Warning
do NOT upgrade your iPhone 3G to iOS 4. Despite what claims Apple makes on their website, the iPhone 3G is simply not powerful enough to handle iOS 4.
I’m personally of the opinion that the iPhone 3G doesn’t even handle iOS 3 very well, and if you were to test an iPhone 3G and an iPhone 3GS side by side, I’m sure you’d agree with me. I’ve received no less than a dozen HELP ME! calls in the past couple weeks from folks who have upgraded their 3G to iOS 4 only to experience crashes, freezes, and slow-down.
Well, all is not lost. You can turn back time, and back down to iOS 3, but there’s a bit of a process involved. It’s not simple, though it’s not overly difficult either.
Here’s an article that appeared on Mac|Life today outlining the process. Good luck! If you do try this, and run into trouble, or get stuck, or even get scared, click on the big HELP button at the bottom of this page, fill out a ticket, and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.
Here goes ~
Author Credit: Susie Ochs
It’s official. Four out of four Mac|Life editors still using the iPhone 3G have said sayonara to iOS 4. Many of its marquee features aren’t compatible with our two-year-old handsets anyway—no multitasking, no nifty orientation lock, not even background wallpaper. And worst of all, it hobbles our once-functional phones until they’re near-useless. Apps crash, or they’re teeth-pullingly slow to open. Download speeds are so slow we feel like we’re back on dialup. The entire OS even crashes back to the Apple-logo screen. It’s just not worth it. So we rolled back. And if you feel our pain, we recommend you do too. Here is everything you need to know.
Difficulty: medium
What You Need:
>> iPhone 3G
>> iTunes (free, apple.com)
>> RecBoot (free, www.sebby.net/443-recboot-final-release/)
>> iPhone OS 3.1.3 firmware image (see Step 3)1. Check Your Back(-ups)
I’ve got some pre-June 21 backups, but alas they are all for various office iPads.
Not to get ahead of ourselves, but before you restore your iPhone with the older OS, it’s a good idea to consider if you’ll be setting up your newly downgraded phone from scratch as if it were a new phone, or if you’ll be restoring it to a backup. The catch is that you can only OS 3.1.3 backup, not to a backup made after you put iOS 4 on your phone.
iOS 4 came out June 21. So to see if you have any iPhone backups made with OS 3.1.3, navigate to ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup and see if any of the folder inside are dated before then. But since iTunes doesn’t keep more than one backup per device, if you’ve synced your iPhone to iTunes after upgrading to iOS 4, you probably don’t have a backup of your phone with OS 3.1.3.
2. Data Dump
3. No Data Left Behind
iTunes can transfer iTunes Store and App Store purchases onto your Mac.
If you buy music or apps directly on your phone, connect it to your Mac and choose File > Transfer Purchases from [Phone Name] in iTunes. You’ll also lose your SMS and MMS messages, so take screenshots of those, or follow the instructions at insend.de to back them up as a PDF, CSV, or XML file. Basically, you need get every scrap of information on your iPhone onto your computer somewhere, because you’re about to wipe your iPhone completely. One more note: Any apps you put back on your restored phone will behave as if you’ve never used them. So if you use apps with accounts tied to them (Facebook, Flickr, Instapaper, etc.) you might want to jot down your account info. And sadly, you’ll lose your progress in any games, plus lose access to the iBooks app, which requires iOS 4.
CLICK HERE to continue reading this important article at Mac|Life.
{ 4 comments }
is there a way to downgrad the 3gs?
Sure thing Jackie,
Read the linked article to the end, it explains it step by step. It’s not too late!
is there a way to downgrad the 3gs?
Sure thing Jackie,
Read the linked article to the end, it explains it step by step. It's not too late!