iOS 5 without any doubt is the best offering from Apple in iOS history but it is also causing a lot of issues for people who rely on unlocks. As iOS 5 is also available for iPhone 3GS, a lot people upgraded their devices to iOS 5 without any knowledge of baseband upgrade and lost their unlocks. If you’ve upgraded your iPhone 3GS to iOS 5 (stock) that means you’ve also upgraded your baseband to 05.16.05 whoes unlock is not available in the market in ANY form.
But there’s is solution, if you’re stuck on iOS 5 with baseband 5.16.05 and lost your unlock this guide will help you not only to unlock your iPhone 3GS on baseband 05.16.05 but also upgrade back to iOS 5 with your baseband preserved. Luckily Apple is still signing iOS 4.1 for iPhone 3GS and 3G which means you can downgrade your iPhone 3GS to iOS 4.1 and baseband 5.14.xx or 5.15.xx.
Couple of things you should know before proceeding:
- This process involves flashing iPad’s baseband 6.15.00.
- If you want to upgrade to iOS 5 then you should know that there’s no untethered jailbreak for iOS 5 available right now.
- If you flash iPad baseband 6.15.00 on your iPhone 3GS you won’t be able to update your iPhone 3GS firmware normally from iTunes, you will have to cook a custom firmware file using redsn0w or sn0wbreeze and then update your iPhone 3GS.
If everything’s ok and you still want to unlock your iPhone 3GS on iOS 5 baseband 5.16.05 follow this guide.
How To Unlock iPhone 3GS on iOS 5 With Baseband 5.16.05:
Things you will be needing during this process:
iOS 4.1 for iPhone 3GS download it from here
iTunes 10.4.1 download it from here (Windows (32Bit) | Mac)
redsn0w 0.9.8rc18 download it for (Windows | Mac)
Pre-jailbroken hacktivated iOS 5 for iPhone 3GS download it from links below:
iTunes 10.5 download it from here
Redsn0w 0.9.9b6 download it from here
Step1: First of all make a backup of your contacts and data on your iPhone 3GS.
Step 2: Remove SIM card from your iPhone 3GS
Step 3: Uninstall iTunes 10.5 Completely from your computer and install iTunes 10.4.1. (Download link given above)
Step 4: Put your iPhone in DFU mode, you can enter DFU mode by following these step:
- Hold down both the Home button and the Power button for 10 seconds.
- Release the Power button and continue holding the Home button until (approx 15-25 sec) your device’s screen turn black.
Step 5: Launch iTunes, connect your iPhone, hold down the SHIFT for Windows or Option for Mac while you click the RESTORE button in iTunes and select the iOS 4.1 firmware file you have just downloaded.
Step 6: The restore process will end with error 1015 and recovery loop on your iPhone, this can be resolved using the “Exit Recovery” button in TinyUmbrella. (Download TinyUmbrella from here)
Step 7: Start redsn0w 0.9.6rc18 and browse for the iOS 4.1 firmware you just downloaded.
Step 8: Select “Install Cydia” and “Install iPad Baseband” and click “Next”
Warning: DO NOT UNPLUG your iPhone or interpret this process.
Step 9: Follow the instructions on screen and put your iPhone 3GS in DFU mode.
Step 10: After this redsn0w run your iPhone 3GS will be successfully jailbroken on iOS 4.1 with iPad’s baseband 6.15.00.
Open Cydia and tap on “Make my life easier”, this will save your SHSH blobs on Cydia servers for future downgrades to iOS 4.1. (Recommended)
Note: If you don’t want to update your iPhone 3GS with iOS 5 then skip to Step 16.
Let’s install iOS 5 on your iPhone 3GS with your baseband preserved.
Step 11: Uninstall iTunes 10.4.1 and install iTunes 10.5 (download link mentioned above).
Step 12: Run redsn0w 0.9.9 b6, click Extras and then click Pwned DFU
Step 13: Follow the instruction on your screen to put your iPhone 3GS in Pwned DFU mode.
