Should I jailbreak my A4 device on 5.1?

[iRich]

It's a tether jailbreak so I'm not sure what I should do! D: I don't want to update and find out that my mail, apps or whatever doesn't work.
I want a untether jailbreak but I guess that's not happening anytime soon.

Also I saw that after you jailbreak your iPhone 4 on iOS 5.1 you can go on Cydia and add a source that will make your jailbreak semi tether.
Can someone explain to me what semi tether means?

 

[iRich]

It's a tether jailbreak so I'm not sure what I should do! D: I don't want to update and find out that my mail, apps or whatever doesn't work.
I want a untether jailbreak but I guess that's not happening anytime soon.

Also I saw that after you jailbreak your iPhone 4 on iOS 5.1 you can go on Cydia and add a source that will make your jailbreak semi tether.
Can someone explain to me what semi tether means?

Oh and this is my first time jail breaking my phone, is it going to lose warranty or something?Would apple still replace it if something goes wrong? Just curious. I treated my iPhone like a baby since day 1, don't want to ruin it

 

[zig9449]

I'll try to clear some tings up for you. But first what iOS are you on? (I'm assuming iOS 4).


What Semi-Tether means: First let me tell you what a tethered jailbreak is: A tethered jailbreak means that when you need to reboot your device, you have to plug it in to your computer Open redsn0w, Shut off device, enter DFU mode, click "Extras" then click the "Just boot" button.

A semi-Tethered jailbreak is when you do not redsn0w to reboot your device. You can reboot your device, but after it reboots, it will be in a none-jailbroken state, where Cydia and nothing from Cydia will work. And Safari will not work either. However you can use another web browser, and calling and txting will work as normal too. You have to boot tethered in redsn0w to boot back up to your normal working jailbroken state.

As for the semi-tethered 5.1 jailbreak..Well you do not need the Semi-tether package to have a semi-tethered jailbreak. Mobile Substrate does that. Mobile Substrate is what allows things to be modified in iOS. It is installed automatically when you install literally any tweak.

The Semi-Tether package is suppose to do 2 things. It is suppose to protect your notification center widgets, and patch Safari so you can use when you reboot into a none jailbroken state. I have not tried it in 5.1, and I don't know if it has been updated lately but I found it was 100% pointless to install. Unless you cared about patching Safari, But you can use any other web browser from the app store.
So you do not even need the Semi-Tether package to have a Semi-Tethered jailbreak.

But as far as the semi-tethered jailbreak for 5.1 .......................Well it seems pretty stable to me from what i noticed on the one day I was on a 5.1 jailbreak.

On a side not, if you do jailbreak, you cannot install "anything" in Cydia. Not everything is made for iOS 5 or even an iPhone. Please make sure to check compatibility. And if a package does not say it is iOS 5 compatible somewhere in the info page, then do not install it. You can also check for this in the "Recent Changes" tab under most tweak's info pages.

Pretty much every newer tweak that has been released in the past few months were made for iOS 5 any way. But always do a search if you cannot find out on a tweak's info page.


Basically, as long as you follow directions exactly, check compatibility, you should have no problems.

and one tip I can share with you, is if you happen to install anything from Cydia that requires a reboot (like WinterBoard for example), then do not bother pressing the "Reboot Device" button. Just plug in your iPhone, open redsn0w, Shut off device, enter DFU mode, then click "Extras"> "Just boot" and you device will boot back up to your normal jailbroken state.

Good luck..........And I hope this cleared up a few things for you

 

[zig9449]

Oh and this is my first time jail breaking my phone, is it going to lose warranty or something?Would apple still replace it if something goes wrong? Just curious. I treated my iPhone like a baby since day 1, don't want to ruin it

And yes..jailbreaking does technically void the warranty.

But it is not an issue at all. Just restore your device in iTunes(not from a backup) and Apple will never know that you jailbroke so long as you don't tell them. Simple. I never have not had a jailbroken device, but I have had my iPhone and iPod 4G replaced quite a few times. Just restore, and they will never know, and there is no way for them to know (unless you foolishly tell them of coarse.lol Just don't do that)

 

[iRich]

And yes..jailbreaking does technically void the warranty.

