Error Message - "This iPhone cannot be used because the required software is not installed."

"This iPhone cannot be used because the required software is not installed. Run iTunes Installer to remove iTunes, then install 64-bit version of iTunes."

Let's try a standalone Apple Mobile Device Support install. It still might not install, but fingers crossed any error messages will give us a better idea of the underlying cause of why it's not installing under normal conditions.

Download and save a copy of the iTunesSetup.exe (or iTunes64setup.exe) installer file to your hard drive:

http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/

Download and install the free trial version of WinRAR:

http://www.rarlab.com/

Right-click the iTunesSetup.exe (or iTunes64setup.exe), and select "Extract to iTunesSetup" (or "Extract to iTunes64Setup"). WinRAR will expand the contents of the file into a folder called "iTunesSetup" (or "iTunes64Setup").

Go into the folder and doubleclick the AppleMobileDeviceSupport.msi (or AppleMobileDeviceSupport64.msi) to do a standalone AMDS install.

(If it offers you the choice to remove or repair, choose "Remove", and if the uninstall goes through successfully, see if you can reinstall by doubleclicking the AppleMobileDeviceSupport.msi again.)

Does it install (or uninstall and then reinstall) properly for you?

If instead you get an error message during the install (or uninstall), let us know what it says. (Precise text, please.)

Same issue that just appeared today. Tried the suggestion regarding installation of just the Apple Mobile Device Support package... but instead of removing and reinstalling, I just allowed it to repair. It updated a few files and worked without a problem thereafter!

Thank You 😀

Hey, ive done as above but instead of getting the repair button i keep getting this message "the installer encountered errors before Apple Mobile Device Support could be configured. Your system has not been modified. To retry these operations at a later time, please run the installer again"

I am having the same problem as BenderBennett.

"the installer encountered errors before Apple Mobile Device Support could be configured. Your system has not been modified. To retry these operations at a later time, please run the installer again"

The problems started when ugrading iTunes. The first problem was that the "Apple Mobile Device Service" was greyed out. I couldn't stop, start, disable or do anything with it. I have tried the following in the last two days which has gotten me to this point:

uninstalled all Apple Apps, deleted all Apple Files and directories, and cleaned out the Apple and iTunes registry entries, run 3 registry cleaners, copied the necessary files and registry entries from a working machine.

I have also tried the install with antivurus disabled and running as administrator. Using process monitor to watch msiexec.exe during the install of AMDS, I don't see anything that would appear to be a show stopper although I am still looking through the 954,000 entries during the install.

After comparing registry entries from an older version of iTunes with iTunes 10.7.0.21, my Windows 7 64 bit machine was missing the section below. NOTE: THIS IS A 64 BIT MACHINE. I checked one of my 32 bit machines and this entry does not exist. I used the following info below in a .reg file to update the registry and rebooted. Hopefully the version number in the first section is correct.

My iPad and iPhones are successfully connecting to iTunes now.

Making registry changes can mess up your computer, this is only intended to help with your troubleshooting, I am not saying this will definitely fix your problem, or even saying you should do this. Don't trust me with your computer. 🙂

------------------------------------------------------

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Apple Inc.\Apple Mobile Device Support]

"InstallDir"="C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Common Files\\Apple\\Mobile Device Support\\"

"Version"="6.0.0.59"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Apple Inc.\Apple Mobile Device Support\Shared]

"ASMapiInterfaceDLL"="C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Common Files\\Apple\\Mobile Device Support\\AppleSyncMapiInterface.dll"

"AirTrafficHostDLL"="C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Common Files\\Apple\\Mobile Device Support\\AirTrafficHost.dll"

"MobileDeviceDLL"="C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Common Files\\Apple\\Mobile Device Support\\MobileDevice.dll"

"iTunesMobileDeviceDLL"="C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Common Files\\Apple\\Mobile Device Support\\iTunesMobileDevice.dll"

---------------------------------------------------------

Thank you so much...5 days without iTunes till now

I just had the same problem again upgrading to iTunes 11.0.1 on a 64-bit machine. It wouldn't see my devices after upgrading. The Apple Mobile Device Support install would roll back every time. The registry entries mentioned above were not the problem this time. I ran the AppleMobileDeviceSupport64.msi from a command prompt with msiexec and used the logging option. The log showed me that there was an issue installing the driver netaapl64.sys. I used 7-zip to extract the AppleMobileDeviceSupport64.msi, and then ran the follwing with the extracted files:

pnputil -i -a netaapl54.inf

This still didn't fix he problem, so I ran

pnputil -i -a usbaapl64.inf

After running both of these and restarting, iTunes would see my iPads, iPods, and iPhones.

I hope they fix this. It is becoming a pain to have to troubleshoot the install for every iTunes update.

thanks but this didn't help at all now my itunes wants to reinstall applesoftware and is not able to, and I cannot just reinstal itunes 😢

the ''Extract to iTunes64setup'' option isn't in the menu when i right-click the file what should i do?

I am having this exact problem, and i did everything sugested, but it doesn't work, and i still get the originally error note, what do i do?? I really need to sync my iphone 4s to my itunes so i can bring it on holidays!
Help.. I have Windows 7

Found the solution in this webiste as well:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2275503?start=0&tstart=0

Here's the fix from user Quimbinator:

This worked for both my iPhone and iPod Touch just now! 🙂 Even if the solution was published years back, it still works! Try it! 🙂

Message was edited by: ashteekiens

Thank you very much for your support, I tried your method and worked like a charm.

Thanks again

I figured it out for me. I am on Windows 8.1 and I had an old version of the mobile drivers in common files/apple/US...etc.. for the name but was missing the 64 at the end. I also had a program files 86x that was missing the mobile entirely. Because it was in the 32 bit common the installer figures it doesn't need to install the 64 bit. You need to delete the apple folder from common in the 32 bit folder and reinstall iTunes. Making sure that bonjour, apple updater and apple helper for 32 bit and 64 bit get uninstalled too before reinstalling.

I tried your fix and it worked. Brilliant. Thankyou for your input