iPhone iPhone 4S, iOS 5.1.1 - What should I do?

Hello! Got a question for those of you who know your iPhones, jailbreaking and/or iOS hacks, SHSH blobs etc... I am in need of some advice:

I have an iPhone 4S, ios 5.1.1 and would like to keep my phone on 5.1.1. It is not jailbroken currently.

My question is this, is it possible to still save SHSH blobs (using OSX) for my device? Will I need to jailbreak it and use Cydia?

My goal is to keep 5.1.1 on the device and not update it ever. The 4S is so smooth on 5.1.1 and I would like to keep it that way. But in the event something happens and I need to restore, I would like to avoid updating to ios8.

I also have this fear of the phone somehow updating to ios 8, and if that happened I want to be prepared to downgrade it - hence why I tried to make SHSH blobs but I was new to understanding that, and now realize that is not possible. Are there any alternatives to getting SHSH blobs for 5.1.1 today?


Some more information below:

I do not have an SHSH blobs saved for the device, as I haven't been able to do so. I tried using iFaith on my Windows laptop (but it apparently only supports devices up to iPhone 4), and I tried with both tiny umbrella and redsnow but I learned that they only save SHSH blobs for currently signing ISPW's (though they wouldn't save SHSH blobs for my iPhone 5 on 8.1.3?)

but software update has already downloaded (the iphone did it automatically and I can't delete it, as its ios5 still and to my knowledge that option didn't exist pre-ios8). I am extremely scared of that update happening so I want to delete and prevent that from happening. I know for that, one option is that I will need my device jailbroken and then have to use that system update killer program to prevent system updates from occuring. But I would like to try to "backup" my phone before performing a jailbreak.

*disclaimer, I have a general idea about SHSH blobs, redsnow, ifaith and tiny umbrella but I am by no means an expert


Any advice? What can I do to ensure the safety of this outdated iOS on my device? If my phone hypothetically updated to ios 8, how can I save SHSH blobs and downgrade if that happened?

Short of simply "not tapping update for all eternity" - what are my best options?

Thank you to those who took the time to read this!

Intell said:

It is not possible to extract SHSH blobs from an iPhone 4S. The only time where you were able to save them was when Apple was signing them.

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Ah I See, thank you

so then, would my best bet to preserve the 4S at 5.1.1 be to jailbreak it and instal that "System update killer" program? Which apparently prevents the system from updating and deletes any downloaded updates

Intell said:

That would be best. Other than that, the best you could do is never restore it or install anything that could make it unstable forcing you to restore it.

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Ok thank you, that's what I ended up doing

Looks like it killed the downloaded update as well, which was nice. This brings me peace of mind to maintain a 5.1.1 iPhone. Thank you!

Intell said:

Glad it worked. One word of warning, don't install too much stuff from Cydia. You may inadvertently make your device unstable or cause it to not boot forcing you to restore.

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Good advice, I am not too familiar with it but I managed to download that package with ease.

I'm going to try to not download anything more, though what about the "essential" updates that cydia asks you to install?

Intell said:

The essential updates are safe and can be installed.

Click to expand...

Thank you very much Intell!

Helpful information.

Hopefully this thread will help anyone else faced with a similar dilemma.