Rolling Back to iPhone Firmware 3.1.2

I’ve written about jailbreaking my iPod Touch using the Pwnage Tool, but since that post, I have found the blackra1n tool to be a much easier jailbreak solution. The catch with blackra1n is that it only unlocks iPhones/iPod Touch devices that are running version 3.1.2 firmware. That means if you have a device running 3.1.3, no chance of jailbreaking with blackra1n. I discussed this 3.1.3 conundrum with Wesley Fryer at METC 2010 and he suggested rolling back the device firmware to 3.1.2 would be a good work around.

I didn’t have a reason to try the rollback however, until I had to restore an iPod Touch and it automatically updated the device to 3.1.3. I decided to try to rollback and jailbreak process. Here’s the part that went according to plan:

1. Download 3.1.2 firmware package. This comes in the form of an ISPW file. There are several sources on the internet where you can easily download previous versions of iPhone firmware, here’s one.
2. Connect your device via USB and open iTunes.
3. Select the iPhone/iPod Touch from the DEVICES menu in iTunes.
4. Click on the Summary Tab.

5. Option + Click on the Restore button. This should allow you to navigate to the ISPW firmware file you want to roll back to.
6. Select the ISPW file and click on Open. It looks something like this:

This is where things started to fall apart. Instead of starting the restore process using the 3.1.2 package, I received the following message:

I’m currently looking for a way to work around this issue. Any thoughts or ideas out there? If you have some possible solutions, please leave me a comment. I’d appreciate any help I can get!