itunes not detecting iphone 12

I couldn't get my new iPhone 12 Pro Max to work either using the included USB-C cable plugged into my Asus motherboard (AMD Ryzen system)

It turns out that I can use my old iPhone 7 USB cord (and USB plug) and it is semi reliable...

I would like to use USB-C one for syncing. Anyone know how to address this?

I ran into the same issue with my iPhone 12 Pro Max connecting to my MacBook Pro. Try the following to resolve the issue.

1.) Connect iPhone to the MacBook Pro (I used the old USB to Lighting cable, not USB-C)

2.) Open "Finder"

3.) On the left side under "Locations" select your iPhone

4.) Select "Trust" in Finder and on your iPhone (If you use a PIN it will ask you to input)

5.) Open "Music" on the MacBook Pro (You should now see your iPhone)

Regards,

IamALNB

Config:

iPhone: 12 Pro Max | Software: 14.3

MacBook Pro: MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015) | Software: macOS Big Sur Version 11.1

Cable: Old USB to Lightening (not USB-C)

It appears more and more people are experiencing issues even on MacOS. Anyone on PC follow my troubleshooting steps of using different USB ports? I'm able to charge, backup and sync music library without any issues now with any cable and adapter provided I use specific USB ports on the back of the motherboard.

Here in Italy there is a partial lockdown. In Rome, I had to wait a few weeks before I could take an appointment with the Apple Store, but it took 20 minutes for them to confirm the problem (which I detailed maniacally) and change my iPhone. I didn’t want to ship it for the same reason as yours, that’s why I waited and went to the store.

Try usb 3.1 and above.

I’m saying the lightening to USB-C cable doesn’t work for regular computers (not MacBooks) unless you use an adapter to utilize the USB-A port.

Thanks. Another Ryzen system. Anyone on an Intel system that is experiencing this issue? A majority of us seem to be running AMD systems. There was jlipscomb121 who also had a Ryzen system and it ended up working with his USB-C cable but I'm wondering if he/she had any sync issues.

Hi. Having the same issue. My laptop is a Macbook Pro Mid 2010 (USB 2).

I just had the iphone 12. Unable the use my old cable usb-a / lightning (that perfectly works for my iphone 5 and 6).

I purchased a usb-c femelle / usb-a male adaptor. After a lot (maybe 20) of unplug/plug, the phone was seen, started restore from backup, then disconected (5 times). Then pulling slightly the usb-a (1/2 mm), making a weird dance around the table, it held till the end of the restore process. Witch is not a very reliable (nor satisfying) solution for a brand new device.

Same thing when I tried to synchronized my music.

I guess I have to find a new dance, or Apple has to fix the bug.

i had the same issue. after talking to three tech people, i finally talked to an apple supervisor. you need to go into your finder and trust the device on your laptop if its a mac. it used to be in itunes but they changed all of that stuff to be in the finder. give that a try. my iphone 12 is now showing as a device! hope this helps.

Hi, same situation here. Though I use iOS 10.11.6 and itunes 12.8.3.2. As also described in other posts, looking at my iOS version and iTunes version, it should all work just fine. Plus everything happened just as described in the posts. I reinstalled iTunes, the software update came through on the iphone 12 mini, my Mac asks me to grant access, and after that iTunes should detect my phone. Only that never happened. In short, not finding a solution and wanting to use my new phone, I backed up my data to icloud and recovered it on the iPhone 12 mini. Interestingly, during the recovery process, on and off itunes would detect my iphone, the little grey square would appear in Itunes and I was even able to sync my playlists to the phone. However, once icloud back up recovery process had finalized, iTunes went back to the non-responsive state as before the iCloud recovery process. My impressions so far:

1. Other iOS 14 iPhones are detected on my mac by iTunes, one iphone 6s and one iphone 11. No issues there.
2. It seems iTunes can connect to my iphone, but the iPhone doesn't connect to iTunes (if Itunes was the issue, my guess is that the phone would have never connected)

All in all, quite disappointed.

The issue with iTunes not recognising the iPhone 12 Pro Max is frustrating, to say the least.

First off, this evening I plugged my 12 Pro Max into my 2013 Mac with an old Lightning to USB cable and turned off WiFi on the Mac to see what would happen. As soon as the hotspot link was established then a nondescript update immediately became available to download on the iPhone (and it wasn't 14.3 as I installed that a few days ago and I also rechecked before downloading this update) and it was a very small update and was installed on the iPhone with a few minutes.

There was never a problem with my iPhone 12 Pro Max connecting to the Mac, anyway. The real problem came when I plugged my iPhone into my PC, which is what I use for working from home.

I've also tried a USB C female to USB A male adaptor with an Apple USB C cable to connect the iPhone to the PC but that doesn't work either and also tested via every available USB port and I've got them all. The USB C port on my PC also doesn't work.

My brilliant plan was to purchase a new iPhone 12 Pro Max with 5G connection as a backup to my domestic broadband provider if, and when, my domestic internet goes down, then I simply tether my iPhone to pick up the slack. Should have been easy, but something's obviously not right.

The only available option, at the moment, is to tether iPhone to Mac and run ethernet cable to PC on a local network. A royal pain, if you ask me.

It's not about the cable. I have tried both with an iPhone X original cable, an iPhone 11 Pro Max original cable and the original cable in the box of my iPhone 12 Pro Max. It's either an hardware issue wih the dock connector on the new iPhone 12 serie OR some Apple-USB drivers need to be updated with a new iTunes version. Apple will either need to acknowledge this with a replacement program (like they did with the touch-screen problem on most iPhone X) or find another solution.

BobTheBuilder1984 note that if you could not make it work with an USB-A cable, you were facing a different problem.

USB-A cables work just fine. The problem occurs with USB-C (a.k.a. Type-C) cables from iPhone 11 Serie and iPhone 12.

In fact, with an USB-C cable you can sometimes see your iPhone, but when you try to work with it (i.e. open the files through the Windows File explorer) it will disconnect.

Interesting. Is your iTunes version 12.8.2.3? I tried a force reinstall of iTunes now, despite that already being the version I had.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to have fixed anything. However, I recently got iTunes to see my iPhone one time — no idea why, just one of those random things other people have mentioned. While I had a connection, I set iTunes to allow syncing over wifi, and that is now working fine and reliably, if slowly.

Don’t think you can restore the phone wirelessly though, so the search for a real solution continues. (Actually, that’s not true—I’ve given up thinking about it. Figure Apple will eventually quietly slip in an update to either iOS or iTunes that solves the problem…)

Factory new. Just checked every serial number of the mainboard. I wouldn't accept a refurbished iPhone.

If you ever need to check your SNs, you can use "3uTools" on Windows (free). I am not aware of any other software for OSX that can do the same checks.

Also you can check the Model number in "Settings->General->About" to see what kind of device you have.

The first character of the Model tells you if:

• M – Brand new device, meaning the device was purchased new
• F – Refurbished device, meaning the device has been through refurbishing process
• N – Replacement device, meaning the originally bought device was replaced by this model likely due to a service request
• P – Personalized device with engraving, meaning the device was customized with an engraving on purchase

I got an N, which just stands for a replacement device (which is fine), not a refurbished one.