An iPhone has been detected, but it could not be identified properly

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Level 1

8 points

An iPhone has been detected, but it could not be identified properly

HI everyone.
Plugged my phone in when i got home yesterday and got really excited as it said i could update and text to multiple recipients (you folks at Apple got peed off at New Year's like the rest of us! Yea).

So accepted and also the ITunes update, went had tea, came back to a "unable to restore your phone" error which was odd. Checked the phone which appeared to have updated, but then when I plugged it back in ITunes kept coming up with the "AN iPhone has been detecetd, but it could not be identified properly. Please disconnect and reconnect the iPhone, then try again" message.
Tried that - didn't work

Tried disconnecting everything, rebooting, reconnecting - same message

Stopped and started the Apple mobile service - same error

uninstalled apple mobile and update services and itunes, disconnected phone, rebooted, reinstalled, reconnected - same error

Tried the poweroff, reboot to restore function, the phone got to a point (emergency connection only) and same error in itunes

Tried deleting the sync history - same error
tried the powe-off one more time - same error and now no working phone!

Gave up took phone back to the shop who have sent it off. They were graet gave me another one with my SIM card in it to try, got home and yep same error on itunes.

Have just uninstalled it again. Before I do anything else, what do i do next to get itunes to recognise an iphone? Help I'm going bonkers!

iPhone, Windows XP

Posted on Jan 17, 2008 5:46 AM

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Answer 1

Jan 18, 2008 8:12 PM in response to Biju John

Thank you Biju John! I had iTunes 7.6 installed and iPod Touch 1.1.1 and I used this advice and it worked. After switching off my Wifi, the iPod touch was recognized correctly. Now I am upgrading to 1.1.3, so we'll see...

I also used this support info:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306640

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1141495&tstart=15

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Answer 2

Dawn Roberts Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 17, 2008 8:13 AM in response to sfadam

Have uninstalled abolsutly anything apple related again. Also gone through the registry to remove any entries related to apple. Reinstalled and yep - same error.

Any chance that the SIM card has been affected?

Last option, I going to plug the loan phone (with my sim) in my husband's PC to see what his old version of itunes says. Is there anywhere to download the previous version of ituneS?

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Answer 3

BrentC

Level 1

0 points

Jan 17, 2008 10:55 AM in response to Dawn Roberts

I am having the same issue. I have uninstalled every apple app I can find including Quick time. Then reinstalled iTunes with no luck. I have a 30gb IPOD and it syncs just fine with this most recent iTunes update. Not sure what else can be tried.

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Answer 4

bfos7215

Level 1

0 points

Jan 17, 2008 10:58 PM in response to Dawn Roberts

Here is a fix. Although, it's a bit of work.

Find an install file of a previous verions of iTunes. I used a version for 7.5.0.20 which I had on another PC with iTunes. I had plugged in my iPod Touch into that computer and it still recognized the device.

Uninstall iTunes.
Reboot.
Install old version (7.5).
Open iTunes Library.itl in your itunes directory with a text editor. This is because the older version of iTunes refuses to read an .itl file created by a newer version of iTunes.
Delete everything in that file to make it a 0 file size. This will force iTunes to rebuild the library (.itl file) by use of the iTunes Music Library.xml.
Open iTunes. It will rebuild your library.
Attach your iPod/iPhone.

So now we either have to wait for Apple to fix this gaffe, or figure out another way. I'm tempted to restore my iPod to factory settings, and then update to 7.6 and see if iTunes recognizes the device. I had upgraded to 1.1.3 prior to upgrading to 7.6. I did that all through iTunes, so I would have assumed that not to be an issue.

I have so little confidence in any thing that Apple develops.

Message was edited by: bfos7215

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Answer 5

lac5q

Level 1

1 points

Jan 17, 2008 11:34 PM in response to Dawn Roberts

I'm having the same problem and went through all kinds of removals and restores on the both the phone and the computer. I finally just decided to stick with 7.5, because 7.6 just kills my syncing. Let me know if you find another solution.

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Answer 6

Jan 18, 2008 6:56 PM in response to Dawn Roberts

It looks like iTunes 7.6 is trying to look up something through the net and failing when you connect your iPhone or iPod Touch. If you disconnect from the net before you plug in the device (turn off WiFi or pull out the ethernet cable) this does not happen. Also if the net is active it recognizes the iPod Touch as an iPhone!

Once the device shows up in iTunes, you can re-connect to the internet and everything works fine! Hopefully someone is working on this bug.

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Answer 7

Dawn Roberts Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 19, 2008 6:47 AM in response to bfos7215

Hi all, uninstalled everything (apple mobile, apple update, bonjour, quicktime, itunes), installed 7.5 - same error (did delet the itl file rather than reducing tho)
Updated to 7.6 same error.

