Hey guys! I hope you find this post helpful. It was an actual experience just this week with my iPod Touch 3rd generation. I was hooked up to new versions, and so I decided to update the iOS from 3.1.3 to iOS 4.2.1 but accidentally made it to iOS 4.1. How? I’ll tell the story.
As you all know, when you are still in iOS 3(all versions in 3), you’ll get pissed as many new apps are not usable to your current iOS. I hate to leave the iOS 3, but I have to. iOS 3 is easy to jailbreak, and maybe the safest. Yesterday, I tried to do the update, but went to some problem but wasn’t really a problem I just found out now.
After reading many guides from the internet, I figured one step to update to an iOS through iTunes, but not to the latest iOS released. iOS 4.3.2 was released, and iTunes was offering it to me, but the jailbreak available to that version is not unteethered yet. I had to update to some version with teethered function. iOS 4.2.1 was a good choice.
Here’s what I did:
– I downloaded the custom firmware for iOS 4.2.1 for iPod Touch 3rd gen.
– I set up my iPod Touch to DFU Mode.
– I opened iTunes, and before that, I altered some in my hosts file (C://Windows/system32/drivers/etc/hosts.txt). You’ll be putting 74.208.105.171 gs.apple.com, or something like that in the file. Make sure you are running as administrator.
– When I plugged my iPod Touch already in DFU Mode, it detected it as in recovery mode, and you can have a chance to restore it. I used the downloaded custom firmware which is iOS 4.2.1.ipsw.
-It took some seconds or a minute to restore my iPod. It was a success to make it to iOS 4.2.1.
Although, there’s a fail result. It went to recovery mode after booted from restoration. It shows the iTunes logo with the USB cable. You can’t use it since it only shows that. I tried to restore it again with iOS 4.1 because I thought that will solve the problem. Still, it can’t get out. I tried Tiny Umbrella and other programs like Recboot, Fixrecovery, and iReb. Those Youtube tuorials didn’t work for me. Those gave me nothing. I don’t know why, some says it worked for them.
After some hours of thinking, I gave up tweaking my iPod Touch. I decided to take it to a repair shop specialized with iPods and PSPs. I was shocked! He said it only needs an activation. No repair needed because it’s not broken or bricked. He just plugged it in iTunes, and it worked. 
I was wondering why didn’t it work when I was doing it at home. Is it because my iTunes is newly installed, and not registered by an account? That may be it. If only I have the iTunes which is signed in, maybe I was saved by the trouble of spending $7 for it, for the ‘kicking out of recovery mode’ and jailbreaking it. Well, I think it’s kind of worth it because it saved me the effort of jailbreaking it. By the way, he used Limera1n for jailbreaking the iOS 4.1. He only did all the process with about 5-10 minutes. Great, eh?
That’s my story. So try tweaking your iPod Touch, iPhone, or iPad. Don’t be scared or troubled, like I did. There’s no bricking when it comes to restore. I don’t know in jailbreaking. Green Poison is good for iOS 4.2.1. Just a little research pal.
So you have iPod, iPhone or iPad experiences? You can relay the problems of your Apple gadget here. Maybe I can help, even just a little. 🙂