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itunes on my mac no longer recognizes my Iphone to transfer music. It did until the last update to ios 17.1.1 on the phone. I have an older mac, but there had been no problem with Itunes.

I changed USB ports, and cables. Rebooted both my laptop, running OS X El Capitan, and my IPhone, running 17.1.1. My Iphone does not show up in ITunes, although it does in Photos, so I know the two are connected.

MacBook Pro 15″, OS X 10.11

Posted on Nov 11, 2023 6:42 PM

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Posted on Nov 17, 2023 1:32 PM

Same thing with me. I had absolutely no issues with the connectivity between iphone and my Black Cylinder running El Capitan until I upgraded to 17.1.1 on my iphone last night. After wasting an hour chatting with Apple folks my options were told I should just buy a new computer. I explained I am using quite a few older programs for my work that may not function with a newer operating system and since there was no problem, why chnage it. Now that Apple has messed up the pairing with their update I'm really in trouble.


Apple has really changed over the years and not for the better. I've been a customer since Apple began but I'm going to seriously look back into other options going forward as their support is terrible.

11 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Nov 17, 2023 1:32 PM in response to Daniel Casper

Same thing with me. I had absolutely no issues with the connectivity between iphone and my Black Cylinder running El Capitan until I upgraded to 17.1.1 on my iphone last night. After wasting an hour chatting with Apple folks my options were told I should just buy a new computer. I explained I am using quite a few older programs for my work that may not function with a newer operating system and since there was no problem, why chnage it. Now that Apple has messed up the pairing with their update I'm really in trouble.


Apple has really changed over the years and not for the better. I've been a customer since Apple began but I'm going to seriously look back into other options going forward as their support is terrible.

Dec 25, 2023 8:32 AM in response to 4thDuckman

Absolutely agree, 4thDuckman. I'm running High Sierra on a 2015 MacBook Pro, and since updating to iOS 17 the Mac no longer recognizes my iPhone SE (2nd gen) in iTunes. However, other programs like iExplorer and iMazing have no problem recognizing the phone. I just can't do what I need to do in anything except iTunes. Obviously, the iOS 17 "upgrade" broke something in iTunes connectivity. I'd revert the phone to iOS 16 if Apple would let me, but of course they won't. After two chat sessions with Apple Support, the bottom-line "solutions" were to take the phone and MacBook to a Genius Bar 60 miles away or to upgrade macOS, which would break a lot of software I depend on that isn't upgradable. Catch-22. Thanks a lot, Apple.

Feb 7, 2024 9:44 AM in response to Daniel Casper

Here's what worked for me. Thanks to Josh on the Ask Different forum at stackexchange.com.


Go to https://developer.apple.com/account and create an account if you don't already have one.


Then go to https://download.developer.apple.com/Developer_Tools/Xcode_15/Xcode_15.xip and download the .xip file. It will take awhile.


You won't be able to install it on an older macOS, but right-click it and choose "Show package contents."


In Contents, navigate to /Contents/Resources/Packages/MobileDevice.pkg. Double-click the .pkg, and its installer will launch. Go ahead and install. No restart needed after installation.


Now launch iTunes and connect your iPhone. iTunes should recognize it.


Nov 17, 2023 10:32 AM in response to Daniel Casper

I've seen people say that the requirements for a Mac to manage an iPhone depend more on the version of iOS on the phone, than on the hardware model of the phone.


With that in mind, compare the Technical Specifications for an iPhone-14-family phone and an iPhone-15-family phone.


  • A 14-family phone, which shipped with iOS 16, could be managed by a Mac running El Capitan or Sierra.
  • A 15-family phone, which shipped with iOS 17, cannot be.


System requirements for iCloud - Apple Support


El Capitan is recent enough to participate in iCloud Drive and iCloud Photos, but I think that it isn't recent enough to manage an iPhone running iOS 17. For that, I think you need at least High Sierra, possibly in combination with some new version of iTunes that doesn't seem to be posted in the places where you would expect it to be.

Dec 19, 2023 12:17 PM in response to AutoWorld54

I get the same error message as AutoWorld54. Looks like Apple took the server offline that was intended to supply the updates.


I was using a 32GB iPhone SE 1st gen until recently. Because my ~20-year-old iTunes library was too big to fit, I never bothered to sync it. I had the misfortune to upgrade iPhones into iOS 17.x (as opposed to installing an update). But now I can't get the music (with playlists) into my newer 512GB iPhone!


iMazing (third party app) is a partial solution because you can copy over your iTunes Music folder — but their support recently confirmed for me that iMazing does not transfer playlists. (Sad because they have an In-Depth Tutorial with a screen shot that clearly shows the playlists intact but either the support document is out of date or intentionally misleading to sell more iMazing licenses!)


I will be happy to be corrected if I am wrong, but I am going to guess there isn't an alternative to iTunes/iPhone sync in the App Store since Apple also has made it essentially impossible to download prior versions of software. (For me, at least, using the App Store under High Sierra results in a dialog offering to download older versions of purchased apps only for nothing to happen. No older *anything* is linked up in the App Store anymore. So my secondary tip is, if you buy something and install it, do not delete the installer after it downloads because you may never see it again!)


Can anybody recommend a third-party app that will also grab playlists?

itunes on my mac no longer recognizes my Iphone to transfer music. It did until the last update to ios 17.1.1 on the phone. I have an older mac, but there had been no problem with Itunes.

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