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Latest Release: 1.0.2

Tested with iPhone/iPod Touch 1G, 2G, 3G/3GS, iPhone 4 running up to firmware 4.0.2 and iPad running up to firmware 3.2.2

About:

libimobiledevice is a software library that talks the protocols to support iPhone®, iPod Touch® and iPad® devices on Linux. Unlike other projects, it does not depend on using any existing proprietary libraries and does not require jailbreaking. It allows other software to easily access the device's filesystem, retrieve information about the device and it's internals, backup/restore the device, manage SpringBoard® icons, manage installed applications, retrieve addressbook/calendars/notes and bookmarks and synchronize music and video to the device. The library is in development since August 2007 with the goal to bring support for these devices to the Linux Desktop.

News:

23.08.2010: First attempt at iOS 4 music synchronization with an iPhone 4 has succeeded. The new hash algorythm is reversed. Some time will pass though to clean it up and make iPhone 4 and iPad owners happy again.
31.07.2010: iOS 4 music syncing for last-gen devices works just fine. sbmanager has gained support for the iPhone 4 and managing of folders.
22.07.2010: usbmuxd 1.0.5 has been released.
22.06.2010: iOS 4 is released and basic libimobiledevice functionality works fine. libgpod music syncing is broken right now but should work soon for all last-gen iOS 4 devices. What we know for sure is that iPad and iPhone 4 music syncing is not supported.
20.06.2010: iOS 4 and iPhone 4 release is approaching thus a reminder for donations. libimobiledevice 1.0.2 has been released.
10.06.2010: nautilus-ideviceinfo 0.1.0 has been released.
10.06.2010: Several milestones have been met. Backup including restore is now in git master. Tools are available for software update/restore and device activation. Last step is mobile synchronization.
29.05.2010: The security flaw is unrelated to Ubuntu/Linux/libimobiledevice as described here and only applies if device is powered off unlocked.
27.05.2010: Some security sites report that even passcode enabled devices get auto-mounted. We could not reproduce this yet. However it might point at some bug during boot in the iPhone OS. Accessing a passcode enabled device the first time does not work in our tests as one would expect. Devices taking more time booting might be affected though, on any OS.
18.05.2010: usbmuxd recognizes devices in recovery mode and flashing an ipsw has succeeded.
13.05.2010: A working interface for the mobilesync service has been pushed to master. This should help implementing a two-way PIM synchronization solution.
12.05.2010: libimobiledevice 1.0.1 has been released fixing memory leaks and some minor issues.
11.05.2010: usbmuxd 1.0.4 has been released fixing two crash bugs.
24.04.2010: First KDE desktop integration using kio_afc by Jonathan Beck.
07.04.2010: Initial testing shows libimobiledevice supports the iPad just fine.
31.03.2010: GNOME 2.30 has been released and features libimobiledevice support.
22.03.2010: usbmuxd 1.0.3 has been released.
21.03.2010: Official 1.0.0 release of libimobiledevice and ifuse.

Project:

Packages:

openSUSE 11.0, 11.1, 11.2, Factory or 1-Click Install
Fedora 12+ (Packages in the official repositories)
Mandriva (Packages are available in "Cooker")
Ubuntu (Karmic, Lucid)
Debian

Contribute:

Sources and Dependencies:

libimobiledevice-1.0.2.tar.bz2
ifuse-1.0.0.tar.bz2
libplist-1.3.tar.bz2
usbmuxd-1.0.5.tar.bz2 (needs libusb >= 1.0.3) (gitweb)
nautilus-ideviceinfo-0.1.0.tar.bz2

Status:

