The Today in iOS / iPhone Podcast

Thu, 6 May 2010

Spirit Jailbreak and Cydia Tutorial - OS 3.1.3 for iPhone and iPod Touch and 3.2 for iPad

Update 1: This is for Jailbreaking - NOT for unlocking. If you want to take your iPhone to another carrier (unlock) then this is not the tutorial for you.

Note: This tutorial works for OS 3.1.3 and 3.1.2 for all iPhones and iPod Touches. It also works for the iPad and OS 3.2. This works if you are using iTunes 9.1.1 - but please note to make sure iTunes is shut down before running the jailbreak. The Spirit jailbreak is a very very easy jailbreak and if you can download and open an app you can jailbreak your device.

There are some very good articles on how to jailbreak but many miss a couple of steps that new jailbreakers need to know especially when it comes to using Cydia - the resource for finding and installing jailbroken apps. This tutorial tries to help those first time jailbreakers. If you are on an iPad regardless of your experience level read all the way through.

Do not try to jailbreak if you don't like when things go to (expletive). If you need your device for your business and being without it for any period of time will cause you to loose your job - stop now. If you get mad at your significant other at how they fold towels or put the toilet paper on a roll - Jailbreaking is probably not for your personality. Sometimes things break and your device will likely crash more often then if it was not jailbroken.

1. First you need to download the program Spirit. Make sure to download to your desktop. Download Spirit per the links below:

Windows (here)

Mac OS X (here)

Then Un-Zip the file once on your desktop.

You will then have the Application - Spirit - on your desktop. Connect your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad to your computer. Quit out of iTunes. Then open the application Spirit. You should see the following.

Next simply click on the button "Jailbreak" inside the Spirit application. That is all you have to do to jailbreak. After just a few seconds the application will say it is jailbroken.

Your device will need to reboot. And when it does you will see it go to what looks like the beginning of a Dr. Who episode. There is a status bar as it loads. Once it finishes the load and reboot, your device should be jailbroken now. So what do you do next? Well first thing is to find the Cydia App on your device. It is brown with a white circle in it and says "Cydia" underneath. See the image below.

Tap to open it. The program will do some maintenance the first time you open it.

After it closes - you will need to reopen it. The second time is the charm and you will be ready to go.

Next you will be asked "Who Are You?" If you are reading this article - then you are "User (Graphical Only)" - select that option.

Per the screen - Welcome to Cydia.

One App almost everyone will want and that works on the iPhone's, iPod Touch's and the iPad is the app Backgrounder. This app allows true multitasking on your device and it is free. To install this app Tap on "Search" in the bottom row of Cydia and then in the search box type "backgrounder"

Next Tap on "Backgrounder from BigBoss" the second one - not the one that says "(2.x only)"

Then Tap on "Install" in the upper Right corner

Then Tap on "Confirm" in the upper Right corner

At this point you have installed your first jailbroken App. It is recommended you open up Backgrounder and adjust some of the settings.

First tap on "Global". After you make your donation that is.

Set all the switches to "ON". Then go Tap "Back" and then Tap "Control"

Finally scroll through and select how you want to be able to enable and disable backgrounding for apps. Personally I like the "Short Hold" of the Sleep Button. It makes it very easy to enable and is not likely going to be enabled by accident.

Thats it you are now jailbroken and have your first real jailbroken app running on your device.

Please understand sometimes installs of apps are interrupted - in which case you need to try and re-install. Things are not as stable when you jailbreak - expect some additional crashes and conflicts between apps.

Note: If you have an iPad - do not - repeat - do not - install Five icon dock - it will really mess up your iPad and you will need to restore it. However that app works great on the iPhone and iPod Touch. For iPad owners most apps at this point do not work.

Jailbroken Apps that work on the iPad:

Backgrounder

Veency

Safari Download Plugin

SBSettings

OpenSSH

MXTube

FakeLocation

Quicklock

Insomnia

If you come across more jailbroken apps that work on the iPad - please add them to the comments below.

