Upgrading and imaging iPads (or any IOS device)

Thought I'd document the technique I use for managing the iPads in an Academic environment.

Using this technique you can backup an iPad and restore it to all your other iPads.


A point to note is that you cannot restore an IOS 5 "Backup" onto an IOS 4 iPad. You will need to manually update the iPad to IOS 5 first.

Right click (or CTRL click) on the IOS device on the list on the left

Create an image from a "Master" iPad (called "backup")

1. Get your iPad exactly how you want it
2. Plug it into iTunes
3. Right click on the IOS device in the list on the left
4. Click "Backup"

Restore an image onto IOS device

1. Plug IOS device in to iTunes 
2. Plug it into iTunes
3. Right click on the IOS device in the list on the left
4. Click "Restore from Backup"

If the IOS version is the same, it should list all the "Backups" or images that have been taken. Select the one you want.

Jailbreaking iPhone 3GS with IOS 5.0.1

So, I've just got an iPhone 3GS which is locked to o2. The form has been filled out, and it'll take between 1 and 2 weeks. So I can either wait, or jailbreak! (that rhymes!)

Found this lovely website which goes into every detail of jailbreaking lots of things including iPhone 3GS with IOS 5.0.1.

A big thing to note is that if your iPhone every looses power, you will need redsn0w to reboot it (i think that means that you'll need your computer too!). This is a BIG problem, and hence forth I shall not Jailbreak my phone!!!!

iTunes not recognising IOS device when plugged in

Just got an iPad back from a member of staff and plugged it in to get rid of photos etc. I loaded up iTunes and waited to find it didn't pop up in the list! So I tried my iPhone and the same thing happened. I loaded iPhone Configuration Utility as well to find the iPad did not pop up in that list as well!

One thing I did note was that I had just updated iTunes to version 10.5 about 10 minutes earlier. I did a lot of searching and found quite a few people with this problem. This forum in particular had a lot of posts which might have been of interest. It had a link to this help page which was quite informative.

Before undertaking any fixes I had seen it mentioned that a restart might just fix it so I restarted (with the iPad plugged in) and seems to work fine now. So after all this fiddling, just switching the computer off and back on again does it! Old Skool!

But none the less, I thought it prudent to note this down, and store the help page and forum here.

Transferring pictures on an iPad and any iOS device

Well, it is funny how user friendly the iPad is, and yet how puzzling it can be to do simple tasks. One such task is to transfer pictures onto an iPad. One would think it quite simple, perhaps drag and drop, bluetooth, through iPhoto; but alas these are not the way to do it.

Amazingly I had to look this up on the internet and found quite a few blogs, this one being helpful. Basically you need to sync either a folder or album to the iPad, which is controlled through iTunes.

1. Load up iTunes and plug in iPad (or iOS device)
2. Click on the device on the left hand side of iTunes
3. Click on the Pictures tab
4. Tick the sync box and select "folder" or whatever is relevant to you

Simple but not the way I would have done it.

iPad setup and Deployment

So, I was shown this document on iPads in Business and it seems quite relevant to our situation. Looks like the setup is controlled by xml files which is nice, and there is potential for managing them wirelessly. The app we need is the "iPhone Configuration Utility" of which the latest version, 3.2, is only supported on OS X 10.6. Looking at back-dates I've found version 2.1 which apparently works on 10.5 and was the last to support it.

The information for iPhone Configuration Utility is found here. Nice simple interface which should make the job easier.

iPhone 3G GPS

So now, after many trials and tribulations the phone is working well. But I've just found that the GPS is not working. There are many posts which describe when you update your phone to baseband 06.15 then you loose GPS! Doh! and no way back. Well, I've just seen this video which might look promising.

I shall update this post.

iPhone 3G earpiece problem

I've now an iPhone 3G with 4.1 OS and 06.15 baseband. Jailbroken and unlocked. The only problem now is that the earpiece does not work. So the plan is to replace the earpiece. I have two options, either send it off or do it myself. To send it off is about £35, to do it myself is about £4, so I'm not sure.

Here is a youtube video on how to dismantle.

Here is a video to replace earpiece.

Otherwise, I could take it here and get it sorted for £29.00 excluding postage. Or this one at £35 which has good reviews.
Thinky, thinky, thinky.

iPhone recovery

Well, after just getting an iPhone off eBay I've found it's got an error 1015, which means it was jailbroken! I've found a nice little tutorial here which might work.

Yep, it worked. But no sim. Ended up jailbreaking version 3.1.2 with blackrain but the new sim card doesn't work. I found this which looks promising. This has got a good list of all the firmwares that are available.

So, at the moment I have iOS 3.1.2 which is jailbroken with blackrain. The trouble is that it doesn't like the sim card. This might have something to do with the baseband. This is the firmware for the modem. I found this page giving a brief description. I have baseband 06.15.00. This person has baseband 05.14.02 and his is locked to AT&T but he has iOS 4.2.1. I can only assume that this baseband does not like the modem (is not compatible). I would like to take it back to what it normally is.

In the end I would like a factory iphone and then go from there. I've found this which explains how to downgrade the baseband to something normal. This can be unlocked so it's not completely pointless.

I shall start by simply letting iTunes update the phone normally. It's probably going to go wrong but we'll see. Yep, doesn't like it, as soon as it reboots it goes straight back to the DFU.

I re-did it to version 3.1.3 and it says that the sim is not valid for this phone. It basically means that the phone is not "unlocked". I have two choices, one is unlock it officially, the other is to unlock it unofficially. It looks like o2 charge £15! But I recon that is worth it. But I need to find out which carrier it is locked to?

Well, after finding an old o2 card lying around the house (a bit of a fluke), looks like something different is happening. It now says "Waiting for Actiation" "This may take some time".

Just found an informative website which says that if you are not the original owner then it is difficult (maybe impossible) to get it unlocked!

Just found this post which says how you can get around the recovery loop in 4.2.1 version. - Didn't work!

So, I've just restored successfully to 4.1.0! Works beautifully. And now to unlock it. But first to jailbreak! So I've found this post. Bloody complicated but it's working at the moment. After this the plan is to install the unlocking software which is called ultrasnow.

Yep, worked a dream! Next was this post. A little long also, but worked also. Must note that it did come up with this error when installing ultrasnow. But seems fine.

Error
http://apt.saurik.com
netdv:open nodename nor servname provided, or not known


I did notice that it disconnected from the wireless and this might have prompted the error messages. Anyway, it now says "t-mobile" and I've just rang the home phone!! Yay!!!!!