In this post I’ll show you how to jailbreak any iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch running iOS 7 using the recently released Evasi0n 7 utility. I’ll also share a few easy-to-use jailbreak tweaks to get you started.
Every year, Apple releases a new version of iOS. In 2013, people waited patiently for months after getting their first glimpse of iOS 7 and on September 18th millions of iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch users excitedly downloaded and installed the biggest update to iOS ever. As exciting as the release of iOS 7 was, there are many people like myself who get even more excited for what has become another yearly iOS related event. From the time iOS 7 was released, teams of independent developers have put in hours of work attempting to remove the restrictions that Apple includes in the operating system and open it up to custom apps, tweaks, and themes. Recently, all this hard work paid off and Evasi0n 7, an untethered jailbreak for iOS 7, was released to the public.
Here at TeachMeiOS, we previously covered jailbreaking in a 4 part series of posts titled Jailbreak 101. If you aren’t familiar with the process, I’d encourage you to check out these posts: Lesson 1: An Overview of Jailbreaking, Lesson 2: Common Misconceptions about Jailbreaking, and Lesson 3: Pros and Cons of Jailbreaking. Lesson 4: How to Perform a Jailbreak describes how to jailbreak iOS 6. If you’re still running that version of iOS and don’t wish to update to iOS 7, that post may be of interest for you as well. In this post, though, I’ll walk you through how to jailbreak iOS 7 using Evasi0n 7.
Before we begin, a disclaimer. In my experience, jailbreaking has been very safe, stable, and has become more and more user friendly in recent years. That said, there’s always the potential that something could go wrong with the process. If this happens, you can simply restore your device in iTunes. It is extremely unlikely that your device would be damaged beyond the point of no return. Before jailbreaking, though, be sure you understand the process and its potential risks. TeachMeiOS won’t accept responsibility in the unlikely event that something happens to your device.
Step 1: Update and backup your iOS device – Update: Our original post stated that iOS 7.0.4 was the latest version of iOS 7 that could be jailbroken. Since then, Apple has released iOS 7.0.6 which can also be jailbroken. We have updated the post accordingly.
Before jailbreaking, you’ll want to make sure your iOS device is up to date, running the most current version of iOS (7.0.6). To do this, open up the Settings app and navigate to General, and then About. Here, you’ll see the version of iOS that your device is running displayed. When updating to iOS 7.0.6, do so through iTunes as some people who have updated over the air via Settings on their iOS devices have encountered issues with the jailbreak process. You may even consider restoring your iOS device through iTunes before jailbreaking if you updated over the air previously, just to ensure that all goes well with the jailbreak process. A note: if you’re reading this post after a more recent version than iOS 7.0.6 has been released, stay on 7.0.6 if you can. Apple is likely to patch the exploits used in Evasi0n 7 with their next software update, rendering the jailbreak useless on newer versions of iOS.
Once your device is running iOS 7.0.6, the next thing you’ll want to do is back it up. Most people nowadays are using iCloud to do this automatically in the background. If this is the case with you you’ll want to force your iOS device to backup to iCloud prior to jailbreaking. To do this, open Settings and navigate to iCloud, then Storage and Backup. Then, scroll to the bottom and tap “Backup Now.” Wait for the backup to complete and you’re set to go!
Step 2: Download and run Evasi0n 7 on your Mac or PC – Evasi0n 7 is a very simple program to use and it does one thing very well: jailbreak iOS 7. To download the program, visit http://evasi0n.com/ on your Mac or PC and click the button for either Mac OS X or Windows depending on which type of computer you’re using. Once the program is downloaded, open up Evasi0n 7.
Step 3: Jailbreak iOS 7 using Evasi0n 7 – Once you have Evasi0n 7 running on your computer, connect the iOS device you’d like to jailbreak. If your device has been updated correctly, Evasi0n 7 should display a message saying that your device is supported and encouraging you to click jailbreak to begin. To jailbreak your device, click the Jailbreak button. Evasi0n 7 will run through a number of processes and reboot several times during the process. There will also be a few times when you’re required to perform a step, such as opening a new app icon that’s been installed to your device. Evasi0n 7 does a great job of walking you through this so that the process is very easy. Just follow the instructions Evasi0n 7 gives you and everything should go just fine.
Step 4: Congratulations! Your iOS 7 device is now jailbroken! Now start using Cydia – If the jailbreak process using Evasi0n 7 worked correctly, your device should now be jailbroken. The only visible evidence of this at the beginning, though, will be that you’ll have a new app icon on your device’s springboard: Cydia. Read more about Cydia on our previous post here, but essentially Cydia is an alternative app store for downloading and installing jailbreak apps, tweaks, and themes.
On opening Cydia for the first time, it will go through a setup process and either close or restart springboard. This is normal. After opening Cydia again, it will ask you to identify yourself as a User, a Hacker, or a Developer. For most of us, myself included, selecting User will be just fine. You may also receive a message telling you that a few critical packages need to be updated. Accept the message and let the installation process complete. Then, Cydia will be ready to use.
To find, download, and install tweaks, you’ll want to check out the Featured button on Cydia’s homescreen, visit the Changes tab to see a running feed of newly released tweaks, or see the Search tab if you’d like to search for a tweak by name. Stay tuned to TeachMeiOS in the for upcoming reviews of useful jailbreak tweaks. Also, please be aware that since the iOS 7 jailbreak is still very new, many tweaks are currently in the process of being updated to support the new operating system. Many of these will be updated in the coming weeks.
For now, here are a few free, easy-to-use, iOS 7 compatible tweaks to get you started (search for them by name on the Search tab):
Bloard – Prefer the dark keyboard found in some areas of iOS 7? Wish you could use it all the time? Now you can! Download and install Bloard and the iOS 7 keyboard will always use the dark theme. You can toggle the tweak on or off in Settings.
f.lux – Available on many different devices like Mac and Windows computers, f.lux is also available for iOS as a free download from Cydia. f.lux will gradually warm the color of your device’s screen at night to make it easier to read in low light settings. f.lux installs an app icon on your springboard and its preferences can also be changed in the Settings app.
FlipControlCenter – (Note: To install FlipControlCenter, you currently have to add the developer, Ryan Petrich’s, beta repository to Cydia. This is easy to do. Open Cydia, navigate to Manage, then Sources, hit Edit, then Add, and type http://ryanpetri.ch/repo/ into the box. Then hit Add Source. After this, you should be able to find FlipControlCenter on the Search tab.) FlipControlCenter does something that many people wish Apple had included in the stock version of iOS: it allows you to customize and re-order the toggles in Control Center. By default, iOS 7’s Control Center toggles consist of Airplane Mode, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Do Not Disturb, and Rotation Lock, in that order. FlipControlCenter allows you to rearrange these toggles to your liking, or even add new ones like Auto-Lock, Cellular Data, LTE, Location Services, Hotspot, Ringer, Vibration VPN, Flashlight, Clock, Calculator, Camera, Settings, and a Respring toggle. You can configure which toggles are displayed, reorder them, and control many other preferences in the Settings app.
Those are some great free tweaks to get you started with your newly jailbroken device. Stay tuned to TeachMeiOS for upcoming reviews of other jailbreak apps, tweaks, and themes. Enjoy your newly jailbroken iOS 7 device!