Feature	Status	iOS	Notes
Filesystem Access	Done	4.0.2	Using iFuse with fuse, on GNOME using GVFS >= 1.5.1 or kio_afc on KDE.
Music/Video Synchronization	Done	4.0.2	Rhythmbox, gtkpod and Amarok sync with latest libgpod >= 0.7.90. The iPhone 4 and iPad do NOT work.
Software Update/Restore	Done (git)	3.1.3	Using idevicerestore and libirecovery, updating and restoring devices is now possible. iOS 4 works if you kill ehci and use USB 1.1, thus there are kernel USB issues we need to resolve.
Phone Activation	Done	4.0.2	Using ideviceactivate, activating your device is now possible.
Camera/Photo Synchronization	No	N/A	PTP photo access works. Camera roll management needs implementation.
Calendar Synchronization	Partly (One way)	N/A	Experimental Conduit module for device to computer sync exists. Python implementations can dump the data as iCalendar.
Contacts Synchronization	Partly (One way)	N/A	Experimental Conduit module for device to computer sync exists. Python implementations can dump the data as vCard.
Notes Synchronization	Partly (One way)	N/A	Experimental Conduit module for device to computer sync exists. Python implementations can dump the data as XML notes.
Bookmarks Synchronization	Partly (One way)	N/A	Experimental Conduit module for device to computer sync exists. Python implementations can dump the data as XBEL bookmarks.
USB Internet Tethering	Done	4.0.2	Use the iPhone Ethernet Kernel Driver.
TCP Tunneling	Done	4.0.2	Use the iproxy tool provided by usbmuxd. This for instance allows accessing SSH or a device webserver locally.
Applications	Done	4.0.2	Use ideviceinstaller to list, install, uninstall and archive your own apps.
Manage SpringBoard	Done	4.0.2	Use sbmanager to arrange icons on the device using drag and drop. iPad support is broken as we do not have such a device to work with.
Backup/Restore	Done (git)	3.1.3	Use the idevicebackup tool for full and incremental native backups and restoring from them. iOS 4 support is WIP.
Remote Syslog	Done	4.0.2	Use idevicesyslog tool to view the syslog in realtime.
Developer Images	Done	4.0.2	Use ideviceimagemounter tool to mount and use developer disk images.
Profiling/Debugging	No	N/A	Related service protocol is unimplemented.

Want features to get implemented faster? Want to thank for our countless hours of work? Want to help us improve support for newer devices and system versions? Then feel free to donate.

As of now we are missing an iPad for testing.

Quick FAQ:

Just installed the library, now what? Nothing happens.
Most likely you will also need to update the applications that use libimobiledevice for it to become useful. For instance GVFS >= 1.5.1 needs to be updated to allow filesystem access and the same goes for libgpod4 for music synchronization. After updating the stack and related libraries you might want to restart your desktop session (logout/login or restart). To test if you installed everything correctly plug in your device and run "ideviceinfo" within a terminal. Congratulations if it prints a lot of details about your device.
I can see my iPhone/iPod Touch in Rhythmbox, move over music and I know it is was copied to the device but it never shows up on the device!
Make sure you see the "Sync in Progress" screen on your device before unplugging it. It is that screen which will make your device recognize the tracks you copied over. Unplugging the device earlier will leave the files on the device, however never update the device media player's music database. Currently Rhythmbox does not have an optimal workflow syncing the changes and this is being worked on (like syncing directly after all tracks are finished copied). Also make sure you have an "iTunes_Control/Device" folder. If not, follow step 5 from here.
My iPhone/iPod Touch never shows up on the desktop! What is wrong?
There are three prominent causes: 1. You might simply need to restart your desktop after a fresh install. 2. If you have a passcode enabled on the device, disable it when connecting the first time to your computer. 3. Make sure to use a good USB cable, as some cheap cables from Asia have shown to cause communication issues. 4. Try connecting using a different USB port and do not connect using a hub, this can cause hardware related issuse in some rare cases (this should be evident in your system log). 5. Report your issue on our Bug Tracker. This helps you and others.
My GNOME desktop shows two iPhone/iPod Touch icons! Why?
The devices expose a standard PTP (Picture Transfer Protocol) USB interface which the GVFS libgphoto2 backend uses to access pictures. Due to the addition of accessing the device using libimobiledevice, two icons show up. However, this issue is already fixed in the latest GVFS release along GNOME 2.30 where only one icon will show up.
Do I need to use iFuse to mount the device?
iFuse is only useful if you want to mount the device manually and if you do not have GNOME and GVFS installed. Otherwise it is useless since GNOME's GVFS supports accessing the device directly and creates a fuse mount in ~/.gvfs/, too.

Credits/Sponsors:

The library has been developed by a bunch of smart and nice people. Please see the AUTHORS file in the release tarballs.