While watching Wololo’s blog for the release of the Vita HBL I’ve stumbled across something that immediately got my attention; the possibility to bypass Sony’s forced firmware update when connecting to the internet.

Below are the step necessary to connect your PS Vita to PSN without being forced to update. This is taken from the source but I’ve took the liberty to write it out for you guys. I confirmed this using my own European PS Vita on firmware 1.06 (release).

UPDATE [ Jan 25th, 2013 ]: User koko12 quoted the following text, which I’d like to highlight:

“To get this working for 2.05, the only modification to the guide is in step 10, for var, instead of 0106000, use 02050000.
That got me up and running. This was too easy Sony…” -Luis

1. Download the psp2-updatelist.xml for your region: Europe, United Kingdom, United States or Japan.

2. Open psp2-updatelist.xml with any editor (i.e. notepad, gedit) and look at line number 3. Change the value of level0_system_version, level1_system_version and level2_system_version to “01.000.000″. On line number 4, change the value of system_version also to “01.000.000″. Save and close the file afterwards.

3. Download and install Charles Proxy.

4. (Optional) If you do not know the IP address of your computer you need to find out what it is before we can continue. In Windows, open up a command promt (Start -> Run, enter “cmd” -> Enter) and type “ipconfig”. Your IP address is noted at IPv4 Address.

5. On your PS Vita, go to Settings -> Network -> Wi-Fi Settings and setup a working internet connection. However, go into Advanced Settings and select Use Proxy Server. There, you need to fill in the IP address of your computer (the one where you will be running Charles Proxy on) and the port number 8888.

6. Start Charles Proxy on your computer and restart your PS Vita. Let the PS Vita connect to the internet (by using Connection Test or something similar) and watch Charles Proxy for any request to http://fxx01.psp2.update.playstation.net/. Once you see this, navigate the folder in Charles Proxy (it should be expanded already) all the way to psp2-updatelist.xml and right-click on it.

7. Select Map local and choose the file we’re downloaded and edited in steps one and two at Local Path.

8. On the same item, right-click and select Edit from the menu.

9. The right window will now have some tabs in the lower center of the screen. Select Query String and press Add in the new tab.

10. Under name, type “var”. Under value, type “01610000″ (current firmware 1.61 as of the writing of this guide). Now click Execute.

11. You’re now able to browse the PS Store, PS Friend List etc. without being forced to update to the current firmware.

Source: technodon at PS3News forums

Link2037 says:

Going to give this a shot next time I see a firmware update :D

March 2, 2012, 20:35
Nightfire says:

I’ve used that and I could play online and use PS store, but now I’m trying and my PS vita always tells me to update

April 17, 2012, 18:59

@Nightfire, since when is this happening? Perhaps they’ve blocked this method just like they did on the PS3..

April 17, 2012, 20:10
stridhiryu030363 says:

Psn went under maintenance yesterday for a couple of hours. Guessing this has something to do with it. I’m unable to access psn under this method as well after this maintenance.

April 18, 2012, 10:18
lol says:

As long as muppets explain how to do, There will be fixes from $onY

April 19, 2012, 12:23
belux says:

Ok, I’m going to resume this post:
last week I bought a PSVITA, mounting OF 1.06.
I tried both accessing PSStore and connecting the device to the PC for file transfer (music, video, etc )using CMA; but it was always asking me for the firmware update.
I tried openCMA to connecting to the PC but even if the the installation procedure was successful it was giving me again the update firmware messagge. I searched in the net and found that openCMA should work only from OF 1.50 …
Finally I tried Charles Proxy, following this guide changing only point 10 where in says: “type “01610000″ (current firmware 1.61 as of the writing of this guide)” typing “01670000″ because current official firmware is 1.67.
It worked, I was able to access to the PSStore, so I tried do buy the game “Escape Plan”. It requested me to create a PSN account, I tried via PSVITA but it failed always at the ID name creation step. So I created it via PC without problem.
Again I tried to buy the game, the login of my PSN worked, but then it requested me for the firmware update… arghhh!!!
Now every time I try to access the PSN it give me the login page then the update messagge.