Category:breaking news -- posted at: 12:04am EDT

Comments[56]

Hi, Have anyone tried SPIRIT with iphone 3gs 3.1?
posted by: Manoj on 2011-08-01 08:42:17
Kate - Same questions as per Kevin - Did you use the links here to jailbreak or some other tutorial. Also what Operating System are you running?
posted by: rob@wizzard.tv on 2010-07-19 14:31:36
David - per updating my software - it is not my software - we are waiting for the dev team to release the new jailbreak so that it is as easy to do the iOS 4.x jailbreak as it was with Spirit. Once a new easy jailbreak is available for all iOS devices - we will put up a new tutorial. Till then it is best not to update to iOS 4.x or iOS 3.2.1 if you want to continue to jailbreak. Rob W
posted by: rob@wizzard.tv on 2010-07-19 14:30:03
Kevin - What version of iTunes were you running when you jailbroke? Had you upgraded to iOS 4 and then downgraded? Did you use the links in this tutorial to do your Jailbreak or did you use another tutorial?
posted by: rob@wizzard.tv on 2010-07-19 14:27:46
Help please, I have looked through the comments and can't find an answer. I have just jailbreaked my 3.1.3 iphone 3g and the cydia app appears as it should. Only thing is touching the cydia icon opens the app for a microsecond before it returns to the homepage again. I have restored to factory settings and tried again but the same thing happens everytime. Help?
posted by: Kevin Bourn on 2010-07-19 11:57:11
Hi, I have iPhone 3GS 3.1.3 BB 05.12.01. Used Spirit to jailbreak and everytime I run cydia always close, after I try to delete all file in cydia by pc software and try to rejailbreak again, cydia still not yet work. Pls help me I don't know what should to do? Very appreciate for your reply. Thank you.
posted by: Kate on 2010-06-25 16:06:03
hey after the jb cydia just crashes instantly plz help me fix
posted by: johnny morales on 2010-06-20 20:58:33
have same issue kinda like cancerian, only I am using ipod touch. it says on puter success but when ipod restarted it wouldnt get past the dr who screen and when I tried to reset ipod now all I get is apple and when cable is plugged in it just restarts itself if turned off. cant reconize ipod at all now in puter. any help how to reset this cause I am at a loss. cheers and thanks.
posted by: paul baird on 2010-06-17 02:12:44
I have succesfully jailbroken my i-phone 3G but when i clock on cydia it automatically closes down, iv tryed again and again but it just does the same thing. Can someone help?
posted by: dean on 2010-06-10 12:18:51
I am currenty running the blackra1n jb on my ipod touch 2g with 3.12. I need to do a full restore as it is acting up. If i restore thru itunes to 3.13, will the spirit jb still work?
posted by: Kotzy on 2010-06-10 00:57:00
i jailbroke my iphone 3gs 3.1.3 and it said it was succseful but cydia aint coming up and i tryed it several times but its just not working if you can please help me out it would be appreciated
posted by: h on 2010-06-08 22:57:13
cancerlan - First make sure you do not have iTunes set to automatically launch when an iPhone is connected. Then you need to get you iPhone into DFU mode - http://www.funkyspacemonkey.com/iphone-dfu-mode - Then do a full restore and then try the jailbreak again. Good Luck. Rob W
posted by: rob@wizzard.tv on 2010-06-07 04:08:19
I tried jailbreaking with spirit, the jailbreak via spirit was successful but the iphone (3gs running 3.1.1) kinda hung on reboot where it kept showing the reboot screen (the spirit reboot screen) for about 20 mins, I panicked and restarted the Iphone and its completely zonked now. Does not restart, freezes on the apple reboot screen now. Any help will be much appreciated. Cheers
posted by: cancerian on 2010-06-06 13:09:51
I wanted to comment, still loving the spirit jailbreak. On the expected freezes, I have found that using backgrounder app to background all apps i open was a big contributor to freezes. Of course it always freezes when you are going to use it so that is annoying. I set it so I only background what i want to background instead of everything and the crashes and freezes are gone pretty much. I went from 1 or 2 a day to going days without a freeze. So less backgrounding should rid you of a lot of crashes and freezes. This is on a 3G which kind of proves Jobs right for not giving mulittasking to the 3G.
