Getting Started

Foreword

A jailbreak for PS4 will likely never be released on the latest firmware. Most jailbreak developers try to avoid ruining the online experience for other people by enabling cheating online and also prevent people from getting their consoles or accounts banned. Below, you can find quick info on what firmware you should be on before attempting anything:
- Latest firmware (unexploited): 14.00
- Latest exploited firmware (can be jailbroken with HEN): 13.52 (and everything lower)
At this time, you can only downgrade ("firmware revert") your PS4 if you had previously backed up your sflash and syscon from a previous firmware version. If you are on an unexploited firmware, you can either hold off on updating your console until your current firmware may be exploited, or you can buy a console on a lower firmware.
Since you cannot log into PSN with a firmware older than the latest version, it is impossible to get your account or console banned.

Determining Your Firmware

To determine your firmware, navigate to Settings > System > System Information on your PS4. Take note of your firmware. If you're on 13.00 or older, you can continue.

You cannot downgrade firmware by replacing the HDD or trying to install older firmware from a USB drive. See the FAQ article for a more detailed explanation.

What firmware is the best/should I stay on?

To keep it short, different firmware may need different exploits, which can lead to various levels of stability and success rates. You can use the following information on each PS4 firmware version to determine your course of action with your console's current firmware.

Please keep in mind that exploits can be updated in the future. General advice is to not update when possible due to potential future releases.

See the FAQ page for more detailed explanations. Exploit Chart can also be used.

<5.05 - Either keep it for archiving purposes or update to 5.05 at the highest.
5.05 and 5.07 - Considered the gold standard firmware because of its stability and success rate. It's advised you do not update past this version.
- Note that you will need to backport most of your new games to play them.
- These firmware versions can only be jailbroken with the internet browser.
5.50 to 6.51 - Update to 6.72 or 9.60
- These firmwares only have unstable & incomplete internet browser exploits, so you are basically forced to update to a newer firmware for a good jailbreak experience on these firmwares.
6.70 to 8.52 - Stay with what your console has, or update to 9.60
- These firmware versions can be jailbroken with the internet browser. 7.00 to 8.52 can also use the PlayStation Vue or PPPwn methods.
  - 6.70/6.71/6.72 utilizes its own kernel/browser exploit, whereas the 7.xx and 8.xx range utilize a newer browser exploit called "PSFree", and a new kernel exploit called "Lapse"
  - Internet browser exploit on 7.xx & 8.xx has a better success rate than 9.xx. If you decide to update, it's adviced to try 7.00 first.
- 9.00 or newer may be more desirable than this firmware range, because an official fix for the CBOMB issue was introduced with 9.00.
9.00 to 9.60 - Stay with what your console has, or update to 9.60
- Last firmwares that are compatible with the PSFree internet browser exploit, thus it's advised to not update above this range.
- Starting with 9.00, you have many other exploit options available compared to the older firmwares.
  - Option 1: Using the Internet Browser. This is the simplist and most accessible method of jailbreaking the PS4, because it does not require any extra hardware other than a working PS4 that has an internet connection.
  - Option 2: Using the PlayStation Vue app. This is comparable to WebKit exploits, but the modified app can easily be broken through an accidental app update.
  - Option 3: Using a Blu-ray disc burned with the BD-JB exploit.
  - Option 4: Using the Netflix application to jailbreak the console. This has a similar requirement to the Lua demos, as they also require a PS4 that could both download the app from PSN and have a primary PS4 activation so it could be launched offline.
  - Option 5: Using a Lua game disc or demo. The game demo could have only been acquired when your firmware was the latest firmware, the console was activated as the primary PS4, and you could connect to PSN.
  - Option 6: Using the PPPwn exploit. This requires tethering the PS4 to another computer with an Ethernet cable in order to push a HEN payload in order to jailbreak the console. Due to the exploit being finicky to use, there is no reason to use this exploit (outside of novelty or curiosity) since you have access to internet browser exploits on this firmware range.
10.00 to 11.02 - Stay with what your console has, or update to 11.02
- Exploit options for this firmware range are similar to the 9.00–9.60 range, just with a different internet browser exploit. However, PPPwn will not be available on 11.02, as it was patched on this version.
11.50 to 12.02 - Stay with what your console has, or update to 12.02
- Updates after this range are considered noticiably less stable due to the latter's required kernel exploits. Stay as low as you can.
- Exploit options for this firmware range are similar to 11.02 (mentioned above), just with a different internet browser exploit.
12.50 to 13.52 - Stay with what your console has
- Currently, 13.52 is the latest exploitable firmware.
  - On 12.50 and 12.52, the only exploit methods available are the internet browser, BD-JB, and the PlayStation Vue exploit.
  - On 13.00, the internet browser and PlayStation Vue exploits can also be used, but BD-JB needs to be re-enabled by jailbreaking the cosnole with one of the other two methods, and adding a special 00000.jar file to a specific location.
  - On 13.02 to 13.52, the only exploit method available is through the internet browser.
Any firmware after 13.52 cannot be exploited or jailbroken at this time.

For firmwares not listed here, check GoldHEN's compatibility or update to the nearest from the list.

First Setup, Updating, or Replacing/Upgrading storage

Below, you will find instructions on how to get started with your PS4. You can keep your current data and start homebrewing straight away, factory reset or update or both at the same time, or replace internal storage and even optionally update while doing so. You can do any of this later on, but be careful not to update past jailbreakable firmware.

