iOS 8.4.1 Jailbreak Status: Stay Away from Latest Update

As we were anticipating, Apple has released iOS 8.4.1 today, coming with some minor performance improvements and bug fixes, but also patching up the iOS 8.4 jailbreak for good.

This means that iOS 8.4.1 is unjailbreakable and anyone wanting to jailbreak their iOS devices should stay away from this new update and stick with iOS 8.4.0.

In a support document overviewing the various fixes and improvements in iOS 8.4.1, Apple has credited the TaiG jailbreak team for finding the exploits in iOS 8.4, from which Apple then patched them up. Apple sees these exploits as security threats, and they very well should, as they’re technically unsafe and could lead to more hacking other than just jailbreaking.

We predicted back in July that the iOS 8.4.1 would most likely patch up TaiG’s iOS 8.4 jailbreak, so we can’t say we’re too surprised by today’s news, but it’s certainly another blow for the jailbreak community, who were hoping to be able to go through the entire summer into the fall with the ability to jailbreak the latest version of iOS.

In any case, it’s been a good ride for the jailbreak community up until now. An iOS 8.3 jailbreak released just before the arrival of iOS 8.4 in early June, and then the iOS 8.4 update released about a week later, quickly followed by an iOS 8.4 jailbreak from the TaiG team. Since then, both the iOS 8.4 jailbreak from TaiG and the Cydia jailbreak tweak store have seen constant updates over the last couple of months that have fixed bugs, security issues, and other general problems.

If you’re not on iOS 8.4.0 yet, there’s still time to update to that version without jumping to iOS 8.4.1, although the method is a little different since updating the normal way will force you to update to iOS 8.4.1.

You’ll need to download the iOS 8.4 IPSW from this website for your specific iOS device. Once it’s downloaded to your computer, the next step is to open up iTunes and plug in your iPhone or iPad.

Go to your device’s summary page in iTunes and hold down the Option/Alt key on your keyboard (or Shift if you’re on Windows) and click on Restore iPhone in iTunes. This will bring up the file explorer where you’ll navigate to the iOS 8.4 install file that you just downloaded. Open it and let iTunes do its thing.

This method will update your iPhone or iPad to iOS 8.4.0 and skip the iOS 8.4.1 update, which you would be forced to install if you restored the traditional way. After that, you can jailbreak your iOS device using the TaiG jailbreak tool.

As for the chances of TaiG working on an iOS 8.4.1 jailbreak, that’s still up in the air, but it wouldn’t be surprising if they were focusing their efforts on iOS 9 instead. It’s likely that iOS 8.4.1 will be the last iOS 8 update, and since we have about a month until iOS 9 releases, TaiG is probably thinking that there’s no point in working on an iOS 8.4.1 jailbreak when iOS 9 is right around the corner, especially considering that by the time they crack this latest update, iOS 9 will probably already be out and available to the public.

Of course, the severity of the patches that Apple applied may not be too bad, which could allow TaiG to simply workaround the patch quickly and easily, but this is rarely the case, and when a jailbreak is patched up, it usually takes a lot of time and effort for a new jailbreak to be discovered.

In any case, this certainly is a blow to jailbreakers, but iOS 8.4.0 is a great version of iOS to be on, so we’re not complaining too badly here.