iMazing: This iOS Management Tool Way Better than iTunes & Finder

iMazing has long been known as one of the most powerful iPhone management tools available, offering far more flexibility than iTunes or Finder ever could.

With the release of iMazing 3.4, the app takes another big step forward, introducing refined UI elements, enhanced pro tools for IT admins and developers, and full compatibility with the latest Apple devices — including the iPhone 17 lineup, Apple Watch Ultra 3, and macOS Tahoe 26.

In this updated review, we’ll walk you through what’s new, how it performs, and whether it’s worth upgrading.

About iMazing

Originally launched in 2008 as DiskAid and later rebranded iMazing, this software has become a Swiss Army knife for Apple device management. It enables you to manage every facet of your iOS and iPadOS devices: back up and restore wirelessly or via USB, and transfer any type of data between Apple devices (iPhones, iPads, iPods, Macs). It supports both macOS and Windows platforms, ensuring broad usability.

Jérôme Bédat, CEO of DigiDNA, explains the product’s core values:

“Reliability and user experience form our core values. Many IT professionals and lawyers use iMazing in mission-critical applications. We believe that our diligent work in ensuring smooth operation despite constant changes in iOS, macOS, and Windows environments sets iMazing apart. ”

For further insights, check our interview with Jérôme.

New features at a glance

• Full support for iPhone 17, Apple Watch Ultra 3, and macOS 26.
• Notes get a new sidebar, filters, tables, and rich attachments.
• Messages & WhatsApp add a media viewer, metadata, and Channels.
• Contacts & Books show group counts, iCloud status, and filters.
• Call history shows total times and supports multi-SIM.
• Export tool adds metadata and date-range filters.
• Pro tools offer partial backups, CLI/Configurator upgrades, and dev mode.
• Spyware Analyzer detects newer threats.
• Cleaner, more consistent interface throughout.

Compatibility

• iPhones from 5s through the entire iPhone 17 Pro Max lineup, including iPhone Air.
• All iPad models and iPod touches.
• Apple Watches including Series 11, SE 3, and Ultra 3.
• macOS 10.10 and newer, fully tested on macOS 26 (Tahoe).
• Windows 10 and 11.
• Supports all recent Apple OS versions — iOS 26, iPadOS 26, watchOS 26, tvOS 26, and visionOS 26.

Our hands-on iMazing review

For almost a decade, iMazing had kept its core design the same. However, this changes with the latest iMazing —or they say. So, we thought we would look at the new version 3 and tried to answer three main questions:

• Is iMazing a better option than iTunes/Finder?
• How does the new UI simplify device management?
• Is iMazing 3 worth the upgrade?

Testing environment

We currently use an Apple iPhone 13, running the latest version of iOS. For this review, we installed iMazing 3 on a MacBook Air M2, our daily driver laptop. We’ve tried wired and wireless connections with iMazing. An iPad Air was also used to understand how iMazing 3 deals with iPadOS devices.

Full disclaimer: we cannot comprehend the entire feature set of iMazing. So, we have focused on areas that make a difference when managing Apple devices.

Getting started with iMazing

As always, installing iMazing 3 was a breeze. The tool was up and running in a few seconds. When you start iMazing, you will be asked to provide the license key. If you don’t have one, you can start a free trial.

You must connect your iPhone/iPad/iPod via USB to start. Here’s something we should clarify at this point. iMazing does not access data from your iPhone in real time. Instead, it creates a complete backup of your device and uses the backup file as the data source. However, essential device info is pulled in real time.

This process takes a few minutes—or more, depending on how much data you have. But, we have come across other tools with real-time access. So, except for this 10-minute delay initially, it feels easy to set up the entire iMazing system.

The new UI: is it worth the hype?

Now that you have set up iMazing, let us share our take on the new UI.

For reference, iMazing had a decent User Interface. Compared to iTunes and Finder, it was a blessing indeed. However, we used to think of it as a little congested. Now the developers have fixed that complaint. And the new UI design makes it effortless to take control of your Apple devices, including the Apple Vision Pro.

First, you can explore the Discover pane, which contains quick-access links to important features of the app. You can use this action to access commonly-used features. iMazing 3 will customize this page based on your usage patterns.

For starters, the new UI makes it easy to toggle between your Devices, Backups, and Quick Actions. we use an iPhone 13 and an iPad Air 5. So, we can conveniently keep track of both devices from a single screen. Thanks to its Wi-Fi connectivity, we don’t even have to keep them connected.

