Running Apple iTunes on a container

I’ve an iPhone and Id like to backup my phone to my server running Debain 11 with docker installed.

So, is there a way to install and run iTunes either on the os it self or in a container?

13 comments

There is libimobiledevice for interavting with ios devices, you might want to check it out
- Good to know.
  
  I’m so excited to go home and try it.
I don't think it's possible. iTunes requires a full OS install, so you'll have to just run it on a VM. And Apple has things locked down so much that the only way to do full iPhone/iPad backups is through iTunes.
- I totally understand. However, I stumbled upon this repository https://github.com/shield007/wine-itunes-docker
  
  But last commit was 9y so 100% abandoned.
  
  Then I asked myself what if we can run on a container a lightweight wine version tailor made to be compatible with iTunes?
  
  iTunes requires usb drivers to sync with an iPhone. Wine does not support windows usb drivers so even if you get iTunes to work in wine, connecting to the iPhone with it won’t work. You might be able to use libimobiledevice to do a backup.
- Well, and iCloud of course. Not saying it’s for everyone, but it is an option.
I think you can do this by mounting a macos VM: link

New macOS versions do not require iTunes and you can back up directly through the finder window. Your backup will be located there: /Users/{USERNAME}/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup
- Interesting
  
  I will give it a shot
  
  without a dedicated GPU it will be unbearably slow
Not iTunes, but you can use libimobiledevice to backup an Apple device on Linux https://docs.mvt.re/en/latest/ios/backup/libimobiledevice/

You've viewed 13 comments.