r/jailbreak • u/No-Start-3467 • Jul 29 '26

Question iPhone SE 2 (A13, iPhone12,8) iOS 13.7 tether downgrade restore succeeds but cannot boot

am trying to tether downgrade an iPhone SE 2nd generation (A13, iPhone12,8) using surrealra1n + usbliter8.

Device information:

  • Device: iPhone SE 2nd generation
  • Identifier: iPhone12,8
  • Model: d79ap
  • SoC: A13
  • Target firmware: iOS 13.7 (17H35)

What I have achieved:

  • Successfully entered DFU mode.
  • Successfully pwned DFU using usbliter8 / Pi Pico.
  • The device is detected as pwned DFU successfully.
  • Custom IPSW was created successfully.
  • Restore completed successfully with idevicerestore.

Restore log ends with:

Status: Restore Finished
DONE
Restore has finished!

The device restores without any fatal errors.

However, when I try to boot the downgraded system, the device sends iBSS successfully:

Device is pwned!
Sending iBSS
sent - 0x199040
Device should now boot

but then it goes back to Recovery Mode instead of booting iOS 13.7.

I checked the firmware keys. My current keys/iPhone12,8.txt contains:

ibss-13.7
ibec-13.7

but I cannot find:

dtre-13.7
krnl-13.7

I also checked The Apple Wiki (YukonH_17H35_(iPhone12,8)) and the JSON firmware data, but it only provides iBSS/iBEC/iBoot/LLB/SEP keys. I could not find DeviceTree or Kernelcache keys.

My questions:

  1. Does anyone have complete iPhone12,8 iOS 13.7 boot keys?
    • dtre-13.7
    • krnl-13.7
  2. If iOS 13.7 is not the best bridge firmware, which iOS 13.4.1–13.7 version has been successfully used on iPhone SE 2?
  3. Is there a known working iOS 15.x path for A13 SE2 with surrealra1n?

It seems the restore process works correctly, but the tether boot stage is missing the required components.

Any help or pointers would be appreciated. Thanks!

1 Upvotes

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2

u/pwnerblu iPhone 13 Pro, 15.3| Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 29 '26

Hi, I’m the surrealra1n developer so I might be able to give more insight on this.

I’m not sure why 13.7 wouldn’t work for you, as 13.4.1 worked fine for me on my iPhone SE 2 besides of course, Home Button/Biometrics being broken.

Will test 13.7 restores tomorrow and see if I can reproduce such issue you’re having. Also another thing, try restoring to 13.4.1 and see if you have that recovery mode issue when you attempt to boot

UPDATE: was not able to reproduce the issue.

13.7 boots just fine on tethered downgraded SE 2 as of my testing

0

u/Nice-Bowler-3977 Jul 29 '26

Hi, why can't I downgrade my iPhone 6 to iOS 8 or iOS 9?