Use iFaith to downgrade iOS 5.x by saving SHSH blobs and creating custom firmware

With iOS 5, Apple almost killed SHSH blobs making downgrading from iOS 5.x to any previous version impossible. They revamped their signing system by introducing APTicket in iOS 5 which is a number that’s randomly generated every time you reboot your device or restore it. For the very reason, we advised you to not upgrade your iDevice beyond iOS 5.0 until hackers find a work around this problem.

@iH8sn0w – the developer of sn0wbreeze – has released iFaith 1.4 which pwns Apple’s manopily by dealing with the APTicket problem.

It would let you save your current SHSH blobs and create a custom firmware which you can use to downgrade any time later making it very safe for potential jailbreakers to upgrade to ANY iOS version without worrying about the untether, if it comes for iOS 5.0 and you are on iOS 5.0.1, you’ll be able to downgrade easily. But do not upgrade before you have a custom firmware saved with you using the following method.

What you need

1. iOS 5.0 or 5.0.1 IPSW, whatever your device is currently running. You can download it from our downloads section.
2. iFaith 1.4, download it from our downloads section
3. Latest iTunes, download it now if you don’t have it already.
3. A windows PC, Macs are not supported

Compatibility

iFaith and the following guide would only work for non-A5 devices which means you can’t use it for iPad 2 and iPhone 4S, all previous devices are OK. You can also use it for previous versions of iOS too.

iFaith 1.4

Save SHSH blobs with iFaith 1.4

1. First of all you need to save the SHSH blobs for your current firmware, say iOS 5.0. In order to do that, run iFaith 1.4 as Administrator on your PC and select Dump SHSH blobs.
2. Put your iDevice in DFU mode and click Start. Press and hold power and home buttons simultaneously for 10 seconds then release the power button without releasing the home button for another 20 seconds.
3.  Save the dumped blobs file (*.ifaith) to a convenient and safe place.

Create a signed custom firmware for downgrading later

Once you have dumped SHSH blobs file, you need to create a singed custom firmware so that you downgrade to it later even when Apple has stopped signing it.

1. Start iFaith as Administrator and select Build *signed* IPSW w/ Blobs, click Browse for SHSH Blobs Cache and point it to the *.ifaith file you created in the 3rd step above.
2. Once verified, point iFaith to the IPSW of the iOS 5.0 or iOS 5.0.1 which ever is your iDevice running and select Build IPSW once verified. Wait until a signed IPSW is created for you.

Restore to singed custom firmware

This section is dedicated to the downgrade process. I assume you created custom firmware for iOS 5.0, upgraded to iOS 5.0.1 and want to downgrade back to iOS 5.0

1. Run iFaith as Administrator and select Run iReb which will put your device in pwned DFU mode.
2. Put your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch in DFU mode and click Start. Press and hold power and home buttons simultaneously for 10 seconds then release the power button without releasing the home button for another 20 seconds.
3. iFaith will tell you that your device has been put into pwned DFU (black screen).
4. Start iTunes, press the Restore button while holding Shift key on your keyboard and point it to the custom signed IPSW you created in the 2nd step above.
5. iTunes will successfully restore to the custom firmware version.

Don’t forget to leave a comment below to discuss your experience.

Important Update

There are some people posting tutorials on the web about downgrading to iOS 5.0 from iOS 5.0.1 without SHSH blobs. Please DO NOT FOLLOW those or trust every other site that posts stuff without verification. If you downgrade without SHSH blobs, your kernel is still on 5.0.1 which means you won’t be able to avail an iOS 5.0 untether.

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