# Install libimobiledevice with Homebrew, apk, apt, dnf, MacPorts, Nix, pacman, zypper Library to communicate with iOS devices natively. Version 1.4.0 via Homebrew; verified from local package data. ## Install ```sh sudo av install brew:libimobiledevice ``` Additional install commands: ### macOS - Homebrew (100%): ```sh brew install libimobiledevice ``` Evidence: local Homebrew formula metadata - MacPorts (94%): ```sh sudo port install libimobiledevice ``` Evidence: MacPorts ports tree: devel/libimobiledevice/Portfile from https://api.github.com/repos/macports/macports-ports/git/trees/master?recursive=1 ### Linux - apk (92%): ```sh sudo apk add libimobiledevice ``` Evidence: Alpine Linux edge package indexes: libimobiledevice from https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/community/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz - Debian apt (92%): ```sh sudo apt install libimobiledevice-1.0-6 ``` Evidence: Debian stable package indexes: libimobiledevice-1.0-6 from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz - dnf (92%): ```sh sudo dnf install libimobiledevice ``` Evidence: Fedora Rawhide package metadata: libimobiledevice from https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/rawhide/Everything/x86_64/os/repodata/e5ca8ce900cd68f5419e1c39ae517343100b306336cbaeb70a3c153121d95094-primary.xml.zst - Nix (92%): ```sh nix profile install nixpkgs#libimobiledevice ``` Evidence: nixpkgs package indexes: pkgs/by-name/li/libimobiledevice/package.nix from https://api.github.com/repos/NixOS/nixpkgs/git/trees/master?recursive=1 - pacman (92%): ```sh sudo pacman -S libimobiledevice ``` Evidence: Arch Linux sync databases: libimobiledevice from https://geo.mirror.pkgbuild.com/extra/os/x86_64/extra.db.tar.gz - Ubuntu apt (92%): ```sh sudo apt install libimobiledevice-dev ``` Evidence: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes: libimobiledevice-dev from https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/universe/binary-amd64/Packages.gz - zypper (92%): ```sh sudo zypper install imobiledevice-tools ``` Evidence: openSUSE Tumbleweed package metadata: imobiledevice-tools from https://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/oss/repodata/be8d3611d25469107f32075a1697e69ec57a2b850b42348a658cc671ad5ec2b50760d02c3e59524d50da9a11d5be799bdaffba2e166e8ca8858512e3c0bd665d-primary.xml.zst ## Package facts - **Package key:** brew:libimobiledevice - **Package manager:** Homebrew - **Package manager page:** - **Version:** 1.4.0 - **Source summary:** Library to communicate with iOS devices natively - **Homepage:** - **Repository:** - **Upstream docs:** - **License:** LGPL-2.1-or-later - **Source archive:** - **Generated:** 2026-07-08T07:18:31+00:00 ## Executables - afcclient (cli) - idevice_id (cli) - idevicebackup (cli) - idevicebackup2 (cli) - idevicebtlogger (cli) - idevicecrashreport (cli) - idevicedate (cli) - idevicedebug (cli) - idevicedebugserverproxy (cli) - idevicedevmodectl (cli) - idevicediagnostics (cli) - ideviceenterrecovery (cli) - ideviceimagemounter (cli) - ideviceinfo (cli) - idevicename (cli) - idevicenotificationproxy (cli) - idevicepair (cli) - ideviceprovision (cli) - idevicescreenshot (cli) - idevicesetlocation (cli) - idevicesyslog (cli) - afcclient (alias) - idevice_id (alias) - idevicebackup (alias) - idevicebackup2 (alias) - idevicebtlogger (alias) - idevicecrashreport (alias) - idevicedate (alias) - idevicedebug (alias) - idevicedebugserverproxy (alias) - idevicedevmodectl (alias) - idevicediagnostics (alias) - ideviceenterrecovery (alias) - ideviceimagemounter (alias) - ideviceinfo (alias) - idevicename (alias) - idevicenotificationproxy (alias) - idevicepair (alias) - ideviceprovision (alias) - idevicescreenshot (alias) - idevicesetlocation (alias) - idevicesyslog (alias) ## Dependencies - libimobiledevice-glue - libplist - libtasn1 - libtatsu - libusbmuxd - openssl@3 ## Build dependencies - autoconf - automake - libtool - pkgconf ## Install behavior - Post-install hook: not defined - Bottle: available on arm64_linux, arm64_sequoia, arm64_sonoma, arm64_tahoe, sonoma, x86_64_linux ## Freshness - Page generated: 2026-07-08 - Package-manager version: 1.4.0 - Local data: ok - Upstream repository: https://github.com/libimobiledevice/libimobiledevice - info: No package-manager update timestamp was available. - info: No cached GitHub release or tag data was available. ## Project history and usage libimobiledevice is the core C library and tool suite for talking to iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, Apple TV, and related iOS-family devices using native protocols. It is one of the canonical open source answers to using Apple mobile devices from Linux and other non-iTunes environments. ### Project history The project README says development began in August 2007 with the goal of bringing support for Apple mobile devices to the Linux desktop. The project site describes the original motivation more pointedly: iTunes was not available for Linux, so libiphone was created and later became libimobiledevice to let Linux systems communicate with Apple devices. The library grew from device discovery and file access into a wider service layer: pairing, AFC filesystem access, backup and restore, diagnostics, screenshots, syslog relay, provisioning, debug services, developer disk image mounting, and other native device services. The 1.3.0 release was part of a June 15, 2020 release round that also included usbmuxd, libplist, libirecovery, idevicerestore, ifuse, and related projects. Version 1.4.0, released on October 10, 2025, was labeled a development release with plans for more frequent releases. Its notes included MbedTLS support, reverse proxy work, wireless pairing for Apple TV, iOS 17+ personalized developer disk image mounting, new