How to read iPhone files without jailbreaking? - iphone

I'd like to access files in an iPhone, such as using remotely connecting via ssh and telnet. But it appears that the iPhone's ssh or telnet are not supported. I can ping it, but cannot use telnet or ssh.
I read through some internet article, it appears that using jailbreak or Cydia it is doable, but I guess it would break my iPhone's license.
Is there an official way to ssh or telnet into my iPhone?

You can't just access any file in a non-jailbroken iPhone.
You can access data files for your own programs during development using Xcode's Organizer, go to Devices -> your iphone -> Summary -> Applications -> your app, click on the triangle thingy to show the Application Data, which you can download.
Otherwise use something like Airsharing (see moogs' answer which came as I was writing this) to upload&download a bunch of files.

I loved ssh-ing before, but Airsharing is even better. You can upload files via a wifi connection to your ipod (using a browser or via webDAV). It was free for the first few weeks, but now it goes for $4.99. That's still not bad.
You can view office, image, pdf and html files.
(I'm not affiliated with airsharing, just a happy user :) )

No you can't. You have to jailbreak to do that.

Even when not jailbroken, you can access some part of the filesystem with iPhone Broswer

I was very surprised and please with iPhone Explorer. It's one of those softwares that just work and needs nothing installed on the iPhone, but it will give full file access if your iphone is jailbroken.
Now, of course ideally we'd install something on the iPhone without needing anything on the computer and access files on the iPhone like a pen drive (and unlike some apps that do that but only through HTTP and wi-fi), but this is fairly good enough. And it's free! Because they use it to promote their other apps, and file exploring on iPhone is nearly useless for most users anyway.
There's just no way jose in hell to access all files in the iPhone without jailbreaking. Period. Apple have never allowed it.

Try using iFile I have tried all the others and this one is my favourites.
Hope this helps you.

You can do it with iFunbox, but you dont have access to edit, move , delete the system files , so you dont have full access to have full access you need to jailbreak your iDevice.

Related

Install or Use App in my jailbroken ipodtouch

I developed an app for my own use.I want to use it on my ipodtouch.I jailbroke my device.But don't know how can i install my app in my device.Can any one give me proper instruction what should be the approach to do this?
Thanks in advance
You can connect to you iphone with WinSCP with username:root password:alpine or dottie. After that go to your Applications Folder on the device, make a new folder name (Whatever you want to call it).app then put all your files in that folder. Highlight them all, and set the permissions to 0755. Restart your phone. And thats it.
The standard way of putting applications on to devices is to sign up to the Apple Developer program.
I found this link specifically for jailbroken devices, but it seems a bit dated.

Iphone app sharing file with iTunes problem

Somebody please help me out. This problem is killing me.
I went through tones of documents and posts. All seems to suggest that simply add a UIFileSharing key into info.plist and set boolean value to YES, files in App's Documents folder (not sub-folder, I know) will show up in iTunes.
However my problem is that I don't have an iPhone, so I really have no clue about what exactly the behaviors of both iPhone or iTunes will be when try to verify this file sharing thing. And what is the right way to verify this.
So when my client try to verify this off my watch (we are on different sides of earth), he keeps reporting back that file sharing feature not work. It is certain that file is properly stored under Documents folder.
In the last attempt, he claimed that he can see the app but not files.
I would like to know the following things, so I can guide him through this and end this pain:
Is it really plain and simple like add one key, no changes to code needed? Or did I miss something?
Are there any special requirements for building (like, only work for release build?), deploying?
What will really happen when plug the iPhone into the computer and sync with iTunes? Will the app show up in the Apps tab anyway, or only show up if file sharing feature are enabled correctly?
Thank you all.
Is it really plain and simple like add one key, no changes to code needed? Or did I miss something?
Yes
Are there any special requirements for building (like, only work for release build?), deploying?
No
What will really happen when plug the iPhone into the computer and sync with iTunes? Will the app show up in the Apps tab anyway, or only show up if file sharing feature are enabled correctly?
It will show up in the app view (on top) all the times. But you will only see them in the file sharing area if you have an app with enabled filesharing.
File sharing is only available on iPhone OS 4 onwards and iPad 3.2
Make sure your client has iOS4 or later.

