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:

After ModMy, Mobile Nations (ModMy’s parent company) and SaurikIT finished our discussions, there was a clear but sad result to the issue of Cydia and repositories. ModMyi was not plausible to keep going as server costs were insane and the money the repository generated was way below the required amount to keep the repository, not with an economic gain, but to even keep it non-profit.

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

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.”