Transferring files using iTunes

Now that I have a Mac machine, I thought that as I’m on beta I’d use iTunes to transfer files. Whilst I seem to be able to get them off the iPad, I’m having trouble getting them back on again. iTunes seems to regard .codea as a file, not a directory, even though when I drag them onto my Mac then they appear as directories. So I can’t drag them back again (as they’re directories according to the Mac) and I can’t drop a file into one (as it’s a file according to iTunes). Moreover, I don’t seem to be able to delete the files that I’ve managed to put in strange places while experimenting.

I know it’s only beta … but is this possible, or should I get one of those apps that lets me dig a little deeper (like libimobiledevice did on Linux)?

Oh, not to worry. Turns out that libimobiledevice is in homebrew so I’m back in happy-land again.

Homebrew is fantastic.

Does libimobiledevice mount the iOS device as a standard volume?

On a non-jailbroken device, then it can (via ifuse) mount the “document” directories of each app or it can mount some sort of “main” directory, but not the root one. These are all as standard volumes.

Once I’d gotten the permissions for the kernel extension sorted out (grrr, umask strikes again), I can mount the Codea document directory with

ifuse --appid com.twolivesleft.Codify ~/local/share/iPadApps/Codea

(finding the appid is a pain, though, as it seems that ideviceinstaller is not in homebrew; in the end I did an internet search for it)

Then, it acts more or less like a normal file system. I get the occasional complaint about file permissions, but that’s all.