Being able to access the files on our devices is something many of us just take for granted. Coming from a PC background, or using Android on your phone, the ability to browse local storage -viewing, moving, and generally working with files- almost feels like an unalienable right. But the situation’s always been quite different over on the locked-down iOS side of the fence, with Apple not making it particularly easy for users to interact with the file systems on their phones. Sure, there’s always jailbreaking, but we’ve also seen the emergence of powerful utilities that allowed data management even on unmodified iPhones. Or, at least that used to be the case, until iOS 8.3 rolled around and broke these programs.
Utilities like iFunBox, iTools, iExplorer, iBackupBot, and PhoneView find themselves crippled following the release of Apple’s latest iOS 8.3 update. The new software removed the sandbox access these tools previously had to app data, severely limiting functionality.
As of now, the only workaround appears to be updating these programs to support file access for apps with iTunes File Sharing enabled. And while that restores functionality for apps that support iTunes File Sharing, it’s not clear if there will be a solution short of jailbreaking for other iPhone software.