In summary:
- new PSV, OF 1.06
- no PSN allowed without fw update
- no PC file transfer without fw update
- openCMA failed, it requires at least OF 1.50
- charles proxy successful, access grant to PSN
- new PSN account failed via PSV
- new PSN account successful via PC
- buying a game failed without fw update
- exit from the store
- access to the store: login OK then fw update message
NOW:
- no PSN allowed without fw update
- no PC file transfer without fw update

April 27, 2012, 09:09
stridhiryu030363 says:

I don’t see why you don’t update to 1.50. If there was homebrew in the future, you need to be able to transfer files from you computer. Also, the maintenance broke everyone’s proxy to psn. It’s been confirmed.

April 27, 2012, 09:27
belux says:

@stridhiryu030363
I would be happy to update to OF 1.50, but the last OF avaliable is 1.67 not the 1.50. Do you know a way to install it?
Thanks

April 28, 2012, 08:17
flervick says:

can i use this thing to copy a ps vita game from pc?? cause when ever i copy a vita game from a download site it says this game is not yours you cant copy it.. it looks like its license so cant be shared can u bypass that too?

June 1, 2012, 10:49

@flervick: please see belux’s reply. He tested everything, and it seems most isn’t working anymore since Sony patched the whole thing up.

June 1, 2012, 12:37
Martin says:

I’ve been trying this procedure for a long time now, everytime i right click the xml file and then click map local, nothing happens. It shows no directories for my to choose any file to replace it. I need help.

October 14, 2012, 22:41

@Martin, this method is not working anymore.

October 16, 2012, 10:41
Erik says:

is there another way to bypass ps vita firmware updates?

November 9, 2012, 17:49

At number 5. you say go to ‘advanced settings’ in ‘wifi settings’.

There ISNT an ‘advanced settings’ button in ‘wifi settings’.

Not on my Vita anyway. If there is, I must have to uncheck something before it appears. So you may haver missed something out here.

December 23, 2012, 16:05
koko12 says:

“To get this working for 2.05, the only modification to the guide is in step 10, for var, instead of 0106000, use 02050000.
That got me up and running. This was too easy Sony…” -Luis

January 24, 2013, 21:26
huy nhut says:

i don’t understand step 8: “On the same item, right-click and select Edit from the menu”….can u explain it more specific for me ??? i only see “edit” between “file” and “view” @_@

January 25, 2013, 09:48
huy nhut says:

i mean what item u said in step 8, i can’t manage myself, thank for your reply in advance

January 25, 2013, 09:50

@huy nhut: That’s the file psp2-updatelist.xml as described in step 6.

January 25, 2013, 09:53
huy nhut says:

in step 6, i type http://fxx01.psp2.update.playstation.net/on my firefox then i see in structure ò charles apear line:http://fxx01.psp2.update.playstation.net/…then i right click on it and select expand all, then i jump to step 7 >”<…is it right? finally in step 8 i right click on "favicon.ico" and select edi…and at the end of step 10, my psvita couldn't not connect to the internet, hix… what had i wrong….someday can u make the video about this all step for other people can do it easily,.:(

January 25, 2013, 10:23

The guide is outdated and didn’t work for a while there. However, with the latest 2.05 firmware it seems this is working once again. You might need to give it a few tries as people are reporting that not all attempts to connect are being passed through.

January 25, 2013, 10:33
huy nhut says:

im in firmware 2.01, i do sucess 10 step abow but i dun understand why it also need update system before sign in @@, huhu

January 25, 2013, 15:38
huy nhut says:

OK finally i do success,haha…but in step 10,instead of “var”, u should type “ver”,var is not correct, u should edit it

January 25, 2013, 17:19
GoofTrooP says:

i read up on all the cfw and it sounds good, dont get me wrong but where doi start ifi wanted mod my psvita? i.e., modding psvita for Dummies(me)…

February 17, 2013, 18:42
Player1 says:

Tried this. As of March 3, it’s not working for me.

March 4, 2013, 02:10
no comment says:

as of now march 17.. it didnt work im using 2.05 any update to bypass ps vita firmware update?

March 16, 2013, 20:57
Vince says:

Everyone, this works fine. If it isn’t working for you, you’re doing something wrong. You just need to make sure your hacked XML is being served to the Vita. Try just using * for the query string.

March 29, 2013, 09:16
no comment says:

sir vince can u make a video for this i tried it a lot but it doesnt work at all plss help me tnx im using firmware 2.05

April 1, 2013, 03:39
HACKERPRO1 says:

It’s been patched don’t worry about it no more i just did all of this sorry guys if you do it you will get a error while signing in saying (C0-1015-7) i also did a test connection and my internet worked fine alon with everything else accept connecting to playstation network so don’t waste your time

May 18, 2013, 19:18

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