One of the most commonly asked questions by iPhone users who want to jailbreak their iPhone is: "Is possible to recover if things go horribly wrong while trying to hack their iPhone?"
The answer to that question is "Yes" and the process to do it is called "ReVirginize" or Restoring your iPhone.
Another reason to revirginize the iPhone or iPhone 3G would be to revert the iPhone back to factory settings i.e. locked state if you wanted to take your jailbroken and/or unlocked iPhone to an Apple Store because of some hardware issue.
You can follow the simple step-by-step guide to re-virginize or restore your iPhone after the jump.
Before we start, please note that the step-by-step guide involves restoring your iPhone so you should know that this would mean that all your personal data from your iPhone, including songs, videos, contacts, photos, calendar information, and any other data will be wiped out and your iPhone's settings will be restored to their factory settings. However, you always have the option to recover your personal data from the backup.
Here is the step-by-step guide to revirginize or restore your jailbroken iPhone:
- Connect your iPhone to your Mac or PC and select your iPhone from the list of devices in iTunes. If things had gone horribly wrong while hacking your iPhone and iTunes does not detect your iPhone then you will need to put it in DFU (Device Firmware Upgrade) mode.
- You can follow these steps to put your iPhone in DFU mode (this is required only if iTunes does not recognize your iPhone):
- Connect your iPhone to your computer.
- Turn iPhone off.
- Hold power and home together for 10 seconds (exactly).
- Release power but keep holding home until the computers beeps (observed on a PC) as a USB device is recognized.
- A few seconds later iTunes should detect your iPhone.
- You can follow these steps to put your iPhone in DFU mode (this is required only if iTunes does not recognize your iPhone):
- In the Summary Tab, click on the Restore button.
- iTunes should prompt you if you would wish to take a backup of your iPhone before restoring. Select Backup.
- After the backup is taken select the Restore option when iTunes prompts you.
- Once the restore process has completed your iPhone will restart and the Apple logo will appear while booting up.
- After the restore is complete and your iPhone restarts you will see the “Connect to Activate” screen. You must continue to keep your iPhone connected to complete activation.
- The last step is to set up your iPhone either from a backup or set up as a "new iPhone". If you are planning to take the iPhone to the Apple Store, its advisable to setup your iPhone as a "new iPhone" else you can select the date of your backup that you want to restore to. You can always follow the above procedure to restore from a backup at a later date.
As always, don't forget to tell us know how it goes in the comments below.
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Fairly old info, but i guess it would be helpful if i just got an iphone today.
I have been told that the iPhone restore can leave behind some information. If that is the case should you wipe it before restoring?
what about the app store? will it still be there if i unlock my iphone? will i still have the apps i paid for on my phone if i unlock it?
but is the big deal about?
I virgenized my iphone, went to Apple store to fix it.
BUT they said to me that once i bring an iphone to fix, it can leave the store ONLY if it is ACTIVATED! i tried to argue with them, but they said only activated iphone can be returned.
i told them, HEY i bought my 1st gen iphone by web, and got it to my doors, and it was UNACTIVATED! but they just like robots, said me same same….
(p.s. they were ready to exchange my iphone, because i have white spots on me screen)
anyone else had such a problem?
i bought it from http://www.apple.com 8 months ago.
hey can u pls help..when im downloading something from the appstore it always appears that low diskspace..but the free space is 6 gig plus.,.,.,.,how can i solve it.,.,.,.what can be the problem.,.,.,.,?
when ive done that dfu my iphone didnt turn on .,.,.,.,., i cant turn it on.,.,.,.pls answer.,.,.,!
Hey Charles,
Sorry to hear about your problem.
There should be no reason why you should have a problem putting your iPhone in DFU if you have followed the instructions mentioned above.
So please try the instructions again.
Please do ensure that your iPhone is charged.
cheers!
ok,,,,should i wait for the downloading of iphone software update first.,.,?
IS THIS REALLY WORK IF DOESN'T THEN SCREW IT
BETTER NOT DO ANYTHING WITH MY IPHONE
When you restore, it only takes a few minutes to Activate your Iphone. I don't know why you had problems with the Apple Store, you should have been activated after your restore.
I had to restore mine the other day, just jumped back to the pineapple while I was sending a text message.
Quick restore and activation and I was done.
Does this work if you have a 1st gen iphone and want to revirginize it?? I have to send mine in, and need it revirginized, but this almost seems to easy… it seems like there would be more to do to revirginize it…
can anyone help me …. i tried to update my iphone software … bt as soon the update process was done .my iphone crashed n it doesnt recognises the SIM card. i foned apple n they said they cant help me bcoz i took it from an independent network company which gave me iphone unlocked ?
I have tried to jail break my 3g iphone and everything seems to be working fine. The program says that it was completed successfully. The phone reboots and stays with the pineapple logo. I went through step by step, so any suggestions are welcome.
