SemiRestore for iOS 8/iOS 8.1 Released: Easily Restore Jailbroken iPhone or iPad Without Losing Jailbreak
SemiRestore for iOS 8/iOS 8.1 Released: Easily Restore Jailbroken iPhone or iPad Without Losing Jailbreak

There is finally some great news for avid iOS 8 jailbreakers, as CoolStar (the renowned developer of SemiRestore), has just updated his tool with support for iOS 8 - iOS 8.1 just in time.

With Apple recently patching up a number of exploits used by the Pangu Team with the release of iOS 8.1.1 update, the current Pangu8 jailbreak has been killed.

Consequently, the jailbreak community has been in a dilemma whether to upgrade their devices to the latest iOS version or hold back until the next jailbreak arrives on the scene.

To add to their woes, the iOS 8.1.1 update has been afflicted with numerous bugs linked to Safari and Wi-Fi, while overheating problems have been a major concern for iPad mini users running Apple's latest software.

Nevertheless, it is still possible to restore your jailbroken devices to factory settings or stock condition in iOS 8 without losing jailbreak, thanks to Coolstar's latest version of SemiRestore, the SemiRestore8.

Given the fact that Apple will soon stop signing iOS 8.1, it becomes imperative to do a SemiRestore as you will no longer be able to downgrade from iOS 8.1.1 to iOS 8.1.

SemiRestore8 could come in handy to resolve reboot looping issues due to problematic or buggy jailbreak tweaks or apps, without losing the jailbreak installed.

In other words, SemiRestore8 helps you in restoring to stock settings by removing just the problematic apps and tweaks, while still retaining Cydia and the jailbreak functionality.

Device Compatibility

SemiRestore8 is compatible with all iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch models, which are jailbroken on iOS 5.0 through iOS 8.1.

Pre-requisites

  • You must, however, note that SemiRestore requires OpenSSH to be installed on your jailbroken iOS device, before you could use the restore option.
  • You need to change the password after installing OpenSSH that will allow you to change the root password of your jailbroken iOS device. This will help prevent unauthorised access to your jailbroken device.

Note:SemiRestore8 is currently supported for Windows and Linux systems only, as the Mac version is reportedly under development and we can only hope that it will arrive soon.

Download

Interested iOS 8 users may download the latest version of SemiRestore8 from here.

Key Points to Remember

Before you proceed with semi-restoring your device on iOS 8, there are some useful tips you could follow, courtesy of iPhone Hacks:

  • SemiRestore supports Windows XP SP3 or higher.
  • SemiRestore supports 32 & 64 Bit Linux (Ubuntu 14.04 or a higher equivalent distro).
  • Windows users must have iTunes, and .NET 4.0 or higher installed.
  • Linux users must have libimobiledevice, GTK 3, libusbmuxd-tools, and openssl installed (which should be by default).
  • Linux users must read the README file
  • There may be a better way to fix your current problem. For example, to fix "Safe Mode" issues, you can just uninstall Mobile Substrate from Cydia.
  • Like any other restore, make sure you backup your data if you want it later.
  • Avoid using your iOS device or anything related to iTunes or XCode during the Semi-Restore. Why not actually go outside?
  • This process can not and does not repair broken system files! Avoid all Siri Ports, as they are not only illegal (except for Spire on 5.0.1) but they also create problems and may potentially break system files (even Spire can cause this).
  • Your device will respring or reboot several times during the Semi-Restore. This is perfectly normal, so don't panic.