You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

A software update is required to connect to your iphone

Running iOS 13.1.3 on my iPhone 8

Running Mac OS 10.14.6 on my iMac


When I try to connect my iPhone to my iMac I get this message. Then it asks if I want to download and install. The problem is that I don't know what the update is. Does it upgrade to Catalina or some minor upgrade? This is important because I can NOT upgrade to Catalina yet. My accounting software has not been updated to be compatible with Catalina yet, so I must wait. I find it odd that this message does not tell you what the update will be.


If the update is Catalina, is there any other way around this? I need to connect my phone but I can't update to Catalina yet.


Thanks

iPhone 8 Plus, iOS 13

Posted on Oct 18, 2019 9:40 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Oct 18, 2019 11:56 AM

I had the same hesitation, but was feeling lucky and went ahead and and clicked install anyway. System software didn't update, it looks like there may have been a phone or iTunes update. I can connect now.

3 replies

Dec 13, 2019 8:58 AM in response to GrnXnham

THANK YOU for this thread. Apple's non-specific dialog box and poorly-worded, vague kb article doesn't disambiguate whether the "update" will be a full OS update or some minor, slipstreamed iTunes update (which IMO should have been reflected in App Store's Updates section, but why be consistent with 20 years of precedent, right?).


Anyway, someone should let Apple support know this is a thing, because I was just told I HAD to update to Catalina to ever sync my iPhone (on iOS 13) ever again. That is simply false information.

A software update is required to connect to your iphone

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.