iPhone applications can easily be backed up using iTunes, but what about the Cydia Applications? No, these ones will NOT be taken care by iTunes.

There are actually two ways to back Cydia applications.

1. AptBackup

The first one is by using AptBackup which you can also get from Cydia itself. This may be the easiest way but here’s the downside:

AptBackup makes a list of all your installed Cydia apps which you can backup through iTunes and restore it later. Now, when that list has been restored to your gadget after the upgrade, Cydia will take it as reference to automatically search and install all the apps in the list. HOWEVER, AptBackup is not really that successful in doing its job as there have been so many complaints about it. I am not discouraging you to use it, but if I were you, I will not depend solely on this method to back my apps.

2. The manual way

To be able to do this, you will need to be able to transfer files between your iPhone and computer. You can use OpenSSH or DiskAid to do that. Anyway, I have to assume that you already know how to do that. If not, read this post first so that you will know How to Copy Files To/From Your iPhone.

1. Make sure that your jailbroken iPhone has Gawk, MobileTerminal and OpenSSH installed in it. These can all be found in Cydia.

2. If you are ready, just launch the Terminal app, and carefully execute the following commands;

Type/Key in the command

su

followed by your password. Remember, your password will not be displayed. If you don’t remember changing the root password, then simply key in “alpine” (without quotes). After which, simply tap the Return Key.

Next, type this:

dpkg -l | grep ^ii | awk '{print $2}' > /var/root/cydiabkup.txt

and hit the Return Key. This command will automatically list down all your installed Cydia apps into a text file cydiabkup.txt.

The next important thing to do is to transfer cydiabkup.txt into your computer using SSH or DiskAid. This is how your text file looks like:

Once you have the cydiabkup.txt copied to your computer, you are free to do the upgrade process.

Restoring Cydia Applications

1. After you have upgraded and jailbroke your phone, reinstall OpenSSH, Gawk and MobileTerminal from Cydia. Additionally, you need to install APT 0.7 Strict which can also be found in Cydia. These packages are all required to transfer files from your computer to your iPhone.

Important Note: You need to disable the Auto-Lock first before you proceed with the rest of the steps. To do that, go to “Settings -> General -> Auto-Lock” and tap “Never.”

2. You will need to download the install-cydia-app package. After which, just unzip it, to find the install-cydia-app.sh.

3. With the use of DiskAid or SSH, transfer the file cydiabkup.txt and install-cydia-app.sh to the /var/root directory of your iPhone.

4. Launch the Terminal App to execute the following;

Type/Key in the command

su

followed by your password.

Next, type this:

sh /var/root/install-cydia-app.sh

and tap the Return Key.

After running the command, your iPhone will automatically search, download and install the apps on the list. If you see the prompt “After this operation, xxxMB of additional disk space will be used. Do you want to continue [Y/n]?“, just tap the letter “Y” and Return Key. The installation time may very depending on the number of apps in the list.

Once the installation is done, just restart your iPhone and all your Cydia applications will be restored.

This process may seems geekery to most of you, but if you are able to jailbreak your iPhone, you shouldn’t have any problems getting this done too. Should you encounter any trouble and problems, don’t hesitate to leave your comments below.

To follow this guide, you’ll need the following:

- Client computer with openssh-client installed (for Windows, use Putty)
- Server computer with openssh-server installed (Available on any UNIX-style system)
- A working set of login credentials on the server

If you don’t have a computer with an SSH server, you can use the same PC as both client and server for the sake of trying all this out. If you do have a (Linux, Unix, BSD) computer available to act as server, make sure to install the OpenSSH server software. Debian and Ubuntu users can get this easily with

sudo apt-get install openssh-server

1. Using SSH to securely copy files

This is my second favorite use for SSH. When you install the OpenSSH client on your machine, it typically comes with a file copy tool called SCP (Secure Copy). This can be VERY useful as a way to not only send files to your friends (who have openssh-server running) but to do it in a completely encrypted way.

For example, a friend of mine in Michigan is a studio engineer. He mixes audio tracks for a recording studio. Sometimes, when he wants a second opinion, he’ll send me what he’s working on so I can give him my opinion. Now, since this is all copyrighted music which has not even been released to the public, he’s naturally reluctant to post it on a filesharing service or web site, and the files are often too large for email. Instead, we transfer using SCP.

The format for an scp command is:

scp filename user@remote-host:/where/to/save/it

So my friend, on the other side of the country, would enter something like

scp MyNewMix.wav nick@joshs-computer.com:/home/nick/mixes

This example is assuming my computer is accessible from joshs-computer.com and that he has a user account on it named nick. His file will be copied to my computer over a fully encrypted connection without having to be stored at some third-party website or email server.

2. Mount a network drive securely

Now here is my #1 favorite use of SSH. If you’re a Linux user, you’re probably familiar with mounting drives. You have a device like a cdrom drive (say, /dev/hdc for example), and to access it, you mount it to a directory such as /media/cdrom. Well you can use that same principle with a program called SSHFS to mount a filesystem over a network/internet and attach it to a directory on your computer.

SSHFS is not part of the standard openssh package. It’s a separately developed program that you’ll install independently using your normal package manager.

Let’s go back to the example with my friend at the studio. Perhaps he’s got several new mixes for me instead of just one, or perhaps we do this so often that using SCP to transfer back and forth starts to become a hassle. Well, if he’s got openssh-server installed and I have an account on his computer, I can mount his hard drive to any directory I wish. The command follows the structure:

sshfs user@remote-host:/what/I/want /where/to/put/it

So to connect to Nick’s computer I’d use something like:

sshfs josh@nicks-computer.com:/home/nick/mixes /home/josh/nicks-computer

That would make it so that any time I access the folder /home/josh/nicks-computer from my machine, it would actually connect to Nick’s computer over SSH and give me access to all those files just as if they were sitting in a normal directory on my computer. Any changes I make are made to the files on his computer, it’s completely transparent. I can use whatever audio software I like to work with the files, they are completely oblivious to the fact that they’re really reading the file from 2500 miles away.

A word of warning about SSHFS: since it’s reading the files over the internet instead of locally, combined with the encryption overhead, SSHFS can be SLOW. You probably wouldn’t want to use it to access files that need lots of speed or are constantly being read or written.

There are many great uses for SSH and related tools. I’d love to hear what other tricks you may have. SSH tunneling, for example, can be hugely beneficial for some people, but doing it justice would require an article of its own. Do you have any other tips to get the most out of SSH?