iTunes installation errors and Apple Mobile Device Errors

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iTunes installation errors and Apple Mobile Device Errors

First I will explain how I got to where I am now. I had the an iTunes 7 version, don't know the specific, and I have an ipod touch. I had been ignoring the iTunes 8 upgradge things upon open of iTunes, cause i had absolutely no need for it and syncing music to my ipod was still working, and i dont care for itunes besides being able to use my ipod. Then the iphone os 3.0 came out and i wanted to download/pay for it, and when i attempted to do this i was promptly instructed that I needed iTunes 8. I closed itunes and reopened so i could just tell the prompt that i wanted to upgrade, then bonjour opened and i selected the itunes/quicktime package, it gave me an error saying i needed to download manually, so i turned off automatic install. I then downloaded again, it opened a folder with iTunes.msi among other things, I double clicked itunes.msi and it proceeded to install. I then had iTunes 8 installed, opened it up, and with my ipod touch connected, it told me I needed upgraded apple mobile device and i had to uninstall both apple mobile device and itunes to do this. so i uninstall itunes through add/remove programs, and attempted to uninstall apple mobile device and everytime i did this it would not complete and gave me "Fatal Error" prompt. I then tried to reinstall iTunes and it would not install, kept giving me an error and told me to try again. I searched google for answers and the best anyone could say was delete missing files and try again, so i can CCleaner and got rid of registrys etc, and still would not allow me to uninstall apple mobile device. i reinstalled itunes and it actually worked this time, and then i plug in my ipod touch and it tells me i need the upgraded apple mobile device again, and that i need to uninstall apple mobile device and itunes to do this. If i could get rid of apple mobile device altogether maybe i wouldnt have this problem, but it simply wont let me. Any help with this? and sorry this was so long, i figured someone would need to know what happened to know how to fix it.

PC, Windows XP, -

Posted on Jun 21, 2009 7:12 PM

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Answer 1

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polydorus

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11,967 points

Jun 22, 2009 1:11 AM in response to DarrellJ88

It sounds as though using the Microsoft Installer cleanup utility is worth a go.

I will give you a method for removal of iTunes and related programs with clean up, I think you have already done the removal, but just in case you missed anything out.

==
Download a fresh copy of iTunes and the stand alone version of Quicktime (the one without iTunes)

http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/win.html
http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/

Save the files on your PC.

Download and install Microsoft Installer cleanup utility, there are instructions on the page as well as the download. Note that what you download is the installer not the program – you have to run it to install the program. The installer doesn't give any message to confirm the installation.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301/

(To run the program – All Programs>>Windows Install)

Now use the following method to remove iTunes and its components:
XP
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1925

Vista
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1923

*If you hit a problem with one of the uninstalls don't worry*, carry on with the deleting of files and folders as directed in the method.

When you get to deleting Quicktime files in the system32 folder as advised in the method, you can delete any file or folder with Quicktime in the name.

Restart your PC.

Run the Microsoft Installer Cleanup Utility. (Start > All Programs > Windows Install Clean Up)

Remove any references you find to the programs you removed - strictly speaking you only need to worry about those programs where the uninstall failed.

If you don’t see an entry for one of the programs that did not uninstall, look out for blank entries or numeric entries that look like version numbers e.g. 7.x for Quicktime or 1.x for Bonjour.

restart your PC

Install the stand alone Quicktime and check that it works.

If it does, install iTunes.

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Answer 2

DarrellJ88 Author

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Jun 22, 2009 10:32 AM in response to polydorus

Where does the re-installation of Apple Mobile Device come in at? I had uninstalled iTunes and Quicktime and everything except Apple Mobile Device as that was the one that failed to uninstall, and I used the Microsoft Installer Cleanup to remove apple mobile device. I followed the instructions provided by apple to remove iTunes and Quicktime as well as apple software and ipodservices, so as far as I know I had everything removed. I reinstalled just quicktime, opened it to see if it worked, which it did, and then used the itunes installer and that installed and opened itunes and itunes worked. I plugged in my ipod touch and it says itunes needs an upgraded apple mobile device to work and then says i need to uninstall apple mobile device and itunes and re-install itunes, as it has been doing. is iTunes supposed to be installing apple mobile device? I checked add/remove programs and apple mobile device is still not in there even after installing iTunes, so iTunes doesn't seem to be installing it.

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Answer 3

polydorus

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11,967 points

Jun 22, 2009 11:40 AM in response to DarrellJ88

Apple mobile device support should install as part of the iTunes installation.

