Comments on: How to backup your iPhone regularly via SSH using rsync (Updated)

By: avid reader

avid reader — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 19:25:57 +0000

Dear TwiPhone,

Could you please tell us how you “reverse rsync” to restore the entire partition of the iPhone? I’m guessing you have to put it in some mode other than the normal mode such as the recovery mode, but can you make the iPhone connect to wifi and ssh in recovery mode? Please tell us your experience.

Thanks.

By: hackencrack

hackencrack — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 00:25:58 +0000

fullofquestions:

Answers:
1. rsync and ssh must be present on both devices to facilitate secure synchronization.

2. Yes, you can use rsync to synchronize files on either device in either direction. You could also backup critical files from your computer on your phone. Invoke:

man rsync

from a terminal shell on your computer for a complete description of the arguments. Google rsync if you want to learn more. rsync has been a very popular program for *many* years.

Certain files on every (unix) file system cannot be synchronized or copied for various reasons, but in general you don’t need to be concerned with these files.

You can rsync an entire partition. It’s done all the time.

3. There’s really only one ssh. OpenSSH is part of the core unix tools in Cydia. That’s what you need. The other ssh-related stuff you see in iTunes and Cydia are tools that are *client* tools. You need sshd, the server portion of ssh, running on the phone. It’s part of the OpenSSH package. I doubt you will find THAT in iTunes store anytime soon.

Good luck…

By: fullofquestions

fullofquestions — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:59:00 +0000

Questions:
1. if you run the rsync command from the PC/Laptop I believe that the iPhone does not need to have rsync. Could someone please confirm?
2. can you use rsync/ssh to copy non OS files to the iPhone? This tutorial shows how to backup the iPhone’s important files. Once you ssh into a non jailbroken/unlocked iPhone can you copy files to the entire partition or are there certain locations that are writeable?
3. does anyone recommend any SSH apps? I see that after jailbraking an iPhone you can install third party apps. For a buck or so you can get OpenTerm from iTunes and I would rather just spend that money and get going quicker (so far my iPhone 3G s is neither unlocked or jailbroken)

Thanks

By: TwiPhone

TwiPhone — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:25:43 +0000

Dist.Loop > Thanks

By: Distorted Loop

Distorted Loop — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:09:35 +0000

@Justin- if you don’t know what SSH stands for, this whole article was probably way beyond your skill sets, but it stands for Secure Shell. Read more about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Shell

By: justin

justin — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:44:19 +0000

what does SSH stand for

By: TwiPhone

TwiPhone — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 08:21:09 +0000

Caue, you are right. You would have to open Cydia and install “rsync”

Thanks for pointing it out!

I am on 3.0 now and can´t wait for the jailbreak So far all good!

By: Caue Rego

Caue Rego — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 21:40:11 +0000

thanks for the help (specially the rsync syntax)

you might want to add that rsync must also be installed on the iphone otherwise it won’t work. at least that’s what it seemed to me.

By: JayCagey » Blog Archive » Backup iPhone with rsync

JayCagey » Blog Archive » Backup iPhone with rsync — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 03:20:21 +0000

[...] Trying to backup the iPhone through iTunes has become impossible. I can let it run for 10 hours and it will only be a quarter of the way done. BUT – I can do it myself using rsync. HT: http://www.twiphone.com/2008/08/08/how-to-backup-your-iphone-regularly-via-ssh-using-rsync/ [...]

By: Miguel

Miguel — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 17:26:36 +0000

To restore the iphone via rsync?
the lines command?is posible?The backup is in my imac.