After running into the same freeze in the iPhone 4S jailbreak process over and over (beginning jailbreak, this may take a while), I looked around the internet and I saw that somebody found something in the Absinthe log about the program choking on large file sizes. As somebody with tons of media and games, I decided that my best bet was to just go for a factory restore, THEN jailbreak and THEN settings/content/media restore in that order.
It worked beautifully. My phone is now jailbroken AND identical to how it was 5 minutes before doing a factory restore. I have made a foolproof, step by step method on how to do this. All it takes is some time - because of the amount of data I had, it took me over an hour total. It is worth it, though -- and in my particular case (maybe yours too), it was my only option. For those of you who were able to jailbreak your iDevices without incident and without having to do a system restore - great! This isn't for you. This is for the rest of us.
You ready?
1. Using iTunes, backup your phone to your COMPUTER (NOT iCloud). You can restore your content and settings after jailbreaking and your phone will be identical to how it was, plus the jailbreak, because restoring your phone from a computer backup does not overwrite the firmware. If your backup is in iCloud, you can't access it at the right time in this process. This is the most important step if you want your phone to be exactly as it was before jailbreaking.
2. Using the iPhone, start the factory restore by going into settings/general/reset and selecting erase all content and settings. This will essentially make your phone brand new again.
3. Once factory restored it will guide you through the new phone setup. It will ask if you want to restore from an iCloud or computer backup - or if you want to setup a new phone. Pick "setup new phone." (Don't worry, the backup you made to iTunes isn't going anywhere.) Set it up normally with your preferences the way you want. If you normally use a passcode lock, don't activate it right now. Wait until after step 9.
4. Once the phone is functioning like new again and you're at the home screen, go ahead and jailbreak using Absinthe. Start the program on your computer, hook up your phone and follow the onscreen instructions. Everything should go relatively quickly and it should not hang at "beginning jailbreak, this may take a while," because apparently Absinthe makes a sort of copy of the content on your phone in the process of jail breaking and because the phone is new again, this will whiz by.
More detailed instructions on this process are here:
http://iclarified.com/entry/index.php?enid=19462 for Mac
http://iclarified.com/entry/index.php?enid=19468 for Windows
5. Finish the jailbreak according to the instructions (tap the Absinthe icon on your home screen, phone reboots, Cydia should be on your screen now).
6. Open Cydia, let it load the sources and packages. It may not load all sources right away. Don't panic. It took Cydia about 45 minutes to function as I remembered it. DO NOT start installing jailbroken apps until you restore your content.
7. Now, Attach your jailbroken phone to iTunes. It will think the phone is new, but will ask if you want to restore from a recent backup of your old phone. Choose the one you just made before the factory restore. Let the phone restore from that backup - it might take 15 minutes and your phone will be inaccessible.
8. Once restored, everything should be as you left it - contacts, mail, calendars, texts - except that now you are also jailbroken
. Your media and apps will be downloading in the background. Don't worry, Angry Birds will remember your high score. Downloading all of your apps and music can take over 45 minutes alone, so just be patient. You can mess around in Cydia while you wait!
9. As your content slowly trickles back into your device, find the Cydia app, which should be working OK by now (if not, keep hitting "refresh" in the changes tab). It WILL eventually work so don't worry. Their servers are having a hard time keeping up with the recent influx of jailbreakers, I imagine. Start downloading jailbroken apps (I recommend starting with sbsettings and intelliscreenx) and enjoy! Remember, it will respring your device after each jailbroken app install. This won't affect your media and app downloads - they will just hiccup and resume.
REMEMBER: Backup your SHSH blobs using Tiny Umbrella as soon as you have the chance! I honestly don't even know exactly what that means, but it basically allows you to restore your phone back to a certain version of firmware if you need to (Apple doesn't allow downgrades). I've done this method on 3 phones now and I think it's the cleanest and most hassle free way to do it. Total time it takes is around 45 minutes. For those of you having Safari crashes - I found that the app Safari Download Manager was causing mine. Pay attention to what you download and if things start screwing up, remove them one by one in reverse til the problem goes away.
