iTunes 12.13.3.2 Crashing During iPhone 14 Restore on Windows 11 Pro

Yes, the version in the Microsoft Store didn't work for me, or for (at least some) others, but the version from Apple - see janfromfarum's post - does ... at least for us. We may hope it will continue to do so.

I created an account just so I could say THANK YOU to the heroes who helped solve this problem for me. I hadn't backed up my photos in over 6 months & was terrified I'd lost them when the update crashed iTunes. (Also, to the grumps saying "just update on your device"--sometimes life happens & your phone gets too full to download the new iOS so you turn to the on-the-computer option that used to work just fine!!)

A couple additional snags I had to troubleshoot (in collaboration with my spouse) that I thought I'd share just in case:

• You have to uninstall all Apple products (including Bonjour) before you download Apple Devices. If you don't, the update will fail even if you uninstall later
• Any time the restore fails, it'll create a ~3GB+ junk file in the update folder, & if you don't clear those out it'll fill up your computer memory & create a whole new problem (& fail point)
• Also--as a user below noted--the restore really does take forever. Mine was running for at least 90 minutes before I went to bed. And there's no status bar or anything that shows it's working. But if it fails, it'll fail within ~15 minutes, so if it's been longer than that & it hasn't thrown an error message, you should be good
• If you (like me) are a doofus who forgets your Apple password, the restore will be incomplete until you're signed back in--no apps (just native ones like email, text, podcasts for some reason), no keyboard shortcuts, & no stickers. But that stuff will come back once you're logged back in

This was one of the worst tech nightmares of my life & could've been SO MUCH WORSE without those who shared this fix, so thank you all!

Thanks, iTunes was not seeing my iPhone & uninstalling Apple TV fixed it.

I just turned off Find my Phone and tried to Sync and it worked perfectly.

Note, do not forget to turn on Find my phone after you sync / Back up.

In addition to the helpful solutions posed, I do want to add that if your phone is caught updating with the progress bar frozen, you will need to hard restart your phone in order to then get it to be able to respond to the new iTunes installation.

Hello, your help is sensational, this a version is functional in Windows 11. Others versions acquired problems. I spend 4 hours in other versions and bugged my iphone and itunes. Thank You for solution!!!

• iTunes Version: 12.13.4.4
• Size: 202 MB
• OS: Windows 11 Pro (64-bit)
• iPhone Model: iPhone 13
• iOS Version: iOS 18.3.1

An update on my earlier experience ...

I passed on iOS 18.2.1 and 18.3.0 - no particular benefit for iPhone 13 users was evident - but it seemed wise to take iOS 18.3.1.

My iTunes (Apple-flavour - see janfromfarum's post) offered me an update; I had v12.13.4.4 , and, er, v12.13.4 appeared in the update window. However, I took it, and at the end of that (problem-free) update, I had v12.13.5.3 .

(So much for the oft-repeated assertion that Apple is no longer offering updates for iTunes ...)

With that update complete, I restarted my PC (to be sure of the installation), re-opened iTunes, confirmed the new version, and then attached my iPhone 13 mini.

As before, I declined the immediate offer of the iPhone update, which allowed the device to backup to, and sync with, my PC (Windows 11 Home).

When that process was complete, I started the download and installation the iOS 18.3.1 update - and it was then that I remembered that I was not running in Administrator mode ..!

Of course, I was anxious all the way through the rest of the update, closely watching both the 'phone and the PC. However, I needn't have worried. Everything went flawlessly, and so I am now running iOS 18.3.1 (22D72).

But I wouldn't be here were it not for janfromfarum, who enabled me to save everything in the move to iOS 18.2 - many thanks again!

More info from Windows event log

Faulting application name: iTunes.exe, version: 12.13.3.2, time stamp: 0x66c647fd

Faulting module name: objc.dll, version: 1.528.1.494, time stamp: 0x66aa88f3

Exception code: 0xc0000005

Fault offset: 0x0000000000025292

Faulting process id: 0x40E4

Faulting application start time: 0x1DB1770DB565A17

Faulting application path: C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\AppleInc.iTunes_12133.2.3006.0_x64__nzyj5cx40ttqa\iTunes.exe

Faulting module path: C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\AppleInc.iTunes_12133.2.3006.0_x64__nzyj5cx40ttqa\objc.dll

Report Id: c4c80585-906b-41a7-b8a0-46ccdb45db50

Faulting package full name: AppleInc.iTunes_12133.2.3006.0_x64__nzyj5cx40ttqa

Faulting package-relative application ID: iTunes

Thanks for the steps! I have never used Apple Devices, so that was a big help. However, as part of the failed update, Apple iTunes did not create a backup somehow and I had to restore from a backup 6 months ago and lost a whole vacation worth of photos. Usually, I manually backup before an update, but somehow I skipped this part. (I also normally download photos after a trip, but got lazy.) And then it took over an hour to get my phone back to normal. Thanks Apple for a terrible app and unrecoverable loss of photos/data. Apple stuff used to "just work", but that is no longer the case.

The answer is that you should always manually backup your phone before an update and NEVER try to update through iTunes. Also, don't get lazy.

psikofunkster wrote:

If you want a good suggestion: Forget about all related apple for windows. If you have an Apple device don't plug it to a Windows machine cause it freezes the device if you want to update. Use only the device to perform restorations.

You don't need to plug your iPhone or iPad into a computer to update it.

Update your iPhone or iPad - Apple Support

I would add to that list iCloud for Windows. I installed it and didn't do anything with it, but my woes with iTunes began after that install.

I wish we could get this information out in a way that people wouldn't need to already have the problem to know this.

These exact steps worked for me. I was able to get my phone functioning again by using only the update option, eliminating the need for a full restore.

Thank you for this. I had this same issue with the latest iTunes through Windows App Store when updating to iOS 18.2. Without this I’d have a bricked phone and Apple Support including Tech support has no idea.

With installing iTunes directly from Apple and not through Windows App Store I'm now getting a Local Security Authority protection warning with regards to Bonjour. If its not one thing it is another. Looked online but not really clear if this is an issue I need to worry about or if I can uninstall Bonjour and not impact iTunes.

I suspect the 'restore backup' button was greyed out due to iTunes treating the restored iPhone as a new device and it had no way of connecting the backup file to your device. I had the same experience and will attempt to restore from Apple Devices as well.