Definitive Guide to Wiping a Jailbroken Unlocked 3G to Ready for Sale [Late 2011]

Combing TONS of posts on macrumors regarding this subject and following the instructions/advice, I'm still am unable to accomplish the goal. Thought this thread could put it to bed once and for all and stand to help others looking for consolidated information.

Particulars:

• Running iOS 3.1.2
• BB 05.11.07
• All blobs saved. (but I understand this is not needed)
• Jailbroken and unlocked via blackra1n.

Crystal-RX said:

Don't every do this [click on "Erase All Content and Settings"]. If you do, your phone will hang.

Since you have 3G, you can just restore it to 3.1.3 where you do not need SHSH blob to do it and you still can keep your baseband at 05.13 where you can unlock it with Ultrasn0w.

Click to expand...

As I already saved the official iOS 3.1.2 from the iClarified link long ago, I downloaded the corresponding Pwnage Tool -- Version 3.1.4 to follow the advice here (but keeping consistent with my installed iOS 3.1.2):

bytethese said:

A restore won't wipe any data. I'd recommend Erase All Content and Settings, then restore a Pwned firmware created from Pwnage Tool. You can use a 3.1.3 firmware and it will keep your baseband at 05.11.07.

Click to expand...

I went this route because numerous posts stated that restoring to a Custom Pwned firmware was necessary so as to not lose the 05.11.07 BB.

HOWEVER, when doing this, I encountered the dreaded, "Wrong firmware bundle selected." This version of the Pwnage Tool also alerted me on startup that I wasn't running an iTunes 8.0 or later version (currently running iTunes 10.5).

So I went back to the drawing board, re-downloading the official iOS 3.1.2 (using Firefox). That didn't work.

In searching solutions to THIS issue, I tried creating a Custom .ispw by downloading iOS 3.1.3 with Pwnage Tool 3.1.5, but still got the same error.

I have the strange suspicion I'm making this more difficult than it is.

Many Thanks!

Is there any way around the Pwnage Tool "Wrong firmware bundle selected" error?

Any reason why I shouldn't restore to 3.1.2 as that's the system the phone is current on? If that was done, would the 05.11.07 BB still be able to be maintained?

If a person wants to 100% insure all personal data is wiped off the phone, should "Erase All Content and Settings," put the phone in DFU mode, restore to 3.1.3 (or 3.1.2), jailbreak, and unlock?

Applejuiced said:

You can use 3.1.2 if you want.
You can do an erase all on a stock firmware but if you do that on a JB phone it will never finish and it will be stuck in a recovery boot loop and will need a DFU restore.

Click to expand...

Crystal-RX said:

"Erase all content and setting" only works on non-jailbroken phone, yours is jailbroken and that the reason it hang.

So, like AJ said, you can just restore it to 3.1.2 or 3.1.3 as per my instruction. Forget about the Pwnage tool. Why do you need that and make thing more complicate.

Click to expand...

So do you guys think restoring to 3.1.2 or 3.1.3 is good enough for "deleting" the data? Or would a more secure thing to do be to restore to a stock firmware, run "Erase All Content and Settings," THEN jailbreak with redsn0w, and unlock with ultrasn0w?

Message received regarding Pwnage Tool. It's quite quirky when going that far back in time.

Big thanks to Applejuiced and Crystal-RX for all your help and patience (and humor)!


Epilogue: Restored to a stock firmware. Jailbroke with redsn0w. Launched Cydia. Things were going fine until it got over the initial screens. After that, it hung at "Loading Data." Searched on here and went with the solution to start the process over and jailbreak with jailbreakme.com. Cydia again hung for quite some time then quit on its own. Relaunched and everything was fine. Unlocked with ultrasn0w. Ready to sell!