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iphone - upgrade 4.2.1 to 5.1.1

F

Fighting Tooth

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 27, 2015
8
1
Hi my name is John and I have a question

I have an old iphone 4 which has 5.1.1 (9b206) firmware 04.12.01 and as you can see I have not updated this phone in long time as the bigger the operating systems got the slower the phone would perform so I stopped at 5.1.1 .

This phone has since been in the wars and has cracks in both front and back and has seen its day but a friend has gifted me with another exactly the same phone but with an earlier ios...its has 4.2.1 (8c148) firmware 03.10.01

I tried to restore the new phone with my backup but iTunes refused as the backup is with a newer system (the 5.1.1).

I do not want to upgrade this old phone to the new ios7 as I believe it will perform sluggish but i do want to update it to 5.1.1 from the 4.2.1 it is currently at.

Some of the apps i bought will not work on the 4.2.1 so this is why i want to upgrade to 5.1.1 only. Is there a way to do it please without going to the new ios7?

regards

John
 
You can't do what you're looking to do. Apple doesn't allow this, you can stay on 4.2.1 or you can upgrade to the latest version of iOS which that phone supports. There's no way for you to upgrade that phone from 4.2.1 to a version that apple has replaced with a newer version (several times over).
 
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Apple is no longer doing 5.1.1 to say the least. Maybe if the phone was JB.

You iPhone 4 may not run real fast on the current OS but it will run. If it were my 4, I would jump in and update it to the current OS
 
If the apps are working just fint, I would stay on iOS4. iOS7 is really slow on an iPhone 4.

And worst case scenario for you is just to transfer most of the content manually.
 
The phone is jailbroken...both are...I just jailbroke the 4.2 and the 5.1 has always been jailbroken...so whats your solution please?
 
T'hain Esh Kelch said:
If the apps are working just fint, I would stay on iOS4. iOS7 is really slow on an iPhone 4.

And worst case scenario for you is just to transfer most of the content manually.
Click to expand...
Well most of them are and the phone responds nice and fast...and the numerical value of the apps I lose is very minimal but there were some I really liked that wont work on ios4 :(...I tried downloading the ios...5.0/5.1.1 and using shift restore but it just keeps giving me an error code :(
 
Here is the post (ON YOUR OWN LITTLE FORUM) before you reply it cant be done....

"Hello, I've an iPhone 3GS which have iOS 4.2.1 and it's unlocked by Jailbreak. Currently iOS 6 is available. But I want my device to upgrade to 5.1.1 and Unlock again by Jailbreak :(.
What is the procedure?
I've knowledge on how to use Redsn0w or Sn0wbreez :cool:.
I accidently upgraded my device into iOS 6 and it was locked again. So I sent it to a jailbreaking and unlocking service. They downgraded my device into 4.2.1 and unlocked it via jailbreak"

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/upgrade-jailbreak-unlocked-iphone-to-5-1-1.1463446/


They downgraded my device??????how did they do that if (as you claim)you can only go forward....????perplexing question but I know you already don't know but will write as though you know,but now don't want to tell me lol...people are predictable

In my opinion if you can downgrade a device to a particular ios then you most certainly CAN upgrade a device to particular ios.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
OK.

You cannot do what you want stock.

But you are jailbroken. It's possible, but I wouldn't know how and therefore cannot tell you how. If you repeat your question in the jailbreak forum here on MacRumors instead of in the general iPhone section you may get a targeted response more to your liking.

Generally, the users in this specific forum in which you posted run their iPhones stock.

Lastly, I would just add that there may be someone here who can specifically and very succinctly answer your question with a step by step procedure, but most people in these forums don't have that kind of specific knowledge to every question posed. If you are looking for very specific answers you may do better either on a forum dedicated specifically to your topic or by asking your topic in a forum geared more specifically to your question.
 
Fighting Tooth said:
Here is the post (ON YOUR OWN LITTLE FORUM) before you reply it cant be done....

