Phosphor

Free and open-source iOS device manager for macOS.
Download - Website - Features - Install

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Phosphor gives you complete control over your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch without proprietary software, iCloud lock-in, or subscriptions. Built natively with SwiftUI and powered by pymobiledevice3 with libimobiledevice as fallback. Supports iOS 17-26+.

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Why Phosphor?

Apple's Finder integration is all-or-nothing. Proprietary tools like iMazing cost $50/year. Phosphor fills the gap:

Feature	Finder	iMazing	Phosphor
Full device backup	Yes	Yes	Yes
Incremental backup	No	Yes	Yes
Browse backup contents	No	Yes	Yes
Selective file restore	No	Yes	Yes
Export iMessages to CSV/HTML	No	Yes	Yes
Export WhatsApp messages	No	Yes	Yes
Photo extraction (no iCloud)	No	Yes	Yes
App data extraction	No	Yes	Yes
Install/remove IPAs	No	Yes	Yes
Battery health diagnostics	No	Yes	Yes
Real-time device console	No	Yes	Yes
Device file system browser	No	Yes	Yes
Drag-and-drop file transfer	No	Yes	Yes
Scheduled Wi-Fi backups	No	Yes	Yes
Time Machine backup restore	No	No	Yes
Contacts export (vCard/CSV)	No	Yes	Yes
Calendar export (ICS/CSV)	No	Yes	Yes
Apple Watch data browsing	No	Yes	Yes
Backup archive format	No	.imazing	.phosphor
Localization (7 languages)	No	Yes	Yes
Crash report viewer	No	Yes	Yes
Process monitor	No	Yes	Yes
Ringtone creator	No	Yes	Yes
HEIC to JPG conversion	No	Yes	Yes
iOS 26 support	N/A	Paid	Yes
Price	Free	$49.99/yr	Free
Open source	No	No	MIT

Features

Device Management

• Automatic detection of connected iOS devices via USB
• Device info: model, iOS version, serial, UDID, IMEI, Wi-Fi/Bluetooth MAC
• Pair/unpair devices
• Restart, shutdown, sleep commands
• Take device screenshots

Backups

• Create full and incremental local backups (no iCloud required)
• Browse backup contents through parsed Manifest.db
• Navigate by domain (Camera Roll, Apps, Home, System, Keychain, etc.)
• Search files across the entire backup
• Extract individual files or entire domains
• Manage backup encryption
• Delete old backups

Messages

• Browse all iMessage and SMS conversations from backups
• View messages in a native chat-bubble interface
• Search across all messages
• Export conversations to CSV, HTML, Plain Text, or JSON
• Export all conversations at once
• HTML export styled like native iMessage (blue/gray bubbles)

Photos & Videos

• Browse Camera Roll from backup without restoring
• Filter by type: Photos, Videos, Screenshots
• Grid and list view modes
• Batch extract to any folder
• Preserves original filenames and structure

Applications

• List all installed apps on connected devices
• Browse apps stored in backups with data sizes
• Install .ipa files directly to device
• Remove apps from device
• Extract individual app containers (Documents, Library, tmp)

File System

• Browse device filesystem via AFC (Apple File Conduit) - no FUSE/ifuse required on macOS Sonoma+
• Navigate directories, view file metadata
• Copy files to/from device via pymobiledevice3 AFC push/pull
• Browse specific app containers (Documents, Library, tmp)
• Delete files on device
• Drag-and-drop file transfer

Contacts

• Browse all contacts from backup AddressBook database
• View phone numbers, emails, organization details
• Search across all contacts
• Export as vCard (.vcf) or CSV

Calendar

• Browse calendars and events from backup
• View event details, duration, all-day status
• Export as ICS (iCalendar) or CSV

Apple Watch

• View paired Apple Watch info from iPhone backup
• Browse WatchKit extension apps with data sizes
• Activity ring history (Move, Exercise, Stand)
• Extract all Watch-related data from backup

Diagnostics

• Battery: current charge, charging status, health percentage, design vs. actual capacity (mAh), cycle count, temperature
• Storage: total capacity, usage breakdown (Apps, Photos, Media, Other), available space
• Visual storage bar similar to macOS About This Mac
• Real-time device system log (syslog) streaming with proper process termination
• Filter and search logs
• Export logs to file
• Color-coded log levels (Error/Warning/Debug)
• Crash report viewer - Pull and browse device crash reports
• Process monitor - Live process list from device

Backup Management

• Time Machine mode: 3D animated backup browser for visual restore
• Scheduled backups: automatic hourly/daily/weekly/monthly via USB or Wi-Fi
• .phosphor archives: portable backup export/import format
• Backup encryption management (enable/disable/verify)
• Drag-and-drop file transfer in file browser

Installation

Homebrew (recommended)

brew tap momenbasel/phosphor
brew install --cask phosphor

Manual

1. Download the latest .dmg from Releases
2. Drag Phosphor.app to Applications
3. Install pymobiledevice3: pip3 install pymobiledevice3
4. Optional fallback: brew install libimobiledevice ideviceinstaller

Build from Source

# Install pymobiledevice3 (primary)
pip3 install pymobiledevice3

# Optional fallback tools
brew install libimobiledevice ideviceinstaller

# Clone and build
git clone https://github.com/momenbasel/Phosphor.git
cd Phosphor
swift build -c release

# Create app bundle
bash Scripts/build.sh

# Launch
open .build/Phosphor.app

Requirements

• macOS 14.0 (Sonoma) or later
• pymobiledevice3 (primary backend, supports iOS 17-26+): pip3 install pymobiledevice3
• libimobiledevice (optional fallback): brew install libimobiledevice
• ideviceinstaller (optional fallback for app management)
• ifuse (legacy file mounting, not needed with pymobiledevice3)

Phosphor checks for available tools on launch and uses the best available backend automatically.

