iphone not recognized by Windows 7

Like some of the people above, I didn't have the problematic Registry Entry. After some searching, I found this article. It is one of the best articles on how to fix this annoying problem (obviously Microsoft's idea of messing with Apple).

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1538

Note: Windows 7 Enterprise 64bit. iphone 4S. iTunes 10.6.3.25

While it didn't exactly describe how to fix my issue, it helped point me in the right direction. Here is what did to fix my issue.

1. Open up Device Manager

2. Portable Devices > Apple iPhone (in my case had an exclamation point on it)

3. Uninstall the driver.

4. Right click on the the computer in Device Manger and scan for hardware changes.

5. Go back to Portable Devices. If this works for you, the Apple iPhone icon should not have any exclamation points any longer and it will be accessible via My Computer.

Good Luck.

Did you ever get an answer or resolution for your issue:

MikeyV1 Dec 24, 2013 8:54 PM
Re: iphone not recognized by Windows 7 in response to jamesfrompalos verdes peninsula

I've been having the same problem except with my iPhone 4S. I tried the advice from Navigato, auto-Xr, and Vanzelot, and srikar-c to no avail. Any other suggestions? iTunes recognizes my iPhone, but it won't show up under My Computer, meaning that I can't get pics of my phone. Any help is greatly appreciated!!!

=====================================

I'm having a similar issue myself. I'm running a Windows 7 laptop with iTunes 12.2.1.16 and an iPhone 6.

At first, iTunes recognized the phone but I could not see the phone in My Computer to import photos from the phone. I found some help on this thread:

iPhone, iPad, or iPod not recognized in iTunes for Windows - Apple Support

Currently I have the Device Manager set to a USB Controller Device for the iPhone. This allows iTunes to see it and transfer music, books, etc. from iTunes to the phone. It also allows me to do backups, etc. and transfer any iPhone purchases to my PC. But, I cannot see it at all in My Computer so there is no way for me to access the iPhone photos to download and import them to my PC.

So then I did this to see if I could see the phone in My Computer to download photos:

While phone is plugged in

Go to Device Manager (via Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Device Manger (under Devices and Printers)

Locate iPhone under USB Controllers

Right click > Uninstall drivers

Warning comes up

Unplug phone

then click Delete driver software for this device > OK

Wait, then plug phone back in, it installs software but sets it up as a Portable Device.

This allows me to see the phone in My Computer and to download my iPhone pics to the computer.

Now it will see the phone in My Computer and I can import photos and/or copy them directly from the DCIM folder on my phone. Hunky dory, right? Except no. Now that the computer considers it to be a "Portable Device" instead of a USB device based on the drivers, now my iTunes cannot recognize the phone. Also, the autoplay function to import photos is not working regardless of whether the iPhone is set up as a Portable Device with drivers in Device Manager or a USB Controller device in Device Manager. Neither one will run the Autoplay import of photos which is annoying. I never had problems with my old iPhone 3G. I have since updated my iTunes a couple of times but I don't think I've ever been able to import photos properly.

Anyway, I took off all my photos using the Portable Device driver setting because I'm dreading the photos getting lost if the phone ever gets stolen or busted. But, since I can't then see the phone in iTunes, I followed the advice as follows to "fix" the drivers to be USB drivers so that iTunes could see it again.

Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Windows 8

1. Right-click the Apple iPhone, Apple iPad, or Apple iPod entry in Device Manager and choose Update Driver from the shortcut menu.
2. Click "Browse my computer for driver software".
3. Click "Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer".
4. Click the Have Disk button. (If the Have Disk option is not present, choose a device category such as Mobile Phone or Storage Device if listed, and click next. The Have Disk button should then appear.)
5. In the "Install from Disk" dialog, click the Browse button.
6. Use this window to navigate to the following folder:
   C:\Program Files\Common Files\Apple\Mobile Device Support\Drivers.
7. Double-click the "usbaapl" file. (This file will be called "usbaapl64" if you have a 64-bit version of Windows. If you don't see "usbaapl64" here, or if there is no Drivers folder, look in C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Apple\Mobile Device Support\Drivers. instead).
8. Click OK in the "Install from Disk" dialog.
9. Click Next and finish the driver-installation steps. Open iTunes to verify that the device is recognized properly.

