Install & Run iOS 5 on an iPhone Without a Developer Account

Jun 7, 2011 - 28 Comments

iOS 5 bug to run iOS 5 without developer account

If you want to try out iOS 5 but you don’t have a developer account, you can do so using a crafty technique that takes advantage of a very simple bug in the Voice Over system. This has been confirmed to work on the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS, but other iOS devices probably don’t work.

Warning: This is reposted for informational purposes only. We are not responsible for anything you do to your iOS device. There’s a reason iOS 5 beta is limited to developers, it’s buggy, it’s hard to downgrade, and it could lead to other problems. Because this is obviously a bug, future iOS 5 betas will fix this, and your iPhone could be trapped on an outdated beta. You may lose the ability to make phone calls.

None of this is recommended. Proceed at your own risk.

  1. Locate and download an iOS 5 beta IPSW file, these are all over the web but you’ll have to find it on your own
  2. Launch iTunes and Option-Click (Mac) or Shift-Click (PC) on the “Check for Update” button to restore the iPhone
  3. Select the iOS 5 beta IPSW that you got in the first step and upgrade the iPhone
  4. When the iPhone is done updating, you will see an activation screen, ignore this
  5. Grab the iPhone and triple click on the Home button to activate Voice Over
  6. Triple click on the home button again and the Emergency Call screen will appear
  7. Tap onto Emergency Call, and while it’s switching to make the call, swipe three of your fingers down on the screen – this is the new downward swipe gesture to activate the Notifications Center
  8. Now that you’re inside Notification Center, tap on the Weather widget to load the weather app
  9. Now you can click on the iPhone Home button, and you’ll exit Weather app to be on the iPhone springboard
  10. You’re now in iOS 5 beta

As stated above, this takes advantage of an obvious bug that completely skirts around the typical UDID activation system that developers go through when they downloaded iOS 5 beta 1 from Apple and officially activated it.

Other than clearly bending the rules by gaining unauthorized access to developer software, there are issues with this activation and installation method, primarily being that each reboot of the hardware will cause you to have to go through the process again. Additionally, some people are unable to make phone calls through the device because it is not actually activated. Seriously, we do not recommend this, but it’s a pretty significant bug in the beta OS.

This trick comes to us via Gizmodo where a video is available to walk through, but it was apparently found by a young amateur Turkish developer who couldn’t afford the iOS Dev membership, so he set about trying to find an easy way in. It worked, way to go kid!

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Posted by: Matt Chan in iPhone

28 Comments

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  1. Ronit says:

    Can I use iOS 5 in my iPhone 3G???please help me…please reply in my email :ronit_punk@hotmail.co.uk

    Please rely fast on my email please…pretty please

  2. Gus Baeza says:

    I did this on my iPhone 4 from at&t using the gsm version but my service wont work. Help please?

  3. […] OSXDaily, Tags: iOS5 Gillade du denna post?BokmƤrk gƤrna vĆ„r RSS Feed, Fƶlj oss pĆ„ Twitter och […]

  4. […] something like an iPhone is pretty useless and just becomes an iPod touch (as seen in the iOS 5 installations without a dev account). To activate a UDID, you will either need to be a registered iOS developer yourself which costs […]

  5. Andrey says:

    Hello all From Ukraine=)
    Please friends activate my UDID: fbd965767de89d40f9351e92fa212ba1c9a61dfa
    Best Regards
    I wait for IT=)

  6. David says:

    I have some spare UDIDs for a donation.
    david.marbach at yahoo if your interested.

  7. justin says:

    what itunes version do you need

  8. maxprandi says:

    do it work on an ipod touch 3 ?

  9. IOS 5 beta 1 says:

    […] quedar jo…una vez que expire la actual) para cargar la iOS 5 beta 1 sin cuenta de desarrollador. Install & Run iOS 5 on an iPhone Without a Developer Account Citar   + Responder […]

  10. b0bby says:

    does anyone tried ios5 on iphone 3G ?

  11. Aaron Navarro says:

    Does iCloud (actually, iCloud and everything else) works as expected after using this method to install iOS 5?

    Thanks :)

  12. Tom says:

    Could you activate mine? my last phone was stolen so now I need to activate a new udid…please..

  13. gali says:

    sir, can you please activate my UDID

  14. Samuel says:

    Would you mind activating my UDID?

    • shomesh says:

      U can activate yours by searching it in google…It might help you…Just google it “Activate my iOS device” and u can find it…

  15. xf says:

    That’s quite a warning, it’s probably not that risky because as long as you have a signed backup you can always downgrade through the same means jail breakers use.

    Anyway, this is a bad method because you can’t make phone calls and future iOS betas won’t work.

    If you want to run iOS 5 now, just get a developer to activate your UDID, it’s harmless and gives you full access to the beta without worry, phone calls and all. I activated my friends iPhone so he can use it, it takes one minute.

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