Also got on phone to apple who were adamant that if i uninstalled everything , set up a new (xp) user account just to install 7.6 it would solve the problem. They also pointed out that if i'd done the updates in the right order (itunes and quicktime then the phone) i wouldn't have the problem.
So i pointed back to them that maybe when i plugged my phone in, itunes should have made sure i did it in the right order or prompted me to which order i should do it manually!
Any how - followed instructions - yep same error.
Tried plugging phone into another PC on 7.5 , no response to the phone beign connected at all, tried installing 7.6 on another PC that's never had it, works fine. Also the delay in putting message up is very long.

Tried the no network connection, didn;t work for me - same error.
Just going o try 7.5 again and see if i can get that to work.

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Answer 8

Dawn Roberts Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 19, 2008 8:04 AM in response to bfos7215

OK, tried connecting without network connection that didn't solve the problem.

TRied uninstallign everything apple, rebooted
Reduced *.ltm file to o, Reinstalled 7.5, rebooted
rebuilt library
connected phone (with network connection off), Got a need to restore message which i cancelled as i didn't want to restore with 1.1.3 as now on itunes 7.5.
disconnected phone, updated itunes to 7.6, rebooted
reconnected phone and yes unable to identify phone message again. Balls!!!!!!! (Both with and without network connection).

Back to ringing Apple support, unless anyone has any other suggestions!

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Answer 9

bfos7215

Level 1

0 points

Jan 19, 2008 8:57 AM in response to Dawn Roberts

Wow, you have to love support of horribly developed software like that.

"It's YOU'RE fault we can't figure out how to make our products work correctly."

Apple has officially lost it. They're no better, and maybe even worse, than Microsoft at this point.

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Answer 10

Dawn Roberts Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 19, 2008 9:08 AM in response to Dawn Roberts

Whoppeee I've had success.

SPOke to an extremely helpful agent this time and we tried a few things:
unplugged all my USB connections with the exception of my mouse
updated my antivirus definitions
updated windows defender definitions
switched off firewall, antivirus and defender
plugged phone back in (itunes 7.6) and it worked
unplugged turned each app back on and it worked.

Just plugged all usb devices back in - old message back
unplugged just one usb connection, it worked...... so answer may be a combination of those things, but just happy i can now get it working again.

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Answer 11

Rob L.

Level 1

9 points

Jan 24, 2008 9:48 AM in response to Dawn Roberts

I had the exact some problem on a Dell Latitude D620. In my case, when I disable the wireless feature on the Dell, the iPhone is recognized immediately. May be a conflict where the internal Dell wireless card uses a USB resource and it conflicts with the iPhone?

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Answer 12

DupaOne

Level 1

5 points

Jan 25, 2008 10:45 AM in response to bfos7215

Thanks to all of us I think we found the answer!

I too have been plagued with this annoying message and have done all the above and more to correct the problem. I have an open case with Apple's top level support and they seem to agree that there is a valid bug here.

The temporary fix is to do what the person above touched on. Simply remove all or almost all of the USB connections then plug in the iPhone USB connector and iTunes will find your iPhone. To be sure you should use the USB ports in the rear. You might have to move this connection to another port but it DOES work!

Now Apple, PLEASE FIX THIS ASAP!

Then start working on the simple COPY and PASTE that was the core of every Apple product! And don't forget SEARCH too!

My thanks to all of the above people for your posts!

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Answer 13

Jan 25, 2008 11:10 AM in response to Dawn Roberts

Seems this has a particular problems with Dells. My iPhone works flawlessly at home with hand built PC. However at work on my Dell Dimension 4100 it craps out no matter what I plug or unplug. Really **** annoying.

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Answer 14

Jan 27, 2008 1:43 PM in response to Dawn Roberts

Okay I have sort of the same problem.

I was upgrading my ipod touch the day the new firmware came out. But I think I was downloading the itunes upgrade at the same time it was trying to upgrade the touch, and itunes crashed leaving my ipod bricked. It was frozen on the recovery screen. I sent it away to to apple to get fixed and they sent it back unfrozen.

However, I still cannot get itunes to see the ipod. It is so screwed it. Sometimes windows recognizes it and will charge it, and then iTunes says that an iPhone has been detected but I have to disconnect and reconnect (which does nothing). And a few times I've had windows think it was a camera which I thought was so bizare. I've done everything said in this thread and still cannot sync the ipod.

Now im wondering if its a pproblem with the computer and not the touch?

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Answer 15

Zerotrip

Level 1

0 points

Feb 11, 2008 6:14 PM in response to theozmanbo

I had this exact same issue. I did most of the things above before I found these posts. Although when I was reading through and I saw disconnect network connection. I proceeded to do this and as soon as I did the iPhone started syncing and now no issues. I reconnected the Network cable to the port and now it is still working. I say this is very weird and don't have this issue with my home pc which I sync to as well.

Thanks for the posts and I hope this helps someone.

Z

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