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How to Restore Your iPhone Without Losing Your iOS 7 Jailbreak

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Apple officially released iOS 7.1 and that means new features and better performance for those who update. However, if you’re using the iOS 7 jailbreak, you’ll have to stay put, since the Evasi0n7 jailbreak isn’t available for iOS 7.1.

With that said, it’s best for you to stay away from any iOS updates on iTunes and that includes the Restore feature. Restoring your jailbroken iPhone will delete the jailbreak and update it to iOS 7.1. Why is that? Because Apple released iOS 7.1, it’s no longer making available past updates, including iOS 7.0.6, so users can’t simply restore their iPhone and keep their current iOS version that they’re using. It sounds cruel, but that’s how Apple does things.

iOS 7 jailbreak

You probably won’t find a reason to voluntarily restore your jailbroken iPhone, so you’re safe for the most part, but the risky thing about jailbreaking is that you could always download and install a tweak in Cydia that randomly screws up your phone. Reddit user Pls_txt_me says it best:

“Be careful installing any package now because you can’t restore through iTunes if things go badly wrong. Some packages can cause problems even if they’ve been checked and other people don’t have problems.”

However, there’s a Cydia app that can fix all of this. It’s called iLEX RAT and it provides restore functionality for jailbroken devices. Essentially, if a Cydia tweak that you installed is giving your iPhone some problems, iLEX RAT removes all installed tweaks and jailbreak-related files except Cydia itself, getting rid of any problematic tweaks that might have caused the issue.

ilex-rat

To install the app from Cydia, you’ll need to add a repo. To do that, tap on the Manage tab at the bottom, then tap Sources and hit Edit at the top. Now tap Add and type in the following URL into the text box: https://cydia.myrepospace.com/ilexinfo/.

Now search for iLEX RAT in Cydia and several options should pop up. Be sure to select the one that has iOS 7 in parentheses. Once installed, open up the app and tap on either iLEX R.A.T. or iLEX RESTORE to begin the restoring process.  The first option will keep all content and settings intact on your iPhone, while the latter will essentially factory reset your iPhone, but both options will keep the jailbreak intact.

29 Comments

29 Comments

  1. Larry

    03/11/2014 at 9:52 am

    I’m GLAD apple patched the jb!! Nothing was as good as last year anyways!! Great job envaders you idiots!!! Haaaaaa

  2. Mike

    03/11/2014 at 10:58 am

    Larry the bellend

  3. Sam

    03/11/2014 at 10:34 pm

    Hello I have iphone 5 jailbreak on ios 7.0.4
    I’m trying to restore my phone unjailbroke with itunes i received error 3194 all time

  4. Degenerate

    03/12/2014 at 3:39 pm

    I installed it but there is no app to open and it’s not in settings. Please help

  5. corry lemus

    03/12/2014 at 10:00 pm

    @Degenerate uninstall it & re install & the app should be there :)

  6. sub

    03/13/2014 at 12:41 am

    after restoring the device can I remove the Ilex rat? ( sorry newbie here )

  7. sub_ohm

    03/13/2014 at 12:50 am

    sorry, it automatically removed itself, big help… thanks man

  8. Degenerate

    03/13/2014 at 4:32 am

    Thanks for the reply. I tried uninstalling and everything. Still nothing.

  9. Jason

    03/13/2014 at 6:51 am

    Please HELP! i have installed a malicious app from cydia and now cydia wont open and i cant delete this app thats giving me trouble. Cydia is saying dpkg was interrupted you must manually run dpkg to correct the problem. What should i do?

  10. sjoukje

    03/13/2014 at 12:36 pm

    Delete all the numbered files in /var/lib/dpkg/updates and reboot.
    Worked for me yesterday.

