app has finished downloading, open it.The h3lix app will just feature the helix logo and the big yellow button for jailbreak. Tap the jailbreak button. This will start the jailbreaking process.Don’t click anything while your phone is getting jailbroken. It will automatically reboot after a couple of minutes.The jailbreak button will now be replaced by “run uicache.”Once it does, you should see Cydia installed on your phone’s home screen. This means that your phone has been successfully jailbroken.The last thing that we need to do is update Cydia. Go ahead and open the Cydia app.If it gives you an option to update, you should always update the software on Cydia. This is important, as Cydia is practically the manager of everything jailbreak-related on your phone. Not having up-to-date code could result in vulnerable or downright problematic software on your jailbroken iPhone.
If your Cydia is outdated, here are the steps to update it:
- Click your outdated Cydia app.It will give you three choices to update. Choose the Complete Upgrade option.Tap confirm.It will then take you to a loading page. Wait for it to finish.Cydia will typically crash after the update and you will be taken back to the homepage of your iPhone 5. This is perfectly normal, and this just means that the update worked perfectly. If you open Cydia again, you should be able to operate the app as normal without the update prompt.
As a final note, this jailbreak is semi-untethered. This means that the jailbreak will be removed every time your device gets turned off. However, you can easily jailbreak it again by opening the h3lix app and tapping Kickstart.
How To Jailbreak Other iPhone Models?
With jailbreaking so prolific nowadays, there are many tools available that can help you get the job done. The exact tool, however, will depend on your specific device and iOS version.
If you’re not sure what iOS version your device is running, go to Settings > General > About. This will show you the device version as well as other information about your iPhone or iPad.
If a tool doesn’t support your iOS version, it comes with an added risk since it may not work properly and cause your device to malfunction. It’s strongly recommended that you use tools that expressly claim that they can jailbreak a particular device version or model.
For instance, H3lix is the easiest and fastest way to jailbreak older Apple devices that are running iOS 10.0 to 10.3.4. You also don’t need to use a computer since you can download it straight to your iPhone.
If you have a newer iPhone model, Checkra1n, another popular jailbreak tool, can jailbreak iPhones 5s to X as long as they run iOS 12 to 13. It offers merely preliminary support on iOS 14, which means if your device is iOS 14 or newer, you might want to look at another tool. Lastly, it only works on Mac and Linux.
If you have the newest iPhone models updated to the latest iOS versions, or if you have a Windows computer, you should check out Unc0ver. It’s slightly more complicated than Checkra1n or H3lix, but it does offer support for iOS 11 to 14.3.
Again, there are other tools apart from these three, but these should be your first picks if you want a safe and hassle-free way to jailbreak your iPhone.
Now You Know How To Jailbreak iPhone
In this guide, I’ve taught you how to jailbreak iPhone 5 and provide you with the necessary tools to do so. If you’ve followed my instructions carefully, then you should have the kind of freedom you want from your iPhone.
What Is iPhone Jailbreak?
An iPhone jailbreak is an operation that allows you to break free of the restrictions that Apple places on their products. This means that you can change the design of stock apps, download new apps, and even use a different provider than what the phone came in with.
Why Jailbreak iPhone?
You need to jailbreak an iPhone if you want to modify the appearance of your iPhone, or if you want to install useful but unsupported apps, such as mSpy, which can monitor practically everything about a target device and then send the info to you.
Can Jailbreaking An iPhone Remove The Activation Lock?
Jailbreaking alone does not remove the activation lock on your iPhone, because there are more steps that you need to do so that you can do this. However, to remove the activation lock on your iPhone, you need to have a jailbroken iPhone first.
However, always keep in mind that jailbreaking will void your phone’s warranty and support if it is still applicable, and will expose you to harms that Apple has previously blocked from access to its software. Ultimately, it’s up to you if you want to jailbreak your iPhone and if you do so, it’s at your own risk.
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