A slick iPhone unbrick trick

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Tuesday, 20 November 2007 16:47

Your IT - Mobility

The problems started when a friend noted that the new Summerboard app – the one for 1.1.1. firmware - only let you swipe through your installed program icons ‘one screen at a time’, moving 16 icons at a time sideways instead of being able to move one row at a time.

This was the case with the previous Summerboard software for the 1.0.2 firmware, which scrolled downwards instead of sideways as per the new version.

Naturally, I noticed this immediately upon installation of the version of Summerboard for 1.1.1, and looked for a way to restore the old functionality, but it was not there, so I just decided to live with it. 

When my friend voiced his surprise, I made the decision to uninstall the existing Summerboard for 1.1.1 so I could try to install the old version. The problem is that at the time, I didn’t realise what uninstalling Summerboard would do.

I also didn’t realise, at the time, that the old Summerboard wouldn’t work with the new 1.1.1 firmware – I had simply assumed incorrectly that the old Summerboard would just work in the old way which I had preferred. That was a mistake – DO NOT uninstall it thinking you can just re-install it afterwards.

There was a warning that I might not have access to third party apps if it was removed, but given my assumption I could just re-install it, I wasn’t too worried about that.

Once Summerboard was uninstalled and the iPhone restarted, the Apple logo along with the spinning ‘wait’ icon started up and wouldn’t go away. Trying to re-start the iPhone and holding down the home button, just to see what would happen, produced a flashing screen with zebra bands of white and black, flashing on and off.

The iPhone was bricked!

So… a bricked iPhone. My first thought went to the restore button in iTunes. But as I'd unlocked my iPhone, would restoring it back to 1.1.1 firmware only brick it further?

Restoring an unlocked 1.1.1 iPhone back to original 1.1.1 firmware seemed to be a risky thing, given the problems people experienced in upgrading to it. But, wanting to get the iPhone working again, I threw caution to the wind and decided to go straight to iTunes to find out.

The answer to whether restoring an unlocked iPhone to 1.1.1 firmware works - or just introduces new problems to be solved - along with exactly how I unbricked the iPhone are on the next page ...