Choosing between keeping your jailbreak or updating to iOS 8.3 can be a tough decision, but if you’re ready to update, here’s how to update to iOS 8.3 on a jailbroken iPhone.
Updating your non-jailbroken iPhone is really easy, but on a jailbroken iPhone you have to do things a little differently. Even if you lose your jailbreak, you won’t be able to hit update and run iOS 8.3 instantly.
The latest iOS version that can be jailbroken is iOS 8.1.3, iOS 8.2 and now iOS 8.1.2 which is already outdated by iOS 8.3. Since then, many performance improvements, bug fixes and new features have been added to iOS 8; this may encourage some jailbreakers to jump ship and update to the latest version of iOS knowing they will lose their jailbreak.
However, one question you should ask yourself is whether it is really worth upgrading to iOS 8.3 if it means you will lose your jailbreak. iOS 8.3 comes with some new emojis, wireless CarPlay support, and lots of security fixes and performance improvements. Some users will like these new changes and the improvements may be nothing less than good, but the enjoyment of a jailbroken iPhone can sometimes outweigh the new features in a new iOS update.
If this is a question you’ve been asking yourself lately, you’re not alone. Of course, it’s a question you’ll eventually have to answer for yourself, depending on how much and how much you use your installed jailbreak tweaks. Get rid of the new features in iOS 8.3, but if you’re ready to update your iPhone to iOS 8.3 and lose your jailbreak, here’s how to do it.
How to Jailbreak Your iPhone and Update to iOS 8.3
Fortunately, while the process of updating a jailbroken iPhone is a little different from the traditional way, it’s still pretty easy and painless, but takes a little more time, so patience is something you may want for this.
First, plug your iPhone into your computer and open iTunes. Then click the iPhone icon towards the upper left corner of the window.
From there, click to fully backup your iPhone before updating. You back up your apps and settings so you can get them back after you lost your jailbreak and updated to iOS 8.3, because it will completely restore your iPhone.
You may get a pop-up asking if you want to back up any app on your iPhone that is not in your iTunes library. You can choose to back up these apps or not.
Click on it after the backup process is complete. To do this, you need to disable Find My iPhone, so just open the app on your iPhone and tap on it. Turn it off from there and enter your Apple ID password to confirm.
After clicking Restore iPhone, you will go through the process of updating your iPhone to the latest version of iOS. Downloading and installing the update will take some time, so you can sit back and wait for the update to download.
After the update is complete, you will be asked whether you want to set up your iPhone as a new iPhone or restore from a backup. You’ll want to restore from backup because you backed up all your stuff before you started.
After your iPhone is successfully restored from backup, you will be left with the iPhone you started with, but this time it will not be jailbroken and will be updated to iOS 8.3. Cydia will be deleted from your home screen and all your jailbreak settings will be gone too.
However, you will have a new app to play. iOS 8.3 comes with the Apple Watch app that lets you pair your Apple Watch with your iPhone. This app is not available on older versions of iOS, including iOS 8.1.2, the latest jailbreakable version.
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