Awesome
idevicerestore
A command-line application to restore firmware files to iOS devices.
Table of Contents
Features
The idevicerestore application is a full reimplementation of all granular steps which are performed during the restore of a firmware to a device.
In general, upgrades and downgrades are possible, however subject to availability of SHSH blobs from Apple for signing the firmware files.
Some key features are:
- Restore: Update firmware on iOS devices
- Firmware: Use official IPSW firmware archive file or a directory as source
- Update: Allows updating the device by default or erasing all data
- Download: On demand download of latest available firmware for a device
- Cache: Downloaded firmware files are cached locally
- Custom Firmware: Restore custom firmware files (requires bootrom exploit)
- Baseband: Allows you to skip NOR/Baseband upgrade
- SHSH: Fetch TSS records and save them as ".shsh" files
- DFU: Put devices in pwned DFU mode (limera1n devices only)
- AP Ticket: Use custom AP ticket from a file
- Cross-Platform: Tested on Linux, macOS, Windows and Android platforms
- History: Developed since 2010
WARNING: This tool can easily destroy your user data irreversibly.
Use with caution and make sure to backup your data before trying to restore.
In any case, usage is at your own risk.
Building
Prerequisites
You need to have a working compiler (gcc/clang) and development environent available. This project uses autotools for the build process, allowing to have common build steps across different platforms. Only the prerequisites differ and they are described in this section.
Linux (Debian/Ubuntu based)
- Install all required dependencies and build tools:
NOTE: libtatsu (and thussudo apt-get install \ build-essential \ pkg-config \ checkinstall \ git \ autoconf \ automake \ libtool-bin \ libreadline-dev \ libusb-1.0-0-dev \ libplist-dev \ libimobiledevice-dev \ libimobiledevice-glue-dev \ libtatsu-dev \ libcurl4-openssl-dev \ libssl-dev \ libzip-dev \ zlib1g-dev
libtatsu-dev
) is a new library that was just published recently, you have to build it from source. Also, other*-dev
packages might not be available for your distribution, so you will have to build these packages on your own as well.
macOS
-
Make sure the Xcode command line tools are installed.
Option 1: The easiest way to build and install
idevicerestore
for macOS is using the following build script which will do the work for you, it will build and install all required dependencies:mkdir -p limd-build cd limd-build curl -o ./limd-build-macos.sh -L https://is.gd/limdmacos bash ./limd-build-macos.sh
Follow the prompts of the script and you should have a working
idevicerestore
available.Option 2: Use either MacPorts or Homebrew to install
automake
,autoconf
, andlibtool
.Using MacPorts:
sudo port install libtool autoconf automake
Using Homebrew:
brew install libtool autoconf automake
idevicerestore
has a few dependencies from the libimobiledevice project. You will have to build and install the following:Check their
README.md
for building and installation instructions.
Windows
-
Using MSYS2 is the official way of compiling this project on Windows. Download the MSYS2 installer and follow the installation steps.
It is recommended to use the MSYS2 MinGW 64-bit shell. Run it and make sure the required dependencies are installed:
pacman -S base-devel \ git \ mingw-w64-x86_64-gcc \ make \ libtool \ autoconf \ automake-wrapper
NOTE: You can use a different shell and different compiler according to your needs. Adapt the above command accordingly.
idevicerestore
has a few dependencies from the libimobiledevice project. You will have to build and install the following:Check their
README.md
for building and installation instructions.
Configuring the source tree
You can build the source code from a git checkout, or from a .tar.bz2
release tarball from Releases.
Before we can build it, the source tree has to be configured for building. The steps depend on where you got the source from.
-
From git
If you haven't done already, clone the actual project repository and change into the directory.
git clone https://github.com/libimobiledevice/idevicerestore.git cd idevicerestore
Configure the source tree for building:
./autogen.sh
-
From release tarball (.tar.bz2)
When using an official release tarball (
idevicerestore-x.y.z.tar.bz2
) the procedure is slightly different.Extract the tarball:
tar xjf idevicerestore-x.y.z.tar.bz2 cd idevicerestore-x.y.z
Configure the source tree for building:
./configure
Both ./configure
and ./autogen.sh
(which generates and calls configure
) accept a few options, for example --prefix
to allow
building for a different target folder. You can simply pass them like this:
./autogen.sh --prefix=/usr/local
or
./configure --prefix=/usr/local
Once the command is successful, the last few lines of output will look like this:
[...]
config.status: creating config.h
config.status: config.h is unchanged
config.status: executing depfiles commands
config.status: executing libtool commands
Configuration for idevicerestore 1.1.0:
-------------------------------------------
Install prefix: .........: /usr/local
Now type 'make' to build idevicerestore 1.1.0,
and then 'make install' for installation.
Important
idevicerestore requires a properly installed usbmuxd for the restore procedure. Please make sure that it is either running or configured to be started automatically as soon as a device is detected in normal and/or restore mode. If properly installed this will be handled by udev/systemd.
Usage
The primary scenario is to restore a new firmware to a device. First of all attach your device to your machine.
Then simply run:
idevicerestore --latest
This will print a selection of firmware versions that are currently being signed and can be restored to the attached device. It will then attempt to download and restore the selected firmware.
By default, an update restore is performed which will preserve user data.
Mind that if the firmware file does not contain a 'Customer Upgrade Install' variant, an erase restore will be performed.
You can force restoring with erasing all data and basically resetting the device by using:
idevicerestore --erase --latest
Please consult the usage information or manual page for a full documentation of available command line options:
idevicerestore --help
man idevicerestore
Contributing
We welcome contributions from anyone and are grateful for every pull request!
If you'd like to contribute, please fork the master
branch, change, commit and
send a pull request for review. Once approved it can be merged into the main
code base.
If you plan to contribute larger changes or a major refactoring, please create a ticket first to discuss the idea upfront to ensure less effort for everyone.
Please make sure your contribution adheres to:
- Try to follow the code style of the project
- Commit messages should describe the change well without being too short
- Try to split larger changes into individual commits of a common domain
- Use your real name and a valid email address for your commits
Links
- Homepage: https://libimobiledevice.org/
- Repository: https://git.libimobiledevice.org/idevicerestore.git
- Repository (Mirror): https://github.com/libimobiledevice/idevicerestore.git
- Issue Tracker: https://github.com/libimobiledevice/idevicerestore/issues
- Mailing List: https://lists.libimobiledevice.org/mailman/listinfo/libimobiledevice-devel
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/libimobiledev
License
This project is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License v3.0,
also included in the repository in the COPYING
file.
Credits
Apple, iPhone, iPad, iPod, iPod Touch, Apple TV, Apple Watch, Mac, iOS, iPadOS, tvOS, watchOS, and macOS are trademarks of Apple Inc.
This project is an independent software application and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc.
README Updated on: 2024-06-19