Hi all,
I’ve built an NS8 module that backs up iPhones and iPads over WiFi, with no USB cable on the server. It uses pymobiledevice3 and talks to the device by its IP over the classic lockdown port (62078) — no usbmux, no Bonjour/mDNS — so it works across subnet boundaries.
It’s in my community repository. To try it, add the repo once:
api-cli run add-repository --data '{"name":"tebbiworld","url":"https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tebbiworld/ns8-repo/main/ns8/updates/","status":true,"testing":false}'
then install iOS Device Backup from the Software Center. (Or straight from the image: add-module Package idevice-backup · GitHub 1.)
What it does:
- back up a device over WiFi by IP — full snapshots (with a retention count) or one incremental folder per device
- device-side encrypted backups; restore a snapshot onto the same device or onto a replacement iPhone
- an optional self-service portal: end users log in with their AD/LDAP account and manage the backups of their own devices only, while the admin keeps the full view in cluster-admin. Bilingual EN/DE.
- optionally include the device backups in the NS8 (restic) backup — off by default, they can be many GB
A few things to know:
- pairing is done once over USB on your own computer (in iTunes / the Apple Devices app: tap Trust, tick Sync over Wi-Fi); you then upload the resulting lockdown pairing file. Apple requires that step — the module can’t remove it.
- give the iPhone a fixed IP and turn Private Wi-Fi Address off for that network, so it stays reachable
- an encrypted backup cannot be restored without its password — keep it somewhere safe off the server
I mainly built this to keep a couple of family iPhones backed up to the server without plugging them in every time. Feedback very welcome — especially on restore to a replacement device, and on the self-service portal against different AD/LDAP setups.
Docs: NethServer wiki (tebbiworld repository) · Source: github.com/tebbiworld/ns8-idevice-backup
Thanks!
Category: App · Tags: ns8