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Should I jailbreak my 4s?

miss.manson

miss.manson

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 12, 2011
770
36
Georgia
I've jailbroken many idevices before, but every 3 months or so the iPod/iPhone/iPad would require a restore or something just went wrong. I haven't jailbroken since I got my 4s and I'm really interested in trying it again since Cydia has some pretty cool tweaks for the 4s. My question is, should I do it? How stable is the new jailbreak? Also if anything were to go wrong, how could I recover my app data/text messages/contacts/apps etc again? Could I restore from back up or set up as new?
 
miss.manson said:
I've jailbroken many idevices before, but every 3 months or so the iPod/iPhone/iPad would require a restore or something just went wrong. I haven't jailbroken since I got my 4s and I'm really interested in trying it again since Cydia has some pretty cool tweaks for the 4s. My question is, should I do it? How stable is the new jailbreak?
Click to expand...

Jailbreak is as stable as it had always been, the issue here is NOT the jailbreak, but what you are installing, you need to ask a diferent question, you need to check how stable are the Apps and Tweaks you are interested on. The jailbreak itself is NOT going to slow down, affect your battery or damage your phone on any way possible, the Apps/Tweaks you install after you are jailbroken is another story.

My very personal answer to you is...Jailbreak? yes, Absolutely..

install every crap I installed before? No, absolutely no, - install only well know app, from known developers, read, read, read, read some more, ask question about those app on the forums, them read, and read some more, them install.

The stability of your phone is directly proportional to the time you expend researching. It is just the nature of any unofficial/hacks mods.
 
I always get asked weather jailbreaking an iDevice will or could damage it in any way. The simple answer is yes, but only for the reasons mentioned by maturola. The jailbreak itself does nothing other than allow YOU to "break" your device. Which, by the way can be fixed by an iTunes restore, as you can only break the software.

Personally i don't think i would bother with an iPhone if i couldn't jailbreak it. I don't think i could justify the money without some added features and just being able to mod it how i like.

Everyone's different.
 
Go for it. Cydia is pretty stable on my iphone 4s.
The only issue are some App in Cydia.
BTW, don't install the "switchplus" on 4s because it will crash the system....
 
I have loads of iDevices, and some of them run as long as 1 year before requiring a restore (this is based on the frequency of must have Apple firmware updates)

So, the stability of your phone is a direct result of starting with a clean restore, setting up as new, do not restore to backup and NEVER install cracked apps on your phone. Nothing will muck up an iPhone faster than trying to avoid paying for your apps.
 
dhlizard said:
I have loads of iDevices, and some of them run as long as 1 year before requiring a restore (this is based on the frequency of must have Apple firmware updates)

So, the stability of your phone is a direct result of starting with a clean restore, setting up as new, do not restore to backup and NEVER install cracked apps on your phone. Nothing will muck up an iPhone faster than trying to avoid paying for your apps.
Click to expand...

So if I wanted to get rid of the jailbreak, I would have to restore and then set up as new?
 
Why would I not want to jailbreak my 4s?**

There I fixed your title. I have jailbroken my iPhone 4s and my last iPhone 4 and have never had an issue I couldn't fix. Most problems are user error tbh, although there are the occasional software issues that can thankfully be fixed by a full restore, nothing is 100% guaranteed, so really the question is not should you jailbreak it, but rather are your tech skills good enough to tackle any issues that come along.
 
I haven't jailbroken any of my iPhones, because the main reason I have an iPhone is that it does what I need it to, reliably, without messing around with options or features I don't need. I've paid a total of $50 to the app store in the last 2 years, which is 1/2 the price of ONE xbox video game. The thing is, I look at my phone as a tool to make money and make my life easier, not a game station or a toy.

Should you jail break? Sure, but you're going to spend countless hours getting acclimated to the information and implementing it. Really the question is, what is your time worth to you? If you make more than $20/ hour, it probably isn't worth it.

And to conclude my rant with some relevant info to the OP- like dhlizard said- You are the only one who can compromise your phone, it requires vigilant installs and good problem solving skills to keep it up to date and running the apps you 'need'.
 
nate13 said:
I haven't jailbroken any of my iPhones, because the main reason I have an iPhone is that it does what I need it to, reliably, without messing around with options or features I don't need. I've paid a total of $50 to the app store in the last 2 years, which is 1/2 the price of ONE xbox video game. The thing is, I look at my phone as a tool to make money and make my life easier, not a game station or a toy.

Should you jail break? Sure, but you're going to spend countless hours getting acclimated to the information and implementing it. Really the question is, what is your time worth to you? If you make more than $20/ hour, it probably isn't worth it.

And to conclude my rant with some relevant info to the OP- like dhlizard said- You are the only one who can compromise your phone, it requires vigilant installs and good problem solving skills to keep it up to date and running the apps you 'need'.
Click to expand...

10 min work, so i would say $3 at the most....

Appstore apps need to be updated aswell, same procedure in cydia.

You can do more, be more productive and better programs and it certainly makes my life a lot easier than stock, the toys are in the appstore, cydia is only a very small fraction and is more tweaks an improvements on stock

Also if you never have jB any phone you wouldn't know the difference would you!?

It is an individual choice, but you can only compare if you tried.
 
I would appreciate it if someone would answer my question...I know how to jailbreak, and I know what to install, and what not to install. My iPod touch 4g was jailbroken, ran perfectly fine, I didn't install things that would compromise my iPod in anyway, ect. I randomly got the white screen of death and it was stuck like that for 3 months until I figured out how to fix it. Its not always user error, however theres a good chance it may sometimes be, its rather obnoxious that most people jump to that conclusion.
 
