Last night I finally upgraded my iPhone 3G to 3.1.3 from 3.0. Though I had done iPhone unlocking many times for now, but this time the new SHSH validation by apple made the issue a little complicated. Though after some research and help by hackers, it turned out to be the same good old process. I thought of sharing the complete process as a token of thanks to the iPhone-hacking community. Here it is:
Firstly, for 3G you don't need SHSH from iOS version < 4.0. So all is well :).
0. Backing Up (Sync) Your iPhone.
The first step is to back up (sync) your stuff to iTunes. iTunes 8.2 of higher is required. You can download the latest iTunes from here: http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/
Simply connect your iphone to your computer and open iTunes. In iTunes, on the left side, there's a Devices tab, and the name of you iPhone is listed under it.
Click your iPhone's name. On the right side, you should see Summary, Info, Ringtones, Music...etc. If iTunes says you're not using the right sim card, you can turn on Airplane Mode, which temporarily shuts off sim card and you can continue to the next steps. To turn on Airplane Mode on your iPhone, you can go to:
Settings --> General --> Airplane Mode, and turn it to ON
Now you will be able to see Summary, Info, Ringtones, Music...etc in your iTunes.
In Info tab -> Contacts, you may see "sync contacts with...outlook", etc, please check this box, and please check similar boxes for your calenders, mail accounts, web browser.
Under Advanced, please do NOT check these boxes.
You can go to Ringtones, Music, Photos, Podcasts, Videos, Applications tabs, and check them as well, if you would like to back up them. Then you can hit the Apply button once you are done, and it will start the backup (sync) process.
Once it is completed, your iPhone has been successfully backed up on your computer. Now that you have backed up your iPhone, we can move to the next step.
1. Download appropriate iPhone firmware from this page: http://www.theiphonewiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Firmware#iPhone_3G
2. Open iTunes.
3. Connect iPhone to computer using USB cable.
4. In iPhone summary tab, hold down your shift button on keyboard and click Restore button.
5. A window will appear to browse the iPhone software file (*.ipsw file). Select the iPhone Firmware/Software/OS that you have downloaded in step number one.
6. Please wait until the restoring process is complete.
7. Once your iPhone has been restored, you will see this message.
Your iPhone has been restored to factory settings, and is restarting. Please leave your iPhone connected. It will appear in the iTunes windows after it restarts.
8. Now you can use redsn0w to jailbreak it and activate it at the same time.
9. redsn0w 0.9.4 can be used to jailbreak 3.1.3. However, please also have 3.1.2 firmware in your computer, and when redsn0w asks for the firmware, point to 3.1.2 instead of 3.1.3.
You can download redsn0w here:
http://jailbreak-me.info/jailbreak-and-unlock-wizard.html .
10. Now press the Home button then power off and power on the iPhone. You do this by holding down the power button for 3 seconds then moving the power slider that appears to the right. Press the power button again to turn on the phone.
11. You should now be able to insert the SIM of your choice!
Your iPhone 3G now has been unlocked, you can turn 3G back on and you can sync your iPhone back with your contacts, songs, etc, and it's ready to go.
If you run into any trouble here is a 24X7 real time support IRC channel: http://www.hackint0sh.org/chat.php
References:
1. Alex from http://enjoygadgets.com/ .
2. http://iphoners.org/update-iphone-shift.restore/
