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Earlier in February, we published a tutorial that detailed how to jailbreak iOS 11 with Electra. However, the beta version of Electra referenced in the article didn’t come with Cydia. Cydia had to be installed separately through a rather complicated method which a beginner might not be able to carry out.
A word of caution
The latest version of Electra now installs Cydia with ease. It should be noted that the version of Cydia that comes with this jailbreak works with forked dependencies, not Jay Freeman’s Cydia Substrate. As pointed out by Saurik in a Reddit post, Electra and Liberios jailbreak may not work with future updates to real Cydia and its dependencies. But until this moment, we’re yet to get see this update.
Electra jailbreak still remains the most reliable way to jailbreak iOS 11.
Supported devices
To perform this jailbreak, your device has to be running anything between iOS 11 down to iOS 11.1.2. Anything beyond this isn’t supported. You also should be able to jailbreak all 64-bit devices including:
- iPhone 5s
- iPhone SE
- iPhone 6 / 6 Plus / 6s / 6s Plus
- iPhone 7 / 7 Plus
- iPhone 8 / 8 Plus
- iPhone X
- iPad Pro 9.7 / 10.5 / 12.9
- iPad Air / Air 2
- iPad Mini 2 / 3 / 4
- iPod 6G
This article explains how to Install Electra jailbreak and install Cydia with a computer or without one.
Installing Electra Jailbreak with a PC
The main disadvantage of using this method is that this jailbreak expires every 7 days if you’re using the regular Apple ID and not a paid developer account. This implies that you need to re-jailbreak every 7 days.
1. Download Electra IPA file from the official website.
2. Download and install Cydia Impactor. You can download for macOS, Windows or Linux here.
3. Connect your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch via USB and start Cydia Impactor. Be sure the program detects your device.
4. Drag the downloaded IPA file to Cydia Impactor to start the installation.
5. You will have to enter your Apple ID and password when asked. Normally, this is sent to Apple to sign the app but if you’re not comfortable with the idea of keying in your Apple ID into a third-party app, you could use a burner Apple ID to do this.
Again, if you’ve enabled 2-step authentication, Cydia Impactor may display an error asking you to sign in with an app-specific password. To do this, log in to appleid.apple.com on your browser and generate the app-specific password.
6. After you’ve logged in to your Apple account and the process has continued, you should have Electra app installed on your device after a while. But you can’t run it just yet.
6. To run the app, you first need to trust the developer profile. Go to Settings > General > Device Management. You should see your Apple ID here, tap it and then hit the Trust button.
7. Go back to the Springboard and run Electra. Tap the Jailbreak button to start. you should get a notice that an APFS snapshot has been created. This should allow you restore your device using SemiRestore.
8. After a while, the iPhone / iPad should restart.
9. Check the Springboard and you should have Cydia Installed. If not, retry from Step 7.
10. Launch Cydia and be sure you run all needed updates. You’re done.
Warning: As mentioned earlier, you should note that this app would stop working after 7 days unless you are an enterprise developer. After 7 days, the app would crash if you try to run it. You need to hook up your device to your computer again, sign the IPA file with Cydia Impactor and follow the rest of the steps.
Installing Electra Jailbreak without a PC
One main disadvantage of using this method is that it’s not totally reliable. This is because Apple often revokes the certificates used to sign these jailbreak tools. Once this happens, the jailbreak stops working. You might be lucky to use it for a couple of months, sometimes, it’s just a number of days.
1. Visit either of these websites to install Electra:
- https://ayouch.me/jailbreak — Click on the Install button under Electra and confirm the installation. If you’re using some other iOS versions, there are other apps on this page to try out. Just be sure to check the compatibility.
- https://next.tweakboxapp.com/ — Go to the Apps tab > Select Tweakbox Apps > Electra Jailbreak
2. Confirm the installation after tapping the Install button.
3. Check the Springboard and you should see Electra already installed. If it fails to install, there’s a chance Apple has already revoked the certificate. You might want to try other link listed above. After successfully installing Electra, don’t launch it yet.
4. Go to Settings > General > Device Management. Select the developer name from the list and trust the enterprise developer. The name seen here could be different. These certificates get revoked all the time and developers often re-sign and re-upload them.
5. Launch Electra, make sure the “Tweaks” toggle is left turned on, then tap the “Jailbreak” button.
6. You should see a notification that an AFPS snapshot has been created.
7. After a while, your device should restart and you should have Cydia already installed. If Cydia isn’t installed, go back to step 5.
8. Launch Cydia and be sure all pending updates are installed.
As mentioned earlier, this method too isn’t reliable. These sources often stop working whenever Apple revokes the certificates used to sign the Electra IPA file uploaded on these websites. But if you need a quick way to jailbreak and you’ve got not access to a computer, this is is the way to go.