Downgrade to iPad iOS 3.2.1 from iPad iOS 3.2.2

So a friend was playing around with my iPad 3G which have been jailbroken (via jailbreakme.com) and installed a lot of apps via Cydia and Installous.

While installing a theme, the iPad required rebooting but turns out it would no longer boot up. It just hangs at the Apple logo. So I said goodbye to all my apps and had to restore to factory settings.

I was back after a couple of hours with a fresh iPad. However, I can no longer jailbreak the device since the iTunes I had already has the latest iPad iOS 3.2.2. I needed to go back to iOS 3.2.1 for the jailbreak to work.

So here’s what I did.

Step #1: Download iPad iOS 3.2.1 from the Apple site.

Step #2: Open and edit the host file using Notepad or some text editor. The file can be found inside C:WindowsSystem32driversetc and locate “hosts” file. Add this IP address 74.208.10.249.

Step #3: Connect your iPad to your PC or laptop. Launch iTunes (unless it automatically does on its own).

Step #4: In iTunes, click the iPad from the list of devices on the left side of the window. Press and hold the left Shift key and then click the Restore button.

Step #5: iTunes will prompt you to provide the location of the firmware file you downloaded (iOS 3.2.1 download in step #1).

Step #6: Wait for the restore process to complete.

That’s it! Your iPad is back to iOS 3.2.1. You can down go to www.jailbreakme.com for follow the steps there.