Any downsides to jailbreaking?

[cystorm]

I'm getting an iPhone (finally) in a few weeks and am weighing the pros and cons of jailbreaking. While I like iOS better than Android (and iOS 7 is really the clincher for me) I'm jealous of Android apps like Tasker, Llama, and others that adjust settings based on context (especially location).

There are a few iOS apps in Cydia that do similar things, and I like the thought of added customizability that jailbreaking provides. However, I don't know how much I'd actually use some of those features.

To both those who have and haven't jailbreaked (jailbroken?) your iPhone, what made your decision? Are there negatives to doing so?

 

[Dalton63841]

Getting in here before nonsense gets posted, let me explain what jailbreaking does...

Jailbreaking gives you root(superuser) access to the filesystem. End of story. There is NO negative affect from that AT ALL.

Under normal circumstances(not jailbroken), apps are "sandboxed". Basically, an app cannot do anything to actually mess up the filesystem overall, because they are running inside this "sandbox". This also means that apps cannot interact with each other in any real way. That's why there aren't themes or widgets or anything like that in the app store. They MUST run inside of their own "sandbox" in order to be approved for the app store.

Enter Jailbreak. Now you have root access, which allows you to interact with the filesystem in any way you wish. Widgets, themes, speedups, apps that can interact with any part of the filesystem, etc. etc...

HOWEVER, and this is where jailbreaking gets a reputation for being bad for your device, you MUST be careful about what you install. A lot of users who don't know better go a little crazy and install tons of things that may or may not be coded very well. Badly coded cydia items can crash the device and require a restore, and everything you install that uses Mobile Substrate WILL have an affect on battery life, for obvious reasons. It's an extra service running in the background.

I have an iPhone 4 jailbroken on 6.1.3, and I have probably 6 or 7 tweaks altogether installed. It gives me all the extra functionality I want, the affect on battery life is minimal to non-existent, and I have actually made my device have virtually NO lag.

My personal list of tweaks:
BiteSMS- Gives Quick Compose and Quick Reply for texting
Switchy- Advanced multitasking bar
Gridlock- Lets me put the icons any where I want.
Zephyr- Gestures instead of using the home button.
IntelliscreenX- Basically supercharged notification center
TetherMe- Allows personal hotspot from iPhone
OpenSSH- Gives me SSH access to my iPhone
*I installed iCleaner long enough to use it to strip all the nonsense, then uninstalled it

 

[RoboWarriorSr]

Your "other" data may increase but that's because tweaks aren't apps so they are placed in the "other" data.

 

[iDominic]

I would never jailbreak my main device, but I guess that is an opinion there. Some disadvantages are that it voids your warranty, & drains your battery life. I would NEVER jailbreak my main device but hey, its up to you.

 

[ross1998]

There is no downsides to jail breaking, don't believe anyone when they say "it slows your iPhone down". The only time it can be bad is if you install 10 themes on top of custom lock screen on top of custom notification center, then you might feel your iPhone slow down a tad. So go for it and jailbreak.

 

[eyoungren]

…& drains your battery life…

I think this is an oft-repeated fallacy. Granted, there are tweaks and JB apps that because of poorly written code can do this. But, jailbreaking in and of itself won't give your battery a case of hemophilia.

My battery life is pretty good and I have probably more than 30 tweaks installed. One of those tweaks optimizes my battery drain by switching cellular radios off when I don't need them and back on again when I do – automatically.

A case can also be made for app store approved apps that drain battery. Even one's that are integrated in to iOS itself, such as the controversy over the Facebook app draining battery.

Jailbreaking is just not the cut and dry evil that Apple wants everyone to think it is.

Incidentally, a restore to the latest version of the iOS removes all traces of a jailbreak. So, while your assertion that jailbreaking voids warranty is true, you can solve that problem by restoring your phone before taking it in to Apple.

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There is no downsides to jail breaking, don't believe anyone when they say "it slows your iPhone down". The only time it can be bad is if you install 10 themes on top of custom lock screen on top of custom notification center, then you might feel your iPhone slow down a tad. So go for it and jailbreak.

Agreed. Most problems are because jailbreakers go overboard with installing stuff (as mentioned in post #2). I'm guilty of that in the past too.

 

[Applejuiced]

JB frees the iPhone and makes my experience way better and gives me access to many features and options that Apple doesn't provide.
Its definitely a plus in my book.

 

[AppleCruncher]

Been doing it forever.

The only downside is the time I spend looking for new cool things to do with it.

Every iDevice in the house is jailbroken with the exception of 2 of the 4 AppleTV's

 

[DDustiNN]

I would never jailbreak my main device, but I guess that is an opinion there. Some disadvantages are that it voids your warranty, & drains your battery life. I would NEVER jailbreak my main device but hey, its up to you.

That's a lot of inaccuracy. Jailbreak can be uninstalled very easily, with no way of knowing it was ever there. There should be zero worries about warranty.

As for battery life, well... that's just plain false. Jailbreaking does not add any extra strain to your phone. Installing different apps may, but that's incredibly unlikely. Most tweaks just modify stuff that already exists.

 

[charlituna]

There is no downsides to jail breaking, don't believe anyone when they say "it slows your iPhone down". The only time it can be bad is if you install 10 themes on top of custom lock screen on top of custom notification center, then you might feel your iPhone slow down a tad. So go for it and jailbreak.

