BETA
This is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by clicking here

More From Forbes

Edit Story

Can I Jailbreak My iPad 4/iPad Mini?

This article is more than 10 years old.

As more of you are buying iPad 4s/iPad minis, this question is hitting my mailbox with increasing regularity.

How do I jailbreak my iPad 4/iPad mini?

I hate to bring you bad news, but currently there's no way to jailbreak the new iPad 4 or iPad mini (or the iPhone 5 for that matter).

The word from the jailbreak community is that a tethered jailbreak (the sort that you have to do again if you reboot, such as when your device crashes of the battery goes flat) for these devices is in the pipeline, and that an untethered jailbreak (one that will happily survive a reboot) is also in the works, although this may take longer.

The only devices running the new iOS 6 that you can jailbreak are the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, and the iPod touch 4G. To do this you need a tool called Redsn0w, although that jailbreak is, for now, a tethered one.

If you’ve hastily upgraded iOS on your previously jailbroken iDevice, you’re out of luck for the time being if you run the iPhone 4S or any of the iPad models.

Be aware — I’ve come across numerous scam websites that claim to be able to jailbreak iOS devices in exchange for your hard earned dollars. Bottom line, they can’t.

If you want to know more about jailbreaking, check out this Q&A I compiled on the topic a while back.