How To Jailbreak, Activate and Unlock iOS 5.0.1 On Windows ~ Blog O'Nerd

Just a few hours ago, @pod2g has given holiday treat to all those iDevice jailbreakers by releasing long awaited untethered jailbreak for iOS 5.0.1. In this tutorial I will show you how to jailbreak your iDevice on iOS 5.0.1. This jailbreak is only for device having A4 or lower processor and not for latest A5 device. In short, this jailbreak will work with all devices except - iPhone 4S and iPad 2.

Note : I have used some old screen shots to save bandwidth. Please ignore version numbers in screen-shots. The method is same.

How To Jailbreak, Activate and Unlock iOS 5.0.1

Update : After releasing iOS 5.1, Apple has stopped signing iOS 5.0.1 and some users can not restore to iOS 5.0.1 and get error 11 even if they have shsh saved. In this case, just continue following the below tutorial and create a custom IPSW as desired. After creating IPSW, you need to "Sign" this IPSW and restore using that. So Click here to learn how to create a signed IPSW and restore to iOS 5.0.1 without error. After restoring using the signed IPSW successfully, come back here and finish the rest of the steps.
A) Only for those who are on iOS 5.0 or lower. If you are already having tethered jailbreak on iOS 5.0.1, please scroll down to B.

Step 1
Downloading and preparing everything needed.

Download iOS 5.0.1 IPSW for your device. (Make sure you download IPSW correctly. If you make mistake and use other device's IPSW then you may run into lot of problems and upgrade you baseband, losing unlock possibly forever.)
Click Here to download iOS 5.0.1 IPSW [Direct Links]

Download and install iTunes latest version. Click here to download iTunes.
Download latest sn0wbreeze. Click here to download sn0wbreeze.
Download latest redsn0w (version 0.9.10b1 or greater) from here.

Step 2
a) Creating a Custom IPSW

Run sn0wbreeze.
Read the warning and click the blue-next button, twice.

Now browse to the downloaded iOS 5.0.1 IPSW and select it.
sn0wbreeze will identify the IPSW you provided.
Note : If you have iPhone 3GS, it will ask you if you have the new or old bootrom. If you know you have old bootrom, select old bootrom, if you know you have new bootrom, or are unsure about you have new or old bootrom, then select new bootrom/I don't know.

Click Next.
On the next screen, select Baseband Preservation Mode and click yes. It will start building your IPSW. Now skip to Step 3. If you want to Hactivate your iPhone, see Step 2.b below.

Step 2.b : Hactivating your device.

If you want to Hactivate your device, Select Expert Mode.

Now select General, and click Next.
In the next screen, enter size of ROOT partition in MB. 1024 MB is still enough, but you can increase it for more ROOT space (root is where your jailbreak data and applications will be stored)

Check the check-box before "Activate The iPhone [Hactivate]" option.
Now click next.
In the next screen you can add custom packages to include in the IPSW. No use of it for now. So click next.
Now select Build IPSW and click next.

Now sn0wbreeze will start making a custom IPSW so wait for it to finish.

Once sn0wbreeze completes creating IPSW, it can guide you to get your device into Pwned DFU mode so you can restore using the custom IPSW you just created. If you want to restore your device right now, click OK and it will start iREB. Follow onscreen steps and you will get your device in Pwned DFU mode, the screen will be black.
If you plan to restore your device at a later time, follow this tutorial to get your device into Pwned DFU and follow the next step in this tutorial.

Step 3
Restoring using custom IPSW

Now once you are in Pwned DFU mode, you can use custom IPSW and upgrade to iOS 5.0.1. To do so, follow the steps below.
Open iTunes.
It will tell you that your device is in recovery mode and needs to be restored. Click OK.
Now press and hold the Shift key on your keyboard and click the Restore button in iTunes.
Now release shift key and browse to your desktop where you will find the custom IPSW you created earlier. Select that IPSW and open it.
iTunes will confirm that this process will restore your device to iOS 5.0.1. Click OK.
Now iTunes will start restoring your device. It may take up to 10 minutes to restore.
It will reboot your device once restore is finished. If you selected Baseband Preservation mode, your device may not boot up properly. So don't wait for boot to complete, just follow the next step to jailbreak your device.
If you followed step 2.b to Hactivate your iPhone, skip to Unlocking your device.

