ideviceinstaller fails with "Could not connect to lockdownd. Exiting." - ios

Question

When I try to use ideviceinstaller, the command fails with the following error message:
"Could not connect to lockdownd. Exiting."
Example commands:
ideviceinstaller -l
ideviceinstaller -i Something.ipa
I have googled more than an hour to find the solution, however nothing worked for me:
Reinstall ideviceinstaller
Reinstall libimobiledevice
Reinstall brew and reinstall again both ideviceinstaller, libimobiledevice
It works only if I use sudo but it's unfortunately not acceptable in my case.
System paramereters:
MacBookPro with 10.11.5 OSX El Capitan
Target devices: iPhone 5, iPad 2
Note:
I have installed both Xcode 7.3.1 and Xcode 8 beta 3 on my computer. And used these commands to switch between them:
sudo xcode-select -switch /Applications/Xcode-beta.app/
sudo xcode-select -switch /Applications/Xcode.app/

Answer 1

Meanwhile I found the answer. This command will add durable privileges to use ideviceinstaller:
sudo chmod -R 777 /var/db/lockdown/

Answer 2

Just FYI: updates to macOS, iTunes, and probably other Apple software will (correctly) reset the permissions on /var/db/lockdown.
The best solution here is to get the latest libimobiledevice, which has a fix for this particular issue:
brew uninstall ideviceinstaller
brew uninstall libimobiledevice
brew install --HEAD libimobiledevice
brew link --overwrite libimobiledevice
brew install ideviceinstaller
brew link --overwrite ideviceinstaller

Answer 3

I had many problems with ideviceinstaller too, so at least I have started to use cfgutil.
It's a CLI tool of Apple Configurator 2, always up-to-date and reliable, works well with iOS beta versions.
Just download the free app from the App Store: https://itunes.apple.com/hu/app/apple-configurator-2/id1037126344
Start the app then select "Apple Configurator 2 > Install Automation Tools" from the upper left menu.
To install/uninstall apps:
cfgutil --ecid $ECID remove-app $BUNDLE_ID_OF_INSTALLED_APP;
cfgutil --ecid $ECID install-app $PATH_TO_IPA_OR_APP_FOLDER;
To get ECID, connect an iOS device and run the following command:
cfgutil list
Here are the available functions: https://pastebin.com/ZzeueLK2

Answer 4

When you try this command:
ideviceinstaller -d -i Something.ipa
you will get a detailed error. In my case the error is:
lockdown.c:218 lockdown_check_result(): ERROR: PairingDialogResponsePending
11:28:09 lockdown.c:1012 lockdownd_do_pair(): Pair failure
Could not connect to lockdownd.
Exiting.
On further searching for this error no. 2 I found that there was a trust issue in the Iphone connected, so I opened the Iphone and gave trust device, then the issue got resolved.

Answer 5

To fix this, try first:
usbmuxd --force-exit
sudo usbmuxd -f -v
Then
ideviceinstaller -d -i Something.ipa

Answer 6

bellow commands solved my problem
brew uninstall ideviceinstaller
brew uninstall libimobiledevice
brew install --HEAD libimobiledevice
brew unlink libimobiledevice && brew link libimobiledevice
brew install --HEAD ideviceinstaller
brew unlink ideviceinstaller && brew link ideviceinstaller
sudo chmod -R 777 /var/db/lockdown/

Answer 7

If you are getting this error while brew install --HEAD libimobiledevice
:
"configure: error: Package requirements (libusbmuxd >= 1.1.0) were not met:
Requested 'libusbmuxd >= 1.1.0' but version of libusbmuxd is 1.0.10"
Below commands will solve the issue:
brew update
brew uninstall --ignore-dependencies libimobiledevice
brew uninstall --ignore-dependencies usbmuxd
brew install --HEAD usbmuxd
brew unlink usbmuxd
brew link usbmuxd
brew install --HEAD libimobiledevice
brew install ideviceinstaller

Answer 8

use above mentioned command ->sudo chmod -R 777 /var/db/lockdown/
if the above command does not work then, remove files from lockdown folder
-> cd /var/db/lockdown/
-> rm -rf *
then try ->ideviceinstaller -l

Answer 9

In my case, the steps doesn't work.
Finally, I find a way to resolve:
DISCONNECT your device!
run cmd in sequence:
brew uninstall ideviceinstaller
brew uninstall libimobiledevice
brew install --HEAD libimobiledevice
brew install ideviceinstaller
sudo chmod -R 777 /var/db/lockdown
that works for me.