QuickPWN 2.2.1 Guide & Tutorial
February 1, 2009 by Jack Svetlana
Filed under iPhone Guide, iPhone Hacks & Cracks, iPhone News
This guide will show you how to use QuickPWN to jailbreak your iPhone firmware 2.2.1. Please read carefully all the steps and warnings before attempting to use QuickPWN to jailbreak your iPhone. The following tutorial is for PC users.
Before doing anything, I suggest you read this important message from the Dev Team.
- GOLDEN RULE: If you have a 3G iPhone running 2.2 firmware and you want to keep your ability to use yellowns0w (or the option to use it in the future) do NOT use QuickPwn, and do not use the official ipsw or the iTunes update process without using PwnageTool.
- Yellowsn0w will NOT work with the baseband version (02.30.03) that is present in the recent 2.2.1 update – you will need to create a custom ipsw that will allow you to update safely without affecting the baseband.
- Please read all parts of this post before downloading and using these tools.
- Read items 1, 2 and 3 again and again.
- At the bottom of this post are the bittorrent files for the latest versions of PwnageTool and QuickPwn.
- These apps are suitable for the recent 2.2.1 release.
- The Yellowsn0w version has been updated to 0.9.7. Yellowsn0w is available from Cydia or Installer - this version allows compatibility with pwned 2.2.1 system (not baseband) - again – remember 0.9.7 yellowsn0w DOES NOT WORK WITH 2.2.1 (02.30.03) directly - you need to be running a ‘pwned’ version of 2.2.1 which doesn’t upgrade the baseband.
- Users of OS X 10.5.6 will be unable to use DFU mode correctly, please see the note towards the end of this post to easily fix this issue.
What does that mean? It means that you can only use this method if you don’t care about unlocking your iPhone in the future with YellowSn0w. If you’re a “legit” AT&T iPhone user and you have no interest in unlocking your iPhone in the future, then this is for you.
On the other hand, if you’re not a “legit” user or if you do want to be able to unlock your iPhone in the future using YellowSn0w, then this is NOT for you. If that’s the case, you will have to jailbreak your iPhone using PwnageTool, which will preserve your baseband. I will do my best to provide you a PwnageTool tutorial asap!
This being said, this QuickPWN guide will help you jailbreak your iPod Touch, iPhone 2G, and iPhone 3G. There is no jailbreak available yet for iPod Touch 2G!
MAKE SURE YOU READ EVERYTHING BEFORE STARTING TO USE QUICKPWN. THERE IS NO ROOM FOR FREESTYLE!!! YOU ARE USING QUICKPWN AT YOUR OWN RISKS!
That was sort of my disclaimer as I am tired of people messing up their iPhones and holding me responsible for it. So again, you’re using QuickPWN at your own risks. If you have any issue during the process, please leave a comment.
Everything you need to download is in the iPhone Downloads section of the site.
1. On your desktop, create a folder called Pwnage. In this folder save a copy of the 2.2.1 firmware (make sure you use the appropriate firmware!) as well as QuickPWN 2.2.1.
2. Unzip QuickPWN.
3. Make sure you have the very latest version of iTunes. It is extremely important!! If you don’t have the latest iTunes, download nad install it. After the install, make sure to restart your computer. This is a very important step!
4. Plug your iPhone to your computer and wait for iTunes to detect it. Now you have 2 options. You can either update to 2.2.1 or restore your iPhone to 2.2.1. I always prefer restoring as you will start with a fresh and clean firmware and it will not create wasted space on your iPhone. As an alternative to restoring, you may want to read my post about upgrading a jailbroken iPhone. It’s your choice but again, I recommend restoring. To restore, simply hit SHIFT + Restore. A window will pop up asking you to choose what firmware you want to use to restore. Use the firmware 2.2.1 you downloaded in step 1.
5. After restoring (or updating), launch QuickPWN. QuickPWN should recognize your device automatically.
6. Click “Browse” to select the firmware 2.2.1 you downloaded in step 1.
7. QuickPWN will display a green checkmark if the firmware is correct. In this case, click the blue arrow to continue. If it’s not, it means that you have downloaded the wrong firmware.
8. Now QuickPWN will let you install Cydia, Installer, and custom boot logos. Note that you HAVE TO install Cydia but Installer and custom boot logos are optional. So make sure you select at least Cydia, then click the blue arrow to continue.
9. QuickPWN will now ask you to “please make sure your device is connected via USB before continuing”. Click the blue arrow to continue.
10. This is the most important step! QuickPwn will now automatically put your iPhone into recovery mode. Once it is in recovery mode you will be prompted to:
- Hold the Home button for 5 seconds,
- Hold the Home and Power buttons for 10 seconds,
- Then release the Power button while continuing holding the Home button until your iPhone is in DFU mode.
Watch the prompts carefully and follow along!
11. If you did this correctly, QuickPWN will detect your iPhone in recovery mode and will ask you to “wait while your iPhone is prepared for jailbreaking”.
12. As a final step, QuickPWN will tell you that “the pwnage process appears to have completed successfully. Please wait for your device to reboot in its newly modified state”.
13. Voila!


















koimax on Sun, 22nd Mar 2009 9:29 am
hi can you help me…i updated my iphone 3g and jailbroke it but the thing is i dont have a legit sim…wat am i going to do…pls help…i dont have a signal……
cydeus on Wed, 8th Apr 2009 8:43 pm
I have recently purchased an iPhone 3G in anticipation of the 3.0 firmware and am trying to unlock my first iPhone for my girlfriend whom is w/ T-Mobile. I am not a noob… not by a long shot. Quickpwn isn’t unlocking the phone, it only jailbreaks it. Any ideas?
Thanx in advance.
cydeus on Wed, 6th May 2009 3:22 pm
i have just purchased a 3g 16GB n am trying to jailbreak it but it stays on the apple or qwkpwn logo at the end of the process. Now… Ive used qwkpwn b4 many times n this is the only time that this has happened to me. n e suggestions please.
Dhaval Shah on Thu, 28th May 2009 6:59 pm
Hi,
Can someone help me please. I have used QuickPWN before for 2G phones and am very comfortable with it. I recently bought a 3G phone, and I wanted to Jailbreak it(not unlock!). I have the 02.30.03 firmware. It does the QuickPWN, but after it is finished it keeps showing the apple logo. I can restore it back to the locked mode using itunes, but cannot get it pwned, can someone please help me out?
TIA