Filed under: iPod Family, iPhone, SDK
Downgrading 2.1 iPhones not as daunting as originally thought
If you've heard (as we had) that the journey to the beta 2.1 firmware for the iPhone is one-way only, TUAW reader Brian D. has some good news for you. He writes in to say that the journey back is not as impossible as once thought. "Users can downgrade merely by putting the iPhone into DFU mode, and restoring per usual in iTunes. Works like a charm. 2.1 stinks. Back to 2.0 and business as usual."
Brian's downgrade was done using an iPhone 3G. I haven't had a chance to test out the 2.1 firmware, but it's nice to know that upgrading is not a permanent decision.
Written by Erica Sadun
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
joe said 2:23PM on 7-28-2008
Why does 2.1 stink? Is the GPS better, what about copy/paste?
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Ryan Trevisol said 2:29PM on 7-28-2008
I think because you can't actually develop on it (yet). But it might have more shortcomings.
Jeff said 2:31PM on 7-28-2008
Note to Brian: 'stinks' doesn't help anyone.
pmup said 11:18AM on 7-30-2008
Gee, if 2.1 stinks, what do you call 2.0? I have had to totally restore my iPhone 3G five times already as it crashes constantly and all I end up with is an Apple logo flashlight!
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brian said 5:41PM on 7-28-2008
Oh, good, it ain't just me. :-) I turn my iPhone off at night (since this awesomephone can't handle things like CUSTOM PROFILES with no ringer AND no vibrate that I've had for years on cheaper phones, grr...) and on three mornings I've been greeted with the USB/iTunes/"please activate" screen. Powering off and on again fixes this, then I just have to sync and power cycle a couple times to make 3rd party apps work again. Here's hoping for a solid 2.2... :-)
stainboy said 2:45PM on 7-28-2008
i'm with joe. please elaborate to us non-developers as to why 2.1 stinks. following your tags doesn't help.
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Adam said 2:43PM on 7-28-2008
I think it is in regard to the fact that it locks out a lot of the functionality of the phone because it is in some pseudo NDA and restricts applications and other features that were not available pre2.0 release.
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Devon said 2:50PM on 7-28-2008
I don't get why Apple has to make it so hard to go back to other versions. How many people have many iPhones in order to keep one at 2.1 just to play around with and 2.0 to do actual work with?
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Ed said 3:03PM on 7-28-2008
They just don't want you mucking around where you shouldn't be. Plus, if they ever decide to close vulnerabilities used for Jailbreaking, one could just restore to 1.1.4 or whatever and then use those vulnerabilities.
Fernando said 2:47PM on 7-28-2008
What's with this "Written by TUAW blogger" thingy? Just curious.
Maybe the iPhone can't show the author field in RSS or something silly like that? fill me in.
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DistortedLoop said 3:20PM on 7-28-2008
I heard on Buzz Out Loud (Friday's episode, I think) that TUAW's parent company is trying to save money, and so has directed that paid-by-the-post named bloggers not make posts until the end of July.
Since Erica posted this under these conditions, it shows her dedication to us readers, and leads me to say "up yours" to all those jack asses who used to accuse her of posting too many iPhone posts to jack up her pay.
Hat's off to you Erica!
jfa said 3:57PM on 7-28-2008
I disagree that 2.1 b1 stinks.
I found it much better with regards to Apple's applications (mail, sms, safari, etc) and phone operation.
The baseband had a huge jump in revision...
What's wrong with it is that not all 2.0 official apps may work on the upgraded OS. Out of 36 apps I have, one failed to run. The other problem is related to development in that you can only test 2.1 but not post applications on 2.1 onto the AppStore.
If the current 2.1 makes it to the torrents, I'm sure it will bring an improvement for most.
BTW: it's been Pwned but it is not supported yet so if you get your hands on this release, beware that it may brick your 1rst gen iPhone...
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PSM said 5:32PM on 7-28-2008
"I found it much better with regards to Apple's applications (mail, sms, safari, etc) and phone operation."
Are you talking about added features or just reliability and "snappiness"? I think especially Mail and Safari are missing some obvious features (sending from aliases and open in new tab, to name a couple).
Tyler said 8:01PM on 7-28-2008
Hi jfa,
Would you mind going to http://www.ludustech.com/iphonesms.html and clicking the link? I want to see if sms:// links behave as they should on the new firmware!
Thanks very much! best regards, Tyler
Rod said 3:58PM on 7-28-2008
She cannot say as it is breaking NDA. If someone else reports it, she isn't breaking NDA, but she is getting enough press as it is.
I downgraded because I found bugs, like can always be expected. These bugs, however, were massive.
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Dan Parmelee said 4:09PM on 7-28-2008
I too have never understood why firmware/BIOS updates to devices are not reversible. Can anyone with a dev background shed some light?
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Johnny said 4:45PM on 7-28-2008
I just don't think they want to waste time creating a way for someone to go backwards when the new version is theoretically superior. Also, new features may change resources in a way that would be difficult to make backwards compatible or downgrade-able. As was the case here, you can almost always restore older firmware but only by wiping out the newer one.
Dan Woods said 4:20PM on 7-28-2008
It's still a Beta. It's supposed to stink.
When it get's released, if it still stinks, I'll start complaining, but you can't complain when Beta software isn't everything it's supposed to be.
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obsidian said 4:31PM on 7-28-2008
@Jfa: The baseband had a huge jump in revision...
You mean that 2.1 has dramatically improved 3G reception? That's maybe the main improvement I'm expecting from my iPhone.
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sum guy said 9:15PM on 7-28-2008
i think he means version. it could have gone vrom version 4.1234(w/e) to 9.1243 although reception could be a factor in the update.