Among dozens of different file managers for i-gadgets, only a few can be distinguished. However, two programs are especially popular with users: the iFunBox we recently reviewed and the hero of this review - DiskAid.
DiskAid is one of the easiest file managers to manage. While working with it, you will not be required to know the iOS file system, or to connect additional plugins, or anything that could be confusing. Everything is very simple and intuitive.
After connecting your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch to your computer via USB and launching DiskAid, you will immediately see a panel with sections, made in the style of iOS 7. This will start your acquaintance, as well as all further interactions with the program. DiskAid provides the following features:
- Uploading individual photos and entire albums
- Music library management including audiobooks, playlists and podcasts
- Downloading Videos and TV Shows from the iTunes Store
- View and export text messages, call log, contacts and notes
- File system management directly
For fans of wireless technologies, there is an option to connect the device to DiskAid via Wi-Fi. To do this, immediately after starting the program, click the Activate Wi-Fi button. This function favorably distinguishes DiskAid against the background of other file managers, work with which is possible only when the i-device is connected via a USB cable.
The amazing functionality and elegant design of the program is overshadowed by its paid-for. In order to use most of the feature sets, the user needs to purchase DiskAid on the official website for $ 29.90 (previously the program cost much less - $ 9.90).
But the free version of DiskAid can also become an indispensable assistant in managing your i-gadget, especially if your device is jailbroken. DiskAid, like any other file manager, unleashes its full potential on a jailbroken device. Thanks to the functionality of the program (available in the free version), you can manage all your tweaks and load the necessary files in their directories. This can come in handy in a number of cases, for example, when you want to throw off the original WinterBoard theme found on the Internet.
A file manager, without which many iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch owners simply cannot do without when managing their device. An irreplaceable tool, even called a more functional version of iTunes, seemed ideal, but not for the developers of the utility. Not so long ago, DiskAid was reborn, got even more features, became more convenient and is now known as iMazing.
iMazing is the same file manager for iOS devices as its direct predecessor DiskAid. However, the developers decided to change the name of the utility for a reason. iMazing is a completely new level of file manager that gives Apple mobile device owners complete control over their device.
Opportunities
The set of functions iMazing, like a completely new utility, is the broadest. IMazing users get unique opportunities when working both with the file system and individual applications, for example, the same Music, like iMazing reborn in iOS 8.4. But let's take a look at all the features of iMazing in order.
Working with the file system
But there are always workarounds, and iMazing is one of them. Without any intervention in the operation of systems and without the need to jailbreak, the utility allows you to download files of any type to the iPhone or iPad memory. At the same time, iMazing offers a lot of possibilities for transferring. Files can be copied to multiple connected devices at once, and connected to the file system via Wi-Fi.
Accordingly, there are no restrictions. However, there is no need to worry that the iPhone or iPad will be full and because of this iOS will start to work unstable - iMazing controls everything and will not allow the device to fail.
Working with applications
When you delete an application from your iOS device, all associated files, which may turn out to be important documents, are automatically erased along with it. Applications, of course, allow you to save the necessary documents through e-mail or cloud storage, however, this process can hardly be called easy.
With iMazing you can make copies of any files from stock or third-party applications installed on iPhone or iPad. At the same time, this is done extremely simply - on a document or even an entire folder, you need to right-click and select "Save to PC".
Applications using iMazing can be copied as a whole, for subsequent restoration in their original form. That is, you can make a backup copy of the game that you have not played yet and delete it from the device in order to free up space. After that, the game can be restored using iMazing on an iPhone or iPad, without losing progress in the passage. And this is just one example of how you can use the function of creating full-fledged backups of applications.
Backup
But it's not just apps that can be backed up with iMazing. The utility makes it very easy to create a complete copy of the iPhone or iPad, which can later be rolled back.
