At last the Chinese PanGu team has released a working jailbreak for iOS 9.3.3 to iOS 9.2. Much to the utter surprise of the worldwide jailbreaking community, there was no prior announcement of a release.
Available for Windows PC
As it currently stands, the tool is only available for Windows-based PCs which are compatible with 64-bit versions of the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. Read on for the complete tutorial on how to jailbreak your iOS 9.3.3 – iOS 9.2 device.
Some good news if you’re not a Windows PC owner is that there is a piece of software called a virtual machine that you can use and still get the jailbreak. To get this, you need to go to trial.parallels.com and get the newest version of Parallels 11 software for Mac. As this is a trial version of the virtual machine software, it is free to use for 14 days, which is long enough for you to get the jailbreak working.
Before I start, you need to know that this is a semi-untethered / tethered jailbreak! (If you’re not sure what this means, scroll down to the bottom of this article for a full explanation.)
Is your device compatible?
Here’s a list of compatible devices. It’s quite a comprehensive list, so I think most people will be covered.
- iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone SE
- iPad mini 2, iPad mini 3, iPad mini 4, iPad Air 1, iPad Air 2, iPad Pro (both models)
- iPod touch 6
Compatible iOS firmware
To be thorough, here is a list of the compatible versions of iOS, so please take a look and confirm that you are running one of them.
- iOS 9.2, iOS 9.2.1
- iOS 9.3, iOS 9.3.1, iOS 9.3.2, iOS 9.3.3
Pre-jailbreak checklist
Before we start, there are a few more things you need to do. Most are steps which will prevent you from coming across any problems at a later date / stage of the jailbreak process.
1) Perform a full backup of your iOS device; please make sure that all your data is secured to either iCloud or iTunes.
2) Disable or remove your passcode, Find My iPhone and Touch ID before you begin the jailbreak.
3) If you have a version of iOS which is somewhere between iOS 9.2 and 9.3.3 on a compatible 64-bit device, as mentioned above, I recommend that you upgrade to the final version of iOS 9.3.3. You can get it here.
4) Make sure that you have the latest version of iTunes running on your Windows-based PC.
5) Get the actual PanGu jailbreak tool here.
Jailbreaking your iOS device
Before we start the jailbreak process, you need to know that this tool and its official instructions are only available in Chinese. However, there is supposed to be an English version on the way. Either I or one of my ValueWalk colleagues will update you when it is available.
If you would rather watch the video below and learn how to use the PanGu tool, please do. However, if you prefer to follow a step-by-step written guide, scroll down to begin.
How to jailbreak iOS 9.3.3 with the PanGu tool
Make sure that you have followed all of the previous steps above and that your device is compatible with the PanGu jailbreak tool.
Step 1: Connect your iOS device to your Windows-based PC or the Windows Virtual Machine I mentioned earlier. It is also important that you make sure iTunes recognizes the device.
If you see a popup asking you to trust your computer, click “Trust” to be able to move on.
Step 2: Using the link I gave you above, download the PanGu jailbreak tool, and then launch it as an administrator. You can do this by right-clicking and then choosing, Run as Administrator from the menu that appears.
Step 3: Next, click on the button that has Chinese text on it; this will install the PP Helper 5.0 software.
Step 4: If you go to your desktop, you should see the PP Helper 5.0 icon. You need to right-click it, and as before, choose to run it as an administrator. Once it has been installed, click the green button, which will signal the start of the jailbreak process.
Step 5: At this point you should remain patient, as it could take some time before you see a captcha screen appear on the tool. As with all captcha forms, enter the letters on the screen and wait for the software to start installing a profile on your device.
You may (not everyone will) be asked to enter your Apple ID and password. The PanGu software states that it does not store any of this sensitive information and only uses your Apple ID to sign into the PP app. However, I suggest that you sign up for a spare Apple ID from appleid.apple.com and use that instead of your main ID.
Step 6: You should now see the app called PP start to be installed onto your device. When it has finished installing, you will need to run it. To do this go to Settings –> General –> Device Management on iOS 9.3.3 for iOS 9.3.2 and then go to Settings –> General –> Profile and tap “trust the developer.”
Step 7: Now that you’ve done the above, run the PP app and allow it to send push notifications.
Step 8: At this point, you should have a big circle in front of you. Tap it in the center, and then wait for the PP app to install Cydia. At this point, you should also tap the sleep/power button to manually lock your iOS device.
When the jailbreak is complete, you should see a notification in Chinese. This basically says that your jailbreak has been successful.
Step 9:
So, now that your device has been jailbroken, you should just unlock it, and you will be in the PP app. You will see that it is getting the Cydia environment ready, so continue to be patient until your device has rebooted. When it is done, you will have Cydia installed and a newly jailbroken and ready-to-be-used iOS device!
More on this jailbreak method
Remember way back near the beginning of this tutorial when I mentioned that this was a semi-untethered / tethered jailbreak? This means that every time your device reboots, you will have to re-jailbreak to get the device to work in its jailbroken state again!
Now don’t be annoyed, as it’s not quite as bad as it sounds! You will not have to go through the whole process with your computer again, and you won’t have to reinstall Cydia. All this means is that you will have to run the PP app from your device Home screen and tap the large circle again.
And that’s it. You have a jailbroken iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, and you know what to do after each reboot.
How did you find the tutorial? Was it easy to understand? If you have any questions, please feel free to leave them in the comments section below.
