Apple dropped support for old generations of Apple TVs without tvOS a long time ago, but that doesn’t mean that there are no more people using these models. If that’s the case for you, a new tool called “Blackb0x” was released this week for jailbreaking older Apple TV models.
This tool works with both third- and fourth-generation Apple TVs, and it lets users easily jailbreak such devices. The process is quite simple and the only requirement is to have a Mac, as the process is done through a macOS app.
Apps like YouTube no longer work on these Apple TV models, and apart from an update that added Apple TV+ support to the third-generation Apple TV, there are no more software updates with new features for Apple TVs that don’t run tvOS with App Store. With jailbreak, users can at least add some extensions and have fun with the old hardware.
As noted by iDownloadBlog, the jailbreak is tethered in some cases and untethered in others. It depends on the model and operating system version, as you can see below:
- Apple TV 3,2 (A1469) (tvOS 8.4.x untethered, tvOS 7.x tethered)
- Apple TV 3,1 (A1427) (tvOS 8.4.x untethered, tvOS 7.x tethered)
- Apple TV 2,1 (A1378) (tvOS 7.1.2 tethered, tvOS 6.1.4 untethered)
A tethered jailbreak means that the jailbreak process needs to be redone every time the device is restarted, while the untethered jailbreak is “permanent.” More details about the process can be found on Blackb0x’s GitHub page.
