Questions about pre and post JB

[OSUGuy]

Searching these forums I think I'm comfortable with the procedures involved in jail breaking my phone for the first time. However, I haven't been able to find clear answers for quite a few questions I have:

First, I have an iPhone 4 running 4.1. I have a legitimate contract through AT&T with my grandfathered in unlimited data plan that I don't want to lose. Really at the moment I'm not looking for much more than some lock screen widgets, easier settings toggles, and turning my phone into a mobile hotspot for my wifi only iPad. Maybe a better notification system if there's a way to fix that too.

Here are some of my questions:

1) I have tons of apps through the app store. I like finding new apps within the app store and don't mind paying for them so that developers continue to innovate for iOS. There is lots of info and customized settings in my apps. Is there a way to preserve those settings/data before I jailbreak? Also, it's my understanding that once jail broken I'll continue to be able to search and purchase from the app store as well as Cydia, correct?

2) I sync both mine and my wife's iPhones to the same iTunes. I assume there is no issue with having her phone run unjail broken and mine being jail broken.

3) Once 4.2 comes out and the subsequent jailbreak surfaces. Is there a way to preserve my jail broken apps before updating? I think this may be the tiny umbrella application tossed around in this forum, but I'm uncertain of how it works (what are blobs, etc?)

4) I know at any point I can restore to a previous unbroken state. If I do so I lose all my app data, correct? How do I go about updating to an unbroken state? And when 4.2 comes out will iTunes still alert me that there is a new update to the software if my phone is jail broken? What's the correct procedure for updating to the newest apple software? Do I have to downgrade to the previous apple software before updating to the newest? As you can see I'm very confused by all this.

Like I said, I can wrap my brain around the actual act of jail breaking my phone. But I'm concerned with the steps I need to do to before and after jail breaking to preserve my data and not bork my data or my phone. I do take my idevice into apple whenever anything goes wrong so I'd like to be able to easily restore apples software so the warranty isn't voided whilst not risking losing data anytime I do it.

 

[nebo1ss]

Searching these forums I think I'm comfortable with the procedures involved in jail breaking my phone for the first time. However, I haven't been able to find clear answers for quite a few questions I have:

First, I have an iPhone 4 running 4.1. I have a legitimate contract through AT&T with my grandfathered in unlimited data plan that I don't want to lose. Really at the moment I'm not looking for much more than some lock screen widgets, easier settings toggles, and turning my phone into a mobile hotspot for my wifi only iPad. Maybe a better notification system if there's a way to fix that too.

Here are some of my questions:

1) I have tons of apps through the app store. I like finding new apps within the app store and don't mind paying for them so that developers continue to innovate for iOS. There is lots of info and customized settings in my apps. Is there a way to preserve those settings/data before I jailbreak? Also, it's my understanding that once jail broken I'll continue to be able to search and purchase from the app store as well as Cydia, correct?

2) I sync both mine and my wife's iPhones to the same iTunes. I assume there is no issue with having her phone run unjail broken and mine being jail broken.

3) Once 4.2 comes out and the subsequent jailbreak surfaces. Is there a way to preserve my jail broken apps before updating? I think this may be the tiny umbrella application tossed around in this forum, but I'm uncertain of how it works (what are blobs, etc?)

4) I know at any point I can restore to a previous unbroken state. If I do so I lose all my app data, correct? How do I go about updating to an unbroken state? And when 4.2 comes out will iTunes still alert me that there is a new update to the software if my phone is jail broken? What's the correct procedure for updating to the newest apple software? Do I have to downgrade to the previous apple software before updating to the newest? As you can see I'm very confused by all this.

Like I said, I can wrap my brain around the actual act of jail breaking my phone. But I'm concerned with the steps I need to do to before and after jail breaking to preserve my data and not bork my data or my phone. I do take my idevice into apple whenever anything goes wrong so I'd like to be able to easily restore apples software so the warranty isn't voided whilst not risking losing data anytime I do it.

Jailbreaking will not affect any of the apps or data on your phone. Since you are already at 4.1 no restore is necessary and hence no data will be lost. However, it is always a good idea to do an Itunes backup before you Jailbreak.

Jailbreak will have no impact on your ability to continue syncing two phones with itunes.

You will have no trouble updating to 4.2 when it comes out and rejailbreaking. If you use the upgrade option in itunes instead of the restore you will not lose any of the apps or the associated data from the app store but you will lose both the jailbreak and any apps you downloaded. Best to make a note of these if not too many and just reinstall them after rejailbreaking. Be aware there is no jailbreak for 4.2 at the moment so do no be in hurry to update.

