iOS Guide

Types of Jailbreak

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Not all jailbreaks work in the same way. This page will take you through each type of jailbreak and explain how they work.

What are the different types?

There are 4 main types of jailbreaks:

  • Untethered
  • Semi-Untethered
  • Semi-Tethered
  • Tethered

Each type is determined by how independent it is from a computer.

Untethered Jailbreaks

Untethered jailbreaks can be considered the holy grail of all jailbreaks. They only require the exploit to be ran once either via a website, an app or a computer.

A screenshot of the p0sixspwn jailbreak

After that, your device is fully jailbroken and won't require any further action. The exploit will stay on a device even after you reboot it.

Unfortunately, there hasn't been a new untethered jailbreak for end users in a very long time, and it's likely we won't see one for even longer.

The only downside to an untethered jailbreak is that if something goes wrong, it could very well result in a bootloop requiring you to restore your device via iTunes or Finder (macOS Catalina or newer). The likelihood of this happening is low, but is indeed possible.

A few examples of untethered jailbreaks are p0sixspwn and Pangu9.

Semi-Untethered Jailbreaks

Semi-untethered jailbreaks have been the most popular type of jailbreak in recent years. This type of jailbreak requires an exploit to be executed every time you reboot or turn off your device.

A screenshot of the Odyssey jailbreak

This jailbreak works by running the exploit through an app or website on the device itself. Due to the nature of how the exploit is ran, however, these jailbreaks are easily removable through their respective app.

A few examples of semi-untethered jailbreaks include Taurine, Dopamine, and Odyssey.

Semi-Tethered Jailbreaks

Semi-tethered jailbreaks are very similar to semi-untethered jailbreaks, however the exploit must be ran using a computer rather than using a sideloaded app.

A screenshot of the checkra1n jailbreak

Due to requiring a computer to rejailbreak after every reboot, most choose to use a semi-untethered jailbreak instead.

A few examples of a semi-tethered jailbreak include palera1n and Odysseyra1n.

Tethered Jailbreaks

Tethered jailbreaks are not meant to be used by the general public. These exploits modify the device in a way that it requires a PC to even boot at all, even without a jailbreak.

Because of this, these tend to only be used by jailbreak developers getting ready for a newer version of iOS.