I'd like to connect my Pi4 to my iPhone to download photos.

The Bluetooth connection program under the Preferences menu
seems able to connect, but won't allow me to browse the iphone.
A cable connection suffers the same problem.

Am I doing something wrong, or are the two incompatible?

Thanks for reading,

bob prohaska

bob prohaska <bp@www.zefox.net> wrote:
> I'd like to connect my Pi4 to my iPhone to download photos.
>
> The Bluetooth connection program under the Preferences menu
> seems able to connect, but won't allow me to browse the iphone.
> A cable connection suffers the same problem.
>

Forgot to add that the error message was
"Unable to launch default browser". The phone has
the default apps furnished by Apple. The Pi has
chromium and firefox. If a special
app is needed I'd really appreciate a hint.....

Thanks for reading,

bob prohaska

On 20/06/2021 02:35, bob prohaska wrote:
> bob prohaska <bp@www.zefox.net> wrote:
>> I'd like to connect my Pi4 to my iPhone to download photos.
>>
>> The Bluetooth connection program under the Preferences menu
>> seems able to connect, but won't allow me to browse the iphone.
>> A cable connection suffers the same problem.
>>
>
> Forgot to add that the error message was
> "Unable to launch default browser". The phone has
> the default apps furnished by Apple. The Pi has
> chromium and firefox. If a special
> app is needed I'd really appreciate a hint.....
>

iCloud, Google Drive, One Drive, Dropbox, Box, Own Cloud, various
Samba/NFS/FTP connections - all via Apples Files app.

https://osxdaily.com/2019/11/04/how-connect-smb-share-iphone-ipad-files-app/

--
Adrian C

On 20-06-2021 02:01, bob prohaska wrote:
> I'd like to connect my Pi4 to my iPhone to download photos.
>
> The Bluetooth connection program under the Preferences menu
> seems able to connect, but won't allow me to browse the iphone.
> A cable connection suffers the same problem.
>
> Am I doing something wrong, or are the two incompatible?
>
> Thanks for reading,
>
> bob prohaska
>
>

1. sudo apt update
sudo apt -y full-upgrade
sudo reboot (just to be sure)
sudo apt install usbmuxd libimobiledevice6 libimobiledevice-utils
(found on https://libimobiledevice.org )
2. Unlock your iPhone/iPad
3. Connect using a certified cable (I used the USB-lightning charger
cable that came with my iPad)
4. Tap "Trust" on the iPhone/iPad
5. Dismiss error dialog on the Pi (may be hidden behind file explorer
window)
6. Click Open on that file explorer window
7. My "DCIM" photos folder opened and I SEEMED to be able to copy photos
but they were unreadable by ImageViewer and Chromium.

Alas.

On 20-06-2021 12:10, A. Dumas wrote:
> 1. sudo apt update
>    sudo apt -y full-upgrade
>    sudo reboot (just to be sure)
>    sudo apt install usbmuxd libimobiledevice6 libimobiledevice-utils
>    (found on https://libimobiledevice.org )
> 2. Unlock your iPhone/iPad
> 3. Connect using a certified cable (I used the USB-lightning charger
> cable that came with my iPad)
> 4. Tap "Trust" on the iPhone/iPad
> 5. Dismiss error dialog on the Pi (may be hidden behind file explorer
> window)
> 6. Click Open on that file explorer window
> 7. My "DCIM" photos folder opened and I SEEMED to be able to copy photos
> but they were unreadable by ImageViewer and Chromium.
>
> Alas.

Well, I tried it again on a different Pi (a different SD card with
RaspiOS, really) and now it did work all the way! I don't know why.

On 20-06-2021 12:40, A. Dumas wrote:
> On 20-06-2021 12:10, A. Dumas wrote:
>> 7. My "DCIM" photos folder opened and I SEEMED to be able to copy
>> photos but they were unreadable by ImageViewer and Chromium.
>
> Well, I tried it again on a different Pi (a different SD card with
> RaspiOS, really) and now it did work all the way! I don't know why.

Oh wow, the difference was that I initially dragged a few photos to the
desktop; that didn't work. Then I dragged those same photos to a folder
(in this case the Documents folder) and that did work! Strange.

-=> bob prohaska wrote to All <=-

bp> I'd like to connect my Pi4 to my iPhone to download photos.

bp> The Bluetooth connection program under the Preferences menu
bp> seems able to connect, but won't allow me to browse the iphone.
bp> A cable connection suffers the same problem.

bp> Am I doing something wrong, or are the two incompatible?

