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Is it possible to cause any damage to the hardware due to jailbreak? Also, will it void the warranty attached to the device?

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Can you please try some googling before coming here to ask a common talked about issue that can promptly be answered with a single search? – XAleXOwnZX Jun 24 '12 at 3:42
I thought I could get higher quality answer here than a simple Google search. – dacongy Jun 24 '12 at 3:44
"Is jail breaking safe" yields this as the first hit netsecurity.about.com/od/iphoneipodtouchapps/a/… – XAleXOwnZX Jun 24 '12 at 6:13
seems pretty "high quality" and more than sufficient to answer your question – XAleXOwnZX Jun 24 '12 at 6:13
Yes, I've read that and several other posts. But I don't have information about the credibility of the authors, so I want to hear from someone on this website. – dacongy Jun 24 '12 at 6:19
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During the process of jail-breaking an iDevice, there can be complications. It can sometimes render the device unusable or it can brick the device.

The device being unusable is usually fixable by simply putting the phone in DFU mode and restoring the software back onto the device. This would cause your device to lose its information such as contacts, emails, photos, apps, app information. This is usually recoverable because we usually have a back up.

When a device is bricked, it will not function. Your iDevice will not turn on, as if the device has no battery at all or will just sit at the Apple Logo and keep restarting. This is the worst case scenario. Sometimes, a brick device can be restored. This is very very rare occurrence though and never usually happens.

If my iDevice is not working, you take it to the Genius Bar. Make an appointment and see a Genius. Now, if you take a jailbroken iDevice to a Genius, they can not service them in their current condition.

Example: I have a battery issue where the battery only lasts half an hour, I take it to the Genius Bar and tell them that this is happening, I am under warranty. They will look over your device and inspect it to see if something else could be causing the issue before replacement. They see it is jailbroken. Usually they will tell you that reason this could be happening is because it is jailbroken. You did something to the iDevice that you "weren't" supposed to, so it is technically your fault. Every time this happens though, they will tell you to just go home and restore it back to normal. Removing the Jailbreak might fix the issue, if it doesn't, bring it back un-jailbroken and they will replace it.

This is just a small example of one of the things that would cause you to go to the Genius Bar to have service done. But it shows that if your device can be looked through and they can tell it is jailbroken because they can see the software that is on it is obviously jailbroken, they can not act on their warranty until the jailbreak is removed.

This being said, if your device is bricked or you device is at a point where your device can't be powered on or they can not turn it on to see it is jailbroken, then they will assume positive intent and replace it under warranty if it possible about 80% of the time. (Physically Damaged Items are Replaced for a Fee). This is never a sure fire thing but just optimistic and don't say that you have ever jailbroken your device if they ask.

So, if you are going to try and jailbreak your iDevice, the best thing you can do is learn as much as possible about it before hand. Know the risks that come with it. Always have a back up of your information. Don't update to the newest version of iOS if you are on an older version because it will remove the jailbreak. And if you are having issues with your iDevice and it might need to be replaced, simply remove the jailbreak before hand, see if that fixes the issue, if not, then take it in. As long as it is under warranty and it isn't jailbroken, you should be fine, or as long as they can't tell it is jailbroken (IE it won't boot and you obviously didn't smash it or disassemble it and it is totally obvious that you did)

I hope that this helps clear some things up about jail-breaking and helps you out.

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As already commented on the other answer, it's basically impossible to brick your device just by jailbreaking it. If something goes wrong, you can put it into DFU mode and restore it with iTunes. – britta Jun 24 '12 at 21:35
@britta I understand where you are coming from, it is very very unlikely that you can brick your iDevice in the midst of Jailbreaking. I have only seen it 3 times when I was a technician, something went wrong with the jailbreak though. It was usually kids trying to jailbreak their friends iPod Touch or iPhone. Something went wrong and I couldn't DFU mode it or restore it, I had to replace it for them at a price because of what they did and how they technically voided their warranty. That is why I say be careful when jailbreaking, if you mess up, you can brick the device, and it sucks. – de_an777 Jun 25 '12 at 14:14
See the comment here quoting MuscleNerd for technical details on bricking possibilities for various devices. The reports I've seen of bricking due to jailbreaking are pretty much indistinguishable from the statistical likelihood of hardware problems, especially problems with the buttons (which would prevent a device from being able to enter DFU mode). – britta Jun 28 '12 at 0:48
iREB has saved my device so many times. You just have to trust that it's near impossible to brick it unless you're trying. – Andrew Larsson Jun 28 '12 at 3:45
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@de_an777 Sorry, I wasn't trying to stir anything up. I was just giving a link to iREB which can "unbrick" any iDevice in almost any "bricked" situation. When you think it's bricked, turn to iREB. That's what I'm getting at here. – Andrew Larsson Jun 28 '12 at 16:35
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It can 'brick' your device leaving it useless. And your warranty is not valid while jailbroken.

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It's really, really hard to brick your device, unless you are specifically trying to. I wouldn't say it's much more risky then a normal firmware update. – Fake Name Jun 24 '12 at 8:31
@FakeName I wish more people could understand that. – Andrew Larsson Jun 28 '12 at 3:42
@AndrewLarsson - Yeah. Basically, the firmware that handles DFU mode is separate from the firmware you are tweaking by jailbreaking. Even if you completely erase iOS, the DFU firmware is stored separately, so it's still there. – Fake Name Jun 28 '12 at 5:21
@FakeName Amen to that. – Andrew Larsson Jun 28 '12 at 16:36

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