Permanently bricking a jailbroken iPhone?

[Boogieboo6]

I have an iPhone 6s that I want to jailbreak, but I'm concerned it'll brick either during the jailbreak process, or while downloading tweaks. I've had a jailbroken iPod touch 4 for years and it's never bricked. One time it got stuck in a bootloop or something like that and I just fixed it with itunes. I have a few questions about jailbreaking and bricking.
Is there any brick that can't be fixed either with iTunes or a computer tool? What're the odds I'll brick my phone? Is it worth jailbreaking this new, expensive phone? It was worth it for my iPod because I had free paid apps and cool tweaks to make it look nice, but it had no warranty and was so old that if it bricked, I wouldn't mind too much.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

To my knowledge any brick can be fixed with a PC, because when you jailbreak your phone you're not modifying DFU/recovery mode, so it's always there as a plan B.

 

[Myria]

Unlike other systems with jailbreaks *cough 3DS cough*, iDevices have a reflash mode built into their boot ROMs, called "DFU mode". In the absolute worst case, you can always boot into DFU mode and reflash with stock firmware. This will erase everything, so you'd want an iTunes or iCloud backup.

However, due to the way Apple signs firmware updates, when you force a reflash, you will be forced to update to the latest iOS version, which often means you won't be able to jailbreak again.

The (soft-)brick chance with iOS jailbreaks is rather low, though, unless you directly mess with the system through SSH or code jailbreak apps yourself.

 

[Boogieboo6]

Thanks for the answers guys! Reading through this however, it looks like tweaks can kill DFU mode too. Is it real?

 

[mgrev]

To my knowledge any brick can be fixed with a PC, because when you jailbreak your phone you're not modifying DFU/recovery mode, so it's always there as a plan B.

I hard-bricked my ipod 4 by deleting absolutely everything in ifile.

 

[Roomsaver]

I've never experience anyone bricking from a jailbreak as AFAIK iTunes can reformat it even if you're stuck in a bootloop.

 

[thealgorithm]

As far as I am aware. The DFU in IOS devices cannot be overwritten hence it is possible to restore to the latest firmware version in the worst case scenario of bricking/deleting all files etc.

 

[mgrev]

As far as I am aware. The DFU in IOS devices cannot be overwritten hence it is possible to restore to the latest firmware version in the worst case scenario of bricking/deleting all files etc.

i managed to hard-brick my ipod touch 4. Deleted every file from root and deleted them from the trash. then i rebooted.

 

[Westwoodo]

i managed to hard-brick my ipod touch 4. Deleted every file from root and deleted them from the trash. then i rebooted.

Well tried to reboot

 

[RyDog]

i managed to hard-brick my ipod touch 4. Deleted every file from root and deleted them from the trash. then i rebooted.

That's a soft brick. As others stated in the thread, iDevices have a recovery partition that can't be mounted dubbed as "iBoot" "DFU" or "Recovery" whatever you'd like to call it, but it allows one to repair the filesystem with iTunes.

 

[osm70]

I hard-bricked my ipod 4 by deleting absolutely everything in ifile.

i managed to hard-brick my ipod touch 4. Deleted every file from root and deleted them from the trash. then i rebooted.

Actually, iTunes + DFU mode will fix that. I did the same thing once and I fixed it easily.

Thanks for the answers guys! Reading through this however, it looks like tweaks can kill DFU mode too. Is it real?

That thing destroys your NVRAM. At that time, restoring didn't touch that, so the device still wouldn't work even after a restore. Since then, Apple included a NVRAM reflashing script in iOS updates, so installing iOS 8.3 or newer makes it work again.

 

[mgrev]

Actually, iTunes + DFU mode will fix that. I did the same thing once and I fixed it easily.


That thing destroys your NVRAM. At that time, restoring didn't touch that, so the device still wouldn't work even after a restore. Since then, Apple included a NVRAM reflashing script in iOS updates, so installing iOS 8.3 or newer makes it work again.

dude don't think i haven't tried that. And since the latest a 4th gen can have is ios 6, i can't flash nvram

 

[osm70]

dude don't think i haven't tried that. And since the latest a 4th gen can have is ios 6, i can't flash nvram

Deleting everything in iFile leaves NVRAM untouched. I was on 5.1.1 when I erased everything. I just DFU restored to 6.1.3 and my 4S worked again.

 

[naddel81]

so mgrev was basically not smart enough to recover his ipod touch? so sad.

 

[mgrev]

so mgrev was basically not smart enough to recover his ipod touch? so sad.

I had previously had issues with the usb-port on the ipod too, so i suspect it is that. just that it completely broke at the same point. iirc it wasn't detected by itunes before the brick either.

 

[naddel81]

sorry to hear.

 

[mgrev]

sorry to hear.

it happened years ago. don't worry