Tuesday, March 24, 2026 at 6:19 PM
I bought a first generation iPod touch to restore it to 1.1.4, jailbreak it with iLiberty+ and finally test the Installer 3 repo I made. After dozens of tests, I figured that this iPod has a broken DFU mode. It is currently on 3.1.3. I have a Windows XP laptop. I can successfully restore it to 3.1.3 with iTunes 16. That works both in normal mode and in recovery mode. I cannot activate it on the XP laptop, but I can activate it with Finder on my iMac (macOS 14.6.1). But when I put the iPod in DFU mode (black screen, laptop makes sound when plugged in), neither redsn0w nor iTunes can talk to it. I tried various iTunes versions from 7.5 to 8.2. Redsn0w sees it as a first gen iPod touch in DFU mode, but it just says "USB communication error" when you try to do anything. No version of iTunes shows anything while the iPod is in DFU mode. I can only get iTunes 16 to see it in normal or recovery mode. When I give iTunes 16 the ipsw I want to restore with (I tried 1.1.4, 1.1.5 and 2.2.1), it just says "error 20" and leaves my iPod stuck in recovery mode. Apple says "error 20" is hardware related (cables, etc.). I tried another cable. Older versions of iTunes do not want to see the iPod. 3.1.3 is too recent for them. Both in recovery mode and normal mode. I will try to buy another iPod. I give up on this one. I found one on eBay with 1.1.5 already installed on it, although it has some screen issue.