The actual jailbreak no.but what is the point if you aren't going to install tweaks etc. and yes they sometimes do slow the phone down, eat battery, cause more reboots etc.

 

[vistadude]

Jailbreaking is mostly good, but the Cydia app store is not regulated like the Apple app store is, so you could download an app that spies on you or downloads a lot of information you wouldn't want out there. Also some apps from the app store won't function once you have a jailbreak, mostly games.

You also get an ugly brown Cydia icon on your phone.

 

[eyoungren]

Jailbreaking is mostly good, but the Cydia app store is not regulated like the Apple app store is, so you could download an app that spies on you or downloads a lot of information you wouldn't want out there. Also some apps from the app store won't function once you have a jailbreak, mostly games.

You also get an ugly brown Cydia icon on your phone.

This is where responsibility comes in. The average Apple iPhone user has everything vetted for him or her in the Apple store. But jailbreaking requires your attention. Do your homework, ask questions, find out. Don't install shady repos, don't install apps or tweaks you can't find any information about, protect yourself.

And while Cydia's icon is ugly (to you) there is an app in there called xCon that can take care of your non-functioning problem when it comes to games and jailbreaking.

 

[ross1998]

The actual jailbreak no.but what is the point if you aren't going to install tweaks etc. and yes they sometimes do slow the phone down, eat battery, cause more reboots etc.

Depends on the tweaks, when I was on ios 6 and jailbroken, I only used nc settings and weather on lock screen and no lag on my iPhone 5. Those were the only 2 tweaks I needed.

 

[Carlanga]

You can't jailbreak all iPhones and their firmwares so you might have bought an iPhone that can't be jailbroken atm.

 

[braddick]

To those that install iCleaner; use it, then uninstall, why not just hide it with SBSettings? Much of what is originally placed on your iPhone remains even with an uninstall.

 

[AppleCruncher]

That's a lot of inaccuracy. Jailbreak can be uninstalled very easily, with no way of knowing it was ever there. There should be zero worries about warranty.

As for battery life, well... that's just plain false. Jailbreaking does not add any extra strain to your phone. Installing different apps may, but that's incredibly unlikely. Most tweaks just modify stuff that already exists.

Boggles my mind that people think it voids your warranty. I sent a 4S back to Apple when the power button would not turn it on. It was jailbroke. They still fixed it.

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You also get an ugly brown Cydia icon on your phone.

What's awesome is that you can change your icons after you jailbreak. There are things called themes. Apple seems to think we all need the same icons but some people like to change them. And you can.

 

[eyoungren]

Boggles my mind that people think it voids your warranty. I sent a 4S back to Apple when the power button would not turn it on. It was jailbroke. They still fixed it.

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What's awesome is that you can change your icons after you jailbreak. There are things called themes. Apple seems to think we all need the same icons but some people like to change them. And you can.

It does void the warranty. You were fortunate. But just because you were fortunate, it does not mean that this fact is wrong.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3743

 

[AppleCruncher]

It does void the warranty. You were fortunate. But just because you were fortunate, it does not mean that this fact is wrong.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3743

You should read that. No where does it say it will void your warranty. They are careful with their wording.

 

[charlituna]

Boggles my mind that people think it voids your warranty. I sent a 4S back to Apple when the power button would not turn it on. It was jailbroke. They still fixed it.

Doesn't void your warranty unless you unlock. But it can get you refused for service depending on the issue. If it is definitely hardware, you are fine. If it can be caused by software and you jailbroke, game up. Time for a restore and update to the current version at Apple or you go home where you have the blobs etc to go to a breakable version and try again. And they won't insist on updating before testing.

 

[chumawumba]

You should read that. No where does it say it will void your warranty. They are careful with their wording.

It does. If the Apple Store wont repair a device with iOS 7 beta running on it, what makes you think that they will fix a jailbroken one?

 

[eyoungren]

You should read that. No where does it say it will void your warranty. They are careful with their wording.

At the bottom…emphasis mine.

"Apple strongly cautions against installing any software that hacks iOS. It is also important to note that unauthorized modification of iOS is a violation of the iOS end-user software license agreement and because of this, Apple may deny service for an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch that has installed any unauthorized software."

 

[Cx38]

At the bottom…emphasis mine.

"Apple strongly cautions against installing any software that hacks iOS. It is also important to note that unauthorized modification of iOS is a violation of the iOS end-user software license agreement and because of this, Apple may deny service for an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch that has installed any unauthorized software."

'MAY DENY SERVICE'
Not 'will deny service'

 

[eyoungren]

'MAY DENY SERVICE'
Not 'will deny service'

I thought someone might latch on to that. I never said they would deny service. All I said was that it voids the warranty, which is what they are meaning when they talk about the EULA.

Again, just because they may or may not deny service does not mean that the warranty has not been voided.

 

[Cx38]

I had my 4 jailbroke, took it in whilst jailbroken due to calls dropping. They replaced it free of charge under warranty

 

[eyoungren]

I don't deny that there are instances where jailbroken iPhones have been replaced/repaired by Apple. Maybe it comes down to the Genius who looks at your iPhone. IDK. I'm just reporting what Apple has stated. What Apple does is a different matter.

I had a free drink receipt from Starbucks once. It was two years old. Clearly marked on the receipt was the statement that it had to be redeemed within one week of issuance. I found that receipt about two years after the date it was issued while looking for something else. Starbucks honored it. They didn't have too, but they did. But that did not change the fact that the drink receipt was still void.