iTunes won't open when I plug in iPhone

Just checking to see if your iTunesHelper background process has been disabled.

Right-click your Task Bar and select "Task Manager". Go into the "Processes" tab. Click the "Image name" heading to sort the processes alphabetically.

Is ituneshelper.exe currently showing up in your list of processes?

Fingers crossed, it's just been disabled. The following procedure will require a PC restart.

In your Start Menu, click "Run". In your Run, type msconfig and hit enter.

Go to the Startup tab and look through the list of startup items. (It's not in alphabetical order, I'm afraid.) Can you see iTunesHelper in there? If so, is the checkbox to the left of iTunesHelper unchecked?

If it is unchecked, check it and click OK. Restart the PC when prompted.

Is iTunesHelper running in processes after the restart now? If so, does iTunes launch when you plug in the iPhone?

🙂 Excellent news.

It should stay enabled from now on ... by default it's set to run on startup, so usually folks have to go into MSCONFIG to disable it. (Possibly it also might be disabled by using an application like WinPatrol, though, which has a startup item manager.)

If you run into further trouble with it not running on startup again, post back to let us know. (We can try checking to see if something has been switching it off accidentally.)

I'm having the same problem. When I plug my phone in it does not launch iTunes. When I launch iTunes and then plug my phone in everything works fine. I looked in msconfig and ituneshelper is not listed. Any ideas?

When I launch iTunes and then plug my phone in everything works fine. I looked in msconfig and ituneshelper is not listed.

🙂 That's pretty much what I was hoping fisher wouldn't be seeing.

Do you get any error messages when launching iTunes? If so, what do they say? (Precise text, please.)

Do you have a 32-bit or a 64-bit version of Vista?

I don't get any errors but I plug my phone in and it does nothing, doesn't launch iTunes and doesn't start to charge. If I open iTunes first it works normally. I usually have to hit the home key on my phone then the phone beeps and starts charging. Also, I have 32 bit Vista.

Thanks!

The likeliest possibility I can think of based on your symptoms is damaged Apple Application Support program files. (Much like iTunes versions 9.0.x, iTunesHelper requires a properly functioning Apple Application Support in order to work correctly.)

*Assuming that you don't have a Safari for Windows version 4.0.5 installed on that system,* I'd try the following technique with a 32-bit Vista:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2256037

*If you have a Safari 4.0.5 installed on the system* we'll need to try something different. (We need to make sure that you have an Apple Application Support 1.2.0 on the PC in order for Safari 4.0.5 to work ... at the present point in time, the procedure I outline above will only put an Apple Application Support version 1.1.0 back on your PC.)

I followed the directions on that thread exactly and unfortunately it didn't change a thing. Any other ideas? Its not really a big deal but if its an easy fix it seems silly not to have iTunes run properly.

Message was edited by: wvu76