Trying to restore mine problem is it wants to automatically update my iPhone 3G to software version 2.2
OK, I am having severe problems to get my "maidenhead" back. I had a pwnage 2.1 iPhone that started to get automatically updated with the new Apple firmware 2.2 and I interrupted that which gave me an unbootable iPhone so I did a restore from an earlier backup of 2.1 then did a new jailbreak with the same Pwened 2.1 and all was dandy until I downloaded openSSH beta and Unix file system beta that ended my lucky streak and I was back to an unbbotable brick again. Even when putting it in DFU (Device Firmware Upgrade) mode it freezes iTunes and I have to reboot my computer!!!!
What can I do short of passing it to the benevolence of the techincal support staff of the Telephone Operator of my iPhone (i.e. Telia Sonera Sweden in my case)
Any suggestions are most welcome!
Hello ı bought a iphone 3g 8gb from Aplle in Turkey .I want to jaılbrake .I will ask a litte qouestion . When ı restore my phone , will it be activated again ?
This was actually really helpful!
I bought my boyfriend (who already has cingular) an iphone off of ebay for christmas. It came unlocked and jailbroken, but since he already has a blackberry plan, I'm just going to throw his simcard in the iphone as is afterI restore it.
Does that sound right to anyone?
how i back my iphone in 2.1 because my brother go in itunes and he click for upgrade now i have problem in signal and i use it can work i try to reset the phone but its not back the signal
my iphone from canada bring my antie and she ask me to jailbrck it and i try to some know how to fix it.its 2.1 but the problem when i go in my itunes i click the update now i can use my iphone 3g because of signal are gone so can help me to fix it and the simbooster are not working for the signal
so any person can help me back in 2.1 or can fix the signal in 2.2 in my iphone plss…thanks
Followed all steps, restored 3 times, switched between 2.2 and 2.1, and my first gen iPhone remains unlocked! I need to take it to the genius bar for wifi problems but I can't revirginize it. Help!!!!!
my iPhone 3G is connected to a Vodafone network in Malta, if I have to restore would the activation still work? I guess this would apply to all other non AT&T networks. Cheers
by restoring, u also need to update it, can i not update it and still restore it to the original setting? cuz last time i restore it, it also update it for me, and when its finish, i cant call anyone, why is that？
If you know you have firmware 2.2 on your phone want to activate with out sim card all you have to do is run quickpawn and it will work fine
no need to use itunes or at&t
if you are restoring your jailbroken iphone through itunes DO NOT BACK UP because it will not work
Is it possible to get a jailbroken iPhone and get it back to the original non jailbroken self with this method?. Cheers
Hey Stephen,
All you need to do is restore your iPhone to get it back to the non-jailbroken state.
Hi i have a 3g 16gb iphone, i live in mexico and i bought it from telcel, i only made the jailbreak but i have the power down button broken so i need to take it to apple, if i do this "revirginize" will i be able to take it to mac…? Im running 2.1 firmware so my question is whats the difference between doing it like the guide here or just letting itunes uprade my phone to 2.2.1
Thanks for your time ^^
Hi, I have a question… I unlocked/jailbroke my 1st generation iphone months ago using the pwnage tool. Worked great…yesterday I was downloading an app from the app. store and the phone crashed. Now when it is on there is only the pineapple logo and it will not do anything. I have tried shutting it off and on, connected it to itunes as well but it is no longer recognized. Will I be able to restore it? I have a Mac and was also reading about the issues with 10.5.6. and putting the phone into DFU mode…
Any advise would be greatly appreciated… thanks!
Excelent!!! The DFU/Revirginize tip was the missing part. After that my iPhone re-borned!
thanks!
Hi, my question is.. I was downloading an app from the cidy. after finished downloading asked me to reboot but it not logo in, just when it is on there is only the pineapple logo and it will not do anything. what would I do ?
I have an issue, when I go to restore it prompts me to restore and update and I don't want to update to the 3.01 version, how do I restore it with out upgrading to the 3.01 version, I just want to keep it on the 3.0 version, I need this as soon as possible, any help will be greatly apprciated.
Mike
My phone is a 3G and it has been jailbroken and unlocked. I moved overseas and am using a pre-paid SIM card called Hot 100. The problem I am having is that I am having trouble texting certain phone numbers, both here locally (Singapore) and to numbers in the U.S. It doesn't happen with all numbers, it seems to be random. Does anyone have any idea of how to troubleshoot this?
yes
Here, try these instead, they're a bit newer: http://iphoneunlockprogram.com/index.php/2009/10/how-to-restore-iphone-after-jailbreak/
It saved me!
Thank you
Does doing this get your warrenty back ????
Thank You So Much !
it saved me a lot a work
LOVE YOU !