Here is a link to download Tiny Umbrella
http://thefirmwareumbrella.blogspot.com/
It worked beautifully. My phone is now jailbroken AND identical to how it was 5 minutes before doing a factory restore. I have made a foolproof, step by step method on how to do this. All it takes is some time - because of the amount of data I had, it took me over an hour total. It is worth it, though -- and in my particular case (maybe yours too), it was my only option. For those of you who were able to jailbreak your iDevices without incident and without having to do a system restore - great! This isn't for you. This is for the rest of us.
You ready?
1. Using iTunes, backup your phone to your COMPUTER (NOT iCloud). You can restore your content and settings after jailbreaking and your phone will be identical to how it was, plus the jailbreak, because restoring your phone from a computer backup does not overwrite the firmware. If your backup is in iCloud, you can't access it at the right time in this process. This is the most important step if you want your phone to be exactly as it was before jailbreaking.
2. Using the iPhone, start the factory restore by going into settings/general/reset and selecting erase all content and settings. This will essentially make your phone brand new again.
3. Once factory restored it will guide you through the new phone setup. It will ask if you want to restore from an iCloud or computer backup - or if you want to setup a new phone. Pick "setup new phone." (Don't worry, the backup you made to iTunes isn't going anywhere.) Set it up normally with your preferences the way you want. If you normally use a passcode lock, don't activate it right now. Wait until after step 9.
4. Once the phone is functioning like new again and you're at the home screen, go ahead and jailbreak using Absinthe. Start the program on your computer, hook up your phone and follow the onscreen instructions. Everything should go relatively quickly and it should not hang at "beginning jailbreak, this may take a while," because apparently Absinthe makes a sort of copy of the content on your phone in the process of jail breaking and because the phone is new again, this will whiz by.
More detailed instructions on this process are here:
http://iclarified.com/entry/index.php?enid=19462 for Mac
http://iclarified.com/entry/index.php?enid=19468 for Windows
5. Finish the jailbreak according to the instructions (tap the Absinthe icon on your home screen, phone reboots, Cydia should be on your screen now).
6. Open Cydia, let it load the sources and packages. It may not load all sources right away. Don't panic. It took Cydia about 45 minutes to function as I remembered it. DO NOT start installing jailbroken apps until you restore your content.
7. Now, Attach your jailbroken phone to iTunes. It will think the phone is new, but will ask if you want to restore from a recent backup of your old phone. Choose the one you just made before the factory restore. Let the phone restore from that backup - it might take 15 minutes and your phone will be inaccessible.
8. Once restored, everything should be as you left it - contacts, mail, calendars, texts - except that now you are also jailbroken
. Your media and apps will be downloading in the background. Don't worry, Angry Birds will remember your high score. Downloading all of your apps and music can take over 45 minutes alone, so just be patient. You can mess around in Cydia while you wait! 9. As your content slowly trickles back into your device, find the Cydia app, which should be working OK by now (if not, keep hitting "refresh" in the changes tab). It WILL eventually work so don't worry. Their servers are having a hard time keeping up with the recent influx of jailbreakers, I imagine. Start downloading jailbroken apps (I recommend starting with sbsettings and intelliscreenx) and enjoy! Remember, it will respring your device after each jailbroken app install. This won't affect your media and app downloads - they will just hiccup and resume.
REMEMBER: Backup your SHSH blobs using Tiny Umbrella as soon as you have the chance! I honestly don't even know exactly what that means, but it basically allows you to restore your phone back to a certain version of firmware if you need to (Apple doesn't allow downgrades). I've done this method on 3 phones now and I think it's the cleanest and most hassle free way to do it. Total time it takes is around 45 minutes. For those of you having Safari crashes - I found that the app Safari Download Manager was causing mine. Pay attention to what you download and if things start screwing up, remove them one by one in reverse til the problem goes away.
Here is a link to download Tiny Umbrella
http://thefirmwareumbrella.blogspot.com/