New to jailbreaking

**igorsky** · 02-20-2013, 09:36 AM

Hey, everyone.

So I've never jailbroken any of my iPhones but have become really intrigued because of how easy and painless it has become with Evasion. I was wondering if any of you gurus can answer a couple of questions regarding the process...

1. What happens if you jailbreak, download a bunch of Cydia apps and then lose the jailbreak? Is there a mechanism for keeping track of what you downloaded and then reinstalling it upon jailbreaking again?

2. Let's say I jailbreak and decide that it's not for me...is the process of getting everything back a simple one? Would I have to basically wipe the phone start all over, downloading all my apps and music back onto the phone?

Thanks very much.

**fb2** · 02-20-2013, 09:42 AM

Originally Posted by igorsky

Hey, everyone.

So I've never jailbroken any of my iPhones but have become really intrigued because of how easy and painless it has become with Evasion. I was wondering if any of you gurus can answer a couple of questions regarding the process...

1. What happens if you jailbreak, download a bunch of Cydia apps and then lose the jailbreak? Is there a mechanism for keeping track of what you downloaded and then reinstalling it upon jailbreaking again?

2. Let's say I jailbreak and decide that it's not for me...is the process of getting everything back a simple one? Would I have to basically wipe the phone start all over, downloading all my apps and music back onto the phone?

Thanks very much.

1.) Yeah, of course! There a many different apps which can do this. They can save all Tweaks, App Settings, Repo's and lot more

But even without jailbreak many settings are saved in your iTunes Backup/ iCloud Backup.

2.) Yes, you can always remove the jailbreak with restoring your phone. If you save a Backup, you can just restore in iTunes and the Phone is like before, just without Jailbreak

**bamf-hacker** · 02-20-2013, 12:05 PM

I actually keep a running list in a word doc stored in Dropbox. I have it sorted by, installed and interested in. Then sub categories for iPad and iPhone.

As for restoring back after you JB... I would recommend getting a good backup before you start the jailbreak process. If you do not have a good backup, it doesn't matter how many times you restore your phone you will have legacy jailbreak data in the backup. If and when you are done with Jailbreaking, restore your phone as new from a DFU state and it will be like nothing ever was installed on the phone. I found this out because I have been jailbraking for a long time. I always just restored from backup, while for a long while I was running stock and when I eventually re-jailbroke a lot of my JB settings were in place. That just shows a restore from backup restores JB data as well, even if you are not jailbroken.

Sorry for the rant... To summarize: Backup BEFORE you ever jailbreak so if you need to restore you will have a clean backup file to use.

**igorsky** · 02-20-2013, 12:44 PM

Thanks guys, really good tips and advice.

Appreciate your time.

**SnapThrow** · 02-20-2013, 02:11 PM

In regards to #1... I just take screen shots of my home pages, my jailbreak folder contents (I put all my jailbreak apps in one folder on my springboard), the jailbreak app area in settings, and the installed packages area of Cydia... easiest way to "remember" what jailbreak apps you have installed

**kazmi** · 02-20-2013, 02:39 PM

Good thread for beginners (like me!)...one question: has anyone noticed any lag or slow down with regular operations on the 4S? I jailbroke once back when I had a 4 and I had horrible lag (which basically was a lag of 3-5 seconds but after coming from a non-jb iphone, 3-5 second delays seem like an eternity).

**igorsky** · 02-21-2013, 09:22 AM

Originally Posted by bamf-hacker

I actually keep a running list in a word doc stored in Dropbox. I have it sorted by, installed and interested in. Then sub categories for iPad and iPhone.

As for restoring back after you JB... I would recommend getting a good backup before you start the jailbreak process. If you do not have a good backup, it doesn't matter how many times you restore your phone you will have legacy jailbreak data in the backup. If and when you are done with Jailbreaking, restore your phone as new from a DFU state and it will be like nothing ever was installed on the phone. I found this out because I have been jailbraking for a long time. I always just restored from backup, while for a long while I was running stock and when I eventually re-jailbroke a lot of my JB settings were in place. That just shows a restore from backup restores JB data as well, even if you are not jailbroken.

Sorry for the rant... To summarize: Backup BEFORE you ever jailbreak so if you need to restore you will have a clean backup file to use.

Regarding this method...what do you do if you jailbreak, and then 6 months later you go back to not jailbreaking, but now your good backup is 6 months old. Wouldn't things like contacts and calendar be extremely out of date?

Trust trying to understand the mechanics of this.

**fb2** · 02-21-2013, 06:19 PM

Originally Posted by igorsky

Hey, everyone.

So I've never jailbroken any of my iPhones but have become really intrigued because of how easy and painless it has become with Evasion. I was wondering if any of you gurus can answer a couple of questions regarding the process...

1. What happens if you jailbreak, download a bunch of Cydia apps and then lose the jailbreak? Is there a mechanism for keeping track of what you downloaded and then reinstalling it upon jailbreaking again?

2. Let's say I jailbreak and decide that it's not for me...is the process of getting everything back a simple one? Would I have to basically wipe the phone start all over, downloading all my apps and music back onto the phone?

Thanks very much.

Here's a post, just for your question about reinstalling Cydia apps etc.

**Sharma15** · 02-21-2013, 11:29 PM

My method of keeping track is going to Cyrus, select to remove mobile substrate (DON'T ACTUALLY DO IT) and then take screenshots of all the tweaks I've installed in that list.

**3cit** · 02-22-2013, 02:43 AM

Originally Posted by Sharma15

My method of keeping track is going to Cyrus, select to remove mobile substrate (DON'T ACTUALLY DO IT) and then take screenshots of all the tweaks I've installed in that list.

just a little clarification!

**fb2** · 02-23-2013, 08:09 AM

If you just want a list of your installed apps, you can use the free and great app "AppInfo", which shows you all apps, all repo, all tweaks and a lot of more stuff. It also gives you all kind of infos about apps and tweaks, for example how their bundle is called, where the files are stored, you can open apps with iFile directly from the AppInfo app, it's just a must-have for hobby-theme-mod-freaks (like me)

You can also export a small and a detailed list of all with all informations and links. Here some screenshots:

Sources (repos)
Packages (Cydia apps & tweaks)
Small list
Detailed list

**Bosox20** · 02-23-2013, 10:45 AM

@fb2. Thanks for the appinfo tip. That's a great app. Love how I can email myself everything I have for future reference or to send to a friend. Good stuff

**fb2** · 02-23-2013, 04:09 PM

exactly, you can just create a list and install it on a fresh restored device ;D

**natasftw** · 02-24-2013, 12:16 PM

Originally Posted by igorsky

Regarding this method...what do you do if you jailbreak, and then 6 months later you go back to not jailbreaking, but now your good backup is 6 months old. Wouldn't things like contacts and calendar be extremely out of date?

Trust trying to understand the mechanics of this.

If you turn contacts on within iCloud, this will keep track of your contacts. Then, when you restore, the backup won't be as important for tracking your contacts and you'll pull up the most recent version.