"This iPhone is Open in Another Window" error

I had the same problem with an old iPod Nano 2nd Generation. It was recognised by any Mac. I reset it but in Music it was shown as being open in another window. I followed someones reply to click on iTunes store then click on iPod and it worked.

anotherjoshua wrote:

How hard is it for Apple engineers to solve this? Seriously?

There is nothing for Apple engineers to fix, it is working as designed. The iPhone IS open in another window, Finder, specifically, and it is open there because you didn’t close it the last time you synced or backed up your phone. Just relaunch Finder from the Force Quit window.

This is not correct. In your case the Finder works. In my case the Finder is usually blank or the spinning ball of death.

If I continuously reboot both devices I eventually get lucky and can see the iPhone in Finder. The next thing it gets stuck on is the “reading photo library” step which, so far after hours of trying, I still cannot get past.

My theory is that the photos app and the music app both cannot handle large numbers of files (even the phones and Macs of decades ago easily could).

It is absolutely correct. You need to Force Quit Finder. You do that by COMMAND+OPTION+ESC or choose Force Quit on the Menu, click on Finder, and click Relaunch. This will kill Finder, and release the iPhone window.

Your theory is not correct. It is because when the iPhone is connected to Finder it cannot also be connected to Music (or Photos).

Guys…what you are describing is how it has been designed to work and how it probably does work for 99,999/100,000 people but the reason people like me are on google and eventually this thread is that it is NOT working the way it was designed.

it’s kind of silly to say “it works for me”. It works for almost everyone. But it is not working for the people here looking for answers. That’s why we are here..!!

a really useful answer would go like “I had the same problem and this is what I did to fix it”

You might be on to something…but I’ve tried Finder both with the Photos app open and closed. Mine hangs up on the sync photos stage now (after rebooting a few times and finally getting a response from Finder)

Yes, that is it, they apparently turned the phone into an external drive of sorts, so it shows up like a drive would. It would have saved everyone a lot of time if they error message read "This iPhone is Open in Another Window located in Finder as a drive location" or something like that, some sort of direction as to where.

Yes! Awesomeness! Your last workaround totally worked the first time around. I noticed a couple of weeks ago after downloaded the latest update to my OS on my iMac that a ginormous playlist that took me about 2 and a half months to compile was . . . off. I finally got around to investigating it and dead ended at the stupid "iphone is open in another window" error. Thanks SO much for this!

I just ran into this problem as well. Re launching the finder didn't work at all but I did find that I could sometimes, not every time, get the phone to load and be able to drag and drop files to my phone by selecting between different views like recent, album or artist until the phone showed up and was stable enough to move files to.

I have found Music to be the buggiest, fidgety, broken app I have ever used. It probably fails me about 30% of the time. I wish they would do something to fix it. Just the worst.

Just another instance of how Apple quality has gone down since Steve Jobs passing. Just recently read an article about a vulnerability in Apple silicon chips that Apple has known about and has kept quite about. As I shop for a new laptop to purchase in the future I am looking at Apple alternatives.

Yes, whew, my iTunes was looking at iTunes Store. I clicked on (My) Your Library, and could then see all the music on my iPhone. Silly little thing. Never experienced this hangup before. Thank you for the helpful suggestion (and this Forum).

The second option you shared worked so quickly and easily!! Thanks!!

Apple does tell you this, both in the iOS manual and the Knowledge Base→Sync your iPhone, iPad, or iPod using your computer - Apple Support - see If you're using macOS Catalina or later

Sounds like a good idea, but the best place to suggest something to Apple is here→Product Feedback - Apple

This is a user-to-user forum, with minimal Apple participation. 

perfect...your solution worked and was super easy..thank you!