  11. Jason

    03/13/2014 at 1:02 pm

    I dont understand where to go to delete this files. cydia doesnt work even in safe mode :/

  12. Jason

    03/13/2014 at 1:19 pm

    I dont have openssh instaled or anything like that

  13. Iphone

    03/13/2014 at 1:56 pm

    @jason you’ll need app called ifile to do that

  14. Jason

    03/13/2014 at 1:59 pm

    How can i install it when cydia doesnt work?

  15. Degenerate

    03/13/2014 at 2:34 pm

    Any other ideas on why ilex rat will not show the icon on my ipad mini? Really need it to work. Thanks for any help.

  16. B2

    03/15/2014 at 12:33 am

    Did this work for anyone?

  17. Kev

    03/15/2014 at 7:27 am

    Sam. If you have a windows computer, download this fixit from Microsoft. It worked for me for the 3194 iTunes error. https://support.microsoft.com/kb/972034

  18. Bec

    03/16/2014 at 3:17 pm

    @Jason,
    I had the same problem. I didn’t have ifile, but I managed to fix it.
    If you still need help, try this:
    Plug your phone in
    Open evasion
    Press jailbreak (yes I know it’s not recommend but it didn’t hurt mine)
    Wait until your device reboots and the evasion is installed on your phone.
    Evasion will now tell you to open it.
    If it’s like mine, it will crash every time you press it, so hold it down and delete it.
    Then close evasion completely on your computer.
    Open cydia.

    Worked a treat for mine.
    Hope it works for you

    • WMA

      05/26/2014 at 7:43 am

      Same problem like u. But I can’t solved until now.

  19. Godfred

    03/19/2014 at 12:44 am

    Great help

  20. Adel

    03/20/2014 at 4:14 pm

    hi, i bought iphone 5s so it has 7.0.4 so i want to update to 7.0.6 how can i do that i dont want 7.1 pleas help me i really need it thanks a lot

  21. Ofir

    03/26/2014 at 7:08 am

    after i restored it, i can use my backup from itunes and my jailbreak won’t disappear, right?

  22. Juju

    03/27/2014 at 1:45 am

    I accidentally deleted some file out of Ifile that cydia needed but I don’t know what file it was all I know is that it was under var/mobile/lib/apt/list and it was the very first file at the top, but ever since I deleted it I can’t even open my cydia! Someone please help:(

  23. Vaidik

    04/10/2014 at 5:13 am

    YESSSSSSSSSS! Thank You so much! my phone messed up and would go into the jailbroken springboard… this fixed everything ;D

  24. Cookie

    05/08/2014 at 11:23 pm

    Thanks, this is a real lifesaver! Works like a charm :)

  25. WMA

    05/26/2014 at 7:49 am

    I’m not recommended to use this I lex rat….I’m now in deep trouble with my phone. My cydia crash time to time I open it. Force closed all the time…..beware everybody..

  26. Nay

    10/20/2014 at 11:19 am

    Hi my hubbie has lost iTunes App Store and even the settings file even using the search bar will not find it on his phone!! We tried connecting to iTunes through the computer but it wouldn’t connect how can we restore his phone

  27. Mike heds

    11/05/2014 at 7:56 pm

    Sjouke- I’m stuck in constant safe mode every time after I respring after trying to do like 8 updates in a queue, and getting some exact same messages but in my var/lib/dpkg/updates there is nothing there, there’s a bunch in var/lib/dpkg/updates…and also getting message from crash reporter that ifile has crashed after being opened and in background, as well as if ifile registration failed message when I’m in the app that I continue to have to close, possible something went wrong on the ifile update I just did today I’m thinking maybe, usin 4s on 7.0.4 jailbreak btw, ilexrat is my last resort if anybody could offer help to get me outa continous safe mode with no cydia stuff in settings now but I do have access to my cydia app….plz help anybody!?! Thx!

  28. Tim Sutton

    08/15/2015 at 3:50 am

    How long does it take to start up again? ive restored using the iLEX RAT app and now the phones been stuck on the apple logo screen for about an hour?

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