There is also a dedicated pane for managing device backups. However, to make the best use of this feature, you must first take a full device backup. The backup process is a little lengthy and may take anywhere from a few minutes to an hour.

In our test, the backup took 15 minutes. For reference, the iPhone 13 is our daily driver, and it has all those apps, including WhatsApp and Google Suite.

Overall, we’d say that the new iMazing UI is just incredible. It makes a huge difference for those who need an in-depth understanding of their iPhone or iPad.

Core features: a deep look

To help you quickly understand everything, we have arranged this part into three subsections: Overview, Data, and Tools. Instead of giving you a list of features, we will share how helpful these subsections were.

# Overview

This section offers an overview of your iPhone or iPad. As you can see on the screen, there are many sections, each showing details like device info, quick actions, storage and battery. So, if you want to understand the current status of your iOS or iPadOS device instantly, the overview is super-useful.

We loved the sheer amount of information that iMazing pulls from your iPhone. Of course, you can find all this manually, but iMazing presents everything in an accessible form. For instance, we could see the battery charge, temperature and percentage from a single screen.You can also export all this information into a TXT file. It would be convenient for dealing with multiple iPhone/iPad devices.

As of version 3.2, iMazing also introduces early support for Apple Watch backups and overview. While limited, it’s a promising start for users who want better control over their wearable data.

# Data management

The Data section of iMazing remains one of its most powerful and versatile features, giving you access to manage a wide variety of data types, including:

• Photos
• Music
• Messages
• WhatsApp
• Call History
• Voicemail
• Contacts
• Voice Memos
• Calendar
• Ringtones
• Podcasts
• Safari Bookmarks
• Apps
• File System
• Profiles

As you can see, you can explore plenty of options. When launching data shortcuts, iMazing may occasionally prompt you to perform an incremental system backup to ensure your data is fresh—particularly useful for messaging apps like WhatsApp.

In addition, each of these data-management apps has unique features.

Photo Management

For instance, you can use the Photos app to manage your entire media library.

iMazing Photos brings a lot to the table with ease-of-life features that people like you and me will appreciate. We all have been in a situation where we want to clean our gallery, but the amount and bulk of unwanted photos may be a disaster, and it was the same with me.

But batch deletion worked a charm in getting unwanted images deleted with a single click, which saves a lot of time. It can also help you convert ProRAW images to popular formats like JPEG or PNG. It is also a lifesaver when dealing with photos in bulk.

Notes Organization

We really like the new Notes section in iMazing 3.4. The fresh sidebar makes it super easy to keep track of pinned notes, deleted notes, and there’s even a handy folder just for call recordings. Sorting and filtering by date help us quickly find what we need, and expanding notes inline makes reading much more enjoyable.

We appreciate that Notes now support rich content like tables, indented lists, and vibrant text colors from iOS 18. Plus, attaching audio, video, and call recordings works smoothly. The new dark mode support is something we especially enjoy during longer sessions — it’s easier on the eyes and makes note editing feel more modern and polished.

Music Player

The Music app offers complete control over your music library on iPhones, iPads, and iPods and introduces a dedicated Music Player feature. This addition allows you to sample songs before copying them, offering an alternative to Apple Music or iTunes by enabling direct listening through computer speakers.

It’s important to note that iMazing, like many other software programs, can’t access or copy music streamed through Apple Music due to limitations set by the service itself. These limitations are in place for copyright protection reasons.

However, iMazing offers complete control over your locally uploaded or purchased music library. You can easily transfer, manage, and play these files. So, if you have a collection of DRM-free music files, iMazing can be a valuable tool for managing them.

Messages (& WhatsApp) Extraction

If you want to explore your messages or WhatsApp texts on a big screen, iMazing makes perfect sense. We use this feature regularly to bulk-manage messages and export them, as iOS’s native WhatsApp backup options have never been the easiest to work with.

With iMazing 3.4, this experience is enhanced further by a dedicated media viewer that let’s you browse image and video attachments in a smooth carousel, complete with metadata, much like the Photos app. Performance when scrolling through long conversations is noticeably smoother, and WhatsApp now supports Channels—adding even more chat options.

We really appreciate how iMazing exports all chats, including attachments, into beautifully styled PDFs, Excel, CSV, and other formats. It’s not only practical but also fun—perfect for sharing memorable conversations or keeping them as a personal archive.

From an enterprise perspective, this message and DM export function is especially valuable. Whether you need to create well-organized, timestamped records for Phone Evidence or want to maintain clear communication logs, iMazing’s exports make it easy to keep or upload those records professionally.

