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You don't need iTunes, you can use idevicebackup2 from https://www.libimobiledevice.org/

It's a command line suite for Mac, Linux, and Windows that interfaces with your iPhone through it's native protocols, including for encrypted local backups.



I’m familiar with this suite. It’s fantastic but at the same time it is often broken with a new iOS release. Apple seems to have no interest in maintaining compatibility. Recently I needed to copy some MP3s to my phone. I’ve done this before with my laptop with success. But that day it did not work. And neither did my Linux desktop. I ended up listening to the audiobook (a free audio book from Cory Doctorow) by pairing my laptop with my cars Bluetooth and playing from my laptop. Cumbersome.

I’ve also had instanced where the latest version of that library supposedly works, but it’s dependent on another library that hasn’t hit Debian mainline yet. So I’ve had to wait months just to get a version that works even though it was released much earlier.

It’s not a perfect solution by any means.




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