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You can capture packet traces from iOS devices using Airtool 2. A packet trace capture from an iOS device records traffic at the network layer passing through all interfaces, including Wi-Fi, AWDL, and cellular.
You cannot target a specific interface on your iOS device as you would do on the Mac, so Airtool 2 saves information about the interface in the packet metadata. You can use your packet analyzer tool to display the interface for each packet and filter the trace based on that interface.

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Requirements

Airtool 2 uses a tool called Remote Virtual Interface (RVI) to capture packet traces from your iOS device. RVI is managed using a command-line interface called rvictl, which is part of Xcode. Install Xcode from the Mac App Store if you haven’t already. Then, launch Xcode and install the additional required components.
On a Mac with Apple silicon, you must also enable System Extensions. To learn more about enabling system extensions, see About system extensions and macOS.
If you’re still unable to capture a packet trace after enabling system extensions, you may need to go to System Settings > Privacy & Security and click Allow to finish installing Apple’s system extension required to use the RVI tool.
To verify that rvictl is correctly installed, open Terminal and type:
If you get the message command not found: rvictl, then rvictl is not installed or it cannot be found. To troubleshoot RVI, see Troubleshooting the Remote Virtual Interface (RVI) in Troubleshooting Packet Traces.

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Connect the device and start capturing

  1. Connect your iOS device to your Mac via USB.
  2. Choose the capture packet trace option for the connected iOS device from the Airtool 2 menu.
As with other types of captures, Airtool 2 features such as capture size limits, file rotation, and live captures are available when recording packet traces from iOS devices.

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See also