rusbmux

rusbmux is a modern, drop-in replacement for usbmuxd, written in pure Rust.

Why use this?

• Works with your existing tools - libimobiledevice, idevice, 3uTools, iTunes, etc. work without changes
• Runs on Windows, macOS and Linux
• WiFi support - connects to devices on your network automatically
• Safer & faster - pure Rust, no C dependencies (except Windows)

Installation

Linux

Releases

Download the latest release from the releases.

Cargo

cargo install rusbmux

Arch Linux (AUR)

paru -S rusbmux-git

or

paru -S rusbmux-bin

---

Running

Systemd

If you installed rusbmux with Cargo, install the service file first:

sudo cp systemd/rusbmux.service /usr/lib/systemd/system/rusbmux.service
sudo systemctl daemon-reload

Enable and start the service:

sudo systemctl enable --now rusbmux

Direct execution

sudo rusbmux

Windows

Releases

Download the latest installer from the releases.

Run the installer and follow the setup wizard. rusbmux will be installed as a Windows service and start automatically.

---

iTunes Compatibility

If you have removed Apple Mobile Device Support from your system, iTunes will not be able to communicate with iOS devices.

To restore compatibility, install or restore the Apple Mobile Device Support files.

Required directories

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Apple\Mobile Device Support\
C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Apple\Mobile Device Support\

These directories should contain Apple's Mobile Device Support libraries

Required registry entries

If the registry entries have also been removed, recreate them with the following .reg file:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Apple Inc.]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Apple Inc.\Apple Mobile Device Support]
"InstallDir"="C:\\Program Files\\Common Files\\Apple\\Mobile Device Support\\"
"Version"="18.0.0.32"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Apple Inc.\Apple Mobile Device Support\Shared]
"AirTrafficHostDLL"="C:\\Program Files\\Common Files\\Apple\\Mobile Device Support\\AirTrafficHost.dll"
"MobileDeviceDLL"="C:\\Program Files\\Common Files\\Apple\\Mobile Device Support\\MobileDevice.dll"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Apple Inc.]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Apple Inc.\Apple Mobile Device Support]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Apple Inc.\Apple Mobile Device Support\Shared]
"ASMapiInterfaceDLL"="C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Common Files\\Apple\\Mobile Device Support\\AppleSyncMapiInterface.dll"

Note

rusbmux does not require iTunes or Apple Mobile Device Support to function. These files and registry entries are only required if you also want to use iTunes.

macOS

Releases

macOS already ships with Apple's usbmuxd, so installing rusbmux is optional.

If you'd like to use rusbmux instead, download the latest installer from the releases.

---

Running

Before starting rusbmux, disable Apple's usbmuxd service:

sudo launchctl bootout system /Library/Apple/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.usbmuxd.plist
sudo launchctl disable system/com.apple.usbmuxd

Then start rusbmux:

sudo launchctl enable system/com.abdubanna.rusbmux
sudo launchctl bootstrap system /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.abdubanna.rusbmux.plist

Switching back to Apple's usbmuxd

Disable rusbmux

sudo launchctl bootout system /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.abdubanna.rusbmux.plist
sudo launchctl disable system/com.abdubanna.rusbmux

Then re-enable Apple's service:

sudo launchctl enable system/com.apple.usbmuxd
sudo launchctl bootstrap system /Library/Apple/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.usbmuxd.plist

You can switch between rusbmux and Apple's usbmuxd at any time by stopping one and starting the other.

Nix

Nix-flake

• Add this to flake.nix:

  inputs = {
    rusbmux.url = "github:abdubanna/rusbmux"; # or to specify `github:abdubanna/rusbmux/v0.2.1`
  };

• In configuration.nix (must receive inputs):

  imports = [ inputs.rusbmux.nixosModules.default ];
  services.rusbmux.enable = true;

• That's it: the module applies its own overlay, so pkgs.rusbmux is also available anywhere in your config (environment.systemPackages = [ pkgs.rusbmux ];).