You can restore a jailbroken phone to normal at at time by using the restore button in Itunes. However, if you want a clean phone to take to apple you must set up as new because even through the JB apps will be wiped with a restore if you do not set up as new but use the Itunes backup to restore your data then the jailbreak data is also restored and leave a trail that you had a JB.

 

[eastercat]

When it comes to SHSH blobs, you can start saving them now (even though your phone and your wife's aren't jailbroken). D/l Tiny Umbrella, click the general tab and hit save SHSH. Do this for both phones. Even though your wife doesn't want to jailbreak, the blobs are still useful for other non-jb situations. You can only get blobs that Apple is signing for. If Apple is signing for 4.2, you can't get 4.1 blobs even if that's the version you're using.
Blobs allow you to downgrade to an earlier iOS. Let's say, you upgrade to iOS 4.2 and you hate it. If you have blobs for 4.1, you can downgrade with no fuss. Without the blobs, you can't revert to an earlier version.
Also, if you're dumb enough to hit reset all settings in your phone, you're going to be stuck with restoring your phone with the latest OS. When you're jb, you don't want that. Blobs save you there too.
In short, SHSH blobs are your friend--jailbroken or not. If you are jailbroken, they're your insurance policy that mitigates a major disaster into a minor one.

 

[OSUGuy]

So if you pay for an app through Cydia and then update your OS to the newest available, thus losing your JB apps, do you get charged again for those apps or does Cydia allow you to download them again?

 

[eastercat]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

So if you pay for an app through Cydia and then update your OS to the newest available, thus losing your JB apps, do you get charged again for those apps or does Cydia allow you to download them again?

Cydia uses a log in name and password. This allows you to re-download previously paid for apps, just like in iTunes.

 

[maturola]

Searching these forums I think I'm comfortable with the procedures involved in jail breaking my phone for the first time. However, I haven't been able to find clear answers for quite a few questions I have:

First, I have an iPhone 4 running 4.1. I have a legitimate contract through AT&T with my grandfathered in unlimited data plan that I don't want to lose. Really at the moment I'm not looking for much more than some lock screen widgets, easier settings toggles, and turning my phone into a mobile hotspot for my wifi only iPad. Maybe a better notification system if there's a way to fix that too.

Here are some of my questions:

1) I have tons of apps through the app store. I like finding new apps within the app store and don't mind paying for them so that developers continue to innovate for iOS. There is lots of info and customized settings in my apps. Is there a way to preserve those settings/data before I jailbreak? Also, it's my understanding that once jail broken I'll continue to be able to search and purchase from the app store as well as Cydia, correct?

YEs, you will be able to search/use/buy form the AppStore and Cydia same way you do it before Jailbreak, you are going to keep backing up your phone with itunes and that will backup all your game saved and settings just like it did before JB

2) I sync both mine and my wife's iPhones to the same iTunes. I assume there is no issue with having her phone run unjail broken and mine being jail broken.

Not a problem, itunes can't tell if the phone is JB. for itunes it will be like nothing had changed.

3) Once 4.2 comes out and the subsequent jailbreak surfaces. Is there a way to preserve my jail broken apps before updating? I think this may be the tiny umbrella application tossed around in this forum, but I'm uncertain of how it works (what are blobs, etc?)

Read This - Jailbreak FAQ and commonly use Terminology + Guides

Feel free to request any question you feel should be add it.

4) I know at any point I can restore to a previous unbroken state. If I do so I lose all my app data, correct? How do I go about updating to an unbroken state? And when 4.2 comes out will iTunes still alert me that there is a new update to the software if my phone is jail broken? What's the correct procedure for updating to the newest apple software? Do I have to downgrade to the previous apple software before updating to the newest? As you can see I'm very confused by all this.



Some of your answer are on the FAQ a just linked you on the previews question. In order to go back to an un-JB stage you just restore your phone using iTunes and restore from a backup dated before you JB originally (All your settings, SMS, and settings change since you JB will be gone too) there are some program out there you can use (like APPbackup) that allow you to extract and restore this setting, but it is some how a manual process.

The "best practice" to update when ne firmware is release is "DO NOT UPGRADE" - DO NOT USE ITUNES - STAY AWAY FROM IT. LOL.... Best practice is to wait for the Jailbreaking community to get enough details on the update process. each JB is different, so waiting and reading is the best way.

 

[h1r0ll3r]

You seem to have a grasp on the actual JB process so that's a good thing. Most people feel a little bit of hesitancy on their first JB since they don't want to screw anything up (obviously). Read Maturola's FAQ listed above and it should provide you with enough info to get everything setup correctly. As for the data. Most settings should carry over however it's always best to backup your data via iTunes just in case. Since the possibility of borking your phone is ever present, just read up as much as possible and look around for answers. Then, once you're ready, JB your wife's phone first If all goes well then you can JB your phone.