Filed under: iPod Family, Hacks, How-tos, Terminal Tips, iPhone

This is one of those completely useless but cool things that one figures out when one is spending far too much day trying to do something else and not accomplishing it. In my case, I’m trying to figure out how to force an iPod touch or iPhone to load a backup set. (Do you know? Let me know in the comments!) What I accomplished though was figuring out how to sync the unit with a simple command-line utility. Here’s how.

Launch System Profiler. Choose Apple > About that Mac > More Info.

Identify your iPod In

System Profiler, go to Hardware > USB and locate the iPod or iPhone you’re using. Look up the Manufacturer ID (0×05ac (Apple Computer, Inc.) and Product ID (0×1291 for my iPod touch)

Launch Terminal. that requires shell access.

Find the utility. Change directories to /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/MobileDevice.framework/Versions/A/Resources/.

Run reenumerate Give it one argument: the vendor id followed by a comma followed by the product id, e.g. ./reenumerate 0×05ac,0×1291

Wait. iTunes will reload your iPod or iPhone and sync it.

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Orginal post by Erica Sadun