How to resolve "The selected device could not be found" message after connecting ipad Air 4 running iOS 14.3 to a iMac with Big Sur 11.1? The ipad is visible in the finder and sidebar.

Thanks for checking back.

The article was helpful in the sense that using a differnt computer with a different OS (Catalina) was successful. It's not the computer I want to back up on, but it at least let me change some settings that are inaccessible on the iPad itself.....and it makes me more confident the iPad is okay and my iMac with Big Sur is the problem.

So my next step will be to work on the iMac.

Thanks for checking on that. Luckily the iPad appears in the finder in Big Sur no problem in terms of a listing on the left hand shortcuts column where my iPhone shows up etc.

The trouble is when I try to select it, it acts like it is loading the data and about to display it, on the right, such as space available and version number of iOS etc.

But it never loads those particulars.

And then eventually instead of loading those details and displaying them in the Finder on the right it says “The selected device could not be found.”

While at the same time the device is still showing up in the Finder on the left. But none of the details show up and just that error message is there.

I swapped cables and usb jacks. And any other iOS device in the house shows up find with all the details present.