Why does my iPad keeps connecting and disconnecting from the new late 2013 iMac

I have Yosemite Beta on 2014 27" iMac and ipad retina (3) was having issue as described - cycling connection in out in out every half a second. Was trying to download ios8 and couldn't connect.

Anyway - long story short... it was connected to the USB port that was closest to the SD Card slot... I moved it another USB slot away from the SD card and voila - worked perfectly, instantly.

Hope this helps!!

Hey everyone,

I just wanted everyone to have the solution here that way when others experience it, they can hopefully find this solution quickly. Luckily several of you like (MrArifFikri) touched on the solution already, I'll just specify the reason for clarity.

It comes down to power, or more importantly "current". Specifically with an iPad, USB power consumption is very finicky. So in order for the USB direct connection to your PC, USB hub, or laptop you need to make sure your iPad is charged to over 51%. This will reduce the power draw the iPad will attempt to pull from the USB connection. This should give you flawless charging and syncing capabilities. Now you can sidestep this in some cases by using USB ports on your hub, PC or laptop that are closer to the power supply, or series on the circuit board.

If your iPad is below 51%, you need to use the "cube" or power block that came with your iPad. (The smaller one for your iPhone is not recommended as it lacks the internal transformer that the iPad power block has) The reason for this, is that your iPad is attempting to draw too much current from the USB connection through a substrate, i.e. the PC, USB hub or laptop connection. They are only designed to allow a limited amount of current through those connection, thus your iPad continues to "trip" the charging circuit in the device because the power draw is too low.

I hope this helps stop the "doodledee.....deeedledoo" beeping madness you're experiencing! 🙂

Hi,

I had the same problem and just found a solution. I tryed restoring all content and settings on the iPad (Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings). It took lots of time, however it didn´t work because when I connected the iPad and iMac the problem persisted.

Then I thought it wasn´t an iPad problem but iMac OSX problem. So I searched the web for "Reinstall Mavericks" and found this http://support.apple.com/kb/PH13871?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US.

It also takes like 6 hours with my internet speed. Next day I connected the iPad and everything is just fine.

I described both processes because I don´t know if in the end the iPad reset helped in the solution.

Hope that helps! good luck

I have the same problem, but with my new MacBook Pro and my iPad 3. It connects fine to the wall electricity, but when connecting to my MacBook Pro it almost always keeps connecting and disconnecting. Sometimes it works though. No problem what so ever when connecting to the electric outlet with a regular charger.

Yes indeed, but it is not difficult at all and I didn't lose any information or applications. Next day (today) I'm working in my iMac just the same as yesterday, I didnt have to re-install any applications or configurations.

In addition it is good news because it is not a hardware problem, but software. If someone find a way to reinstall the controller that is used when an iPad is plugged-in, I'm sure he's going to solve the problem. I took "the long way" because when I searched the web for controllers or drivers (as in windows) and I didn't find anything related, so I don't know how it works in OSX.

Hope you can solve it!

GL

Hi, this just happened to me today. Not sure if you're using an original iPad cable but that did the trick for me. Apparently my MacBook and iPad spazzed out when I connected the unauthorized cable. Hope this is useful for you!

I'm having the same problem too with my iPad Air (running latest firmware) and my 27" iMac 2013 (running latest version of Mavericks + latest version of iTunes). I've tried restoring the iPad with my Macbook Pro (which works fine there, btw), because I can't even restore it from my iMac. Entering recovery mode doesn't help as well, iTunes throwing an error when its trying to load the firmware into the iPad, which suggest there is something wrong with the iMac itself, not the iPad, because it looses connection to it intermittently.

Tried 3 different (but genuine) Apple lightning cables, still the same problem. I've tried resetting the PRAM, which solves the problem for that one time, but the same issue came back a few days after, when I plugged my iPad back to the iMac.

Pretty frustrated over here.. Suggestions?

Same problem here. Just started. I have a new Macbook Pro but it has worked fine with iPad USB before. I need to do some iBooks work and am unable to connect my iPad to do so. Need a fix on this ASAP.

**SOLVED** at least for me...

I have IPAD2 and started facing this problem after I upgraded my whole computer hardware (but kept the same SSD, so technically the software didn't change). Once I plug in the pad it keeps connecting and disconnecting so fast, like one cycle every second. Tried upgrading the USB driver for my motherboard but no use (sorry forgot to mention I'm using Win7 64bit).

Long story short, i was trying to plug in using USB 3.0 port, once I tried a USB 2 port from the rear ports panel in my motherboard, it worked fine!

I tried using the USB 3 again, same problem happened again. Back to USB 2 it worked, so it seems to me a hardware issue that IPAD2 is not compatible with USB 3.0, at least with Windows. Don't know about MACs.

I've been having this problem too, connecting my iPad air to my new 2014 27 inch iMac.

It turns out that (in my case at least) it was just the USB port I chose on the iMac. I reconnected the iPad in the port furthest to the left as you're looking at the back of the iMac (closest to the memory card slot and the audio jack) and all of a sudden it quit disconnecting and reconnecting.

This seems to be a thing with iMacs- the USB ports are not all equal. When installing Windows in Bootcamp I had to plug the USB installer drive into the same port AND disconnect everything else or else Windows would keep telling me it couldn't create a partition to install to.

Computers: Can't live with'em, can't shoot'em (without having a bottomless bank account)

I was having the same problem and just now it seems to be working. I had backed up my iPhone on my iTunes on the iMac, and so I just deleted the backed up iPhone data(wasn't really needed thankfully) and now my iPad connects to the computer just fine. I also, after deleting the backed up info, clicked the Prevent iPods, iPhones and iPads from syncing automatically.

I had clicked that prevent syncing first but it didn't fix it, but once I deleted the backed up iPhone data it works.

Sad, but at least it's connected again. 🙂

I created issue in tracker for that matter and developers asked me to send system statistics and logs while experiencing issues (mine is with iPad 2). However, logs were clean and they could not spot the problem.

But it is still there, and I think it has something to do with USB and signal level (because not all ports are equally prone to produce the same fail rate), maybe even aluminium box. Very annoying..

I had the same problem and I'll tell you what worked for me. Just keep your iPad connected. It will fluctuate for a while and then stabilise. I know it's a little scary and you might be worried that you may damage your iPad but don't worry it would work just fine.

So the solution: Just keep it connected for a while. It will stabilise and connect. Don't be scared of the fluctuations.

Cheers.

If it shows not charging you should be able to sync it after that. Not charging shows that the USB connection has been established. Try reopening your iTunes after it shows not charging. It worked for me.