posted by: REDGAR on 2010-06-04 01:01:24
e39757 - Make sure you are connecting your iPhone directly to the USB port on your computer - do not connect via a USB hub or even through a keyboard port - only connect directly to the USB port on the computer. Per KISS - this is KISS. It is the simplest jail break since 2007.
posted by: rob@wizzard.tv on 2010-06-03 13:53:59
spirit asks me to connect device, any suggestions? and did anyone hear of the KISS principal?
posted by: e39757 on 2010-06-02 16:29:28
hi i want to download jailbreak for my ipod
posted by: wissam on 2010-05-29 18:07:04
Hi...i have the same problem as Mark and Mist...Cydia not working after applying Spirit JB to my iPhone 3G 16GB Factory Unlocked...any suggestion how to get Cydia working?
posted by: Herman on 2010-05-29 08:46:04
Please help, I'm having the same problems as Mark above. I've installed Spirit with no problems, cydia worked fine for the first couple of hours. I woke this morning to find ssh app missing completely and cydia loading for a few seconds then closing immediately. I have an iPhone 3g on 3.1.3. I've tried rejailbreak wishfully expecting a quick fix, but no good. As I have little knowledge of how these things work, is there any easy solution behind this?
posted by: MiSt on 2010-05-26 08:32:45
ive downloaded spirit fine, but wen i plug my iphone in, its not recognized, and spirit says 'please connect device' ANY HELP PLEASE?? muchos love
posted by: Nate on 2010-05-24 17:18:49
Hi, I installed this jailbreak on my iPod Touch running the 3.1.3 software. Then, when I opened Cydia it automatically closes upon opening (even after resetting the iPod again and again). Is there a solution for this?
posted by: Mark on 2010-05-18 08:01:36
hey guys... i have a iphone 3gs 32gb running on 3.1.3 firmware that has never been jailbroken.. i just tried to follow this tutorial and jailbreak my phone.. but i got stuck on the screen that looks like a Dr. Who episode for about half an hour so i reset my phone and restored it back to my backup.. i am just wondering if anyone else has had this problem and if anyone knows the resolution? thanks in advance -jaymoney
posted by: JayMoney on 2010-05-18 00:38:18
I tried it again and the 3rd or 4th time was the charm for me
posted by: Chris (Amateur Traveler) on 2010-05-17 23:49:38
So if Im already teathered jailbroken (3.1.2) shoul I be able to unteather without any difficulty (I am currently jailbroken on blackra1n). I've heard that you need to restore, I hope that's not the case. Love the show. Best regards Ray
posted by: Ray on 2010-05-17 22:31:27
I had tried to jailbreak my original iPhone before but it bricked and I had to restore. I was excited to try this approach but it fails very quickly for me with an error 1c7. Oh well, someday I will jailbreak.
posted by: Chris (Amateur Traveler) on 2010-05-17 21:53:01
Rob, Your podcast is great. Thanks for everything. Now for a jb-related question: How easy is it to reverse the jb, and will I lose any data when I do that? I'd like to upgrade to 4.0 when it's available and fear losing lots of app-specific data I've accumulated on my phone.
posted by: Kevin C on 2010-05-15 00:29:32
Thank you so much for posting this Rob, i've been wanting to jailbreak and I'm excited that this one is soo easy
posted by: Jessica on 2010-05-14 23:32:55
My plan to wait for the battery to drain appears to have worked. Lucky I was only on about 25% charge when issue occurred and he white screen of death occurred just before I was about to go to sleep anyway. After about 5.5 hours sleep I woke, and was so worried about my phone I could not fall back to sleep. Have come in and found screen off, battery totally drained. Plugged into power, and after about 5 minutes the phone started booting itself. Seemed to be on the apple logo screen for ages but came up eventually and I immediately received a push notification from facebook. I am still debating if I should restore anyway and keep my iPhone un-jailbroken until I at least have a a back up