NixOS Module

• Fetch the repo in configuration.nix and wire overlay + module:

  let
    rusbmux-src = builtins.fetchGit {
      url = "https://github.com/abdubanna/rusbmux";
      ref = "main";
    };
  in {
    imports = [ "${rusbmux-src}/nixos-module.nix" ];
    nixpkgs.overlays = [ (import "${rusbmux-src}/overlay.nix") ];
    services.rusbmux.enable = true;
  }

• Or just build the package: import "${rusbmux-src}/default.nix" { inherit pkgs; }

• Pin to a specific commit for reproducibility:

  rusbmux-src = builtins.fetchGit {
    url = "https://github.com/abdubanna/rusbmux";
    rev = "<commit-sha>";
  };

• Needs nixpkgs with Rust ≥ 1.88 (edition 2024) — use a recent nixos-unstable/nixos-25.05+.

Options

Option	Type	Default	Description
enable	boolean	false	Enable the systemd service.
package	package	pkgs.rusbmux	Which rusbmux package to run.
extraArgs	list of strings	[]	Extra CLI args for the daemon.

services.rusbmux = {
  enable = true;
  extraArgs = [ "--socket" "/var/run/rusbmux" ];
};

Nix (Manual use)

• nix run github:abdubanna/rusbmux -- --help
• nix shell github:abdubanna/rusbmux

Using rusbmux as a library

rusbmux is a daemon, but it can also be used as a library to talk to an Apple device over USB directly from your own app — no Unix socket, no daemon process.

It works by exposing rusbmux's direct USB connection as an idevice connection provider. RusbmuxProvider wraps a UsbDeviceShared and implements idevice::provider::IdeviceProvider.

idevice — the library, its service clients talks to a device through that one trait. Because RusbmuxProvider implements it, every service client that takes a provider (LockdownClient, NotificationProxyClient, AfcClient, …) can be pointed at a USB device through rusbmux, no usbmuxd needed.

your app ── LockdownClient::connect(&provider)
                │  idevice::provider::IdeviceProvider
                ▼
        RusbmuxProvider
                │  bridges a UsbDeviceConn into a tokio
                │  AsyncRead + AsyncWrite stream
                ▼
           UsbDevice

Example

Add rusbmux and the idevice features you need:

[dependencies]
rusbmux = { version = "0.2", default-features = false, features = ["nusb"] }
idevice = "0.1.65"
tokio = { version = "1", features = ["rt-multi-thread", "macros"] }
futures = "0.3"

use futures::stream::StreamExt;
use idevice::{IdeviceService, services::lockdown::LockdownClient};
use rusbmux::{
    device::Device,
    provider::RusbmuxProvider,
    watcher::{UsbEvent, watch_usb},
};

#[tokio::main]
async fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    let mut usb_hotplug = watch_usb(&rusbmux::usb_backend::DEFAULT_BACKEND);

    let UsbEvent::Connected {
        device: Device::Usb(device),
        id,
    } = usb_hotplug.next().await.unwrap().unwrap()
    else {
        return Err("no USB device connected".into());
    };
    println!("[{id}] device connected: {}", device.udid());

    let provider = RusbmuxProvider::new(&device, "rusbmux-example".to_string(), None);

    let mut lockdown = LockdownClient::connect(&provider).await?;
    let name = lockdown.get_value(Some("DeviceName"), None).await?;
    let udid = lockdown.get_value(Some("UniqueDeviceID"), None).await?;

    println!("Name: {name:?}");
    println!("UDID: {udid:?}");
    Ok(())
}

Notes

Exclusive USB ownership

Library mode talks to the device over its raw bulk endpoints, which can only be opened by one process. Stop the rusbmux daemon (or usbmuxd) before using the library.

A more flexable modes are planned, including coexisting

Pairing

Services that start a TLS session need a pairing file.

provider::RusbmuxProvider::preflight will check and pair and wait for the trust dialog if needed, and and sets the new pairing file.

Prefer provider::RusbmuxProvider::set_pairing_file when you already have a pairing file.

A better choice is to set the pairing file AND do preflight, if the pairing file is valid, preflight is skipped, if not, it would generate a new one for you, you can then check if preflight did generate a new pairing file (by the returned boolean), and get it and save it somewhere for later.

Current limitations (for now)?

• Not as battle-tested as usbmuxd
• Android / FreeBSD not yet supported

MSRV

1.88

License

Licensed under either of

• Apache License, Version 2.0, (LICENSE-APACHE or http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0)
• MIT license (LICENSE-MIT or http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT)

at your option.