Whether you’re starting from a clean slate or selling your jailbroken iPhone, you’ll want to completely restore the device. However, restoring your iPhone via iTunes will force you to update the device to iOS 8, and since iOS 8 is not yet jailbreakable, you will want to somehow stick with iOS 7.1.2. Fortunately, there is a way to restore your iPhone while keeping your iOS 7 jailbreak intact.
“Why don’t you just go to Settings and select Erase All Content and Settings?” You may be asking. However, doing this on a jailbroken iPhone or iPad will cause a boot loop where you have to do a hard reboot to get back to the lock screen. Using special software is the only way to factory reset your iPhone while keeping the jailbreak intact.
Half Restore and iLEX Rat They are two of the best options when it comes to wiping your iPhone without breaking the jailbreak and I will show you how to use these apps to restore your iPhone in minutes without breaking the jailbreak.
SemiRestore vs iLEX RAT
Both of these apps eventually achieve the same thing, but each uses different methods that users may prefer over the other.
With iLEX RAT, you just need to download the app from Cydia and run the Restore feature on your iPhone. You don’t need to plug the device into anything, it’s a really nice convenience.
For SemiRestore, you don’t need to download anything to your iPhone, instead you need to download the SemiRestore app to your computer. From there, you connect your iPhone to your computer and run the software to restore your iPhone.
How to Use SemiRestore
With SemiRestore there is nothing you need to install on your iPhone. all you have to do Download SemiRestore plug it into your computer and run it with your iPhone plugged in. As of this writing, SemiRestore only works on Windows and Linux machines, and an OS X version is coming soon.
You’ll also want to make sure you have OpenSSH installed on your iPhone, which can be downloaded via Cydia.
After the SemiRestore program is downloaded, extract the .ZIP folder and you will see there are two files. One is a .DLL file and the other is an .EXE file. Double-click the .EXE file to open the program. Make sure your iPhone is plugged in and click .
Let the program do its thing and your iPhone will reboot and restore. You will then see the iOS Setup Assistant appear to indicate that the device has been officially restored to factory settings while keeping the jailbreak intact.
How to Use iLEX RAT
What you will want to do first is to install iLEX RAT from Cydia. To do this, you must first add a repo. Open Cydia and tap on it. resources Tap the tab, then tap in the upper right corner. Now tap the top left corner and type the following URL in the text box: https://cydia.myrepospace.com/ilexinfo/. Tap on it to officially add it to your repo list.
Now search Cydia and several options should open up. Just make sure you select the one that says “iLEX RAT”. Once installed, open the app and tap on it to begin the restore process. A warning window will pop up informing you that you will lose all your data and settings. If that’s okay, just tap to start the process.
Your iPhone will reboot and eventually you will be taken to the iOS Setup Assistant. Perform this action to go to the home screen and make sure you see the Cydia icon on the home screen. Sometimes iLEX RAT hides the icon for some reason, but it still loads (and it’s still accessible by going to Safari and typing in the address bar).
If this is happening to you, using SemiRestore will usually fix it.