Step 14: Launch iTunes 10.5, hold down the SHIFT for Windows or Option for Mac while you click the RESTORE button in iTunes and select the iOS 5.0 firmware file you downloaded from links above.
Step 15: After restoration process your iPhone 3GS will be kicking iOS 5 with baseband 6.15.00.
Step 16: Follow our complete step by step guide posted here to unlock your iPhone 3GS on iOS 5 BB 06.15.00 using ultrasn0w 1.2.4.
And that was it guys, remember if you face any problems or errors you can always contact us on our Facebook page or ask us on Twitter.
We will keep you updated on this, stay tuned!
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{ 22 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks a lot. It works!!!!
Thanks so much for your website! is great! And so is your Facebook account, where you actually referred me to. I have an iPhone 3Gs with iOS 5.01 and 5.16.05. I followed all these steps, but when I try to Restore the iPhone, there is a message that apperas: the iPhone could not be restored.This device is ineligible for the resquested build.
Do you have any ideas of what could it be? I downloaded the program iOs4.1, but I saw somewhere that iTunes had iOS4.3.5…?? Could that be possible if I downloaded iOS4.1?
Thanks for your help!
Silvia
I think you’re selecting the wrong build for your iPhone 3GS because iTunes throw this error only when you use other iOS devices’ build on your iPhone 3GS
Thank you for the page!
I have been able to get to the step in which I have my iPhone 3Gs to iOs4 and 6.15.00…NOT without many pains. I will post them here and what I did to solve them, in case somebody has the same ones, as it seemed that even my solutions to the problems were jinxed.
1) My first problem was trying to delete iTunes 5 from my computer (MacOX Lion). I finally did it downloading the FREE program appCleaner.
2) My next problem was that when I was trying to restore the iPhone this message appeared: This device is not eligible for this build.
This is due to an extra line in the host file that needs to be deleted. I tried two ways:
a)Using Terminal. http://www.iphonejailbreak.me/fix-this-device-isnt-eligible-for-the-requested-build-in-itunes-during-ios-5-0-1-update/
This one did NOT work, I don’t know why… (I know it says iOS 5.01…but it is the same for ios4.1)
b) By modifying the file directly: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uL_IWgJ7VNM
This one ended up working at the end. But I did run into the problem that when I was “replacing” the hosts file at the etc folder from the one in the desktop, I would see a message that would say: “can not be done as the file hosts is being used”. So what I did was to delete the hosts file in the etc folder and then transfer the “modified” hosts file from the desktop to the etc folder. And that SOLVED this second problem.
3)My third problem was that at Step 9 RedSn0w was crashing if I was trying to install both Cydia and the iPad baseband. So I just did it separately. I first installed the Baseband and then Cydia.
I have spent almost 6 hours on this today!
So, I might upgrade to iOs5 another day, as I envision that will be painful too! But will let you know if that work.
Thanks again for a great website!
i had itunes 10.4 and iphone 5.0.1. it says the itunes need to be updated. i didn’t do it, i just did the 10 sec thing and the phone was detected in recovery mode…and did the steps. the same problem of crashing happened when i selected install cydia and ipad baseband at the same time. so i first installed the cydia and after jailbreaking the second time i choose only to flash baseband and it worked. thanx for your comment i didn’t spend six hours discovering the problem. it took only 10 minutes.:)
Hi there ! Thanks for the tip , i ve got a little doubt . Doing all the process above and so on , can I update to 4.21 ???
Hi I installed the iTunes 10.4.1 but it wont let me open it. I get an error message saying file cannot be read because it was created by a newer version of iTunes.
Please help
Hey I had that same problem..this is how I fixed it:
1) try to locate your iTunes folder and when you find it open it.
2) Look for the file “iTunes Library” and change it to “iTunes Library.itl”
that should fix it..worked for me at least.
Hope it helps!
