iPhone access

Changelog

2024-03-18: Init
2025-08-17: Migrated content to this namespace, just to "park it somewhere"

Solved a small problem I had today... iPhone seems to not like to cooperate, especially when it comes to grabbing photos off it without iTunes. Not anymore!

USB access to it seems to be handled via AFP protocol, which requires the format afp://uuid:port/. The port number seems to trigger different services on the phone to be exposed to the file manager.
By default the port number will be 3 (picture on left), which exposes the app storage backend. Generally useful for backing up app -related files.
Changing the port number to 1 (or just leaving the port number empty) will pull up the set of folders where DCIM is actually exposed. Copy and paste to backup your photos.
- In Nautilus (Ubuntu user here), this can be achieved by hitting Ctrl-L to edit the location bar.

Some quick comparisons between remote streaming solutions:

Parsec feels a little more responsive during lowest latency mode. Compression artifacts will slowly stream in. Good if no RDP available.
RDP works for general use cases, and also happens to support some level of vector graphics for applications that support them. Choose this if on Windows Pro consumer license, and if willing to setup RDP support (this would be tricky to setup on Wayland though, due to the compositing flow).
Sunshine/Moonlight may be a decent alternative, but did not load audio nor cursor for me on Ubuntu->Windows.
- Installation: Download binaries/packages from Sunshine Github releases, install and open Web UI (iirc localhost:47990) to set user+pass. On client, download binaries from the Moonlight Qt Github releases (for Ubuntu, "moonlight" via snap). Add client IP, then go to server web UI to unlock via supplied PIN.