StangTime
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 16, 2019
- Threads
- 77
- Messages
- 3,515
- Reaction score
- 3,939
- Location
- Ontario 🇨🇦
- First Name
- Todd
- Vehicle(s)
- 19' GT PP1 Manual
- Thread starter
- #1
Jailbreaking Sync3 isn't new news but can be done without Forscan. It can be done with three USB flash drives. Formatted FAT32
1. A single download with the required files for each USB flash drive can be downloaded here: Sync3 Jailbreak Files
2. Open the ZIP file and open the subfolder "Sync3Hack" until you are here:
3. Double click Stick1-HACK.zip shown above to open the ZIP and you will see the following:
4. Double click Stick1-HACK folder shown above to access the files within. It should looks like this:
5. COPY these files and folders to a blank USB flash drive. When complete, safely eject the flash drive media. Label the USB flash drive "STICK1" with masking tape or some other means.
6. Perform the same steps above for the remaining two USB flash drives. Label each one. The flash drives should show the following if the contents of the ZIP files were successfully copied over:
Stick2
Stick3
7. Go to your car with the three USB flash drives. Unplug any USB devices so both USB ports are free. Press the START button once but do not start the engine. Make sure the infotainment system is on. Wait for Sync to boot completely... takes about a minute.
8. Plug in USB flash drive STICK1 and count how many seconds before this error message appears. Remove the USB stick.
9. Reboot Sync3 by pressing and holding the POWER button and the NEXT TRACK button at the same time until the screen goes black. Wait until Sync has completely re-booted. Takes a few minutes.
10. The most important step and possibly the most frustrating because it may take multiple attempts to get it right. The goal is to re-boot Sync3 after STICK1 is plugged in BUT before the PKG_ERR05 message appears. The number of seconds from Step# 8 will give you an idea how much time you have. Divide that count in half as a good starting point. On my car I found 4 seconds was the magic number. So have your fingers on the re-boot buttons and plug in STICK1. Wait (in my case) 4 seconds before pressing and holding POWER and NEXT TRACK buttons. Do not release the buttons until you see the screen go black and unplug STICK1 from the USB port. If you see the PKG_ERR05 message before the system re-boots, your timing was off. Re-boot Sync3 and try again.
11. After Sync3 has booted up, insert STICK2 into the USB port. After that the following screen should appear indicating that "Daemon has been installed" if Step 10 was successful. Remove STICK2 and Sync3 should re-boot.
12. Wait for Sync3 to re-boot and insert STICK3 to install the final piece, F-Mods toolkit. After that the following screen should appear indicating that "Mods Tools have been installed". Remove STICK3 and let Sync3 re-boot.
13. Congratulations! Your Sync3 system is now jailbroken and you can install any of the mods available from www.fmods.net (A user account is required for this site)
Some words of caution: This will likely void your warranty. Most mods generally replace files within the Sync3 environment with altered versions to make the mod functional. Due to copyright issues, mods are not permitted to have OEM replacement files to restore your system back to factory condition. In other words, there is no "uninstall" package. What you can do though, is use Cyanlabs to downgrade your Sync version. Then update it back to the current OEM version. Or wait for Ford to release a new Sync version and update it that way. Turn off automatic updates after jailbreaking otherwise, you will need to do the install over again. (Like me
)
For first time modders, I would suggest starting with the Custom Background Loader mod available from FMods. It simply enables some code that was already present in the Sync3 system that Ford never enabled. It allows you to change your background image to anything you want aside from the 4 boring backgrounds that Ford provides. Background images must be 800 x 480 pixel JPG files. Separate backgrounds for day and night are possible. To use the same background during the day and night, copy the JPG into both DAY and NIGHT folders. Or create identical images with altered contrast and brightness for day and night. Instructions for the background loader mod are in a text file in the ZIP package. I will likely do a more thorough "How-to" for backgrounds in the future. You can also read more in @Gnatsum21's excellent write-up: How to change background in Sync
Some of my backgrounds as examples:
Running dark horse.
Pure black.
1. A single download with the required files for each USB flash drive can be downloaded here: Sync3 Jailbreak Files
2. Open the ZIP file and open the subfolder "Sync3Hack" until you are here:
3. Double click Stick1-HACK.zip shown above to open the ZIP and you will see the following:
4. Double click Stick1-HACK folder shown above to access the files within. It should looks like this:
5. COPY these files and folders to a blank USB flash drive. When complete, safely eject the flash drive media. Label the USB flash drive "STICK1" with masking tape or some other means.
6. Perform the same steps above for the remaining two USB flash drives. Label each one. The flash drives should show the following if the contents of the ZIP files were successfully copied over:
Stick2
Stick3
7. Go to your car with the three USB flash drives. Unplug any USB devices so both USB ports are free. Press the START button once but do not start the engine. Make sure the infotainment system is on. Wait for Sync to boot completely... takes about a minute.
8. Plug in USB flash drive STICK1 and count how many seconds before this error message appears. Remove the USB stick.
9. Reboot Sync3 by pressing and holding the POWER button and the NEXT TRACK button at the same time until the screen goes black. Wait until Sync has completely re-booted. Takes a few minutes.
10. The most important step and possibly the most frustrating because it may take multiple attempts to get it right. The goal is to re-boot Sync3 after STICK1 is plugged in BUT before the PKG_ERR05 message appears. The number of seconds from Step# 8 will give you an idea how much time you have. Divide that count in half as a good starting point. On my car I found 4 seconds was the magic number. So have your fingers on the re-boot buttons and plug in STICK1. Wait (in my case) 4 seconds before pressing and holding POWER and NEXT TRACK buttons. Do not release the buttons until you see the screen go black and unplug STICK1 from the USB port. If you see the PKG_ERR05 message before the system re-boots, your timing was off. Re-boot Sync3 and try again.
11. After Sync3 has booted up, insert STICK2 into the USB port. After that the following screen should appear indicating that "Daemon has been installed" if Step 10 was successful. Remove STICK2 and Sync3 should re-boot.
12. Wait for Sync3 to re-boot and insert STICK3 to install the final piece, F-Mods toolkit. After that the following screen should appear indicating that "Mods Tools have been installed". Remove STICK3 and let Sync3 re-boot.
13. Congratulations! Your Sync3 system is now jailbroken and you can install any of the mods available from www.fmods.net (A user account is required for this site)
Some words of caution: This will likely void your warranty. Most mods generally replace files within the Sync3 environment with altered versions to make the mod functional. Due to copyright issues, mods are not permitted to have OEM replacement files to restore your system back to factory condition. In other words, there is no "uninstall" package. What you can do though, is use Cyanlabs to downgrade your Sync version. Then update it back to the current OEM version. Or wait for Ford to release a new Sync version and update it that way. Turn off automatic updates after jailbreaking otherwise, you will need to do the install over again. (Like me
)For first time modders, I would suggest starting with the Custom Background Loader mod available from FMods. It simply enables some code that was already present in the Sync3 system that Ford never enabled. It allows you to change your background image to anything you want aside from the 4 boring backgrounds that Ford provides. Background images must be 800 x 480 pixel JPG files. Separate backgrounds for day and night are possible. To use the same background during the day and night, copy the JPG into both DAY and NIGHT folders. Or create identical images with altered contrast and brightness for day and night. Instructions for the background loader mod are in a text file in the ZIP package. I will likely do a more thorough "How-to" for backgrounds in the future. You can also read more in @Gnatsum21's excellent write-up: How to change background in Sync
Some of my backgrounds as examples:
Running dark horse.
Pure black.
Sponsored
Last edited:
