How can I transfer music files from iPhone 5s iOS 12 to Ubuntu 18.10

Linux Networking & Security
1

Hello!

I have an iPhone 5s with lots of songs that we bought and now we want to transfer them to my Ubuntu desktop.

I tried the old method of just plugging in and it worked, but now it seems that Apple is greedy and do not let us transfer legal music from one device to another.

Is there some program to install (like iTunes with wine, or a rsync / webdav combination that I can use to do it?). Some magic, perhaps? ;D jajajaja

iCloud is out of the question because we are not paying a suscription for that.

Thanks for all your help.

2

Hi LobaLuna,

You have some options. There should be an scp client for iPhone, in which case you only need to enable ssh on the Ubuntu desktop, or an FTP client maybe, but that should be used only on a private network.

My other option would be an indirect one, trough cloud storage, dropbox clients on both devices for example.

Hope this helps,
Sandmann

3

Hi, Sandmann

Sounds easy and well.

However, how can I see the music files? I should had said that this iPhone is not rooted.
Sorry to ask silly questions, but I’m more an Android gal :blush::blush:

4

Hi LobaLuna,

Not a silly question, sadly I’m also more like an Android (or rather command-line) guy as well :smile:
There should be a Files app on the iPhone, that may handle dropbox too, but I’m guessing sort of blind here.

I’ll ask an iPhone expert tomorrow, and return to you with the answers.

5

Thanks, sandman. I’m lost without your shedlight :wink:

6

Hi LobaLuna,

Sorry for the delay, it appears that I was wrong two ways, one: hunting down my iPhone expert is not that easy. Two: having a magician with the iPhone does not mean automatically that help is ensured. My contact does not have a single music file on the device, nor could give any useful advice on the issue. So it is a dead end.
This is indeed hard to solve without an actual device at hand to test with…

7

Hi, sandman.

Well, I have good news.

This «solution» is, mostly, a workaround:

I used the Evermusic application in this old iPhone, then I connected to my computer using a web server transfer page.

I mean, in the same network both computer and iPhone, I can open in my browser in a local address port 8080, I believe, then I upload files, then syncronize account on iPhone, and voilá! Music on my miniwoofer.

It’s horrific that Apple does not communicate or transfer files thru normal regular intelligent tools.

1 Like
8

Hi LobaLuna,

I’m glad you found a workaround, but yes, it is sad this can’t be done in a simple way, as we have the technology, open standards, etc. for a long time now.

9

To transer music files from iPhone to Ubuntu, it seems not to have a greate way to make it possibe.
But there is still an altertive way to achieve this. As the reason that you can’t transfer iTunes files to Ubuntu is that they are protected by DRM technology. So you just need to get rid of this limitation, all things will be broken easily.

10

Not an Apple user but back in 2011 I had an iPhone Touch. I used GTKPod to do this. It uses libgpod as a library and this library is also used by other iOS-compatible applications:

Amarok: a music player for Linux and Unix
Exaile: a media player with optional support for the iPod.
FUSEPod: a virtual filesystem for accessing your iPod on Linux.

Rhythmbox and Songbird should also work. Be aware that Apple constantly changes the encryption method for its devices so mantainers have a hard time keeping up. By the time something works for iOS4, iOS6 is already out.

12

FUSEPod is very obsolete. I will try Songbird and report later. Thanks.

13

Musconv is very helpful. I can describe later If interested. Thanks

16

I once tried with rhythmbox and it worked very well

17

Can you provide more details? Rhythmbix version number, Linux version, etc? Please

18

I did everything through Waltr2 this software is suitable for older versions of the Iphone, but I do not know how it will work with Linux, I did everything with Windows 10.

19

I also use it, it’s a pity that it’s only free for the first few days.

20

I don’t have an iPhone, but I would install an iOS app with SMB/CIFS support, such as e.g. FE File Explorer: File Manager, and then I would install Samba on Ubuntu and create a Samba share in it, so my iPhone can see such shared folder and then transfer files and folders to it by using my local (e.g. home) WLAN (home/local wi-fi network).

It will however depend on such app being able to find your iTunes music files and let you transfer them through the WLAN using the SMB protocol.

21

I have an iPhone 7, and have downloaded files to my Dell laptop running Mint 20. All I did was to plug a lightning/USB cable into the lap top, and the system recognized it as if it were a thumb drive. Mint asked me what application I wanted to open the phone with, and I chose File Manager. I was then able to simply drag and drop files onto the lap top.
Writing to the iPhone is a different issue; one has to upload the files in question to one’s iCloud account, and then back down to the phone. I’ve also done this successfully.

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