I have nextcloud for this. And I can store my photos how I want

Sean

.... tcob1: telnet and http tcob1.duckdns.org

A. Dumas <alexandre@dumas.fr.invalid> wrote:
>
> 1. sudo apt update
> sudo apt -y full-upgrade
> sudo reboot (just to be sure)
> sudo apt install usbmuxd libimobiledevice6 libimobiledevice-utils
> (found on https://libimobiledevice.org )

That part worked, but I see
Setting up usbmuxd (1.1.1~git20181007.f838cf6-1) ...
Warning: The home dir /var/lib/usbmux you specified can't be accessed: No such file or directory
Adding system user `usbmux' (UID 117) ...
Adding new user `usbmux' (UID 117) with group `plugdev' ...
Not creating home directory `/var/lib/usbmux'.
usbmuxd.service is a disabled or a static unit, not starting it.

> 2. Unlock your iPhone/iPad
> 3. Connect using a certified cable (I used the USB-lightning charger
> cable that came with my iPad)

I connected with bluetooth. The connection seems to be real, but the
options are for a WiFi access point or an audio source. If I choose
the audio source the iPhone's audio comes out through the Pi's speakers.

> 4. Tap "Trust" on the iPhone/iPad

There's an option on the Pi to trust the iPhone, but no prompt that I
can find on the iPhone to trust the Pi, at least not in the Settings>
Bluetooth page.
> 5. Dismiss error dialog on the Pi (may be hidden behind file explorer
> window)

No error dialog, and I can't seem to open a file explorer window. In
the BlueTooth Devices window the options to browse the device and
send files are greyed out.

> 6. Click Open on that file explorer window
No can do 8-(

> 7. My "DCIM" photos folder opened and I SEEMED to be able to copy photos

> but they were unreadable by ImageViewer and Chromium.
>

Well, you got farther than I did......

Thanks for writing!

bob prohaska

bob prohaska <bp@www.zefox.net> wrote:
> I connected with bluetooth.

What I wrote was only valid for a wired connection.

A. Dumas <alexandre@dumas.fr.invalid> wrote:
> bob prohaska <bp@www.zefox.net> wrote:
> > I connected with bluetooth.
>
> What I wrote was only valid for a wired connection.

iPhones don't do file sharing over Bluetooth, so that's not an option.

(there are a few implementations of the AirDrop protocol, which uses
Bluetooth and ad-hoc wifi, but none I'd regard as stable enough for everyday
use)

Theo

Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote:
> A. Dumas <alexandre@dumas.fr.invalid> wrote:
>> bob prohaska <bp@www.zefox.net> wrote:
>> > I connected with bluetooth.
>>
>> What I wrote was only valid for a wired connection.
>
> iPhones don't do file sharing over Bluetooth, so that's not an option.
>

Aye, there's the rub....8-)

> (there are a few implementations of the AirDrop protocol, which uses
> Bluetooth and ad-hoc wifi, but none I'd regard as stable enough for everyday
> use)
>

At some point I'll try a cable.

Thanks very much for writing,

bob prohaska

bob prohaska wrote:
> > iPhones don't do file sharing over Bluetooth, so that's not an option.
> Aye, there's the rub....8-)

I don't know about Iphones, but every Android I know can do FTP file
server over WLAN and be addressed from the desktop.

> At some point I'll try a cable.

I do the above because cable does not work any more. I used to be able
to plug the phone in and see a standard external disk drive. No more.
Everything now is some proprietary junk I don't want.

--
/¯\ No | Dipl.-Ing. F. Axel Berger Tel: +49/ 221/ 7771 8067
\ / HTML | Roald-Amundsen-Straße 2a Fax: +49/ 221/ 7771 8069
 X in | D-50829 Köln-Ossendorf http://berger-odenthal.de
/ \ Mail | -- No unannounced, large, binary attachments, please! --

Axel Berger <Spam@berger-odenthal.de> wrote:
> bob prohaska wrote:
>> > iPhones don't do file sharing over Bluetooth, so that's not an option.
>> Aye, there's the rub....8-)
>
> I don't know about Iphones, but every Android I know can do FTP file
> server over WLAN and be addressed from the desktop.
>
>> At some point I'll try a cable.
>
> I do the above because cable does not work any more. I used to be able
> to plug the phone in and see a standard external disk drive. No more.
> Everything now is some proprietary junk I don't want.