"Hello, I've an iPhone 3GS which have iOS 4.2.1 and it's unlocked by Jailbreak. Currently iOS 6 is available. But I want my device to upgrade to 5.1.1 and Unlock again by Jailbreak :(.
What is the procedure?
I've knowledge on how to use Redsn0w or Sn0wbreez :cool:.
I accidently upgraded my device into iOS 6 and it was locked again. So I sent it to a jailbreaking and unlocking service. They downgraded my device into 4.2.1 and unlocked it via jailbreak"
Click to expand...
As far as I know, the 3GS is not like the iPhone 4, unofficial downgrades are only tethered for the 4. Unless you have the blobs.

If it's an iPhone 4S however you could get a full downgrade (to iOS 6).
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Paddle1 said:
As far as I know, the 3GS is not like the iPhone 4, unofficial downgrades are only tethered for the 4. Unless you have the blobs.

If it's an iPhone 4S however you could get a full downgrade (to iOS 6).
Click to expand...
I think you might have that reversed.

Downgrades will work for the iPhone 4 because there is a bootrom exploit that can be leveraged. Apple closed that exploit with the 4s - although there may be a recent development allowing that with the 4s. I think you still need to have your blobs though.

But to downgrade/upgrade you still have to have the SHSH blobs for the device. OP's newer iPhone was never on iOS 6 and it seems never on iOS 5 - or at least the OP does not seem to have the blobs for those versions, otherwise we would not be having this discussion I think.
 
eyoungren said:
OK.

You cannot do what you want stock.

But you are jailbroken. It's possible, but I wouldn't know how and therefore cannot tell you how. If you repeat your question in the jailbreak forum here on MacRumors instead of in the general iPhone section you may get a targeted response more to your liking.

Generally, the users in this specific forum in which you posted run their iPhones stock.

Lastly, I would just add that there may be someone here who can specifically and very succinctly answer your question with a step by step procedure, but most people in these forums don't have that kind of specific knowledge to every question posed. If you are looking for very specific answers you may do better either on a forum dedicated specifically to your topic or by asking your topic in a forum geared more specifically to your question.
Click to expand...
Thanks mate...no worries and will look into it....wouldn't happen to have a link to this thread would you please?
 
Last edited:
Paddle1 said:
As far as I know, the 3GS is not like the iPhone 4, unofficial downgrades are only tethered for the 4. Unless you have the blobs.

If it's an iPhone 4S however you could get a full downgrade (to iOS 6).
Click to expand...
Thank you all for the replies
OK lets be clear...there are 2 of the same phones....both are jailbroken...one (5.1.1) has cracked screens front and back other (4.2.1) has clean clear screens...neither have been upgraded so saving something (blobs or whatever they are) that's still there IS an option...I was thinking about pulling them apart and swapping over the motherboards....do you think that would work?
 
Paddle1 said:
As far as I know, the 3GS is not like the iPhone 4, unofficial downgrades are only tethered for the 4. Unless you have the blobs.

If it's an iPhone 4S however you could get a full downgrade (to iOS 6).
Click to expand...
Its not upgraded yet lol...please read that the iphone is 4.2.1 and I want to upgrade to 5.1.1 ...not downgrade to 6 lol
 
eyoungren said:
I think you might have that reversed.

Downgrades will work for the iPhone 4 because there is a bootrom exploit that can be leveraged. Apple closed that exploit with the 4s - although there may be a recent development allowing that with the 4s. I think you still need to have your blobs though.

But to downgrade/upgrade you still have to have the SHSH blobs for the device. OP's newer iPhone was never on iOS 6 and it seems never on iOS 5 - or at least the OP does not seem to have the blobs for those versions, otherwise we would not be having this discussion I think.
Click to expand...


No Blobs required.

https://www.reddit.com/r/jailbreak/...ial_how_to_downgrade_your_iphone_4sipad_2_on/

Proof - my own 4S.
 
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