I would have expected some kind of error message during the iTunes install if AMDS failed to install.

Usually removing installer entries for problem programs with the cleanup utility fixes things so I am not sure what is wrong.

One point is that I think iTunes needs to be uninstalled then reinstalled for AMDS to be installed, you can't install it separately (AFIK).

Added:
iTunes stores the AMDS installer files (AppleMobileDeviceSupport.msi) in documents and settings\all users\application data\apple\installer cache.

You have to have hidden folders visible to see it.

It would be interesting to see if you have the latest version cached there. The latest one I have is version 2.5.0.31.
Presumably that came with the latest iTunes.

You might even try running it to see if it generates a useful error message.

Message was edited by: polydorus

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Answer 4

DarrellJ88 Author

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Jun 22, 2009 12:13 PM in response to DarrellJ88

I looked in that folder you said in your edited reply, and it does have a folder titled Apple Mobile Device Support 2.1.2.7 but the folder is empty. When I get more free time I'm going to try and remove everything again and install an older version of iTunes, like 7.7 or something and see if I can get back to where I was, and maybe then if i feel like getting another headache I will attempt to update from that.

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Answer 5

polydorus

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11,967 points

Jun 23, 2009 4:47 AM in response to DarrellJ88

OK, maybe see how you get on with that plan. You may need to recreate your library from the xml file if you get earlier version errors when you try to start itunes.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1451

There is something else you might look at with the latest iTunes, it should be possible to extract the individual installers from iTunesSetup.exe as follows:
1. Choose Run from the Start menu.
2. Enter cmd and hit Enter.
3. Drag iTunesSetup.exe into the cmd window.
4. Add a space and then this text:
/extract %TEMP%
5. Press return.

If it works, the msi files should be extracted into the Windows temp folder.

You could see what happens if you try running AppleMobileSeviceSupport.msi.
Maybe it will install or produce a helpful error message.
If I understood correctly, the rest of iTunes installed OK.

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Answer 6

DarrellJ88 Author

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Jun 23, 2009 10:08 AM in response to polydorus

Yeah you're right about the library xml errors with installing 7.7, could you tell me how to recreate the library to get around that?
And I've tried extracting the applemobiledevice.msi, i found another thread here that said to do that, but it wont allow me to install it (installation encountered errors try again later). Thats why I was hoping to install 7.7, and maybe it would install apple mobile device for me unlike version 8 which doesnt seem to want to do that, then maybe move on to extracting a newer apple mobile device and installing new itunes and individually installing new apple mobile device, but right now it seems I dont even have any apple mobile device installed at all because its not in add/remove programs and theres no folders that hold anything from apple mobile device. If i cant get 7.7 to start up but say it did install apple mobile device then i would go that route, if i can get it to start up, then atleast I'm back at square one where I was before all this started, and I can sync music to my ipod again and I may just leave it at that.

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Answer 7

polydorus

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11,967 points

Jun 23, 2009 2:04 PM in response to DarrellJ88

I gave the link to instructions for rebuilding the library in my last post.

On AMDS It might be worth looking in your Windows error logs to see if any there are any helpful error messages there.

Sometimes registry key permissions problems cause trouble and if that's it, it is possible to repair registry permissions.

It is also possible to get the iTunes installer to create a log file, but the file is huge and not for the faint hearted, but if you gets to grips with it there may be helpful error messages in it.

Creating an install log

Open a cmd Window – Start>>RUN CMD
Drag iTunesSetup.exe to command window to get full path
Then after it type a space then:
/l*v C:\log.txt

The installer will create a log file c:\log.txt

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Answer 8

DarrellJ88 Author

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Jun 23, 2009 6:34 PM in response to polydorus

Sorry about the playlist thing, when I read the link I assumed(oops) it was going with what you talked about afterwards. Anyhow, now I have itunes 7 up, and i plugged in my ipod touch and it says "This ipod cannot be used because the required software is not installed, please uninstally itunes then reinstall", which I'm assuming the required software is going to be apple mobile device, haha. So now if its the registry thing as you were speaking of, how do I check the windows error logs? And depending on what you meant by huge, I'd be willing to go through long lines of text or w/e for the itunes install log, but if you meant huge in terms of file size, like gb's or something, I dont know if i want to spare that much space. And thank you for you continuing support, i feel as if im getting a little closer lol.

