F1rmware: Get, Install the iOS Version You Need

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F1rmware: Get, Install the iOS Version You Need

7 March 2013 968 views 4 Comments

How do you get back to an iOS version you knew and loved? Bradley Friedman's F1rmware makes the task of finding and downloading it very easy, indeed.

You have an iPhone 4, for example, and were quite happy running iOS 5.1.1, but some fool convinced you to install iOS 6 and things just haven’t been right since (i.e. Maps, Wi-Fi, etc). How do you get back to the iOS version you knew and loved? Bradley Friedman’s F1rmware makes the task of finding and downloading very easy, indeed.

F1rmware (download) is a Mac app and, as shown above, it’s extremely easy to use. Currently, it supports the following iThings and iOS versions:

• iPhone 3GS
• All iPhone 4
• All iPhone 4S
• All iPhone 5 models
• All iPad 2 models
• All iPad 3 models
• All iPad 4 models
• All iPad Mini models
• iPod touch 4G, 5G

• 5.0, 5.0.1, 5.1, 5.1.1
• 6.0, 6.0.1, 6.0.2, 6.1, 6.1.1, 6.1.2

Once the download is complete, connect your iThing to your Mac and fire up iTunes. With the device selected in the left sidebar (or drop down menu), click Summary and then, with the Option key pressed, click Check for Update and you will be prompted to locate the iOS firmware you want to install.

And, off you go. Pretty darned simple.

Of course, not all iThings will run every legacy version of iOS, but F1rmware is a very nice tool nonetheless…

What’s your take?

Source: Bradley Friedman via modmmyi.com

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4 Comments »

EB said:

It might help you download them, but iTunes will not install older versions of iOS on any devices, and even with saved authorization SSH blobs (that is how Apple ensures you can only install the latest), Any A5 class device and higher (iPhone 4S, iPad2, etc) will not accept an older firmware even with the saved SSH blobs. Lastly, Almost all devices (iphone 3GS and under excluded) have no way at all to downgrade the baseband (and to downgrade the baseband on a 3GS you must 1st install the original iPads baseband using convoluted methods).

I hope people don’t think you can actually do what you are purporting with such ease…

The only valid part of this article is:

“Bradley Friedman’s F1rmware makes the task of finding and downloading very easy, indeed.”

# 7 March 2013 at 3:08 pm

Mac Apps: Geekbench 2.4.2, Firefox 19.0.2, CleanMyMac 2 + Mac Coder Party Tips said:

[...] posts: — F1rmware: Get, Install the iOS Version You Need — Mac Deals: MacLegion Spring Bundle Goes Live — GraphicConverter 8.5.3: A Mac App Store [...]

# 8 March 2013 at 12:09 pm

EB said:

I see you changed the above article to say “Of course, not all iThings will run every legacy version of iOS, but F1rmware is a very nice tool nonetheless…”

Again, REGARDLESS of which iThing you have, without more convoluted steps, and without saving out the SSH file at the time of an initial OS install (as in, if you want to install 4.0 on a device that takes 4.0, if you did not SPECIFICALLY save the SSH at the time you had 4.0, and then use other tools to redirect iTunes to the right servers, you CANNOT install older OSs, period…)

This article really needs to be rewritten that this is a front end GUI to download old firmwares, links that are available everywhere. It does NOT make the installation of old firmwares any easier than it was…

As it is written now, installing 5.1.1 on an iPhone 4 with iOS 6 seems easy. It is not.

# 8 March 2013 at 1:27 pm

New in iOS 6.1.3: Does Apple Hate Jailbreakers? said:

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# 20 March 2013 at 4:20 am