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My iPhone screen broke, I can't see anything anymore. But I know it's still working because plugging to my mac syncs it with iTunes.

Is there a tool I can use to see my screen on the mac, control it, etc?

The tricky part is any solution requiring me to first do something on the iPhone won't work, since I can't do anything...

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  • This may be possible without jailbreak by using signing Veency and installing using Xcode. Progress is being discussed here github.com/DanTheMan827/ios-app-signer/issues/44
    – William Entriken
    Commented Jan 3, 2017 at 1:14
  • @william-entriken that discussion indicates that it is not possible without jalibreaking the iOS device though.
    – Carl
    Commented Sep 4, 2021 at 11:42

6 Answers 6

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26

Just use QuickTime Player on your Mac.

  1. Connect the Lightning port from your iPhone to the USB to your computer.
  2. In QuickTime select File → New Movie Recording but don't start the recording.
  3. Next to the record button select the down arrow button, then select your iPhone. This will bring the iPhone's display screen to your Mac within QuickTime.

You don't have to record anything, you can use your non-working display and look inside QuickTime to see your screen.

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  • bomb info!! thx
    – austin
    Commented Mar 29, 2016 at 19:11
  • 3
    excellent! now I just need a way to swipe since the screen is completely shattered.
    – sho
    Commented Dec 27, 2016 at 16:44
  • 1
    @zdman - Can this also be done on a Windows PC with QT Player?
    – Alex S
    Commented Mar 14, 2018 at 13:24
  • From MacOS Monterey, this will be possible without a physical cable since using the mac as an AirPlay receiver will be enabled.
    – Carl
    Commented Sep 4, 2021 at 11:38
19

No one actually fully answered the original question yet.

Is there a tool I can use to see my screen on the mac, control it, etc?

You can control your idevice (not only view it's screen) given you have a mac / PC paired with it (that is, you had them connected in the past using USB cable, and pressed the "Trust" button on the iPhone's screen alert).
There are a few UI automation tools that are capable of doing that. Try the evaluation version of SeeTest Automation for instance.

You will be required to generate Apple's provision profile unique for your iPhone (in an automatic, free of charge process) which will allow viewing and controlling your phone, managing applications etc.

EDIT (or How To Trust a Device with Broken Screen)

What you will need:

  • Having Siri turned on / triple tap on home to activate VoiceOver
  • a bluetooth keyboard.
  • a Lightning to USB adapter.
  • a simple USB keyboard.

If your device was not previously trusted by any computer, and you cannot tap "Trust this computer" on your broken screen, you might be able to use VoiceOver with a USB and Bluetooth keyboards to virtually tap trust (and generally to control the device) even with broken screen.

The trick is to bring up the trust alert by connecting the lightning port to a computer running iTunes (or Xcode), and then tap the "Trust" button using Space / Enter key on VoiceOver and a bluetooth keyboard (this must be a bluetooth keyboard since the USB connection cannot be used for communicating with the computer AND with a keyboard simultaneously).

  1. If you have a bluetooth keyboard paired with your Apple device, great. Just connect the device to your computer, open iTunes and hit Space (not sure right now, maybe it was Enter...). If you have problems with that, or you are not sure whether the alert is displayed, read further and turn on VoiceOver.

  2. Turn on VoiceOver:

    • To do that, use Siri (assuming it is configured). Just Say "Hi Siri, turn on VoiceOver".
    • If Siri is off, some iOS versions are configured by default to turn VoiceOver on/off using triple tap on home button.
  3. If you have a paired bluetooth keyboard, skip to step 6. Now that VoiceOver is turned on, you will need a USB keyboard to navigate to the Bluetooth settings (of course, if the screen still responds to touch you will not need the keyboard, just listen to the instructions and tap):
    • Connect a USB keyboard to the device using Lightning to USB adapter (it is meant for camera, but will also work with standard keyboards).
  4. Navigate to the Settings app using VoiceOver (this is a tricky part, controlling VoiceOver is a mastery...). Basically the Left / Right arrow keys are used for navigation of UI items, Left + Right keys for "Quick Nav On" and Up + Down keys to activate an item.
  5. In the Settings app, go to Bluetooth settings and pair the keyboard.
  6. Once you have a bluetooth keyboard paired, connect the device to a computer, and control VoiceOver with the keyboard to trust it. Now you can proceed to using any viewing tool you like.

P.S. You might also be able to see your screen without trusting the device (and using Quicktime) by using a Lightning AV Adapter. But I've never given it a try...

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  • 4
    Thank you. Seeing the device's screen and controlling it are two different things.
    – Arturo Torres Sánchez
    Commented Dec 16, 2016 at 16:41
  • Also, not everyone has a trusted computer... added instructions for how to trust with no screen.
    – Elist
    Commented Nov 16, 2017 at 16:50
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If you own an apple tv you could use airplay mirroring to see exactly what happens on your iPhone.
It will require you to blindly enable it on your phone but there aren't that many steps in this process.
Here you can see how to enable it on your phone.
You could also try reflector but again this requires you to enable airplay blindly

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0

If your device is jailbroken then use veency or any other vnc server, install it via ssh and proxy through usb to iphone, you'll see you screen and will be able to control it, use any vnc client on mac.

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-2

download "itools" and in there you will see airplay so you can plug it to computer or even to your flat-tv using macbook pro

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  • 2
    Please explain this solution further more.
    – Jash Jacob
    Commented Sep 19, 2014 at 16:39
-2

Google for 'Tight VNC' (requires a jailbroken deivce though)

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  • 2
    We're looking for long answers that provide some explanation and context. Don't just give a one-line answer; explain why your answer is right, ideally with citations. Answers that don't include explanations may be removed.
    – Tetsujin
    Commented Mar 25, 2016 at 10:56

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