Unlike iTunes, iMazing backs up every app and all associated documents, as well as all photos, videos, contacts, notes, reminders, and more. However, the most remarkable thing is that you do not have to look for access to this backup copy in the wilds of the system - you yourself choose the path where the full backup of the device will be saved.
The backup function in iMazing is flexible. If necessary, you can select only certain information or files to be saved in the copy. Thus, you can make the backup much easier, leaving only important information in it.
Music
Allows iMazing and very convenient to operate with your music collection. Through the utility, you can both copy new songs and entire albums to the device, and upload music to your computer. Of course, we are talking only about those songs that were downloaded to the iPhone or iPad from the computer.
Working with music on iOS devices using iMazing is really pleasant, and most importantly, all this is done bypassing iTunes, which many people still dislike. You still can't do without a one-time launch of iTunes, because in the program settings you need to check the box "Provide other programs with access to the iTunes Library XML file."
It is very convenient to download not only music to mobile devices through iMazing, but also podcasts or audiobooks downloaded outside of iTunes.
Messages and contacts
A separate point is to highlight the work of iMazing with text messages. SMS are now fading into the background, because of text messengers like WhatsApp or Viber, however, "sms" are dear to many simply as a memory.
With iMazing, you can copy your entire text message history from your iPhone or iPad to your computer to keep your important information as safe as possible. Supports iMazing sms import both in plain text format and in CSV or PDF.
The flexibility of the settings is worth noting here as well - unnecessary text messages, or just spam from taxi drivers or food delivery services can not be exported.
You can transfer contacts from your device to your computer in the same way. Much more valuable information, even at the thought of the loss of which many hairs stand on end, can be exported by an elegant vCards file, which can then be "eaten" by any program, such as Microsoft Outlook.
Photos
Well, where without photos. As an exemplary, if not ideal, file manager, iMazing can save all of your iPhone or iPad photos to a private place. At the same time, the program works with both locally saved pictures and photos located in iCloud.
Finding a specific photo with iMazing is just as easy. Small thumbnails and identification of previously created albums in the Photos application makes the search process very convenient.
Why iMazing and not iTunes?
Previously, iTunes seriously frightened users - many could not even transfer their favorite music to the iPhone or iPad on their own, let alone the process of restoring a mobile device from a backup. Now the situation is gradually changing because Apple has begun to make its multimedia harvester easier.
However, it becomes easier only gradually and not the most convenient process for managing multimedia files, constant synchronization and, albeit infrequent, but errors in iTunes continue to repel ordinary users.
And that's where iMazing's biggest advantage over iTunes is. Yes, not even in the feature set that iMazing has to offer, and iTunes, due to its closed nature, is not. It's simplicity that makes iMazing better than Apple's app.
It was easy to set up the original iPod and access it as a USB stick. This can be done from the iPhone as well, although there are different approaches depending on the type of data you want to work with.
In this article, we will look at different approaches, and they are summarized below:
Basically, it is impossible to work with data other than camera files and data from selected applications on a non-jailbroken device. In this article, we'll cover both approaches.
PTP: Access photos, videos and camera data as a disk mount
iOS automatically presents modern devices as cameras when they are connected via USB. It uses the Picture Transfer Protocol (PTP), which is a fairly limited system for copying photos back and forth. You will probably recognize the DCIM folders in which photos usually appear.
PTP has a number of disadvantages: most obviously, you cannot access files other than from a camera. And PTP doesn't support features like renaming or changing files or folders: instead, it has to delete and recreate them in order to make changes. It's slow.
Access photos and app data via AFC via iTunes
Accessing application data via USB with FUSE
FUSE is a system that allows users to mount drives on their Windows or Mac computers without having to make administrator-level changes to their systems. FUSE stands for "Userspace Filesystem" and is available in a variety of forms on most platforms. FUSE itself is an abstraction layer because it is not a technology that communicates directly with a device or data source: it usually takes a different approach. If you set iPhone as storage, FUSE will communicate with iPhone using a different protocol: SSH, AFC / AFC2, PTP, or WebDAV. Windows often uses the popular Dokan file system in user mode, while macOS uses osxfuse.
