Apple's iOS 4 looks great, has loads of new features, works just fine on a 3GS. But it's turned our iPhone 3Gs into expensive ornaments: it made them - and the 3Gs of everyone we know - so slow they were barely useable.
The good news is that you can fix it; the bad news is that you need to dump iOS 4 and it takes ages. Here's how to roll back iPhone OS to 3.13.
Disclaimer: Future Publishing Limited provides the information for this project in good faith and makes no representations as to its completeness or accuracy. Individuals carrying out the instructions in this project do so at their own risk.
Step 1
Before you do anything, sync your iPhone with iTunes and ensure anything you want to keep - including contacts and photos - is on your computer. If you've disabled syncing of contacts, photos and so on it might be an idea to enable them again and do another sync.
We can't stress this enough: the downgrade will wipe your iPhone, and once you're back on OS 3.1.3 you can't restore data from backups made in iOS 4.0 or 4.0.1. That means if something hasn't been copied from your iPhone to your computer and you've added it since upgrading to 4.0 or 4.0.1, you'll lose it permanently.
Step 2
Now, we need to find iPhone OS 3.1.3. This should be on your computer: on a Mac, go to your hard disk and open up Macintosh HD > Users > Yourname > Library > iTunes > iPhone Software Updates; on a PC, head for C:\Documents and Setting\Yourname\Application Data\Apple Computer\iTunes\iPhone Software Updates. The one we're looking for is iPhone1,2_3.1.3_7E18_Restore.ipsw. If it isn't there, download it.
Please note this file is for a 3G, not a 3GS: if you're downgrading one of them for whatever reason, the .ipsw file you need starts iPhone2,1.
Step 3
Time for another download: RecBoot. On Windows, you'll also need to make sure you've got .NET 4.0 installed, and if you're running Vista or Windows 7 you'll need to run it in Compatibility Mode. Full instructions are here.
Now, put your iPhone into recovery mode. To do that, connect your iPhone to your computer and switch it off. When it's completely off, press and hold the power button and the Home button for ten seconds and then let go of the power button. Keep pressing Home until iTunes says that it "has detected an iPhone in recovery mode".
Step 4
If iTunes hasn't done it already, select your iPhone in the left hand iTunes panel so the Restore button is visible. Don't just click it, though: Alt/Option-Click it if you're on a Mac and Shift-Click it if you're on a PC. This enables you to select the file to restore from, which is the .ipsw one we looked for earlier, so locate that, select it and click on Choose.
Step 5
iTunes will now give you a factory-fresh iPhone 3G running OS 3.1.3. The process takes ten minutes or so, and when it's finished iTunes will probably tell you that the iPhone couldn't be restored because of an unknown error. Don't worry about this: that's why we downloaded RecBoot. On a Mac, run the RecBoot Exit Only application; on PC, launch RecBoot. Now, select Exit Recovery Mode.
Step 6
Your iPhone should now restart, and after a moment iTunes will ask whether you want to set it up as a new iPhone or restore from a backup. Now that you've downgraded you can't restore from iOS 4.0 or 4.0.1 backups, so you'll have to choose a pre-iOS 4 backup (if you have one). The restore process takes about ten minutes.
Step 7
Your iPhone should restart again, but it's not ready to use yet: now, you need to sync it. That means copying across all your music, all your movies, all your apps… this would be a good time to make dinner, start a family, make a volcano from mashed potato or write the Great American Novel. Depending on how much stuff there is to sync, syncing your newly restored 3G can take hours. Trust us. It's worth it.
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Your comments (16) Click to add a new comment
bdc
September 1st 2010
16. When I click on restore I get prompted for a .ipsw file, but the file that was downloaded was a zip file, so I cannot select it. How do I proceed ?
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likenew1
August 31st 2010
15. It's like falling in love all over again.
When we first met, my iPhone was everything I dreamed a companion could be, responsive to my touch, reliable, easy to get on with. It's like we knew what each other wanted.
