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iPhone OS 3.0 Upgrade

The beta version of iPhone OS 3.0 (build 7A238j) was made available on Apple’s Developer Connection website yesterday. Here are the steps to install the new OS (as tested with an iPhone 3G):

  1. Sync the phone to iTunes and backup all data! Subsequent steps will wipe out the iPhone and you will need a backup to restore from.
  2. On a Mac which has your iPhone SDK and Xcode, download the OS 3.0 build. It’s about 229 MiB.
  3. Connect your iPhone to the Mac.
  4. Drag and drop the downloaded file iPhone1,2_3.0_7A238j_Restore.ipsw onto Xcode. Downloaded iPhone OS 3.0
  5. The Xcode Organizer should open up and display your phone with multiple firmware choices – the existing firmware on the phone (I was using 2.2.1) and the new 3.0 firmware. Select the new 3.0 firmware and restore it to your iPhone. This will wipe out all data on the phone! The process takes about 12-15 minutes to flash the phone and update the baseband. At the end the phone will reboot and ask to be connected to iTunes. Xcode Organizer
  6. Connect the phone to iTunes. At this point, iTunes will ask you if you want to setup as a new phone or restore your existing backup. Choose to restore the backup and let iTunes restore the data on the phone. It took about 30 minutes to do this with my phone. iTunes Restore
  7. Again, the phone will reboot and sync with iTunes. At this point, a normal sync will happen and install all your original applications.

After all these changes, the phone should be on OS 3.0: os3.0

Feature hands-on reviews in a subsequent post.

Comments

Anonymous said…
If I'm not iPhone Developer member, can I activate my iPhone 3G with iTunes after restore this 3.0 beta?

Thank you.
Anonymous said…
Theoretically, if you had the OS image and Xcode you could restore the 3.0 beta and then activate the phone. But remember that you can't downgrade according to Apple's advisory.

"By installing iPhone OS 3.0 beta software on your Authorized Test Devices, these Devices are permanently "locked" into testing mode and cannot be restored to earlier versions of iPhone OS."
Anonymous said…
Thanks tech

I already restore my iPhone 3G Unlocked with 3.0 beta. It can activate via iTunes even through I'm not iPhone Developer.
Ramon said…
3.0 software can be UPGRADED via iTunes, not RESTORED as from that point, You will lock device without activation and will not be usable until You register on developers program @apple web site.
Downgrade IS possible by turning device in DFU mode and restoring even original or whatever software You have.
Cheers, Fergy
iGame Hakerz said…
Can I do this on windows? Also, I was able to downgrade from the 3.0 Beta to 2.2.1. Took me a few days to do so. I'll put how. It is pretty easy:
1) open itunes
2) get iphone in DFU mode
3) select restore iphone (using the original 2.2.1 firmware, not the custom one)
4) let iphone do the restart process until you get ERROR 1013
5) close itunes
6) open quickpwn. you will get a message saying to hold power and home for 15 seconds. do it exactly like that hold the power and home for 15 secs.
7) turn on iphone by holding power button for 2 secs
8) open itunes and iphone is recognize and activated
Rainman said…
@Tech: Where did you get a Mac to install the SDK and build 3.0?

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