Erase All Content and Settings While Jailbroken

Ever wanted to keep the jailbreak while erasing all the content and settings, well now it is possible by this step by step tutorial it will give you fresh start on your jailbroken device without using iTunes or actually restoring or updating your device.
For people who have tried or will try it please read this before doing anything.

Just a warning to those who already tried or planning to try the steps mentioned below. The possible scenarios that will happen:
1. Your courier/provider settings will be removed (so you will have no LTE showing, imessage and facetime will not work)
2. Push notifications will be disabled
3. Weather app will be removed

I did those steps few months ago and took me hours on how to resolve the issues i got.
Solutions:
For issue #1, courier. Follow the steps here:
http://www.itweakios.com/apps/blog/show ... ier-update

For issue #2, push notification disabled
1. Install SAM from cydia (repo: http://repo.bingner.com),
2. Load SAM, then press De-Activate iPhone and then choose Activate.
3. install iPusher from App Store. and everything should be fixed.

For issue #3, I didn't really bother trying to figure it out since I install other weather app :)


If you really want to restore your jailbroken device, just use semi-restore from http://semi-restore.com/ since everything is automated.


This will get your device back to the exact speed that it was before jailbreaking, erase all personal data, and give you a fresh start on your jailbroken device, all without using iTunes or actually restoring or updating your device.

Note: Before doing any of this, back up your device to iTunes. That way, in the unlikely event that something goes wrong, you can just restore the backup back to your device (this, also, is not an actual restore and won't affect your jailbreak).


  • 1. Open Cydia and uninstall everything you've installed yourself, except OpenSSH/OpenSSL. Don't remove anything if you don't know what it is. The first and main thing to remove is MobileSubstrate (this will also remove all tweaks that use it).
  • 2. Reboot your device.

For the next steps, use any AFC or SSH utility like iFunbox, WinSCP, or Cyberduck to browse the filesystem of your device. Don't use iFile.
If there's a file or folder listed that isn't present on your device, don't worry about it (they vary by iOS version).

  • 3. Browse to /var/mobile and delete the "Documents" folder.

  • 4. Browse to /var/mobile/Library/Preferences. Delete all files and folders except ".GlobalPreferences.plist".

  • 5. Go back to /var/mobile/Library. Delete all files and folders except for the following:
AddressBook
Caches
Cookies
Indexes
Keyboard
Preferences
PreinstalledAssets
Safari
WebClips
WebKit
.localized

  • 6. Go into and empty out each of the following folders (but leave the folders themselves):
(note that this list is slightly different from the previous list)
AddressBook
Caches
Cookies
Indexes
Keyboard
Safari
WebClips
WebKit

  • 7. Browse to /var/mobile/Applications and delete everything inside.

  • 8. Browse to /var/mobile/Media and delete all files and folders except for the following:
DCIM
PhotoData
Photos

  • 9. Go into and empty out each of the three folders listed above (but leave the folders themselves).

  • 10. Browse to /var/Keychains and delete all files and folders inside.

  • 11. Reboot your device.

When your device boots up, you will be met with the "slide to set up" screen as with a brand new device. Go ahead and slide to set up, go through the setup process, choose either to set up as a new device or to restore to an iCloud backup, do whatever you want. Your device is still jailbroken and is otherwise brand new.

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