iOS jailbreak repositories close as user interest wanes

A few years ago jailbreaking your iPhone was all the rage. The cat-and-mouse game of hackers versus Apple was great fun and some of the open source products available to jailbreakers – namely the Cydia alternative app store – added amazing features and customizability to the iPhone. Some devs even launched only on jailbroken phones, thumbing their noses at Apple’s walled garden.

Now, however, the jailbreak community is shriveling up and blowing away. Now two major repositories have closed, leaving very little for the active jailbreaker to install and run.

First ModMyi has closed, announcing that it didn’t make economic sense to maintain the repository:

Second, MaCiti closed last week, the result of a “death spiral” in jailbreak popularity.

Damn. It’s sad to see a great repo go. Thanks for all you guys did @macciti was indeed a great ride https://t.co/lKogrmYD8D

— Rick Fayad (@Subywrex) November 18, 2017

The latest iOS version has not been jailbroken and, given the insecurities of running a jailbroken phone including unwanted terminal access into the phone itself, it’s not likely many will adopt it. Even the most popular service, JailBreakMe is sitting idle. That said, true fanatics aren’t giving up.

“With all the talking going around about ‘jailbreaking being dead’ or how it’s dying, I’m here to reassure everyone that this subreddit’s discord is still active every day,” wrote Aaronp613 on Reddit. “I know times have been a bit tough for everyone, but that just means we need to focus on what we have at the moment.”