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Answer 9

DarrellJ88 Author

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Jun 23, 2009 6:58 PM in response to DarrellJ88

What I forgot to add to that previous post was that there did seem to be a slight difference in the itunes 7 install vs the itunes 8 install. in the directory you told me to look at before, documents&settings/allusers/applicationdata/apple/blah blah i forget now as i'm writing, anyhow you go in there and the apple mobile device folder in that directory contained previous installs i think you said. when i checked there before installing itunes 7, there wasnt anything in there, but after installing itunes 7 there is the apple mobile device version for itunes 7 in there, i checked this before i had the library sorted, so i was optimistic that it would work, but now i have no clue whats going on.

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Answer 10

polydorus

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Jun 24, 2009 12:48 AM in response to DarrellJ88

As check if it installed, is AMDS present when you look in add/remove programs?

On the iTunes log file it is huge in terms of a human looking through it rather than causing a problem for your PC. It is also pretty inscrutable but you would just be looking for error messages.

On the registry key thing, the clue would be error messages about problems accessing registry keys.

The Windows error log can be accessed via Control Panel>>Administrative Tools>>event viewer.
You might try looking in system and application logs immediately after attempting to install iTunes.
There are quite a lot of routine messages generated all the time and you don't want to have to scroll back too far to get past them.

I am afraid I am stuck now and unless there is an error message that points to a particular problem, I don't know where to go next.

Repairing registry permissions can be done automatically by running a script that you download, but it is quite a draconian measure and I wouldn't recommend it unless there is a definite indication that registry key permissions are a problem.

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Answer 11

DarrellJ88 Author

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Jun 24, 2009 11:14 AM in response to polydorus

Nope, AMDS is not present in add/remove programs. The only thing I see in the eventviewer is quite a few msiIinstaller errors, which are for times when ive tried installing itunes/AMDS and it failed, and i double click those events and it says installation error occured, doesnt say anything else other than stuff that is no use to me. Then there is a couple that are for IpodService and the info in that is
"The description for Event ID ( 0 ) in Source ( iPod Service ) cannot be found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer. You may be able to use the /AUXSOURCE= flag to retrieve this description; see Help and Support for details. The following information is part of the event: Service started."

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Answer 12

polydorus

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11,967 points

Jun 24, 2009 1:59 PM in response to DarrellJ88

OK, I don't think I can be any more help to you, but I am not absolutely clear if you are talking about error messages from the even viewer or from the log file.

I was hoping for some sort of error message associated with the installer errors that would identify the problem.

If there were any error numbers with the Windows installer errors, the meaning of the error number can be found here:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa372835.aspx

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Answer 13

DarrellJ88 Author

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Jun 24, 2009 3:16 PM in response to polydorus

The error messages I was talking about were from the event viewer. And I don't see any numbers from that which might relate to the msdn page you showed me, because most of the Event Id #'s are like 11708 or something, other than "The error codes numbered greater than 2000 are internal errors and do not have authored strings, but these can occur if the installation package has been incorrectly authored." which it says on that msdn page. Thanks for the help, I think the only way Id be able to get it working again is to reformat or something.

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Answer 14

polydorus

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11,967 points

Jun 25, 2009 12:57 AM in response to DarrellJ88

OK, I never like to suggest a reinstall of Windows. But sometimes it can be the simplest way out of an intractable problem.

All you data, music etc will be lost so make sure you have a reliable back up.

Also deauthorise your PC before doing it to avoid using up one of you authorisations.

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Answer 15

robbo95

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Jun 25, 2009 9:57 AM in response to polydorus

Hi peeps, am a noob so please layman terms.

I’m one seriously peed off person, I went to update to 8.2 last week to update my iphone, done the normal software update – downloaded and installed.
Plugged my iphone is and got a error mobile device support needs updating please reinstall.
So I did this again and then again and then again, you get the message.
I have read through lots of forums and can’t make sense of it.
Reading through this one I have tried to uninstall it then delete the file from the common file in my c drive, rename etc etc

I have also tried to reinstall 8.1 but that now says this was created by a newer version please install.
Also I have extracted the files from the installer and manually installed them.
They all install fine apart from the AMDS, this rolls back every time.
I uninstalled the all and restarted my laptop then tried to uninstall the AMDS, this rolls back and does not allow me to uninstall, so I used smarty uninstaller and that does not work either!

I then used windows installer program to delete the AMDS and tried to reinstall.
Now am getting can not recognise iphone please uninstall and reinstall

I have been doing this for a week now and am about to go crazy, so any help would be so much appreciated.
Am running on window vista premium 32 bit (me thinks )

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