iPod touch Jailbroke iOS 5.0.1 with Absinthe = Problems

[ToolB0x]

(Sorry if I posted this in the wrong section) Hello MacRumors community, I've recently run into a problem I cant really seem to fix at the moment... My friend has a iTouch 4G, and asked me to jailbreak it. Ive used absinthe plenty of times on other phones and iTouches. I asked him what gen he had, and he responded 4th. Then I asked him what version, and he said iOS 5.1.1, or as he said, "the latest" . I then plugged in his ipod to my laptop, and started the jailbreak process. Everything was going as planned and well, until something i didnt know about absinthe popped up. Normally absinthe doesnt need to ask the user to do any actions... But this time it asked me to unlonk the ipod and click an app called absinthe. So I did, and then pressed the "Jailbreak" button in the app as absinthe had instructed me to.

The phone rebooted, and Cydia was there! But, as I opened cydia, it was preparing filesystem for about 15 minutes or so, then finally rebooted (In my mind I thought that it just resprings? At least thats the way it was on my other jailbroken iOS 5.1.1 devices...) . I opened up Cydia, and looked at my sources. All the sources were there.. Except all of them were EMPTY!!!! I couldnt do anything. So, being my curious self, I looked at the version of the device (Which I shouldve done earlier... :/ ) , and it was iOS 5.0.1!!

Now I got scared. My friend is very paranoid when it comes to losing ANY of his data... Even progress on games. Right now he only other bugs are that the device cant play any Purchased songs, or play purchased apps. I know, or well, have a pretty good Idea of what I have to do. If im correct, I need to unjailbreak his ipod, and then upgrade to iOS 5.1.1 and then rejailbreak. But, its not that easy. I havent told my friend any of this yet, but I need to get info from him suh as, how often do you plug your ipod into your PC to sync (Because afaik, itunes should auto backup) , which will get him questioning... But I dont care. I just want to Unjailbreak his ipod, WITHOUT losing any data.

If anyone has info on this or can give me some tips, it would be great. At this point, im guessing I need to ask if he plugged in his ipod to itunes recently, and then I need to hand him the ipod and tell him to restore his ipod ( No DFU or yes DFU?) . I was also curious to see if just upgrading the ipod to 5.1.1 WITH the corrupt jailbreak on would help, but right now I dont think it would help. So any help would be grea. Thank you.

 

[BumpyFlatline]

You should try to find the deb files for AppBackup and OpenSSH. Email the developers if you can't find them on an alternate repo. Install those. Use AppBackup to backup every single App Store App. Then you SSH into the phone and go to var>mobile>library>preferences>AppBackup copy the entire "Tarballs" folder (if you look inside this folder you'll see all the backups to all the app store apps you backed up) to the computer. Use iCloud to sync his contacts and stuff. iTunes will have a history of all his purchased music so that will be easy to sync back to the phone.

After you backup all his stuff, enter DFU mode, restore as new to 5.1.1, rejailbreak with absinthe or redsn0w, then resync his iCloud data and music. Then reinstall (or use itunes to sync) all of his App Store Apps (even though they're all fresh installs). Then install OpenSSH and AppBackup from cydia once again. SSH into the phone and copy the AppBackup "tarballs" folder from the computer back to the exact same location listed above on the iPod. It's safe to replace the contents if it asks (since there's no saved data because this is a fresh install). Then open the AppBackup app on the iPod. Go down the list and restore all of the App Store apps. Done!

FYI, I do this every single time I upgrade to a new firmware. I have game saves from my old 3G lol

PM is you have any questions. I can also provide a step by step tutorial on how to use AppBackup if you can't figure it out.

 

[ToolB0x]

You should try to find the deb files for AppBackup and OpenSSH. Email the developers if you can't find them on an alternate repo. Install those. Use AppBackup to backup every single App Store App. Then you SSH into the phone and go to var>mobile>library>preferences>AppBackup copy the entire "Tarballs" folder (if you look inside this folder you'll see all the backups to all the app store apps you backed up) to the computer. Use iCloud to sync his contacts and stuff. iTunes will have a history of all his purchased music so that will be easy to sync back to the phone.