tools, and API additions. ### Adoption history libimobiledevice became a dependency hub for Linux desktop integration, package-manager utilities, mobile-device automation, and restore workflows. Its own README lists testing on Linux, macOS, Windows, and Android, and the project site cites integration by community projects and larger deployments handling more than 10,000 devices. ### How it is used Users usually meet the package through tools such as idevice_id, ideviceinfo, idevicepair, idevicebackup2, ideviceimagemounter, idevicescreenshot, idevicesyslog, and afcclient. Developers use the library when they need Apple-device protocols without linking to Apple proprietary libraries or requiring jailbreaks. ### Why package nerds care For package maintainers, libimobiledevice is important because it coordinates a small ecosystem of tightly related libraries: libplist for property lists, libusbmuxd and usbmuxd for USB multiplexing, libimobiledevice-glue for shared helpers, libirecovery for recovery-mode communication, and idevicerestore for firmware workflows. Keeping these versions aligned is the package-manager puzzle. ### Timeline - 2007-08: Development began with the goal of supporting Apple mobile devices on the Linux desktop. - 2015-02-02: libimobiledevice 1.2.0 was published on GitHub releases. - 2020-06-15: The project announced a release round including libimobiledevice 1.3.0, libirecovery 1.0.0, idevicerestore 1.0.0, and related components. - 2025-10-10: libimobiledevice 1.4.0 was released with MbedTLS support, wireless-pairing work, new tools, and API additions. - 2025-10-24: Project API documentation was updated for the 1.4.0 release. ### Related projects - Related projects include libplist, libusbmuxd, usbmuxd, libimobiledevice-glue, libirecovery, libtatsu, libideviceactivation, ideviceinstaller, idevicerestore, and ifuse. Together they form the open source Apple-device access stack used by many Unix-like packages. ### Sources - - - - - ## Security Notes infrastructure mutation or orchestration signal. - **Geiger risk:** orange / medium - infrastructure mutation or orchestration signal ## Source Database Details - **Source Database:** Homebrew formula API - **Tap:** homebrew/core - **Full Name:** libimobiledevice - **Version Scheme:** 0 - **Revision:** 0 - **Head Version:** HEAD - **Bottle Stable Root URL:** - **Deprecated:** no - **Disabled:** no - **Keg Only:** no - **URL Keys:** head, stable ## Other Package-Manager Records - Debian apt - libimobiledevice-1.0-6 - 1.3.0+git20250228-2: normalized package name match | Debian stable package indexes: libimobiledevice-1.0-6 from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz | Library for communicating with iPhone and other Apple devices | https://www.libimobiledevice.org/ - Debian apt - libimobiledevice-dev - 1.3.0+git20250228-2: normalized package name match | Debian stable package indexes: libimobiledevice-dev from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz | Development files for libimobiledevice | https://www.libimobiledevice.org/ - Debian apt - libimobiledevice-doc - 1.3.0+git20250228-2: normalized package name match | Debian stable package indexes: libimobiledevice-doc from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz | Library for communicating with iPhone and other Apple devices (documentation) | https://www.libimobiledevice.org/ - Debian apt - libimobiledevice-utils - 1.3.0+git20250228-2: normalized package name match | Debian stable package indexes: libimobiledevice-utils from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz | Utitilies for communicating with iPhone and other Apple devices | https://www.libimobiledevice.org/ - Debian apt - python3-imobiledevice - 1.3.0+git20250228-2: normalized package name match | Debian stable package indexes: python3-imobiledevice from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz | Python 3 bindings for communicating with iPhone and other Apple device | https://www.libimobiledevice.org/ - Nix - libimobiledevice: normalized package name match | nixpkgs package indexes: pkgs/by-name/li/libimobiledevice/package.nix from https://api.github.com/repos/NixOS/nixpkgs/git/trees/master?recursive=1 - Ubuntu apt - libimobiledevice-dev - 1.3.0-8.1build3: normalized package name match | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes: libimobiledevice-dev from https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/universe/binary-amd64/Packages.gz | Development files for libimobiledevice | https://www.libimobiledevice.org/ - Ubuntu apt - libimobiledevice-doc - 1.3.0-8.1build3: normalized package name match | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes: libimobiledevice-doc from https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/main/binary-amd64/Packages.gz | Library for communicating with iPhone and other Apple devices (documentation) | https://www.libimobiledevice.org/ - Ubuntu apt - libimobiledevice-utils - 1.3.0-8.1build3: normalized package name match | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes: libimobiledevice-utils from https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/universe/binary-amd64/Packages.gz | Utitilies for communicating with iPhone and other Apple devices | https://www.libimobiledevice.org/ - Ubuntu apt - libimobiledevice6 - 1.3.0-8.1build3: normalized package name match | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes: libimobiledevice6 from https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/main/binary-amd64/Packages.gz | Library for communicating with iPhone and other Apple devices | https://www.libimobiledevice.org/ - Ubuntu apt - python3-imobiledevice - 1.3.0-8.1build3: normalized package name match | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes: python3-imobiledevice from