iTunes 12.1 and iOS 8.1.3 thwart jailbreaking, and so if you are interested in the world of jailbreak apps and tweaks, you must downgrade iOS 8.1.3 to iOS 8.1.2, and similarly downgrade iTunes 12.1 to iTunes 12.0.1.
This past week, Apple released minor but still notable updates to both iOS in the form of iOS 8.1.3, and iTunes in the form of iTunes 12.1. Neither comes with any game-changing features for the general population (except maybe the Music playback widget in OS X Notification Center), but they do make break your iOS device’s ability to be jailbroken.
Yes, as we mentioned in our article on how to downgrade iOS 8.1.3 to iOS 8.1.2, iOS 8.1.3 plugs the exploit that TaiG used to jailbreak iOS 8.
As it turns out, you also need to downgrade iTunes 12.1 to iTunes 12.0.1 because restores to iOS 8.1.2 using iTunes 12.1 do not work. Seeing as how the signing window for iOS 8.1.2 is bound to shut down in a few days, I do not see Apple updating iTunes 12.1 to make restores iOS 8.1.2 work either.
So, your only choice at the moment is to downgrade iTunes 12.1 first, and then downgrade iOS 8.1.3 to iOS 8.1.2.
How To Downgrade iTunes 12.1
Downgrading iTunes 12.1 is a little tedious and annoying, but if jailbreaking is precious to you, you likely won’t mind.
Step #1: Uninstall iTunes 12.1, along with these software:
- iCloud
- Apple Mobile Device Support
- Apple Application Support
You can do this from Control Panel > Uninstall Programs.
Note: Be sure to actually check that you have iTunes 12.1 installed. On Windows, you can check from Help > About. I did not update to iTunes 12.1 myself:
Step #2: If you are on Windows, go to
C:\Users\<your name>\Music\iTunes
Mac users, go to
~/Music/iTunes
Rename iTunes Library.itl to iTunes Library.bak
Step #3: Restart your Windows PC / Mac.
Step #4: Download and install iTunes 12.0.1:
If you are unsure, download the 32-bit version.
That’s it! With iTunes 12.0.1, you can now downgrade iOS 8.1.3 to iOS 8.1.2.