Starting Immediately

If you are starting for the first time but would like to keep all your data and current firmware, or you have previously homebrewed your console and are just redoing it, continue the guide to jailbreak on your current firmware.

Factory Reset Before Starting

View Factory Reset to see instructions.

Updating to Desired Firmware (and/or factory resetting after updating)

View Updating your Firmware for more information. This also applies to users that have replaced the HDD.

Disabling Automatic Updates

With the possibility of new exploits being found on your current firmware, you can disable automatic updates by blocking Sony's PSN hosts to prevent your console from automatically patching any existing exploits with firmware updates.

When going online on your low-firmware console, be it while exploited or not, these things will help prevent firmware updates and game updates from downloading or installing.

There are other methods of blocking updates (seen in the Blocking OFW Updates article), but they require a jailbreak to access, so this section of the guide will just showcase the basic settings you can set before jailbreaking.

Basic Settings

Navigate to Settings → System → Automatic Downloads and Uploads, and uncheck "System Software Update Files" and "Install Automatically".
- You may also want to disable "Application Update Files", as it will only install retail game update files. These are incompatible with backup copies of games, and can only be used with either disc copies of games or legitimate PSN copies of software.
It's also recommended to turn off rest mode internet connectivity; you can turn off this feature by navigating to Settings → Power Save Settings → Set Functions Available in Rest Mode and unchecking "Stay Connected to the Internet".
- This is mainly because the PS4's Rest Mode can still download and install software updates regardless of your Automatic Download settings.
- Jailbreaking with a HEN before enabling Rest Mode will still block updates in rest mode, but not in the unmodded system software's rest mode.

Using a DNS

Some ISPs (Internet Service Providers) will block all custom DNSes and will not allow the user to use these DNS addresses. If this is the case in your situation, you can still continue with jailbreaking your console normally, but be cautious when your console asks or tries to download software updates before jailbreaking.

Custom DNS servers block both firmware and game updates (all PS/Sony connections).

Navigate to Settings > Network > Check Connect to the Internet, then Set Up Internet Connection and:
Connection: Wi-Fi or LAN cable
Set Up: Custom
IP Address: Automatic
DHCP Host Name: Do Not Specify
DNS Settings: Manual
Primary DNS: 62.210.38.117 (Leave the secondary blank as it is.)
- Alternatively, you can use Al Azif's DNS with the following settings.
  - Primary: 165.227.83.145
  - Secondary: 192.241.221.79
MTU Settings: Automatic
Proxy Server: Do Not Use
Test the internet connection; if you get an IP address, it's working. (The internet connection test failing does not indicate that it actually cannot connect to the internet; it just means the PS4 cannot communicate with Sony servers, which is the point of the DNS.)
- A quick way to check is to go to Settings → User's Guide/Helpful Info → User Guide and see if it redirects you to the exploit page. Do use the first point above if you are in that situation.

Jailbreak Methods

Internet Browser Methods

These methods of jailbreaking are most advantageous, as they don't require buying any extra hardware other than a PS4 console with an internet connection (and an exfathax USB drive with pOOBs4).

Standard Jailbreak (5.05, 6.70–13.52)

This involves jailbreaking the console with the internet browser.

pOOBs4 (9.00)

This is another option for 9.00 firmware, and was the primary jailbreak method on this firmware before other entry points were discovered.

It involves using the internet browser & an extra USB drive formatted with a special exFAT disk image.

Alternative methods of jailbreaking

For people who cannot use a custom DNS because of their ISP and for those who want to self-host. This is useful for standard jailbreak and pOOBs4 methods.

Game/Application Methods

These methods involve using a game or application that's either on a game disc or was previously installed from the PS Store and still contains a valid offline license.

Lua Loader (9.00–12.02)

With this exploit method, the entry point used is Japanese visual novel games that were developed with the Artemis engine. This is generally not a desirable method due to the games being expensive compared to getting a BD-JB disc, though it is a bit faster.

Laps3c0re (9.00–12.02)

This exploit method utilizes the Mast1c0re PS2 emulator exploit to chain it with a kernel exploit, thus allowing homebrew access.

Netflix-N-Hack (9.00–12.02)

This exploit method uses the Netflix application as an entry point chained with a kernel exploit, thus allowing homebrew access.

Vue After Free (7.00–13.00)

PlayStation Vue, a decommissioned Sony streaming app, can be installed manually with a kernel exploit (jailbreak) or via the system backup and restore feature to be used to jailbreak the console.

It's strongly recommended to do what's listed in the disable updates section with this exploit, as Vue requires a specific app version that can be overwritten with an automatic app update if PSN isn't blocked.

Misc. Methods

Jailbreak methods that don't fall under either category above.

PPPwn (7.00–11.00)

This exploit method is run from a separate external device connected to the PS4 through Ethernet, like a desktop computer, laptop, Android device with root access, Raspberry Pi, specific routers, Luckfox Pico, specific LG Smart TV's, etc.

BD-JB (9.00–13.00)

With BD-JB, the only thing required is a Blu-ray recordable disc (BD-R or BD-RE) burned with a special image that includes a BD-JB and kernel exploit.

However, on 13.00 (and anything newer if another kernel exploit is ported to it), you would need to use one of the other methods on this page in order to re-enable support for the BD-JB exploit.