Tethering iPhone to USB Bluetooth dongle

[mark bower]

Ubuntu 20.04, iPhone SE 2020, Sabrent BlueTooth (BT) dongle.

I am trying to make a functional connection between my iPhone and BlueTooth (BT) dongle in order to download photos from the iPhone to the PC. Following standard setup, both the Bluetooth Manager GUI and my iPhone show pairing successful - this includes matching a 6 digit code and accepting the code as seen via the BT Manager and the iPhone. The BT icon on the system tray shows the BT icon with a lock symbol, and the BT Manager GUI has both a key and the trusted symbol affixed to the iPhone device likeness. Yet, I do not achieve a functional connection.

Following are some command line diagnostics. Of particular note is results from lsusb and idevicepair which do not return positive results.

lsusb sees the dongle, but not the iPhone
sudo rfkill list shows -
hci0: Bluetooth
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no

hcitool dev sees MAC addresses of iPhone and BT dongle

hcitool scan returned nothing

idevicepair pair shows:
"No device found, is it plugged in?"

hciconfig -a shows (abbreviated)

BD Address: 00:1A:7DA:71:13 (Sabrent MAC addr)
UP RUNNING PSCAN ISCAN
Link policy: RSWITCH HOLD SNIFF PARK
Link mode: SLAVE ACCEPT
Name: 'mark'
Service Classes: Rendering, Capturing, Object Transfer
Device Class: Computer, Desktop workstation
Manufacturer: Cambridge Silicon Radio (10)

ifconfig -a returned 3 different ethernet MACs

I tried to pair a Sony noise cancelling headset and encountered similar results as above. I also tried a different BT dongle, and again, similar results: appearance of pairing, but seemingly not really paired.

Since the GUI configuration gives the appearance of complete pairing, but isn't, I would like to assume there is some last tweak that could make the process complete. Help please.

[mark bower]

Bump - for help

[mark bower]

Bump #2 - for help

[mark bower]

Bump #3 - for help

[CelticWarrior]

Comments and a question:

Tethering usually refers to sharing internet connection, not access to and transfer from storage.
I don't know exactly what happened with the Bluetooth headset but I imagine it paired correctly which doesn't mean the system automatically changes to that audio output (and Ubuntu may need additional software to support HFP).

The question comes regarding the iPhone: Doesn't it strictly requires iTunes for what you're trying to do? Last time I checked it did.

[yancek]

The simplest way I've found to download to/from an iphone is to use the vlc for mobile app on the iphone. Do an online search on using it by searching "using vlc for mobile on iphone ubuntu". That should give you a number of sites explaining its use. You can then use your browser with the ip address of the iphone to copy to/from the iphone.

When I plug my iphone into a usb port on the computer and click on iphone in the left panel of the Desktop, it opens shotwell which shows the DCIM directory wth the photos on the iphone. On Ubuntu 20.04, this only works if I first open 'iphone' in Shotwell, then close it and open it again. Not sure what that's about.

I expect your problem is related to the method you are using with the dongle and bluetooth. I don't use bluetooth so can't help, good luck.

[mark bower]

@ yancek
I will try the VLC approach. I find it a bit perplexing that there is not an abundance of iPhone/Ubuntu users who choose to download data wirelessly. I assumed someone would nail the process. I have downloaded with a wired connection, and I do it all the time with my camera. Just believe it would be convenient to avoid the plug-in requirement.

@CelticWarrior
Thank you. I looked up the definition of tethering and indeed it involves the internet. I believe I was mis-told by my iPhone service provider (in fact, Consumer Cellular) was no help with my attempt to BT pair.

[yancek]

An iphone will be another device on your network if it is not physically attached to the computer. Ubuntu documentation at the link below suggests using SSH although the documentation doesn't seem complete.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Ip...ing%20wireless

You can apparently also use VNC or Samba. Never tried either myself. A good part of the problem is the extremely proprietary nature of all Apple software which makes it extremely difficult for Linux developers to create software to work with Apple products. Additionally, the percentage of iphone users is much lower than android so there really isn't much incentive.

https://www.idc.com/promo/smartphone-market-share/os

[mark bower]

o.k., thanks for additional info. i will try and get to "VLC approach" this eve or tomorrow. I can say that I have transferred photos from iPhone to my PC via emailing, not a major effort, but Earthlink has a 20MB limit such that iPhone videos are too large to process(maybe even a 10sec burst may be too many MB). I should state that that is the main driver for me: not individual photos but video clip transfer to PC, while avoiding the cloud stuff.