And voila, iTunes can once again see it... and once again I'm left with no access on My Computer to the phone to get any pictures from the phone imported to the PC. Hilarious fun! (not). It reverts back to being a USB Controller device instead of a Portable Device, and the Portable Device seems to be the only setting my computer recognizes in My Computer.

Using the USB setting, I've tried the same cable on both a 2.0 and 3.0 USB port and no difference. iTunes is happy. My Computer is not. Am I doomed to spend the rest of my life switching the drivers back and forth between Portable Device (photos can be imported) and USB Device (iTunes works) to do backups of the phone and music transfers then to the other driver to get photos, then back again? Seems kind of ridiculous. Am also going to try another cable to see if that helps since it helped some of you. But seriously, anyone solved this conflict/issue permanently? I'm not willing to mess with registry files nor re-install my Windows O/S. That seems overkill.

Any help would be much appreciated!

Did you look at these two yet?

• HT201413: Resolve issues between iTunes and third-party security software - Apple Support
• HT203188: Restart the Apple Mobile Device Service (AMDS) on Windows - Apple Support

tt2

I had the same iss - it's a known issue whereby Windows attempts to use the wrong driver to access the phone.

BACK UP YOUR REGISTRY!!! Editing the registry can be (read: IS) dangerous and can cause no end of pain if done incorrectly.

- To Back Up your Registry: Click Start menu and click "Run". Type "regedit". Click File, then choose export and type "iphone driver fix registry backup".

- Click Export and let it export the the registry to a file.

- To fix the issue: Follow the folder tree on the left to: hkeylocalmachine > system > current control set > control > class

- Find “{EEC5AD98-8080-425F-922A-DABF3DE3F69A}” down the LEFT hand side and click on it.

- Under the list on the RIGHT hand side find "UpperFilters"

- Right-Click UpperFilters and click delete

- Close the registry editor and restart your PC (without the iphone attached).

- Once restarted and logged back in, plug in your iphone and voila! Windows will actually choose the correct driver and you'll be in like flynn.

This problem is very simple to solve. NO UNINSTALLATION REQUIRED.

If your experiencing with this problem, please follow the steps below:

1. Completely Turn-OFF your Apple Device (iphone, ipod touch or ipad)

2. Connect your Apple device to your windows PC or laptop USB.

3. Once it is connected, your apple device will turn-ON automatically.

4. Once it is ON, Enter your password or if you have. You will notice "Installation of driver" at the right side of your task bar. (icons located below at the right side of your monitor near the clock)

5. While it is installing, wait for the Notice "Failed Installing the driver".

6. Do not close the message.

7. Right click My Computer and click Manage. Click Device Manager and right click "Universal Serial Bus Controllers" then click Scan for hardware Changes"

8. After that, you will notice, windows will again "Install the driver".

9. Driver Installation Successful.

10. Right now, you can open and view your pictures from your Apple device in your computer.

Note: The good thing of this solution is you can apply it in any windows OS computer where you get an error or problem once you connect your Apple device in it.

I hope this will help.

Message was edited by: Vanzelot

Hello I have an iphone 5 with a windows 7 64bit pc,

When I plug in my iphone it cannot recognize it and brings up the error of MTB USB device error,

so I've tried uninstalling and re installing itunes 11 ( the latest one )

and I've tried right clicking on device manager and uninstalling and re installing as well as trying to update.

I have also tried the regedit option but i didn't have the Upper Filters option.

Also tried to find a driver on the windows site itself and yet nothing 😟

Please can some kind soul help me....

thanks😕

iPhone 5 with Windows 7 same issue, "USB error" and would not recognize device. Reinstlled Windows, after that installed and re-installed iTunes. spent a day trying to fix. walked down the hall to a co-worker and borrowed her lightning cable - voila! problem fixed. please, please try swapping your cable to fix "USB Not Recognized" errors before you try anything else!

Got SUCCESS following the below method : (just put it step wise what i did)

Hope it will work !!! (If it works, please like my reply)

..::STEPS::..

1) Click Windows Start/Home button

2) Type "devmgmt.msc" at the search (without quotes) textbox. Or go to device manager from control panel Or Right-Click on My Computer>Properties, Choose "Device Manager" from the left pane..

3) Expand "Universal Serial Bus Controller".

4) While iphone is connected, click the unknown device.

5) Right click the same and click on Update Driver Software

6) Click the second option "Browse my computer for driver software".

7) Click on "Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer"

8) Click on "Have Disk" button.

