Your iTunes doesn’t recognize after you connect your iPhone or iPad or iPod via USB cable to your computer? It happens more often than you think and we have compiled a list of all the actionable tips you can take to rectify this issue.

The tips below are in no particular order and you can try one after another until it actually works. What works for someone may not work for others.

Tips to Get iTunes to Recognize an iOS Device

The first 5 tips in this list are pretty easy whereas the last two might take relatively extra bit of work from your side. So, we recommend trying the first 5 before trying the last two.

1. Exit iTunes completely and relaunch it.
2. Disconnect the iOS device from your computer and reconnect to using a different USB port.
3. Restart your iPhone, iPad, or iPod.
4. Restart your mac or Windows PC.
5. Try using a different cable (third party cables often cause issue – use Apple official cables).
6. Reinstall iTunes.
7. Update the iPhone driver in Windows PC.

Psst…

The last two tips involve a little bit of work and we have explained them both below.

The iPhone/iPad/iPod is Still Not Detected? Reinstall iTunes.

If the first five tips did not work well for you and you believe there is nothing wrong with your phone, then you can try this.

Reinstall iTunes on Mac

In Mac OS X, iTunes is a protected app and can only be uninstalled from the Terminal. Follow the below steps to uninstall iTunes on Mac:

1. Launch Terminal from the Utilities folder within Applications.
2. Type and execute the following commands:

   cd /Applications/

   Next, run the below command to delete iTunes from Mac:

   sudo rm -rf iTunes.app/

3. You will be asked to enter your administrator password; enter it to confirm.

Once you have uninstalled iTunes, you can download and reinstall the latest version of iTunes from Apple.

Reboot your Mac and try connecting your iPhone, iPad or iPod now.

Reinstall iTunes on Windows

1. Go to Control Panel.
2. Look for “Programs“.
3. You will a small blue link called “Uninstall a program“; click on it.
4. Look for iTunes in the list of programs shown.
5. Select iTunes > Click Uninstall.

Once you have uninstalled iTunes, you can download and reinstall the latest version of iTunes from Apple.

Reboot your PC and try connecting your iPhone, iPad or iPod now.

iPhone, iPad, iPod Not Detected in Windows? Update iPhone Driver.

Follow the below steps to update Apple drivers on Windows PC.

1. Go to the Device Manager in Windows: Click Windows Key + Run and in the dialog box that popups up, type the below and press enter:

   devmgmt.msc

2. Inside the Device manager, look for “Apple iPhone” under portable devices section.
3. Right click on the ‘Apple iPhone’ and choose “Update software”
4. Next, “Browse on my computer”.
5. Navigate to the below location:

    C:Program FilesCommon FilesApple

   … and select the folder called “Drivers”

Now your Apple drivers on Windows PC should get updated in a moment. Reboot your PC and try connecting your iPhone, iPad or iPod again.

iPhone is Still Not connecting to iTunes?

If you are at this point, there aren’t much options left honestly. Connect your device to another Mac or PC, just to make sure that the issue is not with computer. If your device doesn’t work even in another machine, then you should get it checked in an authorized Apple Service Center.

Got any other tip to help solve this issue of iPhone not recognized by iTunes? Share with us in the comments!