iOS 6.1 update, iTunes cannot read contents of iPhone

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Level 1

9 points

iOS 6.1 update, iTunes cannot read contents of iPhone

Updated my iPhone 5 to iOS 6.1 this morning OTA. Everything was going fine, phone was below 50% and needed to be plugged in so I plugged it into my computer to let it charge and the update installed. Immediately a window in iTunes popped up saying:

I press ok and it takes me to the summary page and iTunes recognizes my phone as being in recovery mode, when it definitely is not. I had to go through and finish the install on the phone, then I tired restarting both my phone and computer, and tried downloading iTunes again and installing. This message is still coming up and will not let me sync my phone! I can only restore it.

Restoring the phone wouldn't be the end of the world (I was able to backup to iCloud after this happened this morning), but I just don't understand what is going on and would prefer not to sit and restore it and then restore from the iCloud backup. Anyone else experience this when updating to iOS 6.1? Or have a solution? Could it have been plugging it into iTunes to let it charge and finish the update? I wouldn't think so because you can update through iTunes... But I'm not sure.

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Jan 28, 2013 1:17 PM

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Answer 1

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JimHdk

Level 7

28,874 points

Jan 28, 2013 1:40 PM in response to JsD

Plugging it into your computer to charge while it was updating was not a good idea. Your system is apparently set up to start iTunes and sync when an iPhone is plugged in. Itunes would attempt to sync the device while it was actually wirelessly updating with the Apple servers. This is why you got the message you saw.

Does your iPhone currently work?

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Answer 2

JsD Author

Level 1

9 points

Jan 28, 2013 1:48 PM in response to JimHdk

The phone is working great. Shows that it has been updated. iTunes even recognizes that the phone has been updated, just nothing can be done since it thinks it is in recovery mode.

I ultimately just decided to restore the phone. Figured in the end it would be my only option. Luckily I have that backup that I can restore from. I definitely do think it was plugging into the computer that caused it. I just updated my iPad and plugged it into the wall adapter instead to charge while it installed and iTunes can sync with it just fine.

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Answer 3

JimHdk

Level 7

28,874 points

Jan 28, 2013 1:51 PM in response to JsD

I'm glad that all is OK now. Looks like you lost nothing but time!

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Answer 4

StarchMD

Level 1

8 points

Jan 29, 2013 6:11 AM in response to JimHdk

Actually, I developed a major headache since I am about to deploy and don't have good WiFi access. Also, I have too many sensitive contacts that I don't want on iCloud. Why are you trying to get me to rely on WiFi which is not available for many of us deployed forward?

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