How to Access Your iPhone, iPad, iPod on Ubuntu, Manjaro, Arch Linux

Cover image banner for connecting and accessing iPhone, iPad on Ubuntu, Manjaro, Arch Linux Without iTunes

If you have tried downloading iTunes for Ubuntu, Arch Linux, Manjaro, or any other Linux distro in the past, you might have been confronted with a nasty surprise: “There’s no iTunes for Ubuntu / Arch Linux ! How do I access my iPhone / iPad / iPod from Linux !?” That was my reaction when I tried to access my iPad from Linux out of curiosity. Previously, I had always transferred files between my iPad and my computer using iTunes on Windows.

The bitter truth is that a native version of iTunes is not available for Linux yet. At the time of writing this blog post, there is no official support for iTunes on operating systems other than Windows and Mac OS. Hopefully this will change in the future. For the time being, the least we can do is make use of some workarounds.

While it’s possible to run the Windows version of iTunes on Linux using WINE, this method doesn’t always work with all versions of iTunes. In this blog post, I’m going to share a native solution that is guaranteed to work well on Linux.

No iTunes? iFuse to the Rescue!

It’s possible to access your iPhone/iPad from Linux without using iTunes at all. “Without iTunes you say !?” You read that right :) We can make Linux communicate directly with iDevices, thereby cutting the need for iTunes completely.

iFuse is an open source “FUSE filesystem driver which uses libiphone to connect to iPhone and iPod Touch devices without needing to “jailbreak” them.”

In order to install iFuse, open a Terminal window and run the appropriate command below depending on your Linux distro:

For Ubuntu and Debian derivatives:

sudo apt install usbmuxd ifuse

For Manjaro / Arch Linux:

# Note that you need to have AUR enabled
sudo pacman -S usbmuxd libplist && pamac install ifuse-git

Step 2: Reboot Computer

Next, reboot your computer for the changes to take effect.

Step 3: Connect the iPhone / iPad Using USB Cable

At this point, connecting your iPhone/iPad to your computer using a USB cable should bring up a prompt on your iPhone/iPad asking if you want to trust this computer. Touch “Trust” to give your computer access to the device.

iOS iPhone Trust This Computer dialog alert

Step 4: Mount the iPhone / iPad Using iFuse

Run the following command in your Terminal to mount the iDevice. Here, we are mapping the contents of the iPhone or iPad to ~/ipad for accessibility. You can use any other directory if you wish.

mkdir -p ~/ipad && ifuse ~/ipad

Step 5: Access Your iPhone / iPad Contents

If you now open your file manager (e.g Nautilus), you should see two additional entries: One to access the documents for the various apps on your iDevice, and another one to access the Camera Roll and Books.

Step 6: Copy Files from Linux to the Files App on iPhone / iPad

The 2 mount points that iFuse created will only give you access to the Documents directory (folder) of apps that support file sharing, and also to the camera roll and books on your iDevice.

If you want to transfer files from your Linux machine to the Files app on your iPhone / iPad, the following workaround will enable you to do so.

From your iDevice, install an app that allows file sharing. VLC media player and Firefox (amongst other apps) have that feature. I personally use VLC media player as it has a neat option for wireless transfer, but Firefox should be fine as well.
Open your file manager on Linux and click the Documents tab that iFuse has added, and you will see all apps that support file sharing.

View iPhone iPad document files in Nautilus file manager on Linux

Double click on any app that you want to use, and you will be taken to the document root of that app. Here I’m using VLC. You can now copy any file or directory (folder) into the app’s document root. As an example, I have copied an image screenshot.png into the document root of the VLC app.

Copy or transfer Linux files to iPhone iPad

Next, open the Files app on your iPhone/iPad. Then, swipe on the left edge of the screen to reveal the sidebar, and select “On My iPad”.

Inside the Files app on your iPhone/iPad, open the app’s folder (e.g VLC) where you copied your files from Linux. Then, do a long press on the file / directory that you want and select “Move”.

Make sure “On My iPad” is highligted and select “Move”.

And voila! If you go back to the first screen of the Files app, you should see the file or directory that you copied in the Files app on your iPhone/iPad.

View Linux files n iPhone iPad Files app

Conclusion

It is now possible to transfer files between your iPhone/iPad and your Linux machine without iTunes. iFuse seamlessly integrates with Linux and hides all complexities of the communication happening between your iDevice and your computer, without requiring any additional configuration from our part. Accessing the Camera Roll and documents of your iPhone/iPad and transferring files from Linux is now a piece of cake :)

# Footnotes

https://forum.manjaro.org/t/error-installing-ifuse-to-access-ipad-device-content/73124

https://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/xenial/man1/ifuse.1.html

https://github.com/libimobiledevice/ifuse

Comments

GUEST

Adam

Friday, Aug 26, 2022 at 03:56 UTC

Hello, I’ve tried this on Arch Linux and everything checks out good until I try to access the files I copied. ifuse mount allows me to remove and add files without issues. Yet when I go to iPad Pro 4th gen with iOS 15.5 and open the files app I do not see the files I added. Same can be said when I add files on the iPad I cannot see them on Arch Linux. Have you experienced this or have any suggestions on how I can try to resolve this?

ADMIN

Ray Adam

Sunday, Aug 28, 2022 at 12:20 UTC

Hi Adam. Thank you for pointing this out. I’ve updated the tutorial with instructions (see Step 6) on how to copy files from Linux to the Files app :)

Heather Adam

Thursday, Mar 14, 2024 at 14:03 UTC

Hi Ray. iFuse did not create a “documents” tab as indicated in step 2. I’m using the most recent version of Dolphin. I can browse the file structure of the ipad via the mounted directory, but that turns out to not be very useful. Where do I find the “Documents” tab in KDE?

Saturday, Mar 16, 2024 at 13:24 UTC

I figured out another way to achieve this if your file manager doesn’t pick up on iFuse apps. You can list the available iOS apps and mount each filesystem manually through the terminal. Instructions here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/IOS#Manual_mounting

Dean Drover

Wednesday, Mar 22, 2023 at 20:47 UTC

Thanks for the excellent tutorial. I am now able to read documents on an ipad.

Ibrahim

Thursday, May 2, 2024 at 13:15 UTC

Hey,

I tried this on Arch Linux and I’m unable to install ifuse-git. I can only install ifuse from the regular Arch repositories. Further, when I connect my device (an iPod Touch 7th Generation on iOS 15.8.2) it shows up in File Explorer but doesn’t let me open it and Rhythmbox doesn’t see it either.

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