From a user perspective, since FUSE normalizes the way device data is represented, it usually doesn't matter which protocol is responsible for mounting.
Using FUSE for MacOS
Let's demonstrate this approach on macOS and how to mount a device. For this to work, you need to install the free Homebrew package manager and familiarize yourself with using the macOS terminal.
First of all, let's find the UDID of your device. This can be done with the free version, with the lsusb command, or with the ioreg -p IOUSB -l -w 0 command. Launch iPhone Backup Extractor while your device is connected, select your device and select the Info tab. You will see the UDID shown in the Hardware IDs section:
$ brew tap homebrew / cask $ brew cask install osxfuse ==> Caveats To install and / or use osxfuse you may need to enable their kernel extension in System Preferences → Security & Privacy → General For more information refer to vendor documentation or the Apple Technical Note: https://developer.apple.com/library/content/technotes/tn2459/_index.html You must reboot for the installation of osxfuse to take effect.
And let's install ifuse, which is code that can interact with iOS devices via FUSE:
$ brew install ifuse
With ifuse installed, you can mount your iPhone or iPad using the UDID we got earlier:
$ mkdir ~ / iphone $ ifuse ~ / iphone --udid 000000000000000000000000
This will install your iPhone as a drive on your computer. If you want to go a step further and dig into more data, this superuser post is pretty handy, and similarly this post is about using the usbmuxd tool.
Eliminating errors you may encounter
ifuse might complain: Invalid device UDID specified, length needs to be 40 characters. Starting with the iPhone X, Apple changed UDID s to use 24 bytes and a dash (-) instead of the old 40-byte format.
If you fail to connect to lockdownd service on the device. Try again. If it still fails try rebooting your device. make sure your device is connected and does not display the "Trust this computer" dialog box. You will need to approve this first. If after that you get ERROR: Device 000000000000000000000000 returned unhandled error code -13 you need to disconnect and reconnect the device.
That being said, it is worth making sure that your PC or Mac is not running other applications that might be trying to connect to your iOS device.
If you are only going to mount one iOS device, you can simply run ifuse ~ / iphone.
Need to use pre-release usbmuxd?
usbmuxd isn "t frequently updated, so occasionally when a new version of iOS is released, it lacks support. To fix that, you can install the latest development version of it as below:
brew unlink usbmuxd brew install --HEAD usbmuxd brew unlink libimobiledevice brew install --HEAD libimobiledevice brew cask uninstall osxfuse brew cask install osxfuse idevicepair
Accessing application data via USB using FUSE on a jailbroken device
The instructions are exactly the same as above. With a jailbroken device, you will see more data immediately. Carefully, eh?
Using Filza WebDAV Server to Access iOS Root File
On a jailbroken iOS device, you can install a file manager app named Filza via Cydia. In Fileza settings, you can enable WebDAV server mode. This provides a fairly simple interface for other devices to access your iOS device, albeit highly insecure. WebDAV is a very general mechanism for working with web data, and there are many clients that can access it, including the web interface built into Filza. Connect to your device via a web browser and you will see an interface. Easy.
Using AFC2 to Access iOS Files via USB
What is AFC2?
AFC2 can be installed from Cydia, and once installed, the AFC client will be able to view the entire device.
Other methods to access all data on jailbroken devices
Prior to iOS 8, there were several Cydia plugins for jailbroken devices that, when plugged in, would make the iPhone appear like a USB drive. Alas, they are no longer supported in modern versions of iOS.
Recover Deleted Files from Connected iOS Device
If you can connect your iPhone or iPad like a drive, you might think that you can recover deleted files by manipulating the file system directly on the jailbroken device. Unfortunately, you cannot recover files this way from iPhone as the file system is encrypted. Even if you could find bits of data, you would not be able to decipher them. Each file has its own encryption key, and these keys are discarded when deleted.