But it is not an issue at all. Just restore your device in iTunes(not from a backup) and Apple will never know that you jailbroke so long as you don't tell them. Simple. I never have not had a jailbroken device, but I have had my iPhone and iPod 4G replaced quite a few times. Just restore, and they will never know, and there is no way for them to know (unless you foolishly tell them of coarse.lol Just don't do that)

Lol okay, I thought there was like a way they can find out. Well idk if I should do it though because I don't wanna be in the middle of the road and my phone just shuts off and I can't turn it back on. About the Mobile substrate you were talking about, what is that? A Cydia tweak? I googled it and to me it seems like a tweak, Idk. Since I'm so impatient I might just jailbreak it tonight >_< if this semi-tether does work.

Also one more question. After I jailbreak my iPhone 4 semi-tethered and a untether jailbreak comes out for iOS 5.1; what would I have to do to jailbreak it again to untether, would I lose all my contacts, photos or whatever, also if there's a program or something that can back up my pictures, contacts, apps and all of that what would be a good software for it? I have a PC and I don't trust iTunes with backing up my phone -.- on iTunes I either get my photos back and not my contacts or I get my contacts and not my photos always something wrong with iTunes.

 

[zig9449]

Lol okay, I thought there was like a way they can find out. Well idk if I should do it though because I don't wanna be in the middle of the road and my phone just shuts off and I can't turn it back on. About the Mobile substrate you were talking about, what is that? A Cydia tweak? I googled it and to me it seems like a tweak, Idk. Since I'm so impatient I might just jailbreak it tonight >_< if this semi-tether does work.

Also one more question. After I jailbreak my iPhone 4 semi-tethered and a untether jailbreak comes out for iOS 5.1; what would I have to do to jailbreak it again to untether, would I lose all my contacts, photos or whatever, also if there's a program or something that can back up my pictures, contacts, apps and all of that what would be a good software for it? I have a PC and I don't trust iTunes with backing up my phone -.- on iTunes I either get my photos back and not my contacts or I get my contacts and not my photos always something wrong with iTunes.

You are like, way over thinking this.lol.

Any way..,Mobile Substrate is what makes the jailbreak useful. It not exactly a tweak, but it's what tweaks need to work. It's the platform that allows the tweaks to change things, to modify your OS.

To put it simply..the first tweak you install from Cydia, will install Mobile Substrate. once Mobile Substrate is installed, you will have a semi-tethered jailbreak, allowing you to reboot to use your phone in a none jailbroken state, and won't be in a jailbroken state until you boot tethered with Redsn0w.

And yes....the semi-tether does work, and there is no question about that.

If your we're to jailbreak your phone now, and the untethered version came out in the future, all you would have to do is run the new redsn0w the same way you did the very first time...except you will "uncheck" install Cydia. Or you can just install Corona, which is updated to untether a tethered jailbreak. I prefer to just run redsn0w tho. You will lose no data, just like any jailbreak. Jailbreaking does not restore your phone it does not remove any data. It just installs Cydia.

And no...the jailbreakl is not going to just make your phone not boot up, or get stuck. Not unless you install something you shouldn't have. But like I said...check compatibility and you will be fine.

As for iTunes....contacts, photos.

Well I avoid iTunes at all costs for the very reasons you mentioned above. I save all my photos to Dropbox. I just upload them to the Dropbox app ony phone, and I never have to worry about losing my photos. I just download the Dropbox app, sign in, and all my photos are there....always.

Contacts. That's just easy...iCloud. Do not use your computer to sync contacts. In fact, make sure that absolutely nothing is syncing or backing up your contacts.

After you made sure that nothing is backing up your contacts, like all your email accounts in the Settings app.....go to Settings> iCloud> and toggle on Contacts. (make sure your connected to WiFi for iCloud to back them up)

Now as long as your iCloud account is in your phone your contacts will always be there...even after restoring and setting up as a new device.

And like your contacts, anything your toggle on in Settings> iCloud, will always be downloaded to your phone no matter what, as long as your are signed into iCloud. Ya just can't mess it up really.