You've raised a good point. Both the iPhone and the Pi are on the
same LAN, I don't have to use BlueTooth. An SFTP link would be even
easier, apart from the iPhone's lack of a keyboard. I fixated on
BlueTooth solely because my old phone used it and my only Lightning
cable lives in a different room, where it's used for charging. Moving
the cable will cause me to forget to charge the phone 8-)

Thanks for writing!

bob prohaska

On Mon, 21 Jun 2021 19:24:10 +0000, bob prohaska wrote:

> Both the iPhone and the Pi are on the same
> LAN, I don't have to use BlueTooth. An SFTP link would be even easier,
> apart from the iPhone's lack of a keyboard.
>
Related thoughts:

- does the iPhone offer an on-screen keyboard or if it doesn't, is
there one available as an app?

- alternatively, can any iPhone software act as an FTP server?

- if you fire up the sftp utility on the RPi, does that get any answer
from the iPhone?

As you may guess, I don't have an iPhone, its possible it has an SSH or
FTP server installed since most Apple or Windows desk/laptops won't.

I have often used sftp, a command line SSH file transfer tool, to move
files between systems which have an sshd server installed. On my RPi
(Buster) system sftp seems to have been installed as part of the SSH
clients package, so you may already have it. If not, you can always
install filezilla and use that instead.

HTH

--
Martin | martin at
Gregorie | gregorie dot org

Martin Gregorie <martin@mydomain.invalid> wrote:
> Related thoughts:
>
> - does the iPhone offer an on-screen keyboard or if it doesn't, is
> there one available as an app?

Yes. (I can't imagine how you'd use a smartphone without an on-screen
keyboard?)

> - alternatively, can any iPhone software act as an FTP server?

Probably, although see below for why that's not very useful.

> - if you fire up the sftp utility on the RPi, does that get any answer
> from the iPhone?
>
> As you may guess, I don't have an iPhone, its possible it has an SSH or
> FTP server installed since most Apple or Windows desk/laptops won't.

iPhones don't really have a user-visible filesystem[1], so they definitely
don't have an SSH or FTP server installed.

I have an app 'FTP Manager' that allows it to be an SFTP client, which
suffices to push and pull files from the iPhone end. Because of the lack of
filesystem you are limited to the files FTP Manager can see, or using the
'Share' mechanism to send files from other apps to FTP Manager.

[1] Essentially an app can have its own files (eg the documents created in
the app) but there is no global view of the filesystem so apps can't see
files owned by other apps, nor any system files. There is a 'Files' app,
which can be used in limited circumstances to manually move files from one
app to another. Also some media like photos can be accessed by multiple
apps (with restrictions).

Theo

On Tue, 22 Jun 2021 00:13:38 +0100, Theo wrote:

> iPhones don't really have a user-visible filesystem[1], so they
> definitely don't have an SSH or FTP server installed.
>
> I have an app 'FTP Manager' that allows it to be an SFTP client, which
> suffices to push and pull files from the iPhone end. Because of the
> lack of filesystem you are limited to the files FTP Manager can see, or
> using the 'Share' mechanism to send files from other apps to FTP
> Manager.
>
> [1] Essentially an app can have its own files (eg the documents created
> in the app) but there is no global view of the filesystem so apps can't
> see files owned by other apps, nor any system files. There is a 'Files'
> app, which can be used in limited circumstances to manually move files
> from one app to another. Also some media like photos can be accessed by
> multiple apps (with restrictions).
>
Interesting! In that case, how do Bluetooth apps transfer files, i.e. do
they have the same limitations as your 'FTP Manager'?

And, of course I should have said 'sshd process' rather than FTP server,
since AFAIK the sshd daemon can act as a file server when sftp is used to
transfer files to or from a *nix box.

--
Martin | martin at
Gregorie | gregorie dot org

Martin Gregorie <martin@mydomain.invalid> wrote:
> Interesting! In that case, how do Bluetooth apps transfer files, i.e. do
> they have the same limitations as your 'FTP Manager'?

Yes. Essentially there are no bluetooth apps; sharing is done from the app
that owns the files and the medium can be "Air Drop" which is mainly
bluetooth.
(Of course there are system programs that manage bluetooth connections and
the files transported on it, but they are not actors from the user's point
of view.)

Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> writes:
> Martin Gregorie <martin@mydomain.invalid> wrote:
>> Related thoughts:
>>
>> - does the iPhone offer an on-screen keyboard or if it doesn't, is
>> there one available as an app?
>
> Yes. (I can't imagine how you'd use a smartphone without an on-screen
> keyboard?)

Speech recognition. (If it was good enough, which it mostly isn’t.)

