connecting iPhone / libimobiledevice [Solved]

[debianix]

I used Debian bookworm Xfce until recently.

Since I had to replace a hard disk, I took the opportunity for a fresh new installation and also to switch to MX Linux KDE, which I love so far!
Only one thing is different from my old Debian Xfce installation:

Previously under Xfce Debian:
- I connect my iPhone via USB, it asks me via code on the iPhone if I want to trust the computer
- sometimes nothing happens and I have to unplug it and plug it in again for it to work
- sometimes it works right the first time

Now under KDE MXLinux:
- I connect my iPhone via USB, a popup appears, that a "camera" was detected
- when I open that "camera" I am directed into my home folder and nothing more happens

Now I have the problem that I have wiped my old installation and can no longer trace exactly how and which packages I installed back then. It's been quite a while and I only remember that it was libimobiledevice.

In the Debian WIki: https://wiki.debian.org/iPhone#Getting_ ... _your_data , the entry seems to me to be somewhat outdated, because I have definitely never done it that elaborately with configuration etc.. I simply installed a few packages back then and it worked.

The instructions from the developers for Debian differ significantly from the above wiki entry:
https://libimobiledevice.org/#get-started

And before I build something "from source", I wanted to ask what your experiences and success/failure stories are with the whole topic.

Now I thought, since MX LInux seems to like to break outdated methods of Debian in places, which I appreciate very much (e.g. Firefox) - that maybe there is also a current and working solution available for the libimobiledevice topic?

Have any of you already successfully implemented the whole thing and can tell me what approach you used to achieve success?

I hope for ur contribution and thank u for that amazing project!

[CatManDan]

You have idevicemanager installed? Out of own experiences, it is also necessary to use systemd instead of sysv-init. On systemd, I can reliably connect my iphone with the laptop using idevicemanager.

[Jerry3904]

@CatManDan Where are you finding idevicemanager? It's not in Bookworm

Code: Select all

$ apt policy idevicemanager
N: Unable to locate package idevicemanager

@debianix Does KDE Connect work with the phone?
https://www.makeuseof.com/connect-iphon ... e-connect/

[dolphin_oracle]

Just tried my iPhone on mx23.3 kde. Plugged in via usb. Got popup on the phone asking whether to trust the device. Got a pop up on kde asking how to treat the device. Camera and mass storage were the options. I went with mass storage and up came my photos.


Treating as a camera might require using an app like digikam to get your pics. Not sure about that.

[CatManDan]

@CatManDan Where are you finding idevicemanager? It's not in Bookworm

Code: Select all

$ apt policy idevicemanager
N: Unable to locate package idevicemanager

my bad - I meant iDevice Mounter (mx-idevice-mounter). Works with my iphone 13 mini when I boot into systemd.

[Jerry3904]

Just tried my iPhone on mx23.3 kde. Plugged in via usb. Got popup on the phone asking whether to trust the device. Got a pop up on kde asking how to treat the device. Camera and mass storage were the options. I went with mass storage and up came my photos.


Treating as a camera might require using an app like digikam to get your pics. Not sure about that.

Excellent!

@CatManDan Where are you finding idevicemanager? It's not in Bookworm

Code: Select all

$ apt policy idevicemanager
N: Unable to locate package idevicemanager

my bad - I meant iDevice Mounter (mx-idevice-mounter). Works with my iphone 13 mini when I boot into systemd.

Aha, thanks!

[debianix]

wow, thanks a lot for the responses!

well, being a bit more independent from systemd was one of the reasons why I moved from Debian bookworm to MX Linux with a particular computer.
One of the reasons was because I assumed that the shutdown problems (screen goes black, but computer keeps running endlessly with no response) would go away without systemd.
I have been testing MX Linux for 3 days and so far no problems with shutdown. So I don't want to risk systemd again.
Is there absolutely no other way to get the whole thing running without systemd?

KDE Connect:
I totally forgot about that and just tried it for the very first time with my main system .. Debian (systemd) and it worked! I shared a file to my phone, and lots of files from my phone to the computer, and it worked out of the boxxx :-) Very happy about that! So actually there is no need to activate the USB thing anymore...

But if the USB connection from phone to computer would work anyway, that would be one reason to switch all my machines to MX Linux as the installation process and user friendliness in general is absolutely stunning :)

[debianix]

Just as a little update:
After spending the last few days setting up MX 23.3 KDE and installing it on all my computers I finally got it to work.
At the beginning after my first installation, my iPhone was not recognized, as described at the beginning.
After reinstalling my system in the meantime, I figured I had nothing to lose by trying again:

When I plug in the iPhone via USB, it is displayed as a camera and I have to confirm on the iPhone that I trust the computer.

It does not work for me when I select "Open in file manager". (Then the message "could not claim USB device" appears).

However, when I select "Transfer photos with Gwenview", Gwenview opens, all photos are recognized and listed, I go to "Import all" and wait until the bar is full. It works really well.
The advantage of this method in my opinion: The photos are not saved with strange file names but each photo is renamed and receives the exact date and time when it was taken directly as a file name. This makes it easier to keep an overview even in chaotic photo albums or to find certain photos again :-)
All in all, I am very happy with this solution and thank you for your help! Thanks also to all Linux and KDE developers who make this possible :-)

For specific files other than photos that I want to move back and forth between iPhone and PC, I use Syncthing on PC and "Möbius Sync" from the iOS Appstore, which works absolutely great (not to mention the childish restrictions within iOS when it comes to file management).