idevicebackup2 - Man Page
Create or restore backups for devices running iOS 4 or later.
Examples (TL;DR)
- Create a backup of the device in the specified directory:
idevicebackup2 backup path/to/directory - Restore a backup from the specified directory:
idevicebackup2 restore path/to/directory - Enable encryption for backups:
idevicebackup2 encryption on password - List the files in the last completed backup:
idevicebackup2 list
Synopsis
idevicebackup2 [Options] CMD [CMDOPTIONS] DIRECTORY
Description
Create or restore backup in/from the specified directory.
Options
- -u, --udid UDID
target specific device by UDID.
- -s, --source UDID
use backup data from device specified by UDID.
- -i, --interactive
request passwords interactively on the command line.
- -n, --network
connect to network device.
- -d, --debug
enable communication debugging.
- -h, --help
prints usage information.
- -v, --version
prints version information.
Commands
- backup
create backup for the device.
- --full
force full backup from device.
- restore
restore last backup to the device.
- --system
restore system files, too.
- --no-reboot
do NO reboot the system when done.
- --copy
create a copy of backup folder before restoring.
- --settings
restore device settings from the backup.
- --remove
remove items which are not being restored.
- --skip-apps
do not trigger re-installation of apps after restore.
- --password PWD
supply the password for the encrypted source backup. If omitted, the password will be requested in interactive mode (-i), or it can be passed using the environment variable BACKUP_PASSWORD.
- info
show details about last completed backup of device.
- list
list files of last completed backup in CSV format.
- unback
unpack a completed backup in DIRECTORY/_unback_/
- encryption on|off [PWD]
enable or disable backup encryption. The password will be requested in interactive mode (-i) if omitted, or it can be passed using the environment variable BACKUP_PASSWORD.
- changepw [OLD NEW]
change backup password on target device. The passwords will be requested in interactive mode (-i) if omitted, or they can be passed using the environment variables BACKUP_PASSWORD (old password) and BACKUP_PASSWORD_NEW (new password) respectively.
- cloud on|off
enable or disable cloud use (requires iCloud account).
Security Considerations
Passing passwords on the command line is not advised, since it might reveal the backup password to other users via process list or command line history. Use interactive mode (-i) or pass them via environment variable(s) as mentioned in the description of the respective commands above.
Authors
Martin Szulecki
Nikias Bassen