TUTORIAL - Jailbreak the iPhone4S on 5.0 or 5.0.1 with Absinthe

Limeliz · Mar 11, 2012

I'm having trouble jailbreaking my iPhone 4S with 5.0.1. I've read all guides and tutorials I can find on the web and tried everything but I can't seem to get past the "Beginning jailbreak, this may take a while..."-screen. First time I waited 45 minutes without anything happening. Then I tried a few more times and also on another computer. At most I waited 2 hours before I aborted because nothing was happening and the computer wasn't working.

I notice that during the first 7 minutes data is copied to my harddrive (a folder with what seems like a random name like "s74s", "srs" or "s5uk.1" in the root of my drive and inside what seems like backup-files from my phone). The syncing-icon is displayed on the iPhone (at the top of the screen, where carrier and clock is shown). The backup-files (names that look like long md5-strings) are first copied into a folder called "Snapshot" and then moved to the folder above "Snapshot" (from: "K:\s5uk.1\f17490eace521be54351d7d2efc1bf5e4ebdcd1b\Snapshot\" to "K:\s5uk.1\f17490eace521be54351d7d2efc1bf5e4ebdcd1b\"). After this I notice no activity whatsoever.

I'm on Windows 7 Ultimate and have tried running Absinthe (version win-0.4) as both administrator and in compability-mode (Win XP SP2) but with no success. I've tried restarting both iPhone and computer and also tried on another computer.
I've read that you can (read: could) restore your phone, do the jailbreak and then restore the backup, but this isn't possible anymore I think because hasn't Apple closed the signing-window for 5.0.1 since they released 5.1, so I can't restore back to 5.0.1 anymore (right?).

Anyone got any clues to what I can do?

zig9449 · Mar 11, 2012

Limeliz said:
I'm having trouble jailbreaking my iPhone 4S with 5.0.1. I've read all guides and tutorials I can find on the web and tried everything but I can't seem to get past the "Beginning jailbreak, this may take a while..."-screen. First time I waited 45 minutes without anything happening. Then I tried a few more times and also on another computer. At most I waited 2 hours before I aborted because nothing was happening and the computer wasn't working.

I notice that during the first 7 minutes data is copied to my harddrive (a folder with what seems like a random name like "s74s", "srs" or "s5uk.1" in the root of my drive and inside what seems like backup-files from my phone). The syncing-icon is displayed on the iPhone (at the top of the screen, where carrier and clock is shown). The backup-files (names that look like long md5-strings) are first copied into a folder called "Snapshot" and then moved to the folder above "Snapshot" (from: "K:\s5uk.1\f17490eace521be54351d7d2efc1bf5e4ebdcd1b\Snapshot\" to "K:\s5uk.1\f17490eace521be54351d7d2efc1bf5e4ebdcd1b\"). After this I notice no activity whatsoever.

I'm on Windows 7 Ultimate and have tried running Absinthe (version win-0.4) as both administrator and in compability-mode (Win XP SP2) but with no success. I've tried restarting both iPhone and computer and also tried on another computer.
I've read that you can (read: could) restore your phone, do the jailbreak and then restore the backup, but this isn't possible anymore I think because hasn't Apple closed the signing-window for 5.0.1 since they released 5.1, so I can't restore back to 5.0.1 anymore (right?).

Anyone got any clues to what I can do?

Download Absinthe from a different browser, or from a guest account on your PC.

mwhartman · Mar 11, 2012

I use a Mac and I do not recall Absinthe adding any files to my Mac. I did a factory reset and install which is not doable no since Apple is no longer signing 5.0.1

Do you have the most current version of iTunes? If so, try download a fresh copy of Absinthe. Perhaps the one you have is corrupt.

banditgrrr · Mar 30, 2012

Need help please. I just installed Absinthe v04. I have a brand new 4S using 5.0.1 (9A406). Everything seems to go through the process. I leave my phone connected, I open the Absinthe icon and it has a message "Didnt' work? go to VPN...etc". I go to the VPN settings, I turn it on and I get an error. The problem is that my phone never reboots. I left it sitting for about 15 minutes after turning on the VPN. Still no reboot. I'm getting the same message of "URL cannot be shown" and that's as far as I get. Can someone please give advice on how to get Cydia on my springboard?

zig9449 · Mar 30, 2012

banditgrrr said:
Need help please. I just installed Absinthe v04. I have a brand new 4S using 5.0.1 (9A406). Everything seems to go through the process. I leave my phone connected, I open the Absinthe icon and it has a message "Didnt' work? go to VPN...etc". I go to the VPN settings, I turn it on and I get an error. The problem is that my phone never reboots. I left it sitting for about 15 minutes after turning on the VPN. Still no reboot. I'm getting the same message of "URL cannot be shown" and that's as far as I get. Can someone please give advice on how to get Cydia on my springboard?

I am too experienced with A5 on and Absinthe, but you you tried Hard rebooting it, and running Absinthe again?

But I also heard that Absinthe won't work if it recognizes the device was already jailbroken...but I would look into that also. Just sayin...that probably where I would start.

mwhartman · Mar 30, 2012

Two things to consider;

Do you have the most recent version of iTunes?

Download Absinthe again and rerun.

Did you do a factory reset before you ran Absinthe? If so, when you installed a new iOS that may have installed 5.1

slatey · Sep 18, 2012

not working for me using a orange iphone 4s then a vodafone sim.i get a message on the iphone screen only compatible sim cards from a supported carrier may be used to activate iphone.please insert sim card that came with iphone.this is after several mins of the phone booting up succesfully i can use it to look around until then.