Architecture

Sources/Phosphor/
  App/           SwiftUI app entry point
  Models/        DeviceInfo, BackupInfo, Message, MediaItem, AppBundle
  Services/      DeviceManager, BackupManager, MessageExporter,
                 PhotoExtractor, AppManager, FileTransferManager,
                 DiagnosticsManager
  ViewModels/    MVVM state management layer
  Views/         SwiftUI views organized by feature
  Utilities/     Shell (process runner), SQLiteReader, BackupManifest,
                 PlistParser

Key design decisions:

• pymobiledevice3 primary, libimobiledevice fallback - Every operation tries pymobiledevice3 first (JSON-based, supports latest iOS), falls back to libimobiledevice CLI if unavailable.
• No C bindings - Wraps CLI tools via subprocess. Simpler dependency chain, easier to maintain.
• Direct SQLite - Parses iOS backup databases (Manifest.db, sms.db) using system sqlite3. Zero external Swift dependencies.
• MVVM - Services handle business logic, ViewModels manage UI state, Views are declarative and composable.
• Zero external dependencies - Only system frameworks (SwiftUI, Foundation, sqlite3, UniformTypeIdentifiers).

iOS Backup Format

Phosphor directly parses Apple's backup format:

~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/<UDID>/
  Info.plist           Device metadata
  Manifest.plist       Encryption status, app list
  Manifest.db          SQLite database mapping files to SHA-1 hashes
  Status.plist         Backup state
  <xx>/<sha1-hash>     Actual files, organized in 2-char prefix dirs

The Manifest.db contains a Files table with columns:

• fileID - SHA-1 hash (also the filename on disk)
• domain - e.g., CameraRollDomain, AppDomain-com.example.app
• relativePath - Original path within the domain
• flags - 1=file, 2=directory, 4=symlink

Phosphor parses this to provide file-system-like browsing without modifying the backup.

Roadmap

• WhatsApp message parsing (ChatStorage.sqlite)
• Apple Notes extraction (NoteStore.sqlite)
• Call log browsing and export
• Safari bookmarks and history
• Health data extraction (samples, workouts, all data types)
• Music and ringtone transfer (extract from backup, install to device via AFC)
• Batch operations (multi-select extract in Photos, Music)
• Wi-Fi device connection (libimobiledevice network mode)
• Encrypted backup browsing (via iphone-backup-decrypt)
• Drag-and-drop file transfer
• Localization (English, Arabic, Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Chinese)
• Apple Watch data through paired iPhone
• Time Machine-style backup restore with 3D animation
• Scheduled automatic backups (hourly/daily/weekly/monthly, Wi-Fi support)
• .phosphor backup archive format (portable backup export/import)
• Contacts browsing and export (vCard, CSV)
• Calendar events browsing and export (ICS, CSV)
• Device-to-device transfer (clone) - backup source, restore to destination
• Full pymobiledevice3 migration (72 Shell calls, 13 services)
• Crash report viewer
• Process monitor
• Ringtone creator (afconvert)
• HEIC to JPG conversion (sips)
• Backup progress bar with percentage
• Syslog proper process termination
• Backup cancel support
• Backup encryption management (enable/disable/change password)
• Voicemail browsing

Troubleshooting

Where Phosphor stores backups

Starting with v1.0.4, Phosphor's default backup directory is ~/Documents/Phosphor Backups. This is a user-owned location, so Phosphor needs no special permission grant; it also keeps Phosphor's backups separate from Finder's, which eliminates any risk of a Phosphor run corrupting Finder-managed backups.

If you are upgrading from v1.0.3 or earlier and were using the system MobileSync directory, Phosphor will detect existing backups there on first launch and pin it as your override - nothing changes. You can switch to the new default any time from Phosphor -> Settings -> Backup Directory -> Reset.

"Both backup methods failed"

Phosphor now surfaces the underlying pymobiledevice3 and idevicebackup2 stderr in the failure message. Common causes:

0. Directory "is not readable" / permission denied - you pointed Phosphor at ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup but did not grant Full Disk Access. Prefer switching the backup directory back to the default ~/Documents/Phosphor Backups in Settings; only grant Full Disk Access if you specifically need Phosphor to read Apple's shared backups.
1. Trust prompt missed - Unlock the device, tap Trust This Computer, enter your passcode, then retry the backup.
2. Stale pymobiledevice3 - iOS 17/18/26 require a recent release. Upgrade with:

   pip3 install --upgrade pymobiledevice3

3. Binary not on PATH - GUI apps do not inherit your shell PATH. Phosphor probes pipx, Homebrew, and ~/Library/Python/3.{10..14}/bin automatically; if you installed pymobiledevice3 elsewhere, symlink it into one of those directories.
4. Missing Python dependencies - ModuleNotFoundError in the failure details means a partial install. Reinstall with pip3 install --upgrade --force-reinstall pymobiledevice3.
5. Pairing record mismatch - From Terminal, run pymobiledevice3 lockdown pair once, accept the Trust prompt, then retry.

For encrypted backup issues, verify the device has a passcode set and that pymobiledevice3 backup2 encryption reports the expected state.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for development setup and guidelines.

Credits

• pymobiledevice3 - Pure Python implementation of Apple's mobile device protocols (primary backend)
• libimobiledevice - Cross-platform protocol library for iOS devices (fallback)
• ifuse - FUSE filesystem for iOS devices (legacy)
• Apple's SF Symbols for iconography

License

MIT - Use it, fork it, ship it.