Greyed out "Sync now" button on iPhone 4 and iPad 2 won't let me synch to iTunes.

iTunes must be left open on the computer for the "Sync to WiFi" to work.

Firewall is what caused this feature to fail for me, too.

i tried restarting the APPLE MOBILE DEVICE service in services

i'm on windows 7, 32 bit

this solved my problem

hope this helps others too..

What is this "APPLE MOBILE DEVICE service". Where is it? In Windows 7 or iTunes or iPad Settings?

Search for "SERVICES" in the windows start pane and in SERVICES, look for APPLE MOBILE SERVICES, right click on it and select "restart". After about a min iTunes found my iphone 4S automatically which was connected to the power source and to the same wifi network.

And the greyed out SYNC NOW button on iphone was back on.

Thanks for posting that info. Fixed my issue too.

Got it. Hasan, Thanks. However, I notice sometimes I can disconnect and reconnect the network from my iPad to solve this problem similar to your method.

If I get my Wifi-sync to work properly, I also noticed that if I Sync from my iPad, I normally have no problem. But if I do it from iTunes, I often see iTunes tried to find iPad but failed (even though my iPad is not asleep and is connected to power). This happens less than half the time but it does annoy me with its inconsistency.

I often get that error in iTunes when I've plugged my iPhone in somewhere else in the room. Generally the only way I can get it to sync is to plug it directly into my laptop and manually sync it, even though in theory it should be automatically syncing.

Worked for me!

Windows 7 x64 running all updates to date!

Thanks

THanks, Thomas! Ive tried everything else. Nothing else worked for me. This worked like a charm! I'm a happy camper now.

sj04736

Re: Greyed out "Sync now" button on iPhone 4 and iPad 2 won't let me synch to iTunes.

Oct 17, 2011 5:03 PM (in response to ericfromglenview)

Try this, it worked for me after nothing else here would:

Open the windows firewall settings, and look if "SyncServer.exe" is allowed. I'm gonna guess it isn't even listed 😝

Instructions (Windows 7 x64 - Vista is probably similar):

Open "Control Panel"

Select "Windows Firewall"

Click "Allow a program or feature through Windows Firewall"

Look for "SyncServer" in the list. It won't be there.

Click "Change Settings" then "Allow another program"

Click "Browse..."

Find "C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Apple\Mobile Device Support\SyncServer.exe"

Restart iTunes and your iPod/Phone/Pad should appear in iTunes even when disconnected. If not, try rebooting to make sure everything is reloaded properly.

This solved the issue for me. I use AVG Internet Security and added the exception, restarted iTunes, and poof it worked!

Thanks so much!

sj04736 wrote:

Try this, it worked for me after nothing else here would:

Open the windows firewall settings, and look if "SyncServer.exe" is allowed. I'm gonna guess it isn't even listed 😝

Instructions (Windows 7 x64 - Vista is probably similar):

Open "Control Panel"

Select "Windows Firewall"

Click "Allow a program or feature through Windows Firewall"

Look for "SyncServer" in the list. It won't be there.

Click "Change Settings" then "Allow another program"

Click "Browse..."

Find "C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Apple\Mobile Device Support\SyncServer.exe"

Restart iTunes and your iPod/Phone/Pad should appear in iTunes even when disconnected. If not, try rebooting to make sure everything is reloaded properly.

In addition to rebooting my router, this worked for me, too. Thanks!

This worked for me too!

Win 7 64bit

AVG AV and Firewall

Thanks!

Had a similar issue after moving my devices from one computer to another. My iPad would sync wirelessly with no problem, but my iPhone had the 'Sync now' button greyed out, and it was also displaying my old computers name instead of the new one.

For me at least the fix was a simple one having connect the iPhone to the computer and making sure all the correct boxes were ticked on the summery page of iTunes. I found however that in the Apps page, the tick box for 'Automatically sync new apps' was not ticked, thus preventing the iPhone from updating. Ticking this box and tapping the sync button on the same page got everything turning and burning, my iPhone immediately started syncing, and the correct information was displayed on the Wi-fi sync page complete with black letters on the sync button - result!

Hope this helps someone! 😉