Where to get a PS4 with firmware 11.00 or lower

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TL,DR: to find a Jailbreakable PS4, eBay is your best bet.

The details:

PS4s running firmware 11.00 or lower can be jailbroken. this is why they are “harder” to find (or more desirable) that just any PS4 unit.

PS4 11.00 Can be Jailbroken – Downgrade “difficult” at best – Higher Firmwares unhackable

At the time of writing, the 11.00 Jailbreak has just been released a few days ago, so it could be months, most likely years, before any Jailbreak is released for firmwares 11.02/11.50 and above.

Furthermore, there is no[1] way to downgrade a PS4 at this point, so if you’re looking to Jailbreak your PS4, your best bet is to get your hands on a low firmware console.

Because of the points above, I truly believe that your best bet if you want a Jailbroken PS4, is to buy a console running 11.00 or below.

Where to get your hands on a PS4 11.00

Avoid: Regular retailers

We used to have big lists of “bundles” that you could find on major retailers, to help you find lower firmware consoles. Unfortunately, these bundles are a thing of the past, and, although you can still find them sometimes, it’s for very inflated prices. I do not recommend those anymore, unless you find one at a particularly good price (it has to be new in box!)

As of 2024, it is hard to find new PS4s units on regular retailers such as Amazon and Walmart, let alone ones that are guaranteed to be on a lower firmware, and for an acceptable price. You can give Amazon a chance (search link here), but avoid anything that’s “reconditioned”, “renewed”, or “used”. A “new in box” PS4 console is likely to come with firmware 11.00 in my opinion, but this isn’t guaranteed, and, to restate, most units I found on Amazon are not new, but used or reconditioned items. These will most likely come with the latest firmware, and you don’t want that.

Recommendation #1: Buy second hand on a trusted Marketplace

In my opinion, the best way to get a hackable PS4 is to buy it used from a seller who can ensure the firmware. Second-hand marketplaces like eBay have them for reasonable prices. (Between $100 and $200 at the time of writing). Just make sure you type the firmware number you want, and you should see the right results. Be careful that not all results are guaranteed to have the right firmware, so always check each individual listing! If you’re not getting any satisfying results for 11.00, try other firmwares such as 10.00, 9.60, 9.00 (9.00 remains a good way to find hackable models, there are still lots of them out there), and so on…

Another surprisingly good keyword is to simply search for “PS4 Firmware“. People who list the keyword firmware in their listing know what they’re doing, and this will help you find a lot of gems. It could be people directly listing hackable units, or on the contrary, people listing “unhackable” ones. As of this writing for example you might still find 9.03 units for cheap, since those were considered unahackable for a while.

The benefit of a used PS4 is that the seller can check the Firmware for you. If the seller can’t (or won’t) confirm the firmware, do not buy from them. There are enough offers currently that you don’t have to gamble. Also, a lot of the places that won’t give you this information on the firmware are specialized second hand shops (rather than individuals), and these shops tend to do a “cleanup” of the console before selling it, meaning that they will in particular install the latest firmware. Again, If the seller can’t, or won’t confirm the firmware (or if they are dodgy about it like “I don’t know, I haven’t used the console in a while, though”), don’t buy from them.

Recommendation #2 : Buy new in box on a trusted Marketplace

Be sure you read recommendation #1 above first. I really recommend that you try and get a used console from eBay (or other trusted marketplace in your country) as in my opinion it’s the best way to ensure a low firmware PS4 nowadays.

However (and this is different from the 9.00 era), I do personally believe that any PS4 “new in box” sold today is extremely likely to come with firmware 11.00 or lower. This is because firmware 11.02 came out in December 2023, and very few PS4s were even manufactured after that date. In other words, if you buy a brand new PS4 in 2024, I personally think the chances are very high that it was manufactured before 11.02 was out. Note that I some people told me this isn’t the case everywhere, I have been given Brazil as an example of new PS4s coming with 11.50. At the time of this writing I still find that hard to believe, and I’m assuming some stores sell refurbished consoles as new…but all I can say is, tread lightly.

Bottom line, also second-hand guaranteed 11.00 is still my “go to” recommendation, if you really want a new unit, try to buy new in box PS4s on eBay, they are quite likely to ship with a firmware lower than 11.00.

Getting a 11.00 PS4 – the conclusion

As of 2024, it should be fairly easy to find a hackable PS4 model (see links above). These will become rare with time (they always do), but snatching one today for a reasonable price should be straightforward.

If you did buy a hackable PS4, share your experience (good or bad) and tips in the comments below! Thanks in advance, as this truly helps others.

[1] It is technically possible to downgrade a PS4 but requires specialized hardware, as well as a backup of the console’s syscon from a lower firmware. If you have that handy, you most likely don’t need to me to tell you where and how to find a PS4. Without a prior backup, a “revert” is possible which could let you go backup to your previous installed firmware. Here again, the technique requires soldering. It is discussed here, but my personal opinion is that going that rout will be more expensive and risky than buying a hackable console.