Update : After releasing iOS 5.1, Apple has stopped signing iOS 5.0.1 and some users can not restore to iOS 5.0.1 and get error 11 even if they have shsh saved. In this case, just continue following the below tutorial and create a custom IPSW as desired. After creating IPSW, you need to "Sign" this IPSW and restore using that. So Click here to learn how to create a signed IPSW and restore to iOS 5.0.1 without error. After restoring using the signed IPSW successfully, come back here and finish the rest of the steps.

Step 4
Jailbreaking your device. ONLY if you followed Step 2.a (Did not Hactivate).

Power Off your device by pressing and holding Home and Power button together. Release them both once your device turns off.
Run redsn0w.
Click Jailbreak.

Click Next.
Now follow onscreen instructions.
Press and hold Power button for 3 seconds. Device will boot up. Apple logo is shown.
Press and hold Home button while still holding the power button, for 10 seconds.
Now release the Power button but keep holding the Home button for atleast 15 seconds.
Now redsn0w will start processing.
When the check box are shown, select Install Cydia and Click next.
Now rest of the process takes place on your device itself, so you can now close redsn0w.

B) Only for those who are already having tethered jailbreak on iOS 5.0.1.
If are already having tethered jailbreak on iOS 5.0.1, you don't need to create a custom IPSW again to have untethered jailbreak. Just follow these steps to turn your tethered jailbreak into untethered one.

Method 1 : Using resn0w.

Power off your device.
Run redsn0w and click Jailbreak.
Click Next.
Follow onscreen instructions.
Press and hold Power button for 3 seconds. Device will boot up. Apple logo is shown.
Press and hold Home button while still holding the power button, for 10 seconds.
Now release the Power button but keep holding the Home button for atleast 15 seconds.
Now redsn0w will start processing.
When redsn0w asks to select options, de-select install Cydia check box and click Next.

Now rest of the process takes place on your device itself, so you can now close redsn0w.
Wait for the process to finish and your device will reboot.
Your jailbreak is done.

Method 2 : Using a Cydia package.
This method is easier and only requires you to download a package called Corona from Cydia.

Open Cydia.
Let the database update finish (if it updates)
Now search for Corona
Install Corona 5.0.1 Untether and reboot your device.

Photo credit - Chronic Dev team

You are done.

Activating your iPhone. Only if you did not Hactivate in previous step.

Now that your device is restored, you can activate it. To do so, insert the official SIM came with your device or any other SIM of the officially supported carrier and either join a Wi Fi network is available, and your device will be activated without connecting to iTunes, or if no Wi Fi network is available, then iTunes will activate your device. After activating, it will ask if you want to restore as a new device (you will lose previous data) or restore from the backup (you can have all your previous data back). If you want to continue using the official SIM, then select the option as you desire and click OK otherwise, if you want to unlock your device, then close iTunes and follow next step.

Unlocking your device.
Please note that the ultrasn0w unlock can only unlock some particular basebands. So if you have a brand new device that came pre-installed with iOS 5 or greater, then you can not unlock your device at this moment. You must use Gevey Sim to unlock your device OR use the officially supported carrier.

If your device meets the following requirements, then you can unlock it. If your iphone does not meet these requirements (newer baseband or new iPhone model), you can unlock using SAM. Click here for tutorial on how to unlock your iPhone using SAM.

ultrasn0w requirements - iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, or iPhone 4 with baseband - 01.59.00 (in iPhone 4) 04.26.08, 05.11.07, 05.12.01 or 05.13.04 (in iPhone 3G and 3GS). If you used iPad basbeand 06.15.00 in past, you can unlock too.

Open Cydia and let it do some first-run process. Now open Cydia again once it closes.
Select User when it asks you who are you.
Now Cydia will download and update the packages, so let it do so. Once packages are upgraded, it will ask you to upgrade components. Select Complete Upgrade and let it do the process of upgrading.
Once upgrade finishes, search for ultrasn0w and install it.
The latest ultrasn0w version is version 1.2.5. The picture below is old.

So now you have your device jailbroken, activated and unlocked on iOS 5.0.1.

Apple may soon release its iOS 5 update - iOS 5.1. Do not upgrade to any future iOS 5 upgrades to keep your jailbreak and unlock.

~~Don't forget to save your SHSH for iOS 5.0.1 right after upgrading to iOS 5.0.1 using TinyUmbrella.~~ Apple is no longer signing 5.0.1 after iOS 5.1 has been released.

Tutorial last updated on - 13th April 2012