Access and recover files from an iPhone on Linux
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Usually, a Mac or iTunes on a Windows PC is the best way to access files on an iPhone. Well, sometimes you might also want to access these files on Linux for backup or recovery reasons. Here’s a short how to for Ubuntu…
Introduction and Disclaimer
It may be difficult or impossible to access an iPhone on Linux, because it is not officially supported by Apple - and Apple tends to change the transfer and security protocols sometimes. So maybe the described method won’t work in the future or maybe you will lose your files due to a protocol error… don’t blame me.
TL;DR
Plugin your iPhone via USB cable, then run the following commands:
# install required packages
sudo apt install libimobiledevice6 libimobiledevice-utils ifuse
# pair device
# note: maybe interaction like entering the access code on the phone is required
# rerun this command after entering the PIN until you get a success message
idevicepair pair
# enable multiple connections
usbmuxd -f -v
# create mount point
sudo mkdir /media/iphone
# mount your device as userspace filesystem (FUSE)
ifuse /media/iphone
# open files in favorite file explorer (Desktop OS only)
xdg-open /media/iphone
# unmount phone after file transfer
fusermount -u /media/iphone
# alternate method: ifuse -u /media/iphone
