Q: Error 4005 fix for Windows 7

Didn't work for me. 

This happened on both my iPad and Iphone after the most recent updates.  It previously happened when I intentionally tried to restore the phone because it was losing music for no apparent reason.

I have to take the phone or pad to my home computer, connect it, and then it reinstalls the software update.  THen I have to either set it up as a new phone or pad, or do a full restore. 

Apple is going to lose me as a customer if this doesn't get resolved.  Shouldn't have to do a full restore from two locations every time you do a software update.

My phone was set to backup to my computer, not iCloud on the last update that caused a reset to both my phone and pad, so, sorry, but Agehanon's solution didn't work for me.

I had this issue to after trying to do a software update to 7.1

Error 4005 happens when Itunes can't read the device. 

If there was any type of interruption while doing the up update (caused by wifi dropping for a quick second, or a loose usb cable), then only a portion of the operating system is on the device. Unfortunately, Itunes does not know where to pick up after the interupption happens and it thus your device is dead in the water because it now can't read anything.

This is a horrible design flaw.

Just bring it to Genius Bar at the store. They can wipe your device clean and do a fresh install.

You will then have to bring it home and to a restore again.

They did for me for free even though I was out of warranty.

I finally found a fix that worked for me--and it's incredibly simple.

Do exactly what the OP says; the only difference: hold the iPhone's "home" button from the moment you connect it until you're further into the process than you have been.

That easy.

(And it'll be obvious when to release the button: you'll see a lot of new activity both in iTunes and on the phone itself.)

Hope this helps.

Fellow unkown error (4005)ers,

I've gone through this and every other forum I could find on this topic... bottomline - I tried to update to IOS7 for my iPad2, and it decided that what it wanted to do was go back to the factory defaults and didnt give me a choice... I've been trying for the past three days now to get it to take... when the device is not hooked to my little netbook (Toshiba NB255 running Windows 7) it tells me to connect to iTunes... when I connect to inTunes it says it has found a device in recovery mode and I need to restore... I click OK, restore iPad restore and update... now the fun:

1) It says extracting in iTunes, the iPad continues to tell me to connect to iTunes

2) Takes a couple minutes to extract, then sits for 5ish minutes "Preparing the iPad for restore"

3) iPad screen flashes, gets a feint glow, and iTunes says "Waiting for iPad" for 5ish minutes

4) "The ipad "ipad" could not be restored. An unknown error occurred (4005).

I am limited by being in Afghanistan right now on what I can do to fix this (no second computer, no Genius Bar)... I don't care about any of the data (which I think is lost anyway), I just want to be able to facetime with my wife and daughter.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

i uninistalled my Apple mobile device support program to try and reinstall the drivers. Another error message popped up Couldn't  "No drivers available for: Apple mobile device(Recovery Mode)". Maybe this is the problem no drivers available for the an iphone in recovery mode?

For general advice see Troubleshooting issues with iTunes for Windows updates.

The steps in the second box are a guide to removing everything related to iTunes and then rebuilding it which is often a good starting point unless the symptoms indicate a more specific approach. Review the other boxes and the list of support documents further down page in case one of them applies.

Your library should be unaffected by these steps but there is backup and recovery advice elsewhere in the user tip.

tt2

hells_exile.  I did, I tried it and all other advise. I ended up passing it off to our resident Apple Guru... he says he tried everything short of popping it open and trying to reset the battery; he's advise is to wait till I get home and take it to an Apple store for some professional love... guess its Skyping off the old netbook for the next 6 months.  Thanks for the help though!

Hi

i am experiencing the same problem

i have done all of the steps that were given but i am now stuck coz my phone wouldnt even show up on my itunes on the computer

thx

This solved my issue on 2 devices! Thank you!

Please help! I also got the same problem. I've been trying for days to restore my iphone 5. The phone suddenly turned to black screen, then switched Off by itself. When I turned it On again, it was stuck in apple logo. I've searched online for the possible solution and decided to that Recovery mode thing, in the hope of restoring my phone to its original state even if it means losing my personal files.

During the restoration process, the itunes was stuck in the waiting for iphone while the phone stuck in the apple logo with a loading figure below. I also observed that the said loading figure (which I believe to ,supposed to be, moving to signify a loading process) was not moving at all. Then an error message suddenly appears on the itunes with the error 4005. I've tried a lot of things as advised by the apple site on the web, from Re-installing itunes to switching to another computer. Btw, I'm using a Windows 7 32-bit PC. Please help!!!

Wanted to update my 5s to 8.1 and none of this worked in Win7 x64.  Updating driver didn't work, holding central button through the whole process didn't work either.  And some other advice to keep the iphone connected on usb and restart pc didn't work either. 

Iphone was stuck in recovery mode.

I also noticed that although itunes works ok through my firewall, I had to disable it because with the firewall on I was getting a different error (couldn't connect to apple gs server).

What DID work was using another cable from my moms 2-day old iphone in a different usb port (although both ports weren't in a hub).  My cable is original and charges ok but somehow the other cable made it happen.  So problem solved.

All in all, first try different usb ports in your machine, then try a different cable.

worked for me! thanks