Restored iPhone to 3.1.2 without ECID on file for 3.1.2 (WEIRD)

This is completely weird and I don’t know how it happened. I am an n00b and don’t know much about the technical details. In short, I am just an end user.

Today @around 23:30 IST, I was trying to find ways to downgrade my iPhone 3GS 32GB (Refurbished) white with model no MC134LL and serial no 329470BC3NS (surprisingly with the older iboot – so no tethered jailbreak – lucky me) from 3.1.3 to 3.1.2 so that I could unlock it using Geohot’s Blacksn0w. My brother had purchased this refurbished iPhone from AT&T and it came OTB with OS 3.1.2 and baseband 05.11.07 on around the 27st of December 2009. This was shipped to him in a week and he then sent it to me here in India sometime in the month of February.

Now when I received this phone Apple had already upgraded their iPhone OS to 3.1.3 and I was unable to save my ECID for 3.1.2 on Cydia. I managed to Jailbreak the phone using redsn0w and was using it on 3.1.2. In the beginning when I first launched Cydia, it asked me if I wanted to make my life easier and backup my ECID on file. Upon which is selected yes. For a few days whenever I launched Cydia, it said “This device has a pending TSS request” or something similar. But some days later it started showing I have an ECID on file for iPhone OS 3.1.3.

Few days back I had some problem with my EDGE services not working and tried to reset my network settings. My iPhone got stuck on the Apple boot logo and that’s it. This is when I thought I was doomed since I had read about not being able to restore to 3.1.2 without having ECID for 3.12 saved on file with Cydia. I was onto Google to see if Geohot or the Dev-Team have come up with anything to unlock for iPhone OS 3.1.3. Finally after losing all hope I used Pwange tool for Mac (version 3.1.5) to restore my iPhone to 3.1.3 without upgrading my baseband.
In-between somewhere on a website (guess it was Redmond pie) I read that I could use blacksn0w even on 3.1.3 to unlock my iPhone if my baseband was still 5.11.07. So I tried and got stuck. Eventually Had to restore my phone to 3.1.3 custom firmware again.

Coming to today, I tried editing the etc hosts file on my windows 7 desktop (adding lines like gs. apple.com and followed by some IP address, which I had read somewhere on a website) and used iTunes to restore my iPhone OS to 3.1.2 (Custom Firmware created by Pwange tool 3.1.5 Mac Version). To my surprise I was able to do it without a single error and believe me when I say I don’t yet have ECID on file on Cydia for 3.1.2. Now when I launch Cydia it still just says that I have ECID on file for iPhone OS 3.1.3 and not for 3.1.2. I don’t know how this happened. Maybe the Dev’s could look into it. But I am just sharing my experience with the community.

- Rushi Parikh.

If u can restore using pwnage tools then u dt need ur ecid!

i did not use Pwnage tool to restore, i used iTunes to restore. I created a Custom IPSW (3.1.2) using the Pwange tool for mac.

looks like you got 3.1.2 shsh uploaded to saurik's server after all. i think his database is a little corrupted now as it is showing some 3.1.2 shsh on file as 3.1.3, this happened to me and i think it happened to you. i never ever upgraded to 3.1.3 but he claims he has my 3.1.3 blobs on file so his server is certainly screwed up.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rushiparikh

i did not use Pwnage tool to restore, i used iTunes to restore. I created a Custom IPSW (3.1.2) using the Pwange tool for mac.

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As long as you have an old bootrom 3GS and you are already jailbroken you can restore any custom IPSW. This is because the jailbreak removes the checks for SHSH.

Restoring to original Apple IPSW (eg 3.1.3) will put these checks back into place. This happens very early in the restore process, so you can't use this to trick a restore of original 3.1.2

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Olethros

As long as you have an old bootrom 3GS and you are already jailbroken you can restore any custom IPSW. This is because the jailbreak removes the checks for SHSH.

Restoring to original Apple IPSW (eg 3.1.3) will put these checks back into place. This happens very early in the restore process, so you can't use this to trick a restore of original 3.1.2

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This means as long as one has the 3GS with an old bootrom and has not updated his baseband to 5.12.01 & is jailbroken on any firmware.. he/she can still jailbreak/unlock his/her iPhone.
I guess this is a neat trick and personally I didn't know of it nor is it mentioned about in a lot of forums.
Thanks a lot for the info, will keep it in mind in future.
For once, I thought that I might be stuck with my iPhone till someone gets an unlock out. But this helped me..
Cheers!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rushiparikh

This means as long as one has the 3GS with an old bootrom and has not updated his baseband to 5.12.01 & is jailbroken on any firmware.. he/she can still jailbreak/unlock his/her iPhone.
I guess this is a neat trick and personally I didn't know of it nor is it mentioned about in a lot of forums.
Thanks a lot for the info, will keep it in mind in future.
For once, I thought that I might be stuck with my iPhone till someone gets an unlock out. But this helped me..

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Yes, this works as long as the NOR (kind of like the BIOS on the phone) does not get corrupted.

If this gets corrupted, then the phone drops into DFU mode automatically and won't come out again until a legitimate Apple IPSW is restored. DFU mode on the 3GS ONLY accepts legitimate apple IPSW with valid SHSH. This is why all the instructions for 3GS say to use recovery mode for jailbreaking.

Not to threadjack, but as the device in question is a refurb, is it possible that the ECID was already on file from the user who had the device initially? The way I understand the refurb process is that if I do something that causes Apple to replace my device under warranty, they do (with a refurbed device), and my device goes back into a repair queue, ends up getting repaired (if possible), then sent out as a refurb to someone else who sends theirs in.

Does what Apple does to these phones during the refurb process reset the ECID data? Or is the unique 3GS identifier the same before and after refurb? Perhaps the person who had this phone before you jailbroke it and put the SHSH blobs on file with Cydia?

Not sure. Just speculation at this point.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by n1ckn4m3

Not to threadjack, but as the device in question is a refurb, is it possible that the ECID was already on file from the user who had the device initially? The way I understand the refurb process is that if I do something that causes Apple to replace my device under warranty, they do (with a refurbed device), and my device goes back into a repair queue, ends up getting repaired (if possible), then sent out as a refurb to someone else who sends theirs in.

Does what Apple does to these phones during the refurb process reset the ECID data? Or is the unique 3GS identifier the same before and after refurb? Perhaps the person who had this phone before you jailbroke it and put the SHSH blobs on file with Cydia?

Not sure. Just speculation at this point.

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he restored to a custom Ipsw so there isn't any check from apple

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ZeRaWaReZ

he restored to a custom Ipsw so there isn't any check from apple

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Gotcha -- I missed the part in his initial explanation that covered that he received it at 3.1.2 and jailbroke it -- I thought he had received it unjailbroken and applied a custom IPSW and managed to bypass the sig check (which I didn't think would work). Thanks for the clarification :)