Ask Tii - What is the difference between a Tethered and Untethered Jailbreak.

Rob,

If you have already explained this please point me to your answer. I am suddenly confused by the media reports as to what is the difference between a tethered and untethered jailbreak. I thought that it simply referred to a method that either requires (tethered) your ios device to be usb linked to the computer when the jailbreak is done or not (untethered). I see some explanations that say that every time you want to reboot your device or the battery dies if you have a tethered jailbreak then you need to reboot with it USB linked to your computer. http://osxdaily.com/2010/11/24/tethered-jailbreak-vs-untethered-jailbreak/

Regards,

David

 

 

Hi David,

Thanks for the question.  In simplest terms a Tethered Jailbreak means if your iOS device reboots at any time in the future - it needs to be connected back to the computer you jailbroke it from to get it to boot back up and be useable. 

An untethered Jailbreak allows you to restart the iOS device and not have to be tethered to your computer.

This actually has nothing to do with how you jailbreak it - but rather how you are able to restart / power back on your iOS device AFTER it is jailbroken. 

As such - I ONLY ever recommend the un-tethered jailbreak.  Until a jailbreak is "Untethered" I try not to even talk about it - as it is not a viable jailbreak for anyone but the developers of Cydia (Jailbreak) apps.  

So for example right now there is a "Tethered" jailbreak already for iOS 4.3.4 - but on the next episode of Tii (ep 183) you will only hear me say "Stay away from iOS 4.3.4 if you want to jailbreak.  From a practical perspective a Tethered Jailbreak is not a real Jailbreak - just a proof of concept.  

Hope that helps.

Rob W