https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/universe/binary-amd64/Packages.gz | Python 3 bindings for communicating with iPhone and other Apple device | https://www.libimobiledevice.org/ - apk - libimobiledevice - 1.4.0-r0: normalized package name match | Alpine Linux edge package indexes: libimobiledevice from https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/community/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz | Library that talks iPhone and iPod Touch protocols on Linux | https://libimobiledevice.org - apk - libimobiledevice-dev - 1.4.0-r0: normalized package name match | Alpine Linux edge package indexes: libimobiledevice-dev from https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/community/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz | Library that talks iPhone and iPod Touch protocols on Linux (development files) | https://libimobiledevice.org - apk - libimobiledevice-doc - 1.4.0-r0: normalized package name match | Alpine Linux edge package indexes: libimobiledevice-doc from https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/community/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz | Library that talks iPhone and iPod Touch protocols on Linux (documentation) | https://libimobiledevice.org - apk - libimobiledevice-progs - 1.4.0-r0: normalized package name match | Alpine Linux edge package indexes: libimobiledevice-progs from https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/community/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz | Tools that talks iPhone and iPod Touch devices' protocols on Linux | https://libimobiledevice.org - dnf - libimobiledevice - 1.4.0-4.fc45: normalized package name match | Fedora Rawhide package metadata: libimobiledevice from https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/rawhide/Everything/x86_64/os/repodata/e5ca8ce900cd68f5419e1c39ae517343100b306336cbaeb70a3c153121d95094-primary.xml.zst | Library for connecting to mobile devices | https://libimobiledevice.org/ ## Related links - [Secret-risk packages](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/secret-risk-packages/) - Has protected-tool coverage, approval-gate, or non-low Geiger security signals. - [Terminal utility packages](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/terminal-utilities/) - Matched terminal and command-line workflow metadata. - [Text processing packages](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/text-processing-tools/) - Matched text, document, or structured-data processing metadata. - [Developer build packages](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/developer-build-tools/) - Matched build, compiler, generator, or developer workflow metadata. - [libplist](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/libplist/) - Runtime dependency declared by Homebrew. - [libtasn1](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/libtasn1/) - Runtime dependency declared by Homebrew. - [libusbmuxd](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/libusbmuxd/) - Runtime dependency declared by Homebrew. - [openssl@3](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/openssl-3/) - Runtime dependency declared by Homebrew. - [autoconf](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/autoconf/) - Build dependency declared by Homebrew. - [automake](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/automake/) - Build dependency declared by Homebrew. - [libtool](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/libtool/) - Build dependency declared by Homebrew. - [pkgconf](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/pkgconf/) - Build dependency declared by Homebrew. - [ideviceinstaller](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/ideviceinstaller/) - Popular package that depends on this formula. - [ifuse](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/ifuse/) - Popular package that depends on this formula. - [ios-webkit-debug-proxy](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/ios-webkit-debug-proxy/) - Popular package that depends on this formula. - [libirecovery](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/libirecovery/) - Shares the same upstream homepage. - [mobiledevice](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/mobiledevice/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, developer-tools, device-management, ios, mobile. - [cyan](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/cyan/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, developer-tools, ios, mobile. - [flank](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/flank/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, developer-tools, ios, mobile. - [adb-enhanced](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/adb-enhanced/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, developer-tools, mobile. - [hidapi](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/hidapi/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, developer-tools, library, usb. - [ios-deploy](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/ios-deploy/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, developer-tools, ios, iphone. - [nbimg](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/nbimg/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, developer-tools, mobile. ## Combined YAML source View the package source record on GitHub. [combined/libimobiledevice.yml](https://github.com/automic-vault/db/blob/main/combined/libimobiledevice.yml) ## Sources - Nucleus package database - Geiger risk classifier - package-page enrichment - curated package history - package version freshness - av.db category and tag curation - package relationship graph - external package-manager database matches - cross-ecosystem install command graph