When it comes to jailbreaking, there are two distinct camps that tweaks can fall into. The first of those is a camp in which you will find the tweaks that most users can see the benefit of, like adding widgets to the Home screen or changing the way interfaces can be interacted with and such. These make sense to anyone who sees them and are easy to explain.

Then we have the second camp, which is for the more hardcore jailbreaker because to most people, they don’t really do anything.

That, of course, is doing the tweak and its developer a disservice, because some of these tweaks are perhaps the most important around. The latest update to AFC2 is a prime example of that, and it’s available to download for free now.

For those unfamiliar, like most, with what AFC is, here’s a little rundown courtesy of the godfather of jailbreaking, Saurik, and this tweak’s Cydia entry.

AFC stands for “Apple File Conduit” (or at least so says TheiPhoneWiki), and is how computer applications such as iTunes and iPhoto can read and write files from your device over USB.

AFC is “jailed” and only allows access to “media” (such as photos, music, and data for apps from the App Store).

This package creates a new service, “AFC2”, with full filesystem access.

If you use a USB device management tool, it might need AFC2 to fully work.

Historically, getting full (not “jailed”) filesystem access was core to the idea “this is a jailbreak”. However, due to security concerns, modern “jailbreaks” now avoid installing AFC2 by default.

So where does this updated release come into play? Well, it now works on any ARM64 device including those using the newer KPPLess jailbreaks such as the ever-popular Electra. It is also a modified version of Saurik’s original code that downloads code from Apple and then uses that with which to work its magic, meaning it does not illegally redistribute copyrighted Apple binaries. That’s important for all manner of reasons.

Essentially, if you’re not missing this and have no idea what it does, then you probably don’t need it, but if you want to be a able to plug your iOS device into a computer and then access all files with read and write permissions, then this is what you are going to need.

Have at it, folks. Go to Cydia and get the update now from Karen angelXwind’s repo or from the default BigBoss repo.

Related Stories