How To Downgrade iPhone, iPod Touch And iPad 1 From iOS 5.1 To iOS 5.0.1,Or 4.x.x [Guide]

March 8, 2012

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In today’s shinning “The new iPad” event Apple also introduced their major iOS 5.1 software update which brings a lot of new features like Japanese language support for Siri, new lock screen with permanent camera button and some major bug fixes including famous battery drainage issue which was first reported in iOS 5. Apple rolled out iOS 5.1 update for iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPod Touch 3G, iPod Touch 4G, iPad 1, iPad 2, and iPad 3. An OTA update of latest iOS 5.1 was also released by Apple for iOS device who were already running iOS 5.0.1.

Side Note: People who have jailbreaked their iOS devices on iOS 5.0.1 won’t be able to get an OTA update.

If you’ve already updated your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad to iOS 5.1 and for some reason you’re not liking it as much as you were expecting then you can downgrade it back to iOS 5.0.1 or iOS 4.x.x. Now there’s a catch here, downgrading won’t work for devices which are carrying A5 chip (iPhone 4S, iPad 2). Remember that even if you have saved your iPhone 4S or iPad 2′s SHSH blobs after jailbreaking it in iOS 5.0.1 you can’t downgrade it from iOS 5.1 to iOS 5.0.1. So if you want to keep your unlock or jailbreak DO NOT UPDATE your iPhone 4S, iPad 2 or any other iOS device to iOS 5.1. No jailbreak tool has been updated to jailbreak iOS 5.1 (as of this writing).

This method will work for non A5 devices only, which are:

iPad 1
iPhone 4
iPhone 3GS
iPod Touch 3G
iPod Touch 4G

How To Downgrade From iOS 5.1 To iOS 5.0.1, 4.3.5, 4.3.4, And iOS 4.3.3:

Things you will need during this process:

Any non A5 iOS device which you wish to downgrade
iTunes
Saved SHSH blobs of the iOS version you’re downgrading to
Latest version of Redsn0w (Download)
IPSW restore file of the iOS firmware you wish to downgrade to (Download)

Step 1: Run the latest version of Redsn0w which you downloaded from the link.

Step 2: Click Extras, you will see a different Redsn0w menu, click Pwned DFU

Step 3: In this step make sure that your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad is connected to computer and switched off.

Step 4: Put your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad in DFU by following on screen instructions:

To enter DFU mode:

Hold Power and Home buttons for 10 seconds
Now release the Power button but continue holding the Home button for 10 more seconds
You device should now be in DFU mode (black screen)

Step 5: Redsn0w will now exploit your iOS device with limera1n DFU exploit.

Step 6: Before we start restoration process we need to trick iTunes to make it think that it’s communicating with Apple servers. Originally it would be communicating with Saurik’s servers. In order to do that Windows users navigate to \Windows\System32\drivers\etc\ and Mac users need to launch Finder and navigate to /etc/.

Step 7: Windows users: Locate hosts file, drag and drop it to Desktop. Open the hosts file using your favourite editor (use Notepad) and add the following line at the bottom of the file:

74.208.105.171 gs.apple.com

Save the file and drop it back to \etc\ folder

Mac Users: Mac user can simply open hosts file using TextEdit, add the above mentioned line at the bottom and save the file. (You don’t need to move it to desktop)

Step 8: Launch iTunes, it will recognize your iOS device in recovery mode. Now we’re going to restore the IPSW file which you downloaded from the link above