iPhone setup (early preview)

iPhone support is an early preview. Android is the supported path today. On iPhone the live screen runs at a lower frame rate, and setup needs a Mac with Xcode. Windows and Linux computers can't set up an iPhone.

An iPhone needs a small helper app on the phone, built once on your Mac with Xcode. When you plug in an iPhone, the studio shows the setup steps and ticks them off as the phone reports in.

What you need

• A Mac with the agent installed (Install the agent).
• Xcode from the Mac App Store, opened once with the license accepted.
• An Apple ID. A free one works.

The setup downloads the small tool the agent uses to talk to the iPhone (go-ios) by itself if it isn't on your Mac yet.

Steps

1. Trust this computer. Unlock the iPhone, plug it in, tap Trust and enter your passcode.
2. Add your Apple ID to Xcode: Xcode → Settings → Accounts → + → Apple ID. A "Personal Team" appears under your name.
3. Turn on Developer Mode on the iPhone: Settings → Privacy & Security → Developer Mode → On. The phone restarts; tap Turn On to confirm.
4. Build the helper. In Terminal on the Mac, run ~/.tether/bin/tether-agent ios setup. It builds, installs and starts the helper; the first build takes a few minutes. It never signs in for you or runs sudo; when a step needs you, it says what to do and stops.
5. Trust the developer the first time: on the iPhone, Settings → General → VPN & Device Management → your Apple ID → Trust.
6. iOS 17 and later also need a link running on the Mac. In Terminal run sudo ios tunnel start --userspace (it asks for your Mac password) and leave it running. If Terminal says ios isn't found, run sudo ~/.tether/bin/ios tunnel start --userspace instead.
7. Start the agent again (~/.tether/bin/tether-agent). The iPhone turns ready in the studio.

With a free Apple ID

Apple makes apps signed with a free account expire after 7 days. Run ~/.tether/bin/tether-agent ios setup again each week. A paid Apple Developer account avoids this.

Good to know

• Tether Studio never bypasses Face ID, passcodes or app login screens. If an app locks itself, unlock it yourself.
• Some steps and templates are checked on Android only. Each template says what it was checked on.