mvt/docs/docker.md

Using Docker simplifies running MVT with its dependencies readily installed. Note that this requires a Linux host, as Docker for Windows and Mac doesn't support passing through USB devices.

The main and iOS Docker images include pymobiledevice3 for creating iOS backups. You do not need to install it separately on the host. Older image tags may still include libimobiledevice instead; build from the updated source if pymobiledevice3 is unavailable.

Install Docker following the official documentation.

Once Docker is installed, you can run MVT by downloading a prebuilt MVT Docker image, or by building a Docker image yourself from the MVT source repo.

Using the prebuilt Docker image

docker pull ghcr.io/mvt-project/mvt

You can then run the Docker container with:

docker run -it ghcr.io/mvt-project/mvt

Build and run Docker image from source

git clone https://github.com/mvt-project/mvt.git
cd mvt
docker build -t mvt .

Test if the image was created successfully:

docker run -it mvt

If a prompt is spawned successfully, you can close it with exit.

Access an iOS device from Docker

On the Linux host, install and start usbmuxd, then connect and unlock the iOS device. The daemon exposes the device through the /var/run/usbmuxd socket.

Bind that socket into the container to let pymobiledevice3 communicate with the device. Also mount a local directory so acquired backups persist after the container exits:

mkdir -p "$PWD/cases"
docker run --rm -it \
    --mount type=bind,source=/var/run/usbmuxd,target=/var/run/usbmuxd \
    --mount type=bind,source="$PWD/cases",target=/home/cases \
    ghcr.io/mvt-project/mvt

Inside the container, verify connectivity:

pymobiledevice3 lockdown info

Accept the trust prompt on the unlocked device if requested. Then follow the backup instructions, using a destination under /home/cases, such as /home/cases/backup.

The iOS-only image defaults to running mvt-ios. To use pymobiledevice3 instead, override its entrypoint:

docker run --rm -it \
    --mount type=bind,source=/var/run/usbmuxd,target=/var/run/usbmuxd \
    --entrypoint pymobiledevice3 \
    ghcr.io/mvt-project/mvt:latest-ios lockdown info

If you built the image from source, replace ghcr.io/mvt-project/mvt with mvt.