How to Jailbreak Your iPhone 4S or iPad 2 Using Absinthe

The first untethered jailbreak for the iPhone 4S and iPad 2 has finally arrived! Chronic Dev Team’s new Absinthe tool for Mac and PC will have your device free of its chains in no time flat!

iMore forum member iMuggle and Cult of Mac have both provided slightly different tutorials, so I’ve combined their guides into a new one with the best elements of both.

Before You Begin

Before you get in too big of a hurry, make sure your device is actually eligible to be jailbroken. In order to jailbreak your device, you’ll need the following:

• An iPhone 4S running iOS 5.0 or 5.0.1 OR an iPad 2 running iOS 5.0 or 5.0.1. Note that WiFi-only devices must be on 5.0.1 for the jailbreak to work.
• A Mac running OS X Snow Leopard or Lion or a PC running Windows 7, and a copy of Greenpois0n Absinthe for Mac (link) or Windows (link).

Preparing Your Device

Once you know your device can be jailbroken, it’s important to prepare your device in the following two ways:

1. Back up your iPhone 4S or iPad 2 using both iTunes AND iCloud. It’s important to have a current backup before making any major change on your device to prevent data loss.
2. Make sure you back up your SHSH blobs using TinyUmbrella – a free app that makes it possible to downgrade your device to a previous version of iOS. Failing to back up your SHSH blobs could potentially leave you with a device that can’t boot if anything goes wrong.

Performing the Jailbreak

Now it’s time to actually loose the chains on your device and apply the jailbreak! Fortunately, Greenpois0n Absinthe is extremely easy to use. Just follow the below steps to jailbreak your device! Note: this jailbreak takes longer than normal to apply, so don’t worry you think it’s taking too long.

1. Connect your iPhone 4S or iPad 2 to your Mac or PC, and make sure iTunes is NOT running.
2. Launch Greenpois0n and click the “Jailbreak” button.
3. Jailbreak will now take over. Let it do it’s thing. It’s important that you do not unplug your device while the jailbreak is being applied! Your device will reboot once the jailbreak is complete.
4. When your device comes back up, unlock your device, locate the “Absinthe” icon on your home screen, and launch the app. Absinthe will do the rest, your device will reboot, and Cydia will now be on your home screen.