iPhone backup extractor and viewer software that works on Windows PC?

libimobiledevice - Unlike a typical graphical iPhone backup viewer that gives you a polished, point-and-click interface, libimobiledevice is a collection of small, precise command-line tools. It's like the difference between using a pre-built furniture kit and owning a professional-grade workshop—it requires a bit more effort upfront, but it gives you complete control over every single action.

The tool you'll use for this is idevicebackup2, which is specifically designed for devices running iOS 4 and later. This is a critical point. If your backup is encrypted, the tools will prompt you for the password. You'll need to provide it to view any contents. Without it, even libimobiledevice cannot bypass Apple's encryption—that's by design.

libimobiledevice is cross-platform, working on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

• On macOS: The easiest method is using Homebrew: brew install libimobiledevice
• On Windows: Package managers like winget or chocolatey can install it, or you can download pre-compiled binaries

Before viewing backups, you may need to pair your device with your computer using idevicepair pair—a one-time setup that requires you to tap "Trust" on your iPhone.

libimobiledevice transforms your terminal into a powerful, scriptable iPhone backup viewer. It won't give you thumbnails or pretty icons, but it will give you complete, unfiltered access to everything inside your backups—without any cost, without any hidden agendas involved.