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iPhone USB Tethering suddenly stopped working on OS X Lion

Yesterday, I updated the iPhone configuration utility to v 3.5 and I was using the internet via iPhone USB tethering, as soon as the update finished, my iPhone USB tethering stopped working and its not working any more. I am on OS X Lion 10.7.3 using iPhone 4S, iOS 5.1.


Now I figured out that running the OS in 32 bit lets me do USB tethering, but in 64 bit the iPhone USB Network Service shows on the right:


"Either the cable for iPhone USB is not plugged in or the device is not responding."


I've tried everything with keeping iTunes running, reinstalling iTunes, re-installing iPhone configuration Utility, but nothing seems to work! I guess the main culprit here is the new iPhone Configuration Utility v 3.5. It is so annoying to see such things breaking existing functionalities. It has nothing to do with my Phone, because it works on my other Macbook Pro which I did not update and on my friends Snow Leopard.


Anyone has any ideas how to fix this problem? Any help would be appreciated a lot!

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.3), iPhone 4S v 5.1

Posted on Mar 16, 2012 2:03 AM

Reply
63 replies

Mar 17, 2012 3:21 PM in response to zahidmaqbool

Similar problem here with Snow Leopard 10.6.8.


USB Tethering is no longer working for me. I wasn't sure if it was iOS 5.1 or something on the Mac, as it's a while since I've used Tethering, but plugging the phone into a PC running Windows XP has shown that its not the phone or iOS 5.1 - Tethering is working fine on the PC.


I was getting a similar message that the device is not plugged in or responding, I deleted the network device but when I went to add it back in there is no iPhone USB device listed, only Ethernet, Firewire, and Airport.

Mar 20, 2012 1:04 AM in response to zahidmaqbool

seemed to coinside with update to iOS5.1 hadnt touched iPhone config in many months...forgot it was even there..that said maybe update updated it and i just didnt notice as there were a few osx updates done around the same time


Message was edited by: zwizardofoz Update seems iPh confi did get updated in an os x software update on the 9th March .... Hmmm Hope apple fix this ASAP

Mar 21, 2012 3:54 PM in response to zwizardofoz

I am seeing the exact same problem on my MBP (10.7.3) and iPhone 4GS.


Wifi and BT tethering works just fine but the USB tethering simply doesn't work.


iTunes is able to see my iPhone but tethering doesn't work.


If you look in the iPhone Config Utility logs for the iPhone there are all kinds of errors about "No MEID in CT mobile equipment info dictionary".


This must be an iOS update bug...

Mar 29, 2012 11:45 AM in response to DBMandrake

The solution is :


1. Delete iPhone configuration utility. Just drop it to the trash
2. Run

sudo rm -rf /private/var/db/receipts/com.apple.pkg.iPhoneConfigurationUtility.*

rm -rf ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iPhoneConfigurationUtility.plist*

3. Delete the whole folder: /System/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBEthernetHost.kext

4. Reinstall iTunes (just over the previous one)

5. Restart


incase of any issues, visit this thread: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3725328?start=15&tstart=0

iPhone USB Tethering suddenly stopped working on OS X Lion

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