Since it got all fancy and upgraded it's just felt like we weren't communicating. Ignoring my input, sulking before doing anything, sometimes just shutting me out all together.
Thanks to your fine instructions I have found my perfect communications partner again. I remember why I fell in love the first time.
Seriously though- good instructions and hugely effective.
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iphone3gsquestioneer
July 31st 2010
14. I have a problem using this method:
When I click "Exit Recovery Mode" in RecBoot Exit Only, it doesn't restore my iPhone according to the .ispw I chose, but it just exits recovery mode and goes back to how it was. I really need to unlock my iPhone 3Gs, but i need to downgrade to at least iOS 4.0 to do that, I am currently at 4.0.1. Any help would be highly appreciated, thanks!
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joecashnow
July 29th 2010
13. I read that downloaded the 3.1.3 for the 3GS, but when I get to step 4 and look for the .ipsw. Its not there. I checked to make sure I downloaded the correct version.
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bigbadmoon
July 28th 2010
12. Hi, The downgrade to 3.1.3 appeared successful on my 3G however I've found that i can no longer get a gps fix for any of my apps. Any ideas??
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garymarshall
July 27th 2010
11. It's the same process for the 3GS but with a different file - it's on http://www.iclarified.com/entry/index.php?enid=750 and the file you need is iPhone2,1_3.1.3_7E18_Restore.ipsw.
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mrmajjk50
July 25th 2010
10. Is there a method to restore from 4.0 to 3.1.3 for the 3GS?
Like an idiot I update my phone through iTunes and now I am stuck with this worthless garbabge. If anyone can help it would be very much appreciated.
Thanks
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matnlarn
July 24th 2010
9. Fantastic. Worked like a charm. One hitch I had was iTunes booted the old restore file I dumped into the Library. Had to fetch it out of the Trash, but then things kept moving right along.
And I'm back to the old days, when my phone didn't crash every 30 seconds.
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omo
July 23rd 2010
8. Uggh. I upgraded my 3G to iOS4 just before leaving on a vacation where I had nothing but frustration. I backed up and synced my phone prior to the upgrade, but took lots of photos on my trip. You state in Step 1 that when downgrading to iOS 3.1.3 you'll lose everything added while in iOS4. Does this also apply to photos? Is there a way for me to sync or save these photos prior to the downgrade (iPhoto???). I could always e-mail them out, but there are hundreds!
Thanks!
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garymarshall
July 22nd 2010
7. Claudeeustace, I take it the Reset Network Settings trick didn't work for you? It may be worth a trip to the Genius Bar, because most of the time either a network reset or a soft reset should fix it. If an entire OS change doesn't do the trick it sounds like a hardware fault.
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garymarshall
July 22nd 2010
6. Irongiant, that's interesting. I've not heard of widespread problems on the 3GS so maybe you're just unlucky. Maybe try restoring to see if that fixes it? For what it's worth 4.1 is in the hands of developers just now so it should be along shortly.
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scottbristoluk
July 22nd 2010
5. Sorry guys, ignore my last comment!
I now have iOS 3.1.3 !!!!! :D
Thank You!!
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scottbristoluk
July 22nd 2010
4. Tried this with my iPhone 3G and it didn't work!
Maybe it's because I stupidly downloaded iTunes 9.2.1 minutes before I found this article...
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irongiant
July 22nd 2010
3. Thanks for this, though it's clearly incorrect that there aren't problems with the 3GS handsets when running OS4. Since upgrading mine it now randomly locks up, closes internet sessions, apps close for no reason and it generally runs slower than before so i will definitely be downgrading mine. For my next phone i'm definitely now considering a HTC instead.
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claudeeustace
July 22nd 2010
2. Thank you Gary for putting together the most straightforward, workable downgrade tutorial on the net. Much appreciated. The downgrade didn't fix my greyed-out Wifi, but things are running faster.
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devilz
July 21st 2010
1. Thank you... My 3G was so slow... Thanx again... the tutorial works perfectly... Cheerz...
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