How To: Downgrade iPhone 3G To 3.1.X

So, you're all excited you went ahead and 'upgraded' your iPhone 3G to IOS 4.0X so you could reap all the benefits of all the new features.

As it turns out, many of the best features in IOS 4.0X are not available for the 3G, such as the Bluetooth keyboard, selectable backgrounds and the worst...multi-tasking!  What you can expect, or at least a large number of iPhone 3G users have reported, is a much slower phone with huge delays when trying to open apps and typing, lower (and kind of random) battery life and a feeling of being left out as the features are there but not enabled.  

Now, the multi-tasking may be better turned off on the 3G as the CPU may not be able to keep up....but whatever the reasoning the fact is, that these features just are not there and it does not make sense for the other ones I mentioned.

So, bottom line, you tried it, your phone now blows, and you want to revert back to IOS 3.1.3...how can you do it?  Follow these instructions and you should be back to normal in no time.

Step 1 Plug in your iPhone to the PC

No picture required, otherwise you may want to get someone else to help you here! ;-)

Step 2 Download RecBoot 

For Windows: Click Here

For MAC: Click Here

Step 3 Put iPhone into Recovery Mode

If you did it right, iTunes will pop up a window (like the one below) telling you that it's detected an iPhone in recovery mode and your iPhone's screen will be black. If it didn't work, start from the beginning and try again.

Step 4 Download IOS 3.1.3 

You can download IOS 3.1.3 from here: Click To Download

Step 5 Downgrade your iPhone - Use RecBoot

When it is complete, you will see an error such as this one:

No need to panic!  Relax!  Breathe in...breathe out.  

This is why we downloaded RecBoot...it will fix our issue here.

Step 6 Unzip & run RecBoot

Simply unzip RecBoot into a folder, and run the recboot.exe. You will see this:

Click the Exit Recovery Mode button.

In a few seconds, RecBoot should kick you out of plug-me-into-iTunes recovery mode and you'll boot right into your freshly downgraded 3.1.3.

Step 7 Restore your backup

Now that you are back to IOS 3.1.3 you can restore your backup from iTunes:

Tips

• If you would like to jailbreak your iPhone, there are many sites available with information on how to do so: http://www.redmondpie.com/sn0wbreeze-3.1.3-jailbreak-iphone-3g-3gs-3.1.3/ 
• Or, you can use blackra1n to jailbreak 3.1.2 (Get that Image instead of 3.1.3: http://www.iclarified.com/entry/index.php?enid=750)
• Jailbreaking can allow you to install apps like Rock and Cydia, and get many programs not available with just the Apple apps.  It also can allow you to unlock your iPhone in order to be able to use it with different carriers than the one who controls your iPhone right now.