Service ‘Apple Mobile Device’ (Apple Mobile Device) failed to start. Verify that you have sufficient privileges to start system services.

Thank you soypisto75. I followed your instructions exactly and they worked. I now have iTunes again.

The only thing that happened was that I unistalled AMDS (apple mobile device support) 3 times but it never got removed from the add/remove list in the control panel. But this didn't hinder the successful process. Thank you for telling us what AMDS stands for in your instructions. I would not have know to look for 'apple mobile device support' in the control panel if you just wrote AMDS.

Also, before I clicked FINISH I plugged all my apple devices into the computer (separetely) so the drivers would get installed. I'm not sure if I didn't do that, if I would have had a problem when I went to use another device, so I didn't want to take any chances.

THANK YOU SOOO MUCH!!!

Thank you so much my man! you did a great great job

I had a problem with apple mobile device in vista 32 (yes ..i'm probebly the last person on earth that have vista)

and now every thing run just beautiful

Shalom

Thanks soypisto!

Apple - that was ridiculous. You don't test your software updates properly, so I spend 3 hours over two nights mucking around to fix it. Including several attempts to uninstall AMDS. Great way to turn customers off your expensive products. Drip drip drip and eventually customers get frustrated enought to try somewhere else.

soypisto75 Thank you so much!!

AMDS stayed in the add/remove program list after I uninstalled it though (even after closing and opening it again, and restarting the computer) but I still tried to finish the procedure following your instructions, and it worked. So yay! Thanks!

I'll add my thanks to your help both in posting your experience and taking the time to go into the details so that others might benefit.

It worked for me but why does it have to be so arduous (I ask rhetorically) just to do an update?

Thanks, soypisto75!!! One small additional thing that I had to do. I was able to uninstall successfully all the "Apple" programs except for the "Apple Mobile Device Support" one. That kept producing the same error that I had experienced previously with attempts at reinstalling iTunes. Success came when I tried to uninstall it not through the Windows 7 Control Panel "uninstall" function, but through the CCleaner uninstall function. That worked.

Thanks to everyone for taking the time to post solutions. A huge blessing.

Thank you soooo much soypisto75. Many of us may be amatuers with some computer processes but despite the 'less than encouraging advice' from others, you offered a simple and very effective way of solving the problem. Thank you. We are not all idiots and it had nothing to do with my administrator or security settings, there was obviously a problem with the Apple update and your suggestion was the only solution.

I have the same problem after I tryed to download 11.1.4 update. When I tried to do the procedure recommended by "jacethejedi", the files he said I needed to open and copy gave me "error 404, Files not found". Any idea what I may be doing wrong that I can't download these critical files, and hopefully solve my problem???

I have been unable to use my iTunes for the last week since I downloaded the new update. I got a ton of error messages saying that iTunes wasn't installed properly, apple mobile device failed to start, verify that you have sufficient privileges to start system services. (Even though I am the only user on my computer and an Admin). Apple mobile device support would not start, even if I went into services and manually attempted to start it. After spending about 10 hours looking for solutions and a call to apple support I was about ready to give up.

I run my iTunes on Windows Vista and solved the problem by using a modified form of soypisto75's method.

I ran into problems when apple mobile device support was still somehow hiding on my computer even though I uninstalled all components of iTunes and Apple software in Add/delete Programs.

If you go into services and find apple mobile device support and click on properties, it will show a pathway to where it is storing the files.

You should check in C:/ Program files, Common Files, Apple

This is where I found the last bit of the apple files that were interrupting the download. After uninstalling all Apple programs, look in Common files and DELETE THE APPLE FOLDER.

Try downloading iTunes again and then Run as Administrator. Before you click "finish" to end the install, plug in your iPhone to make sure the driver software installs.

I couldn't believe that it actually worked and I'm thankful for how helpful everyone has been on here. I hope this helps!

Thank you soypisto75! The instructions originally did not help me - I had to use system restore to a point before my itunes update, then follow the apple forum instructions provided by ChrisJ4203 to uninstall/reinstall, but otherwise your advice was right on. I plugged both of my iphones (5S and 4S) in before clicking finish (separately from each other). I am SO glad I did not have to bother with the registry!

Do you have the reg entries and support files still available for this post? Im hoping this will fix my itunes issue and currently they are not in the dropbox folder you pointed to the in tech support note. Would love to fix my system if you still have the data, thanks JacetheJedi!!!!! Matt

Ok, unfortunately this is not working for me. This particular step is where I cannot proceed:

4. go to itunes.com, download the newest version, save it to your desktop, RIGHT CLICK the icon and select RUN AS ADMINISTRATOR.

After clicking 'download' on the iTunes download page, the box that comes up only gives me the option to 'Run' or to 'Cancel', there is no option to save to my desktop. I am HORRIBLE with computers and I just need a detailed, step-by-step instruction on how to do this step #4. There is no icon available for me to click to give me any sort of 'Run As Administrator' option. And if I click 'Run' when my only options are 'Run' or 'Cancel' when I click the 'Download Now' choice on the iTunes page then it automatically downloads, I see no icon on my desktop or anything, then it ends up with the same message: "Service 'Apple Mobile Device Service' (Apple Mobile Device Service) failed to start. Verify that you have sufficient privileges to start system services."

PLEASE HELP! I've been working on this for at least 6 hours today. I can un-install everything just fine, but if I don't do this step #4 right I won't proceed. Thank you in advance for help on explaining this download, save to desktop, right click icon, run as administrator.

I have the same problem when I update iTune to 12.1 and it gives me "Apple Mobile Services Failed to start" and than later "iTunehelper was not installed error 7".

After spending an afternoon uninstalling and re-installing all Apple programs one by one as instructed, it still would not work.

Then I noticed that there are two versions of iTune available for download, one is iTune6464.exe and the other iTune64.exe, which is for OLDER video cards. The iTune6464.exe is put right in front, but the iTune64.exe is put somewhere behind the Apple Website and is hard to find. They do not indicate how "old" the video card should be to use this version. So I give a try, and it installs flawlessly in my computer (my video card is GeForce GT520). My new iPad and old iPod now work with no trouble at all.

I have the same problem when I update iTune to 12.1 and it gives me "Apple Mobile Services Failed to start" and than later "iTunehelper was not installed error 7".

After spending an afternoon uninstalling and re-installing all Apple programs one by one as instructed, it still would not work.

Then I noticed that there are two versions of iTune available for download, one is iTune6464.exe and the other iTune64.exe, which is for OLDER video cards. The iTune6464.exe is put right in front, but the iTune64.exe is put somewhere behind the Apple Website and is hard to find. They do not indicate how "old" the video card should be to use this version. So I give a try, and it installs flawlessly in my computer (my video card is GeForce GT520). My new iPad and old iPod now work with no trouble at all.

I am trying to follow your steps, however I am stuck when installing and saving it. I still am yet to have an icon to right click on so I can choose "run as administrator", i only get the icon after it installs, then I get the service apple mobile device error, I can choose to "ignore". I had tried this and itunes come to "finish install". At this point I plug in my iphone and install AMD, wait then click finish. straight away I get error "itunes not installed correctly. so somewhere after the download is where I appear to failing miserably