If you have an iPhone 3G or 3Gs, and you recently upgraded to the 4.0 or 4.01 iPhone firmware, you are most likely feeling the pain of a slow or unresponsive iPhone like the millions of other 3G users in the world.  After multiple emails with Apple, then hours of time on the phone with Apple Tech Support, I realized my best chance of getting my phone working was to go the Apple Store and have them fix my problem.   Boy, was I surprised to find that not only could they not help me… they didn’t seem to care.  Apple offers no way to downgrade your iPhone 3G or 3GS from the OS4.o.  In fact, when I asked for a replacement phone they said “Sure!… but it’s going to be unresponsive and slow too because they all have the new OS installed on them.”

I was bewildered that a company that I respected so much, would knowingly offer an upgrade for an operating system that didn’t work on some devices.  I asked to test one of their new iPhone 3G’s with the OS 4.o installed and within a few seconds I realized it was no better than what I had.  It took at least 4 seconds to load the pin login screen.  I asked the “Genius” if there was anything I could do so I could resume using my iphone and he offered a couple of solutions:  1.  I could sell my phone on Craigslist and buy an iPhone4… or 2.  I could throw away my phone and buy an iPhone4.  Of course neither of those options were acceptable since I’ve only had my 3G for 3 months.

I eventually took the new phone (hey, it’s newer than the one I had), and when I voiced my concern that later I might have the same issues with this phone being unresponsive after my warranty ran out, they offered me a free “iCare” package which is basically a 2 year extended hardware warranty.  So I took the offer, and told the manager that I would be hacking my new iPhone, downgrading it myself, jailbreaking it… and thanks for the extended warranty.

Apple has gone to great lengths to ensure their loyal customers will shell out the $300 to replace their non-functional iPhones with the iPhone 4 (which by the way they made non-functional with the upgrade they encouraged us to install).  If you want to take back the iPhone you paid for, and start enjoying your iPhone again… follow these steps!

Thanks to Lifehacker for the majority of this tutorial.  I updated the tutorial to allow the downgrade and jailbreak to work around the new iTunes functionality which is designed to prevent downgrading and jailbreaking.  Do not use the Lifehacker tutorial

FIX YOUR IPHONE 3G or 3GS!

The first thing you need to do is get a copy of the iPhone OS 3.1.2  image.  With the new itunes release, any old iPhone OS image will be automatically replaced with the new 4.0 or 4.01 image.  This is apparently their way of making sure no iPhone 3G or 3GS will have an earlier OS release.   The web site iClarified has maintained a list of iPhone firmware files. Just find 3.1.2 for your phone (the 3G version points here and it’s what I used successfully) and download the 228MB file.

Next, download RecBoot from here (available for Windows and Mac). This handy little utility plays an important role in finishing off the downgrade.

Important:  After this process you will lose all information on your phone.  I strongly suggest saving all of your pictures, videos and notes to your computer before continuing.  Also, I have found that if I keep my contacts updated on my Google account, I can sync them with my iPhone regularly.  This way I never lose my contacts and they are always updated.

Step 2: Put Your Phone Into DFU Mode

You need to put your iPhone into Device Firmware Update (or DFU) mode in order to downgrade to 3.1.3.  To do this you need to:

Plug in your iPhone.

Power it down by holding the sleep/lock button and sliding to power off.

Once it’s powered down, press and hold both the sleep/lock button and the home button for ten seconds.

After ten seconds, release the power button but continue holding down the home button.

If you did it right, iTunes will pop up a window (like the one below) telling you that it’s detected an iPhone in recovery mode and your iPhone’s screen will be black. If it didn’t work, start from the beginning and try again.

Step 3: Restore iOS 3.1.2

Now that you’ve done all the legwork, it’s downgrading time. Follow along with the instructions below.

Dismiss the iTunes alert that told you you’re in recovery mode, make sure you’ve clicked the iPhone under the Devices sidebar in iTunes, then hold Shift and click the Restore button (if you’re on OS X, Alt/Opt+Click). iTunes will pop up a window prompting you to choose a file. You want to navigate to the 3.1.2 OS you located or downloaded above. Select that file, and iTunes will start the OS restore process. Expect this to take around 10 minutes or so.  The 3.1.2 OS file you downloaded will likely be in your downloads folder.

When it’s finished, you’ll likely receive an error message that says “The iPhone could not be restored, an unknown error occurred (error 1015)” and your iPhone will boot up with a “Connect to iTunes” screen. This is where the utility you downloaded above, RecBoot, comes in handy. Open RecBoot, and click Exit Recovery Mode. In a few seconds, RecBoot should kick you out of plug-me-into-iTunes recovery mode and you’ll boot right into your freshly downgraded 3.1.2.  (Side note:  If you are using Windows Vista, or Windows 7, you will need to run the program in compatibility mode for Windows XP (sp2), you will also need to have the .NET framework 4.0 installed to run RecBoot.)

Step 4:  Jailbreak Your Phone (If you don’t want to jailbreak your phone, continue to step 5)

The easiest way to jailbreak your iphone or ipod touch is to open your browser on the device and go to http://jailbreakme.com   from there just slide the bar to jailbreak the phone.

The next best way to jailbreak your phone is to download blackra1n using the link here.  At that address you will find downloads for both Windows or OSx. Download the file but if you are using Windows, you will need to move the file to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Apple\Apple Application Support…. or if you have a 64 bit system you will need to move it to  64 Bit – C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Apple\Apple Application Support.

Now tether your iPhone to your USB port and close iTunes.  Double click to start blackra1n, then click on “Make it Rain”.  In most cases, this will jailbreak your iPhone within about 30 seconds.  The newest release of iTunes includes a process that keeps running even when iTunes is closed, which prevents blackra1n from jailbreaking your phone though.  When your iPhone restarts, if you see the apple icon instead of the Geo icon (a man with iphones around him) then the jailbreak did not work.  Open your TaskManager, and click on Processes.  Scroll through the processes until you find a process named “itunnel.exe”;  this is the process that is preventing blackra1n from jailbreaking your phone.  End that process and run blackra1n again.  If you see the Geo icon, the jailbreak worked!

Once your iPhone restarts, tap the blackra1n app and follow the instructions.

Step 5: Restore Your Backup

iTunes won’t let you restore data from a 4.0 backup to your downgraded 3.1.2.  So yes, all of your settings will be lost.  Connect your iPhone to your USB port and start iTunes.  You will now have to set up your phone as a New Phone.  Once you log in to your account, you should have no problem syncing all of your previously downloaded apps to your freshly downgraded iPhone.