iTunes Filesharing

I know you can set a parameter in the Info.plist to enable iTunes filesharing, which allows you to move files between your iPhone/iPad and your desktop computer, but you have to do it manually via iTunes itself (which is a PITA).

Does anyone know IF it is even possible (via Xojo, Applescript or something else) to automate the process… kind of a mini-finder like view

I just include a file ‘info.plist’ in my project and it appears to enable that. Forgotten where I found that.

The info.plist file contains

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> UIFileSharingEnabled

you misunderstood my question.
I know about the Plist entry, I actually was one of the first people to post on here about it…

What I am looking for is a way to have an app on the desktop written in whatever, be able to display and read the files that reside in the app sandbox on the iPhone/iPad device. It “can” be done, iTunes does it… but is the method Apple used available to us mere mortals?

Aw I was thinking you may have been the one who shared that tidbit! :slight_smile: Sorry cannot help on the desktop!

There seem to be several discussions on SO relevant to that. The first one appears to do exactly what you want.

All those “solutions” seem to be either antique (ie. no longer work), or require a jailbroken phone, or some proprietary C# Api that may or may not violate Apples “rules”

I’m very interested in this as well.
There are several Apps doing backups (like iMazing etc) and although mostly one way (iDevice -> OSX), I guess it should be possible.
Dropbox is pulling the photos from my iPhone while iTunes isn’t even started. So I guess that if your device is ‘trusted’, there must be some way to access it.
I’ve asked Christian a while back but he didn’t had anything for it.

It seems the simpler the task, the more impossible to complete :slight_smile:

I have an app on the iPad the creates/edits files and a companion app that does the same thing on the desktop (the desktop one is written in Xojo, the iPad one is not)… I would like to plug in the iPad via USB, and have the desktop app be able to read/write files in the “myapp/documents” folder (I don’t need or want access to anything else). Of course I could do it manually by dragging and dropping files between iTunes and the desktop, but thats a manual intervention.

I guess I may have to become a bit more “open minded” and look into “iCloud” and/or “Dropbox” (neither of which I trust)

Apple seems to have taken steps to prevent access to the iPhone as one would an external drive. However, there are apps out there that do it : http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/6-ways-to-turn-your-iphone-into-an-external-hard-disk/

At the end of that page is the interesting mention that it is possible to access the phone with SSH. It maybe worth some experiments.

Otherwise, you may want indeed to open your mind to other possibilities.

I guess Dave is looking for a way to code such tool himself.
I’m looking for this a very long time but failed doing this.
And while you’re at it, some code for sending files to a iDevice would be great too. :slight_smile: