itunes 12 will not recognize iphone

Yeah, so that's downright depressing and reinforces the notion that the engineering team are now only just barely competent. No automated tests nor any manual tests caught it, someone managed to break something that fundamental in the first place, didn't notice as a developer, peer reviews of the changes didn't catch it (one might almost imagine that Apple doesn't *have* peer review via something like a GitHub pull request, and doesn't *have* automated unit/functional/integration testing)... Good lord.

just another frustrated user here... OSX 10.9.5, iTunes 12.0.1.26 iphone 8.1 'trust this computer' each and every time I connect...and iTunes still doesn't find it. Only works if I reboot. What a shame. I have all this wonder apple products that hate each other.

So if I "force quit"the "usbmuxd" process in Activity Monitor, will this accomplish the same thing or screw something else up?

@Andy603 - the solution is here, in this thread. Read my earlier post, or my reply to the user who posted after you.

@Dwarrenski - Force Quit in Activity Monitor will also do the trick. For those of you reading this who are unable to find usbmuxd in Activity Monitor, Select "All Processes" from the View menu.

What you want to look for is the PID column. That's the Process ID. When you Force Quit the process, you'll see this number change. That means that launchd restarted it.

Thanks, @Dwarrenski, for posing a non-Terminal alternative that'll work for everyone.

Thanks so much for the research and the solution. Worked great for me! Hope Apple will fix it soon

correct..it worked! thank you...certainly a crazy way to fix it ....curiously my other iOS devices work all the time...new iPhone 6 and iPad..but not my 5s (without killing the process first). a BUG!

Not working for me, updated to the latest iTunes, OS X etc. iPad synced and updated via USB.

iPhone began OK then iTunes lost it. I have done everything, full erase of phone and restore (from iCloud), force quit as per earlier posts but no go, it's gone.

Not only that but iPhoto appears to have lost it too, so I would say for me at least the issue does not appear to be limited to iTunes and is an OS X issue.

The phone still charges when connected though, so it knows it's there..And iTunes match works, and photo stream, so not the end of the world, it's just now I know it's not working via USB it will eat away at me, even though I rarely connect any of my devices via cable.

Very odd. And annoying.

I suppose I had better try the iPod nano and see if the iPad will connect again..Not tonight though.

@frighty - What, exactly, is not working? If you are experiencing the same symptoms (too many open files, 4000+ TCP connections in CLOSE_WAIT state, etc), then forcing usbmuxd to quit _will_ fix the problem until it needs to be killed again.

Rather than swapping out random devices and crossing your fingers, please list the exact steps that you followed. One of us will help you get it resolved.

Hi,

So here is my experience from yesterday.

Yesterday evening I installed the latest Osx update 10.10.1 upon my Macbook Pro.

I then decided to install iOS 8.1.1 on my iPad2. As there have been some issues on over the air installations I opted to use iTunes. I had already performed a full erase and restore on the iPad due to performance issues so did not want a repeat. The iPad synced, performed a backup and then updated with issue.

I then moved to my iPhone 5.

Connected the lightning cable, iTunes and iPhoto both open and sync.

I back up via iTunes without issue and then select the update option and iTunes begins to download the update. After a few minutes the screen on the Mac goes into powersave, I hit the trackpad to wake it again whereupon I find iTunes still downloading the update and message appears prompting me to enter my passcode on the iPhone to continue with installation. My fat fingers missed and I hit the wrong number, I corrected and the iPhone unlocked BUT was now not synced to the Mac.

Things I tried.

1^st. Full reset (hold home and power) for iPhone and a restart on the Mac. Reconnect, iPhone charges but no applications pick up the device. By that I mean iTunes and iPhoto.

2^nd. Full erase and reset to factory settings on the iPhone and restore from previous day backup, select restore from iTunes back up, prompted to connect to iTunes but does not connect device, although it still charges. Restore iPhone from iCloud over Wi-Fi. iPhoto does not respond to the connected iPhone either.

3^rd. Install iOS 8.1.1 over Wi-Fi. Restart Mac. Attempt to connect to iTunes, still no device and iPhoto not responding to the connected iPhone, iPhone still charges.

4^th. Change lightning cable, results same, no response, iPhone charges.

5^th. Check iTunes account, iPhone still listed as a paired device, delete stored back up, try to connect, same as above.

6^th. Another restart of both Mac and iPhone, also attempt the force close technique mentioned in earlier post within the Activity Monitor as my technical skills do not go far enough to understand your previous instructions. Locate the usbmuxd process and close. Try to reconnect and still no response as per above.

7^th. Try force close again just in case. No response.

8^th. This morning I re tried the iPad2 which again synced without drama (and is working much faster after the update). iPhone still no go.

9^th. Gave up and went to work.

So, keeping in mind my technical abilities (limited) any advice will be received and appreciated!

The issue that you're describing are different from what we're discussing in this thread. This thread is about the "Trust This Computer?" loop that happens on iPhone/iPad with iTunes 12 after a day or two. What you are describing is that iTunes doesn't see your iPhone at all, yet it sees your iPad without difficulty. The usbmuxd issue is fixed (for a short while) by a reboot, whereas your issue is not.

It sounds like you have an entirely new problem, and I recommend that you start a new thread that describes it.

Hi

I wouldn't say it's entirely new, looking through search results appears to show that issue of iOS devices not connecting to iTunes etc has been reoccurring for years. I was scanning the many threads last night that seemed to be related to my issue and happen to choose this thread as it looked like it had the most recent posts and knowledgeable responses but I understand it's not entirely the same so I will indeed repost under a new thread and hope for a fix..

Thanks for taking the time to read and respond, it is appreciated.

I meant "entirely new" as "not relevant to the specific problem in this thread." Since we're all dealing with the problem of usbmuxd not closing TCP connections, your problem won't receive the attention that it deserves.

Generally, I hate community support. It seems that the people with the most points are the ones who say "Go read this (useless) support article," which invariably contains things like "Reboot. Pray. Try a different cable. Buy a new phone." I think it's a travesty that big companies with expensive products try to pass this off as support when the clear majority of issues are unresolved and left abandoned. It forces people into taking random actions whose results are inconclusive and then posting them as fixes. Perhaps if I stand on one foot and eat a lemon while rebooting my phone, it will work. It's easy for someone to attribute the success to the lemon.

I posted my fix for this particular problem because it is an actual fix that I know works. In order to maintain my standard of honesty for community support, it's important that I tell you that what we're offering as a solution is for a totally different problem. Without having access to your phone and computer, I can only guess at the problem and thus any solution I (or others) might offer is also only a guess. When someone tosses around random answers to a definite problem, they're not trying to help you. They're stroking their own ego without any regard for the viability of their proposal or your frustration in trying more (random) stuff with the hope that something works.

You describe yourself as non-technical, but you've listed a comprehensive set of solutions that you've tried, including the solutions in this thread. You should be proud of that. If I can offer some suggestions for your troubleshooting:

1. If rebooting the device or your computer or restarting a process didn't fix it, doing it a second time still won't fix it.
2. It's important to figure out _why_ something happened before working on a solution for it. Otherwise the random application of solutions will only create new problems.
3. When changing something, only change one thing and then test to see if the problem is resolved. If you change more than one thing, you don't know which item fixed it or if the combination of items is in fact what kept it broken.

When you create the new thread, post a link to it back here. I'll post in it some technical avenues that you can take to try and figure out if the device truly isn't being seen or if it's being seen and then rejected by the computer.

Point one did make me chuckle, how right you are, and I know this. Yet still...

I basically copied and pasted my post into a new thread..

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6678001

I guess I'm being picky, I use iTunes match, and photo stream so it actually is not causing an issue but none the less I need to know, if it becomes a problem with the iPod for instance, I will need a fix. Any direction you can point me through the fog..Google has gracefully bowed out..

Weird - although I'm logged in, that thread doesn't show me as logged in, and thus I cannot reply to it. Maybe there's some "seasoning" required for a post before people can reply. Hang in there - when the forum voodoo decides that I can reply to it, I'll help you with troubleshooting.