device, maybe an iPad if I can afford it after May 28th (I am in Australia), or a newer model (mine is a 3G 16GB) when my contract expires in October. When I had a physical issue a few months ago, headphones would not insert into socket on phone, my phone company insurance took 5 weeks to "repair" my iPhone (which turned out to be a replacement anyway) Not nice being without an iPhone for 5 weeks. I should have got Apple extended warranty instead, that does not cover stolen or lost phone but is cheaper, has no excess payment, and I am sure would have fixed it faster. Thanks for the tip steps Rob, I will certainly try them if the screen freezes again (jailbroken or not) but not sure if it would have helped as the phone did not seem to be responding to the buttons at all. It makes me long for old days where there was a physical off switch on devices, or at least a removable battery.
posted by: Warren on 2010-05-14 20:32:57
Hi Warren - Sorry to hear of your issues. You should try putting the phone into DFU mode. Do the following: 1. Open iTunes and connect iPhone to your computer. 2. Press and hold the Home Button and the Sleep/Wake button at the same time. 3. After exactly 10 seconds release the Sleep / Wake Button - But continue to hold the Home button until iTunes pops up a message saying that it has detected an iPhone in recovery mode. 4. Then click ok and do a full restore on the phone. I hope that helps. Rob W
posted by: rob@wizzard.tv on 2010-05-14 14:51:38
After listening to many shows telling the advantages of jail breaking, I finally took the plunge. 5 hours latter and only one Cydia app installed (categories) and the phone has totally died and I can do nothing. I was creating categories, had made several already and put apps in them. Was making another and the screen suddenly went totally white and will not respond to anything. I can't even shut it down or reboot, or even blank the screen. Tried plugging into PC and iTunes does not recognise it when plugged in. Even tried running Spirit again to see what it would say, it does not recognise device is plugged in. The only thing I can think to do is let the battery totally run down, hope this will switch the phone off when all the power is drained, and after that I will be able to charge and then boot it up again.
posted by: Warren on 2010-05-14 14:33:28
Does anyone know if intelliscreen work on the iPad as well without any glitches? Thanks in advance!
posted by: Ben on 2010-05-14 02:25:05
Per the Error Tom is getting. Jontie sent the following in. I found the issue. I am using XP SP3, the c:\windows\system32\libeay32.dll needs to be replaced with the one out of C:\Program Files\Common Files\Apple\Mobile Device Support Then restart iTunes and it worked. Jontie Thanks Jontie for your help on that.
posted by: rob@wizzard.tv on 2010-05-13 20:57:48
Myron, No this does not effect your ability to backup and sync with iTunes. Just note your Cydia apps are not backed up with iTunes - so if you have to restore and rejailbreak you will need to manually re-install each Cydia app. Per the question on ssh / password - I have not heard one way or the other on that yet. Please see ep 106 bonus content in the Tii app for instructions on how to change that password if you are concerned.
posted by: rob@wizzard.tv on 2010-05-12 21:39:48
Previously there were recommendations to change your ssh password. Is that still necessary?
posted by: Myron Uecker on 2010-05-12 18:41:51
Does this in any way affect backup and syncing with iTunes?
posted by: Myron Uecker on 2010-05-12 18:38:53
Josh, I will put up a post shortly with a list of some of the better Cydia apps for jailbreakers. In the mean time go to the search box on the left and simply search for "cydia" it will show you every post where I mentioned Cydia apps.
posted by: rob@wizzard.tv on 2010-05-12 16:34:00
Rob, Love your show bud! After much hesitation I installed Spirit and I actually thought it didn't work, it happened so fast!! I've installed a couple apps already and am LOVING IT! Let me ask you...I thought you had a list of the top/best Cydia Apps to install. Can you tell me where I might find that??
posted by: Josh on 2010-05-12 05:39:26