After you backup all his stuff, enter DFU mode, restore as new to 5.1.1, rejailbreak with absinthe or redsn0w, then resync his iCloud data and music. Then reinstall (or use itunes to sync) all of his App Store Apps (even though they're all fresh installs). Then install OpenSSH and AppBackup from cydia once again. SSH into the phone and copy the AppBackup "tarballs" folder from the computer back to the exact same location listed above on the iPod. It's safe to replace the contents if it asks (since there's no saved data because this is a fresh install). Then open the AppBackup app on the iPod. Go down the list and restore all of the App Store apps. Done!

FYI, I do this every single time I upgrade to a new firmware. I have game saves from my old 3G lol

PM is you have any questions. I can also provide a step by step tutorial on how to use AppBackup if you can't figure it out.

As much as I love your idea and your help, I cant seem to get access to the deb installer on the ipod, or from my PC. Anyone else have another solution? Thanks.

 

[BumpyFlatline]

As much as I love your idea and your help, I cant seem to get access to the deb installer on the ipod, or from my PC. Anyone else have another solution? Thanks.

Can you add repos to cydia? If so, just add a repo that has OpenSSH and AppBackup. Have you tried adding a new repo that's not a default repo? Also, have you tried rebooting the phone several times to see if cydia will refresh with all the source packages? My friend just a few weeks ago had a fresh iOS5 jailbreak and when he went into cydia all the sources were empty. He just kept refreshing the sources, rebooting the iPhone, and kept removing cydia from the task switcher. Eventually cydia downloaded all the packages and he was good to go.

 

[ToolB0x]

Can you add repos to cydia? If so, just add a repo that has OpenSSH and AppBackup. Have you tried adding a new repo that's not a default repo? Also, have you tried rebooting the phone several times to see if cydia will refresh with all the source packages? My friend just a few weeks ago had a fresh iOS5 jailbreak and when he went into cydia all the sources were empty. He just kept refreshing the sources, rebooting the iPhone, and kept removing cydia from the task switcher. Eventually cydia downloaded all the packages and he was good to go.

Thanks, ill try when I get home. Also, can anyone direct me in the right path on how to get the purchased music playing? I got the apps... (Just had to login with his apple ID again, and then rebooted) , cause im in the dark here...
And thanks Bumpy for all your help.

 

[BumpyFlatline]

Thanks, ill try when I get home. Also, can anyone direct me in the right path on how to get the purchased music playing? I got the apps... (Just had to login with his apple ID again, and then rebooted) , cause im in the dark here...
And thanks Bumpy for all your help.

No problem. Glad to help. The music issue is actually pretty common. There's a thread here on macrumors that explains how to get the music working again and to remove the grayed out problem. I won't be home until real late tonight but when I get to my computer I'll run some searches here on MR if you can't find it before me. If you don't hear from me you could try running some searches in the meantime. Either way, you're not doomed yet. I feel strongly you can get out of this without losing all your friend's data.

 

[ToolB0x]

No problem. Glad to help. The music issue is actually pretty common. There's a thread here on macrumors that explains how to get the music working again and to remove the grayed out problem. I won't be home until real late tonight but when I get to my computer I'll run some searches here on MR if you can't find it before me. If you don't hear from me you could try running some searches in the meantime. Either way, you're not doomed yet. I feel strongly you can get out of this without losing all your friend's data.

Found it. I have to delete all of the music and then resync it... Guess I gotta tell him to do that... (Cant access his PC ) And I have yet to try the cydia repos. Will post feedback when ready... Cheers.

 

[ToolB0x]

Well, Good News! Thank you Bumpy for your help. My friends Purchased music is playing, and the cydia repos are all there. Thanks.