Unable to sync my iphone with itunes over wi-fi

Same here. I have started and re-started itunes, iphone, and computer numerous times. I have even uninstalled itunes and re-installed it with no luck. I've turned off the Windows firewall and have even tried plugging my iphone into different outlets. Nothing has worked to fix this problem. I have an iphone 3gs with ios 5, itunes 10.5, and windows 7 running. I don't know what else to do. I'm about ready to give up on it working at all even though this was the main reason I wanted to upgrade to the ios 5.

Right everyone, now I've been stuck on this very same problem since I updated to iOS 5 and iTunes 10.5.

My iTunes updated fine and it took 3 attempts to update my 16gb 3gs to iOS 5 but once I had got that I could do everything but wifi sync. All the relevant boxes were checked and I synced the phone before disconnecting the USB and the phone would disappear from the device menu in iTunes. I then realised my firewall (AVG 9) was blocking the wifi sync. I turned my firewall off temporarily, then set iTunes up so it backed the iPhone up to this computer (not to iCloud) then checked the box for sync over wifi and hit apply in bottom right then sync after that.

Once it synced I closed iTunes and reopened, and once the iPhone appeared in the devices list I unplugged the USB cable, JACKPOT the phone still showed up and I could now sync without being plugged in, even to a power source!! YES COMPLETELY WIRELESS!!!! I then plugged into my charger and it automatically synced while iTunes was still open. I then synced over and over just to be sure and then reactivated my firewall and voila it all still works with the firewall activated!!!!

And thats how I overcame this little fault/glitch!!!

I hope this might help some of you sort out this problem for you, unfortunately I don't have any other idevices such as iPod or iPad or AppleTV so I don't know if this will work in all cases but I hope it might be of some use!!!!

Hey all, ignore my last post as I have now restarted my laptop and it has now all stopped working again and I cannot be bothered with it all now!! It's just F*&?ing me off!!! Stupid thing, when someone finds a definitive solution please let me know cheers!!!

This started working for me after I re-booted my laptop. I synced the phone while on USB and had the 'sync over wi-fi' option selected. Then re-started itunes a few times, and then rebooted the laptop and restarted itunes again, and now the phone appears in itunes even if it's not connected with the USB cable. And I can go into settings and select Sync Now even if it's not plugged in to charge.

Just had your reply stuartee come through on my phone,but wife had my laptop, but when she finished and gave it to me it opened up itunes all on it's own, she did not open it, and low and behold my iphone was there on the device list and my phone was in my hand and not even on charge. I hit sync in wifi sync settings on phone and bam it synced. How strange it just connected itself and started working!!! So for now problem solved! Maybe what I did earlier as in my earlier post had worked and set it up correctly!!! WEIRD HEY!!!!

Strange. Seems like if you have wifi sync problem - just wait, and it will solve itself )))

(delete me)

I think some people in here are misguided by the fact that itunes and ios at the moment are simply buggy in terms of wifi sync. It just doesn't work. Period. I restarted yesterday, and all of a sudden it worked without me having done anything, and having restarted before when it didn't work. Then today, it stopped working. Some people in here do something and then think it was what fixed their issue when in reality it would have worked all by itself anyway. I am waiting for an update of itunes or ios and won't bother with this until the update is out to check if that fixed my problem. I advise you guys do the same, anything else is just a waste of time at this point.

In my case (iPhone 4, iOS 5.0, iTunes 10, Mac OS X Lion, Airport Wireless Router) I found that turning off my WiFi network adapter on my laptop and turning it back on made iTunes recognize the iPhone over WiFi. I didn't have to restart iTunes, it happened to be open when I did this and the phone showed up under Devices automatically.

So don't restart your laptop, just your network interface.

And all that said...

This is clearly buggy. I think (though I'm not certain) that the technology relies on computer names rather than computer IPs to find the host iTunes laptop. This makes sense - IPs are dynamic usually, leases expire - but I think it needs to be a little more sophisticated that how it currently works.

I have tried all the fixes listed on this post and one other. I am using itunes 10.5, windows 7 w/windows firewall, and an iphone 3gs. I tried your suggestion of disabling and enabling the network adapter and that didn't fix the issue of my itunes recognizing my iphone over wi-fi. It works okay when plugged in. But I've noticed that itunes opened slows my computer waaay down and seems to freeze constantly. I also can't back up my iphone onto my computer b/c I get the error message that either the file is corrupt or it's the wrong version. Could you tell me if there is a way that I can go back to the older version of the ios and try re-installing the ios 5 on my iphone again. I've tried uninstalling and re-installing itunes and I've tried restoring my iphone through itunes with no luck. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

You can restore your phone to a blank iOS 5 slate. Go to http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1414 and exapand the "Restore your iOS device" section for the steps.

However, I don't think a restore of the software is going to make the WiFI sync feature work better. Clearly the feature is bugged. At times, even when the phone can be seen under Devices in iTunes, the sync itself fails (never gets past step 1 of the sync process).

The idea is nice, but I think it's simply un-Apple like at the moment.

Windows firewall most likely is preventing you from syncing your iPhone with iTunes.

I had this issue of not syncing over wi-fi & i have fixed this. Below were my devices,

1. Windows XP Laptop

2.ipad 2 with ios5.

Below are the steps to ensure wi-fi sync works.

1. Connect your iPhone/iPad with USB cable to Computer where itunes installed.

2. Click on the "device" icon in itunes, & in "Summary" Page, ensure you have enabled the option "Sync Over Wifi My Ipad / iphone"

3. Disconnect the Cable,

You should be still able to see your ipad in itunes, if not, follow the below steps

4. Enable Upnp in your computer.

5. This link, will tell you, how to enable upnp in windows machine. --> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/941206

6. Restart your Computer

7. Ensure SSDP service is running in Automatic mode.

8. You should also ensure upnp is supported in your ADSL or Wi-Fi router.

9. IN your router, under LAN settings (Advanced), there will be option of Upnp, enable this. Even if it is enabled, disable & enable it. Restart the router once.

9a. The Upnp & SSDP would take 10 minutes to discover the device. Have Patience at times 🙂.

Open iTunes & Power on your ipad, you should be able to see the ipad in itunes now. if not,

10. Close your itunes & power off ipad.

11. Restart the service called "Apple Mobile Device",

Open iTunes & Power on your ipad, you should be able to see the ipad in itunes now, if not.

12. Disable Firewall & IPS in your Network Connections. Disable built-in Firewall & IPS in Virus Softwares. Ensure TCP ports 123 and 3689, as well as UDP ports 123 and 5353 are allowed. Refer to this link for more inputs --> http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4062.

13. Close your itunes & power off ipad.

14. Restart the service called "Apple Mobile Device",

Open iTunes & Power on your ipad.

This should be working now for sure shot. 🙂. I bet.

Thank you! Yes! Finally I can sync wirelessly.

Tried and checked everything mentioned above. Finally, decided to restart the computer. IT WORKED.