Rob thanks for the great tutorial. Been thinking about this a long time. Spirit made it so easy. MyWi and Backgrounder were the the ressons to finally do it
posted by: Edgar on 2010-05-12 03:14:30
Tom M - Personally I would just stay with 3.1.2 if you are already jailbroken and have apps installed. You may want to also look into Rock. As that lets you backup jailbroken apps.
posted by: rob@wizzard.tv on 2010-05-11 16:09:54
Thanks for the awesome tutorial Rob. I am currently on 3.1.2, if I want to update to 3.1.3 then jailbreak 3.1.3 how would I go about that? The only way I can think of is as follows... 1) Update through itunes to 3.1.3 and lose all of my cydia apps and settings. 2) jailbreak, then restore all my apps and settings manually? Is there an easier way? Thanks.
posted by: Tom M on 2010-05-11 10:21:48
i also have errors and cannot download apps. It won't let me search for backgrounder. I think it may be a host error. I tried restarting phone and relaunching spirit with no luck??
posted by: Jeff Brummer on 2010-05-10 16:41:55
Tatumn - Did you try closing down Cydia and reopening? Do you have a screen shot you can email to me?
posted by: rob@wizzard.tv on 2010-05-08 02:59:36
once i say that i am a user and it goes to pop up the cylia it says that there was an error.and nothing shows up.what is wrong?
posted by: tatumn on 2010-05-07 22:29:43
Done!! But i can't install any apps .. anything wrong??
posted by: Alfa on 2010-05-07 16:52:49
Marco - Please read the following article. http://www.macnewsworld.com/story/The-Joy-of-Jailbreaking-Your-iPhone-69894.html It is a post I did on why to jailbreak. The best way to get apple to make changes is not with words - but actions - if more and more people jailbreak for specific features that should be in the OS to start with - then Apple will likely add in those features in the future. That said if you have a 2G or 3G iPhone - Jailbreaking is the only way to get multitasking. As those features will only be available to the iPhone 3GS and 3rd gen iPod touch. Why be patient and wait for Apple when you can easily enjoy multitasking today?
posted by: rob@wizzard.tv on 2010-05-07 15:59:52
What is the point of jailbreak now when iPhone OS 4 is just a couple of months away? Life is complicated as it is, why complicate it even more. Be patient, and keep sending feedback to Apple so they can make improvements to the OS.
posted by: Marco Brandao on 2010-05-07 14:57:01
I found an updated list of cydia apps which work on the iPad here: http://www.ipodtouchfans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=287580
posted by: Trevin on 2010-05-07 14:43:35
I fixed that ordinal 2760 method using this I found on the apple forum: I solved this on my PC by renaming the LIBEAY32.dll in the c:\windows\system32 folder and then coping the LIBEAY32.dll file from the C:\Program Files\Common Files\Apple\Mobile Device Support folder to the c:\windows\system32 folder and restarting my computer.
posted by: Greg on 2010-05-07 12:35:43
Bro. You re a Genius!~
posted by: joe on 2010-05-07 07:27:51
My cydia doesn't show backgrounder in search box.. How can i break through this problem..
posted by: Alfa on 2010-05-07 04:12:08
Is this jailbreak teathered
posted by: Fred on 2010-05-07 03:26:53
i have the 3gs and it jailbroke fine but cydia only has a few apps in it do i need to download something else also? backgrounder/winterboard/categories etc. does not come up when searched for.
posted by: nick on 2010-05-07 02:02:02
Hey, when the Itouch is being jailbroken, will the process delete my files?
posted by: Mark on 2010-05-07 01:51:35
So I've finished with the spirit jailbreak, now how would I go about making it work for t-mobile? -Iphone 3.1.3 3G MANY thanks!
posted by: Emir on 2010-05-06 23:57:53
I get an error "The ordinal 2760 could not be located in the dynamic link library LIBEAY32.dll." Do I need an updated file perhaps?
posted by: Tom on 2010-05-06 18:29:13
Hi there, I was wondering if this jailbreak works on a 3rd gen 64 gb ipod touch with a 3.1.3(7E18).. will it work? and what should i expect during jailbreaking?
posted by: Ane on 2010-05-06 16:37:29

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