iTunes could not backup iPhone because the iPhone disconnected

As an update, I swapped out my Belkin hub for a new one (CyberPower?) and no more errors. Even moved my scanner back to the hub, and have had no more issues.

Too bad there wasn't a more clear indication that the hub was failing (or had already failed). Or perhaps there's something subtly different in the 10.8 code that's making the signals from the hub not good enough?

Ran into this error last night with two iPhone 5's that synced with two different laptops. One was a Mac, the other a PC. After hours on with Apple Support, I realized the phone that synced with the PC had an iCloud backup – problem solved. The phone connecting to the Mac did not have an iCloud backup. So, after numerous attempts to restore from the backup after restarting, switching USB ports, shutting down, restoring the phone to original settings, nothing changed. The phone did not show up in the iTunes sidebar after restoring from backup. It remained dark. Hitting the home button did nothing. Hitting the power button brought up the Apple logo before it again disappeared. The power button had to be held multiple times before the phone booted. Each time I went through the set up process, a wallpaper displayed from the iPhone 4s, but that was all that carried over. So, after getting off the phone with Apple Support I decided to set the phone up as a new phone in iTunes rather than continuing to try to restore from the backup. And, voila, all my apps, folders, contacts, etc. appeared on the iPhone 5, as they had been organized and displayed on the 4s. The phone has been working perfectly ever since.

Huge Thanks to Lawrence Finch for all the tips in this thread.

I've been struggling backing up with my iPhone 4S giving me the "because the iphone disconnected" error for nearly a year! For some reason my iPad was totally fine.

Having lost data during the last iOS upgrade (when I realised backups were not completing properly), I tried everything Lawrence suggested including re-installation etc, but no luck... until tonght when I decided to re-read this thread, and realsied I had never actuially tried disconnecting the front USB panel, and plugging my iPhone directly into the back USB socket of the PC.

Yey, success!!! it now works - first full backup in a year!

Thank you soooo much!!! 😀😀😀😀

This solved my issues:

Lawrence Finch wrote:

Are you connecting the phone to a USB port directly on your computer, and not to a hub? If it is a Windows desktop or tower computer you must use a USB port on the back, not the front (as front ports are usually an internal hub).

Many thanks

😀

I have a similar problem. Iphone4 gets error that it cant sync calendar to iphone because iphone is disconnected. However, it is still connected and showing up under Devices in iTunes. Ipad 1 has no trouble syncing. I have iphone4, iOS 6, iTunes 10, Windows 7, Outlook 2007. I sync to Outlook. I don't use iCloud.

I have tried the following with no success

Tried different USB port on back of PC

Tried different USB cable

Turned off anti-viurs

renamed backup

deleted backup

Any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance

Hi

I have the same issue with my new iPhone 5. I restored the new phone from the backup of my old iPhone 4. Everything went smoothly and i've been able to back up for a week or so until yesterday when I suddenly got the message. The iPhone is still charging and I'm able to sync apps, music, video and more - but when it backs up I get the error message that the iPhone was disconnected.

I have tried

- changing the USB-cable

- plugging it in different sockets in my Mac Mini running Mountain Lion

- deleting the backups as described in this thread

- changing the media folder to default position

None of this solves the problem. Any idea what might be wrong?

Thanks

Henning Winther

Denmark

Mine (per above) stalled and got that error when it got to the calendar. It ended up being an issue with recurring appoinments that didn't have an end date. I gave all recurring appoinments an end date and my problem was solved. Hope that helps you.

Thanks for the suggestion. I tried setting end dates on recurring events (it's kinda weird putting end dates on my kids' birthdays), but it doesn't solve the problem. I still get the same error message around the end of the backup.

Note to laptop users: this trick worked for me too. I was plugged into my USB 3.0 port, but changed to a USB 2.0 port on the other side of the machine and it magically started syncing/backing up again. This was on a Win 7, Asus Zenbook, running iTunes (11 I think, but they are hiding version numbers now, so not sure).

Yes, I had this problem as well until I messed around with the port I was pluggin into. I run Windows 7 and have three USB controllers on this motherboard. I will spend some time determining which controllers it's unhappy with at a later date, but for now, plugging into one of the USB 2.0 slots worked. Neither of the USB 3.0 controllers worked 😟.

I encounter this same problem after i change my harddisk for my laptop. I am using win 7.

Nothing works for me. simply can't back up.

Any other advice!!!

Remove and reinstall iTunes as described here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1923

The other possibility is if you reinstalled Windows you may not have reinstalled the custom drivers for your computer.

Hi Lawrence,

Thanks for the reply . Remove and reinstall via the link provided. Run my itune in Admin mode but it same error.

As for the windows driver. I am not too sure, what other driver that i may have left out but to my best of knowledge i have downloaded most of it as the laptop is working fine.

Question here :

if i am able to backup my phone on another computer.

Can i copy the Backup from the "good" computer via

C:\users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSyne\Backup

and paste the " backup" on my "problem" laptop at at the same path.

Will that do it ?

2nd question

The most important date on the iphone is the contact.

I have never back up the system using icloud.

will icloud back up my contact?

Thanks for helping much appreciate

If it fails on backup it will probably fail on restore, so the best solution is to figure out why it is disconnecting.

When you reinstalled Windows did you also go to the computer manufacturer's web site and see if they had driver updates to Windows? Most computers require customized drivers in addition to the drivers that are installed by Windows.

Are you using a USB port directly on the computer, not a hub? Do you have other power-consuming USB devices connected (for example, USB disk drives)? If your conputer has USB 3 ports in addition to USB 2 try using a USB 2 port. In fact, try every USB port on the computer.

Note that you can also choose to back up to iCloud if you have iOS 6 on your iPhone.

You can also sync contacts with iCloud, or to Address Book on your computer. If fact, you should, as it is more reliable than the iPhone's backup.

I'm hoping someone might be able to help me... I posted on the discussion boards but never got any replies. I have the same issue, trying to backup and get the 'disconnected' error... I have an iPhone 4, iOS 6.0.1, iTunes 11, Windows 7... I have tried deleting my previous backup (or actually, moving it into 'my documents' so that I don't lose everything I have ever backed up), uninstalling & reinstalling iTunes, all 3 of the USB's on my laptop, different connection cords, and disabling my wifi on my phone but I still get this error message... ANY other suggestions out there? I'm so frustrated that I am actually screaming profanities at my phone and getting ready to throw it against a wall... Haha!

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!