Accessing the iPhone filesystem from a Mac OS X application

I need to get a file (sms.db) from an iPhone connected to a Mac. I cannot find any way to access the iPhone filesystem searching in Apple Developers Connection...
I cannot SSH to the iPhone, the application I want to develop is meant to be used on non-jailbroken iPhones... And I would like to avoid some MacFuse modules I found googling, too... I would like to access the filesystem thru some sort of API, the simpler the better.
Thanks!
This api was developed to allow access to ios devices:
http://www.libimobiledevice.org/
There is no Apple-documented public API for accessing the entire filesystem on a stock OS iOS device. Even private OS/API calls won't work due to the app sandbox restrictions.
Xcode, iTunes, and probably other apps that take over the iTunes USB driver, are using a non-Apple-documented private API that only works over the USB connection.
It appears that DiskAid silences all nay sayers. That app seems to have complete access to the iOS device filesystem - whether or not iTunes is running and whether or not the files are shared. It even sees files down to root level. I am still trying to figure out how it is done. Oh yea, this is all on a non jailbroken device.
It is not possible for non-jailbroken iPhone due to file system restrictions.
You can't access the filesystem from an OSX application, the filesystem is locked down.
Phoneview (as mentioned in a few comments) does not allow access to the file system.
It uses public APIs to get things like call data and contacts, and allows you to copy files into one location on the phone.
From the FAQ: "PhoneView will store your files in the media section of the iPhone's disk"
Smoke and mirrors.
If it's for your own app, use the document sharing included in iOS 4.x. You can then have files show up in iTunes, and drop files from the desktop into your app's section.
A tutorial is found here:
Ray Wenderlich's nice tutorial

How can I get to installed app list on iPhone device?

I'm new for iPhone dev.
I got a question for development of iPhone app.
Is it possible to get to installed app list on iPhone device?
thanks.
Connect you device in your system, use following command in terminal
ideviceinstaller -l
you will get the list of app installed in you iphone device
note: you should install ideviceinstaller package in your system
Apps on a non-jailbroken phone are "sandboxed" so you don't get unfettered access to the filesystem. This means that you can't directly see what other applications are available. Also, just because they're installed does not mean that they are available to the current user. For instance, Safari is always installed but can be disabled in the Parental Controls settings.
The best supported (i.e., in a way that Apple will approve of) way of of doing it might be to check the available URL schemes. For example, if "http:" is supported then Safari is usable; if "mailto:" is available then Mail is usable, etc. Of course, not all applications have URL schemes.
You might want to grab yourself a copy of the Apple iPhone Configuration Utility, which will give you a list of installed apps, plus access to the console output from the iPhone.
Grab the iPhone configuration tool and run this regex on the Export:
[ \t]+<key>CFBundleDisplayName</key>[ \t\r\n]+<string>([A-Za-z \&\-,\!]+)</string>
You can then grab the list of apps nice and easily.
Here's what I did, without jailbreaking. (yes it sounds stupid, but it was simple and worked well for me)
Go to your home screen.
Hit the lock button + home button (takes a screenshot)
Open you folders and do the same.
Do the same for any other pages you have.
All the names of installed apps are now in your pictures folder, just copy the pictures to your computer, and finished!