TriJetHero said:
10 min work, so i would say $3 at the most....

Appstore apps need to be updated aswell, same procedure in cydia.

You can do more, be more productive and better programs and it certainly makes my life a lot easier than stock, the toys are in the appstore, cydia is only a very small fraction and is more tweaks an improvements on stock

Also if you never have jB any phone you wouldn't know the difference would you!?

It is an individual choice, but you can only compare if you tried.
Click to expand...

*Don't run jailbreaks. I have tried them. I do know the advantages... hacking your phone is more of a hobby and an art than it is a feature or an application. That said, Apple was founded by hacks so I have NO problem with the process, I was merely responding to give a good spectrum of opinions to "should I jailbreak my 4s"..... my answer was yes, but only if you are willing to give up the perks of not being jailbroken. To each their own.

AND, post jail-breaking your iPod suffered 3 months of failure?! I don't know if its just me, I like knowing I have nothing to worry about from my end, especially if the device is my phone. One hour without it could be catastrophic for me, but if it's worth the risk to you, NBD!!

Seems like your question was answered then...:confused:
 
nate13 said:
*Don't run jailbreaks. I have tried them. I do know the advantages... hacking your phone is more of a hobby and an art than it is a feature or an application. That said, Apple was founded by hacks so I have NO problem with the process, I was merely responding to give a good spectrum of opinions to "should I jailbreak my 4s"..... my answer was yes, but only if you are willing to give up the perks of not being jailbroken. To each their own.

AND, post jail-breaking your iPod suffered 3 months of failure?! I don't know if its just me, I like knowing I have nothing to worry about from my end, especially if the device is my phone. One hour without it could be catastrophic for me, but if it's worth the risk to you, NBD!!

Seems like your question was answered then...:confused:
Click to expand...

Yes. It sucked, but I eventually fixed it. Now I'm kind of regretting my decision to jailbreak...I want to restore but setting up as new would be a problem as I really do not want to lose my app data(game saves). Does game center store game saves?
 
miss.manson said:
What would happen if I restored from a backup That was made while I was jailbroken?
Click to expand...
Bits and pieces of jailbroken data will be restored to your non-jailbroken device. I know for sure that preference files for jailbroken apps/tweaks in /var/mobile/Library/Preferences will get restored. I do not know what, if any, problems this might cause except that if you took the device in for warranty repair, Apple techs could see those old jailbroken files and refuse to cover warranty service.
 
What if I deleted those files? Is there a way to even do that? Or what if I uninstalled everything from cydia, synced with iTunes, restore and then restore from backup?
 
Jailbreak apps and tweaks have access to write files pretty much anywhere they want. I think you (or anyone) would have a hard time finding all of them manually and deleting them. Even if you deleted everything from cydia, that would still leave cydia itself.

I just took a quick look through an old jailbreak backup and found more references to jailbroken data. The cydia and other icons are referenced in /var/mobile/Library/SpringBoard/IconState.plist. Some tweaks are referenced in /var/mobile/Library/SpringBoard/PushStore. Who knows where else jailbreak data could be hiding?

If you need to completely get rid of jailbroken data and you don't want to set up as new then I think your only real option, as mentioned in your other, newer thread is to use iTunes to restore to a previous backup before your jailbreak.
 
Only the plist data is saved in the itunes backup, small files that dont take up much room and dont interfere with a non jailbroken phone.

Just restore to stock an than restore from backup, its easy, painles, and if you evere need sevice, that not what they are looking for, i found several apple genius employees very helpful even on my jailbroken device.
 
tateu said:
Jailbreak apps and tweaks have access to write files pretty much anywhere they want. I think you (or anyone) would have a hard time finding all of them manually and deleting them. Even if you deleted everything from cydia, that would still leave cydia itself.

I just took a quick look through an old jailbreak backup and found more references to jailbroken data. The cydia and other icons are referenced in /var/mobile/Library/SpringBoard/IconState.plist. Some tweaks are referenced in /var/mobile/Library/SpringBoard/PushStore. Who knows where else jailbreak data could be hiding?

If you need to completely get rid of jailbroken data and you don't want to set up as new then I think your only real option, as mentioned in your other, newer thread is to use iTunes to restore to a previous backup before your jailbreak.
Click to expand...

I just checked, and my last back up was made yesterday at 6:36 PM which I know for a fact that it was made accidentally with my jailbroken iphone. I keep getting different answers on this matter...
 
iTunes normally keeps multiple backups, not just the latest one. After you do a restore you should be presented with an option to setup as new or use an existing backup from a list of previous backups.

You can manually browse to the iTunes backup location on your computer to see if there is more than one:

Mac
~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/
WinXP
\Documents and Settings\(username)\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\
Vista & Win7
\Users\(username)\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\

Restoring to a non-jailbroken state and using a backup created while jailbroken will probably not cause any problems with the phone. If that's the only backup you have, I say go ahead and use it. My only warning is that some jailbroken files will be put back onto the phone and this might cause Apple to refuse warranty service. TriJetHero thinks this is unlikely to happen.

And if you knew, at some point in the future, you had to take it in for service, you might be able to restore and setup as new right before you bring it in anyway and then restore from a backup after you get it back from service.
 
To OP...I don't know how long you've been an iPhone owner and to jailbreak, but I agree with the others who have responded and saying to jailbreak your 4s. Personally, I've jailbroken since 07', OS 1.1.1 I believe? and it's come a LONG way since then. I love the simplicity to doing it now as well, where as a long time ago I remember having to do about 15 steps to jailbreak the iPhones.

JB for me on the 4s has been easy to do and stable so far. Go enjoy!:D
 
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