9) Browse to the the path "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Apple\Mobile Device Support\Drivers"

10) Select "usbaapl.inf"

11) Now select "Apple Mobile Device USB Driver" under list of hardware model section.

12) It will add "Apple Mobile Device USB Driver" under "Universal Serial Bus Controller"

13) Restart your computer.

Thanks

Srikar

I know. I did it too many times already. I invited you to take a closer look over my problem because I can see you as a trusted user here and because I've reached a point where I can't see any solution to my problem. I now try to show you the steps I follow and what I get in the process.

First when I connect the phone it looks like my computer discovers the device as MTP USB Device, but i can't see it on iTunes. That's why I go and try to update the driver manually.

Next step is to update the driver manually (usbaapl64):

But in the following picture you can see the error I get everytime I press next:

And as you can see it also moves to Universal Serial Bus controllers as Apple Mobile Device USB Driver but it has the '!' mark and still not found in iTunes...

1. Unplug your device and keep it unplugged during the whole procedure

2. Close all open programs

3. Completely uninstall iTunes and related Apple software by following these instructions

4. Reboot your computer

5. Download the latest version of iTunes and install it. If you do not want to install iTunes, use this to install the iOS drivers without installing iTunes

6. Connect the iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch to the computer

7. That’s it!

auto-xr Aug 3, 2012 5:55 PM Re: iphone not recognized by Windows 7

Re: iphone not recognized by Windows 7 in response to jamesfrompalos verdes peninsula

Like some of the people above, I didn't have the problematic Registry Entry. After some searching, I found this article. It is one of the best articles on how to fix this annoying problem (obviously Microsoft's idea of messing with Apple).

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1538

Note: Windows 7 Enterprise 64bit. iphone 4S. iTunes 10.6.3.25

While it didn't exactly describe how to fix my issue, it helped point me in the right direction. Here is what did to fix my issue.

1. Open up Device Manager

2. Portable Devices > Apple iPhone (in my case had an exclamation point on it)

3. Uninstall the driver.

4. Right click on the the computer in Device Manger and scan for hardware changes.

5. Go back to Portable Devices. If this works for you, the Apple iPhone icon should not have any exclamation points any longer and it will be accessible via My Computer.

Good Luck.

This worked great for me thank you so much.

Perhaps this section then?

If the above steps have not resolved things see the advice in the Removing and reinstalling iTunes and other software components section of Troubleshooting issues with iTunes for Windows updates.

tt2

This worked for me:

• Right-click on "This PC" or "My Computer" and select "Manage". This will bring up the Computer Management windows.
• Now, click on "Device Manager" and then expand "Portable Devices"
• Right click on "Apple iPhone" and/or "Apple iPad" (make sure at least one of these are plugged in) and select "Update Driver Software"
• Select "Browse my computer for driver software"
• Copy/Paste this path into the "Search for drivers software in this location" field:
• C:\Program Files\Common Files\Apple\Mobile Device Support
• Now hit "Next", and you should be done!

iTunes should now see your Apple iPhone or iPad.

I have the same problem in windows 7 ultimate 64bit. Not only my iPhone 4 but also a digital camera (Canon EOS) give following messages when I connect them to my pc's USB port:

"installing device driver software", immediately followed by "device driver software was not successfully installed"

Under device manager - portable devices there is an entry " ! iPhone" with a yellow exclamation mark. Double clicking it gives "Reinstall the drivers for this device (Code 18)". When I click the button labelled "reinstall drivers" and search for online drivers I get "the best driver software for your device is already installed" for "MTP USB Device". When I click uninstall drivers button and scan for hardware changes I get same error and this time "This device is not configured correctly (Code 1)"

Complete format and reinstall of windows solved the problem for me!

Since I was not sure whether this would solve the problem I first created a full disk image of my main C: drive so that I could always return to the present state of my pc. Saved the image on external usb hard drive.

Then rebooted the pc with the windows cd in the drive. Deleted the partition, created a new one and then installed windows 7 ultimate 64bit from scratch. After successful install I connected my iphone and now it appears correctly in windows explorer under my computer. Same for my canon camera.

Spent a week reinstalling all my software and until now still works fine, as well as itunes and wifi sync and sh1t.

Maybe user error by using registry cleaners or other cleanup and performance tools, or maybe a bug after a certain windows update, I don't know.