backupMyIPhone

A tool to take control of backing up your iOS device to your own server via Wi-Fi or USB.

Demo

1. Run this to start the avahi daemon: systemctl start avahi-daemon.service # TODO: install how to
2. Initialize:
   1. Add a destination backup drive to a new file in the repo root, config.sh, by basing the file off a copy of the one in template folder made with: cp template/config.sh ./ and then editing the copy. You should enter in something like /mnt/yourDriveMountPointHere/home, where the /mnt/yourDriveMountPointHere part can be anything as long as it is a valid mountpoint (mountpoint /mnt/yourDriveMountPointHereshould return an exit code of 0).
   2. In the destination backup drive mentioned above, make a new folder called home.
   3. sudo groupadd iosbackup to make the iosbackup group
   4. Make a user just for usbmuxd in the iosbackup group:
      1. sudo useradd iosbackup_usbmuxd
      2. sudo usermod -a -G iosbackup iosbackup_usbmuxd
      3. Give the users in the iosbackup group permission to run usbmuxd under the account created above by editing /etc/sudoers if you're not on NixOS, or by adding security.sudo.configFile = '' Config strings go here '' to your NixOS config at /etc/nixos/configuration.nix if you are on NixOS, to add the following line: %iosbackup ALL=(iosbackup_usbmuxd)NOPASSWD:ALL USBMUXD_FILEPATH where USBMUXD_FILEPATH is something like /nix/store/zsmdrh44nl59v6db340j7w81cg77ys8v-usbmuxd2-753b79eaf317c56df6c8b1fb6da5847cc54a0bb0/bin/usbmuxd which you get from doing which usbmuxd when in the nix-shell present in this repo root. This limits the group iosbackup to, when running sudo, only be able to run the usbmuxd command as the user iosbackup_usbmuxd.
      4. If on NixOS, reload your config using sudo nixos-rebuild switch to apply the sudoers change above.
   5. sudo useradd UserNameHere to create user UserNameHere (replace this with a new user name to make backups under). Make as many users as desired.
   6. sudo usermod -a -G iosbackup UserNameHere to add UserNameHere to the iosbackup group. Do this for all the users added in the previous step.
   7. First-time setup
      1. Plug the device in to the computer via USB
      2. sudo ./backupMyIPhone.sh '' 1 1 0, note the UDID from the output
      3. Enter passcode and "Trust this computer" on the device
      4. Add your device UDID (shows in the output from the above ./backupMyIPhone.sh command) to a new file in the repo root, udidToFolderLookupTable.py, by basing the file off a copy of the one in template folder made with: cp template/udidToFolderLookupTable.py ./ and then editing the copy.
      5. sudo ./backupMyIPhone.sh '' 1 1 0 YourDeviceUDIDHere (where YourDeviceUDIDHere is the UDID you saw) to perform first-time setup. This requires the device to be connected via USB.
      6. sudo pkill usbmuxd at the end.
3. sudo -E su --preserve-environment UserNameHere (where UserNameHere is a user created above) and then run one of the following in this shell to make a backup. The following commands don't require the device to be connected to the computer via USB, only to be plugged in and charging somewhere on the same local WiFi network.
   1. Run these as sudo the first time (as any user), then run them in the shell created above afterwards if needed:
      1. To backup immediately once if it can connect and also repeating every day -- not dry run:
         • ./backupMyIPhone.sh '' 1 0 0 'YourDeviceUDIDHere'
      2. Or: to backup immediately once if it can connect and also repeating every day -- dry run:
         • ./backupMyIPhone.sh '' 1 0 1 'YourDeviceUDIDHere'
      3. Or: to backup via USB instead (it will start usbmuxd as root with sudo):
         • Run without the sudo -E su --preserve-environment UserNameHere shell mentioned above: ./backupMyIPhone.sh "" 1 0 0 'YourDeviceUDIDHere' 0 1 ./shell_new_libimobiledevice.nix (last argument is optional; it provides a Nix shell that has a newer libusbmuxd version of your choice)
4. Run ./ibackup.sh (with additional arguments like the above) for as many users as needed to make the backup daemons for each user. (They should all end up sharing the same usbmuxd instance.)

Tools

• Debug how usb/WiFi connections are doing: nix-shell, then sudo usbmuxd -vv --debug --debug

Nvm:

1. Internal: sudo ./ibackup.sh '' 1 0 8089 UserNameHere to perform first-time setup. This requires the device to be connected via USB.
2. Internal: to backup as a daemon running now, which will additionally run at 12:01 AM or 24 hours from now, whichever is closest, repeatedly:
   • ./ibackup.sh YourDeviceUDIDHere 0 0 8089 UserNameHere where YourDeviceUDIDHere is the device UDID from the output of the first-time setup above, and UserNameHere is a user created above.
3. Run a backup "daemon": sudo su YourBackupUserHere -c "./backupMyIPhone.sh '' 1 0 1 'YourDeviceUDIDHere'" where YourBackupUserHere is in the iosbackup group.