As promised, the Pangu Team has released their first jailbreak for the fourth-generation Apple TV running either tvOS 9.0 or tvOS 9.0.1.
It must be noted that this jailbreak tool comes with strings attached. As the Pangu Team had warned, this jailbreak is more geared towards security researchers and developers. End users will see no real value in this jailbreak, at least for the time being.
Important Note: This jailbreak is only for the new, fourth-generation Apple TV, running either tvOS 9.0 and tvOS 9.0.1. If you’ve updated to a version later than this, such as this week’s tvOS 9.2, you are SOL, and will have to wait until a jailbreak is released for the later versions.
iDownloadBlog does note that it is still reasonably easy to find an Apple TV on store shelves that is still running an older version of tvOS…
If your Apple TV is on tvOS 9.1 or later, your best bet is to just go to the Apple Store and look up serial numbers of Apple TVs available for purchase, and make sure you choose one that was manufactured before December 2016. To do so, you can run this simple tool by entering the Serial Number of the device, and it will tell you when it was manufactured. If you see anything before December, then it means it is running a version of tvOS 9.0 or 9.0.1.
For the record, I went to my Apple Store, and most Apple TV I looked at were made in August or September, so it’s definitely not hard to find an older model in store.
It should also be noted that this jailbreak is intended for use by researchers and developers, so the average user won’t get much out of it, other than that smug feeling knowing you have something that most people don’t have.
The Pangu jailbreak for the fourth-generation Apple TV can be downloaded from the Pangu website. Users will need a USB-C cable, a Mac, Xcode, and an eligible fourth-generation Apple TV in order to install the jailbreak. Pangu says that you will also need an Apple Developer membership.