Develop iPhone app without a Mac? [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
Closed 13 years ago.
Possible Duplicates:
How can I develop for iPhone using a Windows development machine?
I'm looking to build an iPhone app for my wife's phone, but am not interested in buying a Mac as a development platform for a one-off piece of work. The app:
should run standalone on the iPhone (i.e. without network connectivity)
would be perfectly acceptable with a GUI created using one of the iPhone Javascript libraries that are around
will do some database IO to read and update data
has no commercial value and will never be used by anyone else
Here's my thinking:
jailbreak the iPhone
install Ruby + Sinatra on the iPhone
write the app using Sinatra, hitting a database (SQLite?) on the iPhone
To access the app on the iPhone:
start the Sinatra app in the
background (is this possible?)
start a Safari browser session
navigate to the Sinatra app at e.g. http://localhost:12345
etc.
This seems like a strange approach, but I can't think of a simpler way of writing a standalone iPhone app without buying a Mac. Is there a better way of doing this?
The only reliable info I could find is at the always-excellent MetaFilter
http://ask.metafilter.com/110466/Anyway-to-develop-iPhoneiTouch-apps-without-investing-in-a-Mac
The answer is apparently no.
You absolutely need an Intel Mac of some description.
The entire iPhone build process is too deeply ingrained in XCode to build elsewhere; and the only other Objective-C compiler I know is gcc, which doesn't support any Apple's additions to the language (nor their libraries).
And, in direct opposition to what people are saying above, Objective-C is absolutely my favorite native, compiled language. Elegant, small (only a few changes from C), late-binding, dynamic, straightforward. It's what C++ should have been.
Lots of people recommend picking up a secondhand Intel (remember, must be Intel!) Mac Mini as the cheapest "port of entry".
What you have described is a viable solution, however you should consider using the open toolchain for the iphone.
You don't need a mac then, only need to jailbreak the phone to make sure your app will work.
For all those who say it can't be done, this was the only way to make Apps for the iphone before the SDK was out :)
Also if you are after a guide to using the open toolchain then I highly recomend this book
If you're considering creating a GUI using a javascript library anyway, why don't you just write a web app instead of an iPhone-native one? It seems like overkill to jailbreak the device just so that you can install a ruby + sinatra web app on it. Can't you just put the ruby web app on a server and create a Safari shortcut to it on the home screen? If you don't have a server, you could always run the website off a PC in your home...
Jailbreaking the OS and running a ruby app onto it would be technically cool, don't get me wrong - I just think it'd end up being a time sink.
Just my 2c!
Depends on what your time is worth, I guess. That seems like a terribly convoluted way to get what is otherwise a simple app on the phone to avoid the US$400 purchase of a used Mac Mini.
There is the hackintosh route, which may work on your existing hardware, but again one has to put a price on time. It's what got me started before I dropped big coin on a Macbook Pro, an MSI Wind then a home-built. It's of questionable legality (the right thing to do is fork over US$129 for Leopard regardless), but you are already talking about jailbreaking. :-)
Get someone else to do it, or rent the resources that you need.
Another option is to find nearby iPhone developer who has it all setup and either get him to write the app or do it together, he provides development environment you code the solution or code it together.
The only problem is that you wont be able to update maintain it.
I would still consider getting older gen Mac or Mac mini - all the other options sound more complicated.
If you are going to be stubborn about not using a mac, but you want an app that will work offline with the iPhone / iPod Touch and Android devices, then I would use HTML 5 to create an offline app.
You can do a lot now with HTML 5 - Google have an email client that uses HTML 5 for the iPhone now and it can work offline etc. If you do this and get the user to add a bookmark to their home screen for your app - it will be almost as good.
If I was you I'd fork out for a mac - or look to see if you could borrow one - or time-share with someone - you will not create a very good quality app without it.
You can jailbreak the phone and install Python. There are some sample applications in Cydia for it (it's called iPhone/Python. Search for Python in cydia).
Then you will have a "native" app, not a web application and you can use the entire iPhone UI library (the part of it that is accessible via py-objc anyway) and you don't need to run a web server in the background.
You can do your development on the phone itself via SSH or you can use an iPod Touch for it. Packaging is also easy (should you need it), just create your own Cydia repository and host your package(s) in there.
Look at iPhone applications in Python for more information.
Come on, just look on eBay for the cheapest intel mac mini you can find. Even a Mac laptop with a busted screen (that you could hook to an external display) would work. You're talking just a few hundred dollars probably and then you can maintain it as her phone/Touch is upgraded.
there's some special meta tags you can put in a webpage to make your web app savable and full screenable to the iphone hard drive. (so it can work offline) Here's an example : http://mrgan.tumblr.com/post/125490362/glyphboard2
There's also frameworks like phonegap that let you access cocoa apis from javascript, but it sounds like you don't need that.
Does your wife enrolled in any kind of data plan? If so, you can simply write a small webapp which runs on some cheap webspace and access it via MobileSafari.
If you need a full grown iPhone application, you better look after one of the first intel-based mac minis on eBay, should be to expensive, in my opinion. And as a plus you avoid the hassle of a jailbreak.