The Apple iOS Security Guide summarizes this on page 17 in the “architecture overview”:
Each time a file is created in the data section, Data Protection generates a new 256-bit key ("per file" key) and passes it to the hardware AES engine, which uses the key to encrypt the file when it is written to flash memory in AES-XTS mode ... Devices with SoC A7, S2, or S3 use AES-CBC. The initialization vector is computed with a block offset to the file, encrypted with the SHA-1 hash of the key for each file.
Mounting may work well for accessing existing files, but it is not very helpful for recovery. To do this, you need an iTunes or iCloud backup, data synced from iCloud, or a forensic image of the device before the data was deleted.
Bonus: mount your Windows computer from your iPhone or iPad
IOS 13 introduces SMB support for iOS. This allows users to remotely access drives on Windows computers. This is how it works:
Find the IP address of your Windows computer. The ipconfig command should tell you this.
On your iOS device, open the Apple Files app, click Connect to Server. Enter smb: // followed by your PC's IP address. Then select "Registered User" and enter your Windows account name and password.
After that, your Windows drive should appear on your iOS device.
Users found that file managers do not display the file system of the iPhone and iPad, but only access to the Media folder. One solution to the problem is to establish an SSH connection to the device. By connecting the computer to the gadget via a secure connection, you can view any files and make changes to the OS.
An easier way to work with the iOS root folder is to use a standard USB connection and launch the desktop file manager. However, the new Pangu jailbreak does not open root access. To this end, Jay Freeman, the developer of Cydia store, has released a revised Apple File Conduit 2. This jailbreak addon is fully compatible with iOS 8 devices.
AFC2 provides full access to the file system for using the programs iFunBox, iExplorer, which are an alternative to iTunes. Saurik says the package is still in beta, so it may experience interruptions. However, it allows users to open the iOS root partition and see familiar folders.
How to access file system in iOS 8 with jailbreak:
Step 1: Follow the procedure to jailbreak iPhone and iPad according to the instructions from here. Install Cydia by following this guide.
Step 2: Launch Cydia and wait for the repository update to complete.
Step 3: Go to the Search tab and write “Apple File Conduit“ 2 ″ ”in the search box.
Step 4: Select the package you want and click "Install" in the upper right corner.
Step 5: Restart your iPhone and iPad after the installation of AFC2 is complete.
There are many programs that make life easier for Apple owners. Many people love iTunes and cannot imagine life without it, but the "native apple" program is not able to satisfy all the needs of an advanced user. Today we will tell you about the most popular file manager for iOS devices - iFunBox.
The free iFunBox application (link at the end of the article) is designed to run from a computer running macOS or Windows and is an advanced file manager for iOS devices. This program will fully reveal its potential only with jailbroken devices (on which it is made), but finds its use for ordinary gadgets, for example, for that.
iFunBox does not take up much disk space. After starting the program with a connected device, you can see something like the following:
Main features of the iFunBox program
- Access to applications installed from the App Store;
- Viewing, uploading and deleting photos and videos from the gallery of the device (to fully upload photos to the device, you need to clean the cache folder and reboot the device or have a tweak installed from -, which is necessary);
- Access to the folder with standard iOS wallpapers;
- Ability to copy downloaded applications (* .ipa files) to the device;
- Ability to copy downloaded tweaks and programs from Cydia (* .deb files) to the device and install them by rebooting the device;
- Access to the folder with standard iOS ringtones (read how to create a ringtone);
- Access to purchased and downloaded books from iBooks;
- Access to voice recorder records;
- Access to folders with all applications on the device (both installed and standard) for various manipulations;
- Access to a "clean" file system (for advanced users);
- and much more
The program supports creating shortcuts to frequently used folders. This is very convenient for those who often delve into the bowels of iOS, replace files, clear cache, install and remove jailbreak tweaks. You can also create shortcuts to folders to which you need to copy files so that they get into the necessary applications, for example, video in
