03 - Libimobiledevice connection - Mac - iOS

update 29 aug 2024

Activate developer mode

An access to iOS developer options is needed:

Go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Developer Mode
Turn on the toggle button and select "Restart"
When the iPhone restarts, there is a popup "Turn on Developer Mode?". Accept it.
Go to Settings > Developer and toggle "Enable UI Automation"

If you can't see the developer mode option from Settings, connect the iPhone to a Mac via USB with Xcode. This will make it appear.

The first time you connect an iPhone through USB, a popup Trust This Computer? should appear. Click on Trust:

Run the following command to verify that the libimobiledevice library detects the iPhone:

idevice_id

The UDID of the device should appears.

To run a local test on an iOS device, you need to install the Greenspector ios-testing-tools IPA.

Please follow the steps below:

brew install ideviceinstaller

Download the IPA by accessing the following URL: http://dl.greenspector.com/ios-testing-tools/ios-testing-toolsUITests.ipa
Install the IPA on the device with the following command:

ideviceinstaller --install [path_to_ipa]

Replace path_to_ipa by the path of the ios-testing-tools IPA you just downloaded.

You also need to mount a developer disk image.

You can find the image related to the version of your device at one of the following locations:

On your Mac: /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/DeviceSupport
On the internet: https://github.com/mspvirajpatel/Xcode_Developer_Disk_Images/releases

Run the following command:

Replace path_to_developer_disk_image by the path of your image.

If the ideviceimagemounter command returns an error, you may have to restart your device.