Call History & Voicemail

Call history and voicemail views got smarter, and we appreciate seeing total conversation times in the sidebar—a must-have for billing or tracking client calls professionally.

For those of us with multi-SIM devices, new columns and filters help us separate and sort calls and voicemails by SIM number effortlessly. These improvements make managing call records way simpler and more practical in daily use.

# Tools

Tools is probably the most useful section in the iMazing package. It packs many valuable features let you do things that Apple’s iTunes would never.

For instance, iMazing 3 makes backing up your iPhone a breeze. With just a few clicks, you can:

• create full device backups, including your messages, photos, and contacts.
• store your backups on your computer or an external drive.
• leverage snapshot support to quickly restore your device to a previous state.
• schedule automatic backups and encrypt your data for added security.

Besides, the Manage Apps option is a blessing. We don’t know about you, but we install too many apps that occupy much storage space. Removing them from the device is a hassle. iMazing solves this problem, thanks to the big screen.

For Pros, the iOS update and reinstall options are also great. Once again, you will have additional benefits if you manage multiple Apple devices.

Overall, these tools make a lot of difference for those who need comprehensive device management.

iMazing for business & IT professionals

While iMazing excels at backing up and transferring data, it shines with professional device management capabilities designed for bulk deployment and enterprise environments. The configurator blueprint enhancements introduce:

• New Setup Assistant steps tailored for Apple OS 26.
• Blueprint actions like enabling Developer Mode and mounting developer images.
• Streamlined MDM enrollment and advanced restrictions.
• Security policies and single-app mode configurations for supervised devices.
• CLI improvements allow precise file searches, partial backups, and environment variable use.

Ideal for sectors with strict operational and security needs — education, healthcare, retail — iMazing delivers robust control where Apple’s native tools fall short.

Learn more about business features at iMazing Enterprise.

Pricing

iMazing retains the straightforward pricing plan.

• Single License: $39.99 per computer
• Family Pack (5 licenses): $59.99
• Business/Enterprise options: Available with volume discounts
• 50% upgrade discounts apply for existing users moving to 3.4

Verdict

Apple’s iTunes (now Finder) has long fallen short as a complete iOS device manager — clunky, limited, and frustrating. That’s where iMazing 3 steps in and shines.

Whether you’re a casual iPhone user, a small business admin, or an IT pro managing dozens of devices, iMazing delivers what Apple never did: deep access to your data, effortless backups, intuitive app management, and enterprise-grade tools — all in a slick, modern UI.

If you’re tired of hitting walls with iTunes/Finder or feel Apple’s default tools don’t serve your needs, iMazing 3 is the pro-level data-device management solution that bridges that gap.

Pros

• Comprehensive iOS device management
• Full support for iPhone 17 & macOS Tahoe 26
• Powerful new Notes, Messages, and Export features
• Expanded spyware detection
• Improved UI and navigation
• Advanced pro/IT tools

Cons

• Still a learning curve for first-time users
• Some features (Configurator/CLI) may feel too complex for casual users
• Paid upgrade required from older versions

Should you upgrade?

Absolutely — especially if you’ve used earlier versions. iMazing 3 doesn’t just refresh the interface, it elevates the entire experience. The one-time pricing and 50% upgrade discount make it a no-brainer for users managing multiple iPhones, iPads, or even Vision Pro.

We highly recommend iMazing as your all-in-one data transfer, backup, and device control center — something Apple should have built, but thankfully, DigiDNA did.

FAQs

Is iMazing safe? Is it trusted by Apple?

Yes, iMazing is 100% safe, with no risk of data theft or misuse. It fully complies with Apple’s security protocols, works seamlessly with any Apple device without risking lockouts, and does not collect or use any of your data. Read our full guide on iMazing’s safety.

Does iMazing have a free version?

Yes, the app offers a free trial with basic features, but unlocking advanced functionality requires a paid license.

Does iMazing support iOS 26?

Yes, iMazing 3 is fully compatible with iOS 26 and iPadOS 26. It is also running stable on the macOS Tahoe 26.

Do I need to have a jailbroken device to use iMazing?

No. iMazing works seamlessly without jailbreaking and recommends keeping your device stock.

Does iMazing support Apple ProRAW photos?

Yes, iMazing supports Apple ProRAW photos, enabling easy file management and conversions.

Are there any other iMazing alternatives to consider?

Yes, alternatives include CopyTrans, EaseUS MobiMover, Dr.Fone, Waltr Pro, and Anytrans. Compare features and pricing to find the best fit.