4s: To upgrade or not to upgrade [jailbreak]

[Thaenor]

Greetings everyone,

I wanted to ask a few questions about jailbreak and the newer iOS.

1. Is iOS 8.1.1 faster on iPhone 4s? I read about it online and it seems to say so, but (same as iOS 8.1) when I look up videos on youtube I keep seeing the newers iOS painfully slow when compared to 7.1.2
(I get it that the phone will never be as fast on account of new features and all... but is it THAT painfully slow, they seriously look impossible to use on daily basis, or are the videos just biased or something)

2. I've read a bit about SHSH blobs. If I have jailbreak on iOS 7.1.2, is it possible to backup the entire system so I can upgrade to 8.1.1 and in case I regret, downgrade it back to 7?
2.1 - what if instead of updating to iOS 8.1.1 I update to iOS 8.0 which I think is jailbreak'able?

Thanks for the questions, I've never really had any issues on my 4s, but today (for no apparent reason) Safari, Mail, Weather and Calculator stopped working and are crashing whenever I open them... so I'm gonna have to restore my iPhone and loose some stuff (not important)... but this made me consider upgrading.

Cheers!

 

[Tyler23]

Greetings everyone,

I wanted to ask a few questions about jailbreak and the newer iOS.

1. Is iOS 8.1.1 faster on iPhone 4s? I read about it online and it seems to say so, but (same as iOS 8.1) when I look up videos on youtube I keep seeing the newers iOS painfully slow when compared to 7.1.2
(I get it that the phone will never be as fast on account of new features and all... but is it THAT painfully slow, they seriously look impossible to use on daily basis, or are the videos just biased or something)

2. I've read a bit about SHSH blobs. If I have jailbreak on iOS 7.1.2, is it possible to backup the entire system so I can upgrade to 8.1.1 and in case I regret, downgrade it back to 7?
2.1 - what if instead of updating to iOS 8.1.1 I update to iOS 8.0 which I think is jailbreak'able?

Thanks for the questions, I've never really had any issues on my 4s, but today (for no apparent reason) Safari, Mail, Weather and Calculator stopped working and are crashing whenever I open them... so I'm gonna have to restore my iPhone and loose some stuff (not important)... but this made me consider upgrading.

Cheers!

I can't answer the performance question, but I can a few others.

2) No, the iPhone 4S cannot be downgraded. If you update to 8.1.1, you will be stuck there.

2.1) You can only update to firmware that is being signed by Apple. At this point, iOS 8.0 is not being signed, only 8.1.1.

Your only two options are stay on 7.1.2, or update to 8.1.1 and be stuck there.

 

[Thaenor]

I can't answer the performance question, but I can a few others.

2) No, the iPhone 4S cannot be downgraded. If you update to 8.1.1, you will be stuck there.

2.1) You can only update to firmware that is being signed by Apple. At this point, iOS 8.0 is not being signed, only 8.1.1.

Your only two options are stay on 7.1.2, or update to 8.1.1 and be stuck there.

Isn't it possible to back up the blob (SHSH plist) that's currently on my iPhone and restore later in case I regret?

 

[bradl]

Isn't it possible to back up the blob (SHSH plist) that's currently on my iPhone and restore later in case I regret?

Not anymore, no.

If you value your jailbreak, stay on 7.1.2.

BL.

 

[Thaenor]

Not anymore, no.

If you value your jailbreak, stay on 7.1.2.

BL.

Are you sure? ... why? Shouldn't it be as simple as grabbing a plist file with the blob and replacing it later on?

I really wanted to try iOS 8 for the handoff with my mac. That and there's some neat apps (like proshot) in the store I'd like to try.

EDIT: while I'm at it. Is there any other solution for my Safari/Mail crashing issue? I got it working but it requires a tweak from some repo (Hunter Beckham something I think) to work.

 

[bradl]

Are you sure? ... why? Shouldn't it be as simple as grabbing a plist file with the blob and replacing it later on?

Not anymore. It's mainly because when the OS is put back on the phone, the first thing it does is phones home to see if it is the latest release Apple is signing. If it isn't, it won't apply.

AppleJuiced and dhlizard can confirm this, but IIRC, it was starting at iOS7 (perhaps earlier), when Apple started all of the signing of the releases, with the exception of the iPhone 4 and lower (I can't remember which version of the iPod Touch), saving the blobs pretty much became obsolete.

BL.

 

[Tyler23]

Isn't it possible to back up the blob (SHSH plist) that's currently on my iPhone and restore later in case I regret?

No, it is no longer possible with any iPhone, starting with the 4S and newer. Just the way it is.

 

[Thaenor]

Not anymore. It's mainly because when the OS is put back on the phone, the first thing it does is phones home to see if it is the latest release Apple is signing. If it isn't, it won't apply.

AppleJuiced and dhlizard can confirm this, but IIRC, it was starting at iOS7 (perhaps earlier), when Apple started all of the signing of the releases, with the exception of the iPhone 4 and lower (I can't remember which version of the iPod Touch), saving the blobs pretty much became obsolete.

BL.

*sudenly misses Android terribly... a feeling I never had before*

So... in your opinion, is it worth it to bear the extra slow/laginess for the extra features? (Assuming you have a mac and can make full use of handoff)

 

[bradl]

*sudenly misses Android terribly... a feeling I never had before*

So... in your opinion, is it worth it to bear the extra slow/laginess for the extra features? (Assuming you have a mac and can make full use of handoff)

I never said that.

What I said was that if you value your jailbreak, and/or you have tweaks that you use that depend on your jailbreak, you should not upgrade/give up your jailbreak until there is another jailbreak made, if there is another one made.

For the record, I went from 7.1.2 to 8.1 on my iPhone 4S, and found it to be slower and buggier than when I was on 7.1.2 with the jailbreak. With going to 8.1.1, I've found it to be marginally faster than 8.1, but not as smooth or fast as 7.1.2.

I have only one tweak that didn't work on 8.1, but I'm okay with out it or any other tweaks that I used until a new jailbreak is released, if one is released at all.

TL;DR: if you have a jailbroken iPhone 4S on 7.1.2, and it runs well for you, do not upgrade. iOS8 has proven to be a bit slower on the 4S than 7.1.2.

There is a Page 1 thread about this very issue, although not relative to jailbreaks:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1821131/

Read this, then decide if 8.1.x is right for you. If it isn't, don't upgrade. If you do upgrade, there is no going back to 8.0.x or lower.

BL.

 

[Thaenor]

Alright then, thanks for the suggestions

For the time being I'm going to stick with 7. I'll wait 'till there's a mature jailbreak for 8.1.x and then I'll upgrade. Even if the phones becomes slower I'm sure there'll be tweaks like NoAnimations by then to speed up the phone.

What really sucks is that "fear of not going back" that Apple inflicts upon us. I upgraded my Mac to Yosemite after a few days of the new OS X being released because I knew if anything went wrong I had backups to go back to Mavericks/Mountian Lion... so I had that "safety net".
In the case of the iPhone, I don't have much experience myself (I have touched for a bit 4s's with 8.0 and 8.1 ) and they didn't seem THAT laggy... I do experience some lag when there's too many open apps and I'm unlocking the screen in a hurry or something... but it's hardly worth complaining.

TL;DR: Thanks guys, I'm sticking with 7 for now, I'll bother you guys later when there's a more mature jailbreak on 8 and what tweaks I'll need to make it faster.