Does restoring to factory settings change firmware?

Question

Level 1

143 points

Does restoring to factory settings change firmware?

A colleague is looking at an unlocked 3gs iPhone advertised for sale which is running on firmware 4.1.

He is aware of the problems a lot of people have experienced with this firmware on a 3gs and has been attracted by the seller stating; +'the phone can be restored to __factory settings__ prior to sale which will downgrade the firmware to 3.1.3 as some people prefer this version'+

Does a restore to factory settings also wind-back the firmware without jailbreaking? I was under the impression that this was not possible.

Also as the phone is officially unlocked by the carrier 02 would a factory reset reverse the unlocking?

HP, Windows XP Pro

Posted on Oct 9, 2010 2:10 AM

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Answer 1

wjosten

Level 10

95,321 points

Oct 9, 2010 2:27 AM in response to dankton12

Restoring any iphone through itunes will put the current firmware on the phone. Apple makes no provision to downgrade firmware.

Also as the phone is officially unlocked by the carrier 02 would a factory reset reverse the unlocking?

Updating firmware or restoring an officially unlocked iphone has no effect on the unlock. If officially unlocked, it will remain unlocked. Its only hacked phones that get re-locked to the carrier they were originally locked to.

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Answer 2

dankton12 Author

Level 1

143 points

Oct 9, 2010 2:39 AM in response to wjosten

Thanks. That is what I understood about not being able to downgrade the firmware so I will advise my colleague to avoid it as he does not want to use 4.0.firmware

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Answer 3

wjosten

Level 10

95,321 points

Oct 9, 2010 2:44 AM in response to dankton12

The only firmware available from Apple is iOS 4.1 for an iphone 3GS. iOS 4.1 addressed & fixed the issues some users reported with iOS 4.0.

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Answer 4

Oct 9, 2010 2:51 AM in response to dankton12

He is aware of the problems a lot of people have experienced with this firmware on a 3GS

The iPhone 3G had problems with iOS 4 (fixed in 4.1), but the iPhone 3GS worked fine.

+'the phone can be restored to __factory settings__ prior to sale which will downgrade the firmware to 3.1.3 as some people prefer this version'+

False.

Does a restore to factory settings also wind-back the firmware without jailbreaking?

No.

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