iTunes won't open to activate iPhone, instead Adobe Photoshop opens...

I think you have two separate issues. Adobe is probably not really trying to "sync" with the iPhone is so much as get any photo's you have taken with the camera. You should have a setting in Adobe (in Pref.) that asked if you want to automatically connect to a camera - if you turn that off it should stop opening Adobe.

As for the other... Have you downloaded the latest iTunes? Try connecting with both iTunes already open and not.

Hope that is helpful.

Whatever your default image capture application is will always open when you connect the iPhone. This appears to be Photoshop on your computer (It is Picasa on mine). This is also normal. iTunes should then open (it usually takes longer). Even if you open iTunes it will take a while to recognize the iPhone.

Also note that the iPhone must connect directly to a USB port on your computer, not to a hub. Sometimes it will work with a powered hub (one with its own, separate power brick) but it is safest, at least for the first sync, to connect directly to the computer. The issue here is the amount of power the iPhone requires to sync reliably.

If you have connected the iPhone directly to the computer AND waited for a couple of minutes and the iPhone still isn't recognized you should uninstall iTunes completely and reinstall it from a fresh download. The instructions to uninstall on a PC are:

1) Open the 'Add/Remove Programs' window from the Control Panel (or, in Vista, 'Programs' then 'Uninstall a program').
2) Remove/Uninstall iTunes but do not immediately restart your computer.
3) Remove/Uninstall Apple Mobile Device Support.
4) Remove/Uninstall QuickTime.
5) Manually delete the OutlookSyncClient.dll file located in C:\Program Files\Common Files\Apple\Mobile Device Support\bin (if present)
5) Restart your computer.
6) Download the latest iTunes from http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/ and install it.

alienated wrote:
If I uninstall iTunes and re-install it, I will lose all of my music, video, podcasts etc... that I have stored there. It hardly seems worth the effort.

You will not lose anything. The music, video, podcasts, and playlists are data, and they are not removed when you uninstall the application.

What I have now is a $400 paperweight.

I'll give you $200 for it 😉

Do you want to get the problem fixed, or to just complain?

As mentioned, Photoshop is opening because at some point in the past you told it to open when a camera gets connected. The iPhone reports as a camera and as a phone.

My suggestion to you is:

Open iTunes.
Wait for it to load.
Plug in phone (USB from iPhone to Computer directly not through a USB hub).
Wait.
If Photoshop opens, simply close it, no big deal.
Wait.
iTunes will in time show you your phone.

- go to control panel
- scanners & cameras
- right click iPhone and properties
- change the "when camera connected" to "take no action"

... yes, like everything else on Winbloze, 20 steps too complicated