Hi…Thanks a lot for these useful steps, I really appreciate it. However, I have one question: Can I restore my contacts with iTunes after all these steps? Will it mess it up? I just wanna make sure before I go ahead and do it.
Hope to hear from you ASAP.
Thanks.
OOHh my goodness thank you so much. This was a great fantastic resource. I am a total noobie to all of this but this was so great! Thank you thank you.
really need help. i cant get my phone out of the plug in to itunes screen. it says use tinyumbarella but it wont work
i need help so much!!!
This has worked a charm, thank you! I had to try a few times as things froze on a couple of occasions but I persevered by poking around with some Google searches to fix the problems I was seeing and it all worked. I started off with a 3GS 5-16-05 iOS5 that was locked by AT&T and have ended up with an iPhone I can now use in Europe on my network of choice! (I didn’t yet go back to iOS 5 per step 11 as I actually don’t like iOS 5. Personal choice). Amazingly, the GPS seems to work AND it seems that it is an untethered jailbreak too. Don’t know how that happened, but that’s what I’m seeing. Thanks again!
Tips here are a BIG help, Thanks & More Power, i had jailbreak my iPhone 3GS Ver. 4.1 (iOS4) with Modem Firmware 06.15.00 and unlocked it. But i just observed that my battery drains so fast. Did’nt upgrade to iOS5 yet, my question is, is it safe to upgrade to iOS5 while my unlocked is preserved? or in the process, will i unlocked it again after upgrading to iOS5? Thanks, i’m a newby here, ^_^v
yes it works. tried like 4x but after 30 min i got it. now it is sellable in brazil for 600 bucks ! thanks for the help. if you need some help just let me know
my email for help is adrianmiami1@yahoo.com
Cant update my iPhone 3gs to iOS5 i am currently using ver, 4.1 with firmware ver. 6.15.00.. when i restore via iTunes it say “The iPhone could not be restored. An unknown error occurred (3194).” what would be the possible reasons why i can’t update it to iOS5 (9A334)?
Hi, This website really gave me a hope… I have a new iPhone 3GS manufactured in Oct 2011 with new bootroom. (Serial#xx143xxxxxx, modem firmware: 05.16.05, version: 5.0). Should I go ahead and unlock this iPhone. Please do reply, waiting for a reply:)…Terry
Now i figured it out, updating my iPhone to 5.0 from 4.1 will not really work, for i guess, my previous iOS is 5.0.1 (9A405) before i jailbreak and unlocked it. So this is how i do it, jailbreaked my iPhone 3GS (following those steps from STEP 1 to 10) & unlocked it, (now you have of course iOS4 with iPad BB 6.15.00) then i created a custom IPSW via redsnow using iOS is 5.0.1 (9A405) with my baseband preserved to 6.15.00 then RESTORE it via iTunes. Worth a try guys, now i’m kicking iPhone 3GS iPad BB 6.15.00 with iOS 5.0.1 ^_^v i’m just sharing it guys, oh by the way, MORE THANKS to DEV TEAM @sherif & @Oranav
@ Terry — try to change your baseband (modem firmware) to 6.15.00 first before you unlocked it..
I want to do all these, but I can’t download the unthetered pre-jailbroken iOS 5 (old bootrom) from the link given above, since “only premium members [filefactory] can download files bigger than 500MB” What can I do? If I just leave the iOS4 and unlock it with Ultrasn0w, will it work? If that’s a yes, can I later install de iOS5 and it’ll keep unlocked? Thank you!
Yes, it’ll surely work, just like my 3GS, install it with iOS4 & unlocked it, then later update it to iOS5 with my baseband preserved, just dont forget to make your own custom IPSW, just like i did…
Hi Guys… Plz, can u give me link to download pre-jailbroken iOS 5 (old bootrom)… I cant download it..
is there another link to DL iPhone 3GS iOS 5.0 Untethered Jailbroken (Old Bootrom)? I can’t seem to DL it because I’m not a premium member…Thanks.