--
https://www.greenend.org.uk/rjk/

A. Dumas <alexandre@dumas.fr.invalid> wrote:
> Martin Gregorie <martin@mydomain.invalid> wrote:
> > Interesting! In that case, how do Bluetooth apps transfer files, i.e. do
> > they have the same limitations as your 'FTP Manager'?
>
> Yes. Essentially there are no bluetooth apps; sharing is done from the app
> that owns the files and the medium can be "Air Drop" which is mainly
> bluetooth.

AirDrop is mostly ad-hoc wifi, with Bluetooth used for initial discovery and
handshaking. That's why it's a lot faster than Bluetooth. In general
Bluetooth is so slow that it's barely usable for transferring files of any
size (I tried to use it for videos from Android - really bad idea).

The main use for Bluetooth on iPhones is audio and networking (tethering).

Theo

On 22-06-2021 12:46, Theo wrote:
> A. Dumas <alexandre@dumas.fr.invalid> wrote:
>> Yes. Essentially there are no bluetooth apps; sharing is done from the app
>> that owns the files and the medium can be "Air Drop" which is mainly
>> bluetooth.
>
> AirDrop is mostly ad-hoc wifi, with Bluetooth used for initial discovery and
> handshaking. That's why it's a lot faster than Bluetooth.

Ah ok, yes. I knew Bluetooth was necessary and it only works in the
proximity dictated by it; I should have searched for actual transfer
mode though, thanks.

On 22 Jun 2021 11:46:09 +0100 (BST), Theo
<theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> declaimed the following:

>Bluetooth is so slow that it's barely usable for transferring files of any
>size (I tried to use it for videos from Android - really bad idea).
>
>The main use for Bluetooth on iPhones is audio and networking (tethering).

It had enough latency that White's Metal Detectors came up with a
custom interface for the Spectra V3i wireless headphones. Bluetooth ended
up signalling finds long after the coil had passed beyond the actual
target.

{Hmm, pity... White's has gone out of business, and I don't trust Garrett
to make use of the IP acquisition to produce the fancy models}

--
Wulfraed Dennis Lee Bieber AF6VN
wlfraed@ix.netcom.com http://wlfraed.microdiversity.freeddns.org/

Dennis Lee Bieber <wlfraed@ix.netcom.com> writes:

> It had enough latency that White's Metal Detectors came up with a
> custom interface for the Spectra V3i wireless headphones. Bluetooth ended
> up signalling finds long after the coil had passed beyond the actual
> target.

I'd guess that was before Bluetooth LE?

bob prohaska <bp@www.zefox.net> wrote:
> Axel Berger <Spam@berger-odenthal.de> wrote:
>> bob prohaska wrote:
>>> > iPhones don't do file sharing over Bluetooth, so that's not an option.
>>> Aye, there's the rub....8-)
>>
>> I don't know about Iphones, but every Android I know can do FTP file
>> server over WLAN and be addressed from the desktop.
>>
>>> At some point I'll try a cable.
>>
>> I do the above because cable does not work any more. I used to be able
>> to plug the phone in and see a standard external disk drive. No more.
>> Everything now is some proprietary junk I don't want.
>
> You've raised a good point. Both the iPhone and the Pi are on the
> same LAN, I don't have to use BlueTooth. An SFTP link would be even
> easier, apart from the iPhone's lack of a keyboard. I fixated on
> BlueTooth solely because my old phone used it and my only Lightning
> cable lives in a different room, where it's used for charging. Moving
> the cable will cause me to forget to charge the phone 8-)

It turns out that gtkpod is able, in a rather awkward way, to allow
moving photos from an iPhone to a Pi. If one starts gtkpod and then
plugs in the iPhone using a lightning-usb cable gtkpod will create
a desktop icon representing the iPhone. Applications can open image
or video files via the icon. Once opened, the file can be "saved as"
to the Pi's filesystem. Simply dragging the file icons won't work,
something gets screwed up and they can't be opened once moved. If
they are opened before moving and saved by the opening program to
the Pi's filesystem then the file integrity is preserved.

The sequence is
start gtkpod
plug in the iphone
load iPod(s) using down arrow icon (3rd row from top, 2nd from left)
A warning dialog box saying iPod directory structure not found
click create directory structure
Select the mount point and model from the drop-down menus

A long warning appears, but can be dismissed, and two iPhone
icons appear just below the trash icon. They can be traversed
like any storage device, but files can't be dragged, they have
to be opened and saved to the Pi.

The iPhone isn't remembered in the list of possible devices,
although the iPod seems to be. So, one has to go through this
drill from the beginning on every attempt.

Certainly a nuisance, but doable.

Thanks for reading, I was surprised by the discovery.

bob prohaska