Iphone appears in itunes but not in my computer

I have the same issue. I found that after attaching my iPhone to my PC using USB, under 'Device Manager' the 'Portable Device' - 'Apple iPhone' shows and error.

Although not a solution, you can disable and enable the device and your iPhone will appear under Windows Explorer/My Computer.

This worked for me but in Windows 10, the procedure was slightly different.

Devices and Printers is accessed through Control Panel

At the bottom of the screen under "Unspecified" I located "Apple Mobile Device USB Driver" with an image of a tower computer.

To uninstall the driver, I right-clicked the device and selected properties

Under the Hardware tab I again selected properties

Under the General tab I clicked Change Settings and from there I could uninstall the driver.

The Apple Mobile Device USB Driver then disappeared from my Devices and Printers

I unplugged the iPhone and plugged it back in as indicated by Devin

Again, iTunes started and the Apple Mobile Device USB Driver re-appeared in Devices and Printers but the iPhone still did not appear in File Explorer. I unplugged the iPhone, replugged it in and the iPhone then appeared in File Explorer. Moreover a new device was now listed "Unspecified" namely "Apple iPhone", also with a picture of a tower computer, in addition to the Apple Mobile Device USB Driver.

Thanks for this. It was driving me crazy for months! What I had to do was delete previous drivers first associated with my iphone. Then I opened by iphone, Touch-IDed to unlock it, connected it to my computer, and then it auto-downloaded the appropriate driver.

Use Windows Explorer. You will find iPhone appeared as a Drive on the left Pane. Right click iPhone and select "Import Pictures and Videos"

Meghana, I have the SAME problem. wiclee, your answer gives no help as that IS THE PROBLEM to begin with.

-----> The iphone IS NOT shown on windows explorer. Nowhere on the computer can I find any evidence that the phone is plugged in other than iTunes (i.e will not show up in windows explorer, the device list in windows live photo gallery, etc).

Anyone else out there have a useful answer? PLEASE HELP

I have the same problem as well.

1) Ipad2 and Ip[hoen 3GS (all runnign 5.1.1) in itunes
2) Nothing in My Computer??? No reference opr link. (runnign Windows Xp)

Both devices are in the USB drivers and maked are working correctly.

LOOKING FOR HELP..

I don't know if you found an answer but I had this same problem. After searching everywhere on the internet for days I figured it out myself if you go into device manager you will see it in the usb controllers go to portable devices you should see it there also in my case it said under portable devices no driver was installed thats why it wasnt coming up in my computer so I pointed it to a generic driver and it said device might not work then it said it wasnt installed correctly so I unplugged my phone plugged it back in and it installed Apple iPhone again now I have autoplay back and can import all pictures again and it is showing up in my computer again. I figured all this out because I have a 3g and it was working fine with my computer just not the 2 4S's I have. Hope this helps someone else looking for the answer.

I had the same problem and I contacted a close friend who is a genius with computers and works in the field and has an iPhone himself when I found NOTHING to help me on the internet. With your iPhone device UNPLUGGED try just simply restarting your computer and restarting your iPhone (by holding the lock button and the home button until it turns off then back on again). That is all it took for me, Then replug your iPhone in and wait. I had all programs closed when I replugged my iPhone in (ex. iTunes) and it took several second for the window that usually comes up (the one that asks what tasks you would like to perform with the device) to appear, but it finally did and everything was fine. The iPhone icon was back in my computer and everything was normal. I could access all my files on my phone. My friend said that there is a service that needs to run before it will connectto the computer and when you replug it in it should re-install the drivers.

Hopefully this helps someone else as well!!

As a preventative measure your Iphone must be unlocked before it shows up in your devices to stop people from accessing your photos and videos. Unlock your Iphone before plugging it into your usb port.

After half an hour of skimming the internet trying to find a solution to why it showed up on Itunes but not on my computer, this was the solution that worked for me. I hope it helps you and whoever might have the same problem. If not, I dont know....

in device maneger it says"The drivers for this device are not installed. (Code 28)"...???

I am not able to figure out what should be done. please help guys

Hello everyone,

I hope this helps your issue. Depending on your version of Windows you are running (I'm using windows 7 in this case). Go to your start menu and click on "Devices and Printers". Once it loads, go to the bottom of the page where you will see a picture (I'm assuming it to be a computer tower) and left-click on the picture and select properties. Once the box opens, click on the "Hardware" tab and click on the button that says "Properties" again. For the last steps, click on the "Driver" tab and select "Uninstall". It will ask you to confirm to uninstall the device. Make sure you click the checkbox that says to remove the drivers for the device as well. From there it will uninstall the phone's driver. Just simply unplug the phone and plug it back into the computer and VIOLA! Your able to get the photos off of your phone! I hope this serves you all well!

P.S. Apple, you are welcome as well 🙂 lol

This is it !!! I have tried everything there is about and finally worked this one out and here it is. Thank you for sharing.... what a pain it was.

THANK YOU IT WORKED !!!! so many useless solutions out there but this on finally worked.

EDIT okay this is funny, now I can see it in Computer, but suddenly can't see it in iTunes.. going to reinstall iTunes andd see what happens. frustrating 🙂

EDIT 2 reinstalled itunes, restarted computer,and still nothing. fu*k

okay if u used devin techs tutorial and you are able to see iphone in computer, but NOT IN ITUNES, you have to follow this tutorial:

1. Right-click the Apple iPhone, Apple iPad, or Apple iPod entry in Device Manager and choose Update Driver from the shortcut menu.
2. Click "Browse my computer for driver software."
3. Click "Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer."
4. Click the Have Disk button. (If the Have Disk option is not present, choose a device category such as Mobile Phone or Storage Device if listed, and click next. The Have Disk button should then appear.)
5. In the "Install from Disk" dialog, click the Browse button.
6. Use this window to navigate to the following folder:
   C:\Program Files\Common Files\Apple\Mobile Device Support\Drivers.
7. Double-click the "usbaapl" file. (This file will be called "usbaapl64" if you have a 64-bit version of Windows. If you don't see "usbaapl64" here, or if there is no Drivers folder, look in C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Apple\Mobile Device Support\Drivers. instead).
8. Click OK in the "Install from Disk" dialog.
9. Click Next and finish the driver-installation steps. Open iTunes to verify that the device is recognized properly.

now you are able too see it in itunes, but its not in Computer anymore...... it is very ******** but at least itunes sees it again 🙂