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iTunes won't launch when my iPhone is connected

I have a retina Macbook Pro (early 2015) and an iPhone 6. I recently noticed that when I connect my iPhone to my MacBook iTunes doesn't automatically open anymore. When i connect my phone Photos will open but iTunes won't. I've searched this topic on the forums and have tried everything and anything suggested yet iTunes won't open when my iPhone is connected.


First, in the summary tab for my device in iTunes there is no option to open iTunes when the device connects, the iPhone does however sync automatically when I open iTunes and in the iTunes preferences on the devices tab prevent devices from auto syncing isn't checked.

Second, iTunes helper is enabled in users & groups system preferences, I've removed it and added it several times yet it still won't launch iTunes.

Lastly, I went so far as to uninstall iTunes and then reinstall it but nothing changed.


I chatted with a Apple Support for quite some time and the operator confirmed that her iPod would launch iTunes but her iPhone 5s would not.


I was hoping someone in the community would be of more help, this seems like a really simple problem that no one has the answer to.

If you could confirm that your iPhone won't launch iTunes on your Mac either that would be great or if you know of a way to fix it; any response is appreciated.

iPhone 6, iOS 8.4, Macbook Pro OSX 10.10.4

Posted on Jul 2, 2015 1:47 PM

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Posted on Jul 3, 2015 8:10 PM

I, too, am having this problem. My computer is the latest MacMini, everything maxed, and I have an iPhone 6 Plus, so this is current hardware, too.


Apple, are you listening to your customers, here? I think you should at least acknowledge our comments and say, "We are looking in to it."


Good God, man, I bleed in six colors! Have pity on a faithful customer!


Steve

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Jul 3, 2015 8:10 PM in response to PaullFtw

I, too, am having this problem. My computer is the latest MacMini, everything maxed, and I have an iPhone 6 Plus, so this is current hardware, too.


Apple, are you listening to your customers, here? I think you should at least acknowledge our comments and say, "We are looking in to it."


Good God, man, I bleed in six colors! Have pity on a faithful customer!


Steve

Jul 3, 2015 8:47 PM in response to PaullFtw

I have exactly the same problem. After years of iTunes automatically launching when I plug in my iPhone and iPad, since iTunes 12.2 and 10.10.4 it does not launch. I have tried "everything" including deleting preferences, changing settings and then back again, starting up in Safe Mode, repairing permissions, and finally reinstalling iTunes. No go. If I launch iTunes manually both my iPad and iPhone 5s automatically start to synch. Frustrating.

Jul 4, 2015 1:13 AM in response to PaullFtw

The problem appears to be widespread since there are multiple threads about this issue:

PaullFtw wrote:



I chatted with a Apple Support for quite some time and the operator confirmed that her iPod would launch iTunes but her iPhone 5s would not.




Interesting. My iPod Classic does start iTunes but my 3G iPod Touch does not.


Brian

Jul 4, 2015 6:49 AM in response to BrianInCalifornia

Same issue reported above with my iPhone 6. iTunes suddenly will no longer launch when I plug in my phone since the iTunes 12.2 update. Well... to be more specific, the problem occurred after the iOS 8.4 update installed Apple Music on my iPhone. When I first plugged in my phone after that update, I noticed that it no longer launched iTunes. I thought perhaps I had to perform the 10.10.4 OS X system update to restore that functionality - but even after doing that, it still won't launch iTunes automatically.

Jul 4, 2015 3:05 PM in response to steveburchett

steveburchett wrote:


Excellent! So it is a problem with iOS rather than Mac OS X. Now I can stop trying to fix my computer! 😝


As I said in the other thread I suspect it's a problem with iTunes 12.2 and not iOS. For example, the issue affects my 3G 64GB iPod Touch, which runs iOS 5.1.1. (That's the highest version of iOS it can run.) If it was a problem with iOS with iOS 8.4 it shouldn't have affected me. (I don't have any devices with that version.)


Brian

Jul 4, 2015 8:26 PM in response to PaullFtw

I am having the same problem with iTunes, and Photo's will not auto launch when iPhone or iPad is connected after upgrading to iTunes 12.2


However, when iPhone, or iPad, is plugged in, I can manually launch iTunes, and Photos, and sync without issue. Just the auto launch seems to be broken.


I have troubleshot the following, by first restoring the entire machine back to a week earlier, with the earlier version of iTunes installed, and verified that auto launch does indeed work on the older version of iTunes. iTunesHelper is visable in the login items tab. And verified iTunesHelper is running by using a terminal command, ps -ef|grep iTunesHelper, this also included repairing disk permissions, several times.


After upgrading iTunes again to ver 12.2, auto launch stops working, including Photos not launching anymore.

I have checked the iTunes preferences, and "Prevent from syncing ipods and iphones" is not checked, and the iphone and ipad are set to "Open iTunes when connected", and iTunesHelper is running, again, by using terminal, ps -ef|grep iTunesHelper. Again repair disk permissions were run.


I have uninstalled, reinstalled iTunes, rebooted, and still wont auto launch. Also, removed, and replaced iTunesHelper in the login items tab.


I have also checked the Image Capture preferences, "Connecting this iPhone opens" and set the drop down box to Photos, but in this case the setting never stays to Photos. Relaunching Image Capture again to verify the setting have returned to "No Application". Basically the option I choose, never sticks.


I have also deleted all the following plist files, com.apple.iPhoto.plist, com.apple.Photo.plist, com.apple.ImageCapture.plist, com.apple.iTunes.plist, and com.apple.iTunesHelper.plist. Rebooted, relaunched the programs, rebooted again, and autolaunch is still a no go.


Apple please help with this one, I for one like the fact that iTunes, and Photos would open when I plugged in my iPhone. At least before we had the option to turn it off, now we no choice.

Jul 5, 2015 7:22 AM in response to MickeyRI

Update:

After updating my iPad to the new version of iTunes, my Photos are now auto launching. However, iTunes still does not launch automatically. As previously stated the settings in Image Capture to open device with Photos would not stick. It appears now after updating my iPad, both the iPad and the iPhone, are now working again, and Photos now launches automatically. Still trying to figure out why iTunes won't auto launch.

Jul 5, 2015 10:14 AM in response to MickeyRI

Update: Fixed


The problem is with iTunesHelper.app


I restored an older version of iTunesHelper from time machine, and now auto launch is working fine again.


Make sure you restore just the iTunesHelper.app and not the entire iTunes application.


Open Applications, and right click on iTunes, show package contents, then open Contents / MacOS. Restore iTunesHelper.app ONLY, from Time machine, and reboot.


iTunes and Photos should now launch when connected to iphone or ipad.


Cheers.

Jul 5, 2015 7:38 PM in response to Vetdocjim

If you google itunes 11 download, you can find several repositories that have older versions of iTunes available for download. (here is a link to one of them, http://mac.filehorse.com/download-itunes/4338/

You should also download Pacifist, in order to use the tool, to uncompress, the iTunes dmg file, and just copy the iTunesHelper.app over to your iTunes applications path. If you have your original OS installation CD's, it would be located there as well.

Remember, you just want to replace the iTunesHelper.app in the Applications / iTunes / (then right click on iTunes and show package contents) / Contents / MasOS / iTunesHelper.app is located in this folder. This is why you might want pacifist, in order to break out the iTunesHelper.app from the dmg file of iTunes 11.

If you get an error stating iTunesHelper is in use,

Run this command from terminal ps -ef |grep iTunesHelper

MickeysMac:~ mickey$ ps -ef|grep iTunesHelper

501 421 1 0 12:07PM ?? 0:00.30 /Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunesHelper.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunesH elper

The process id from my example is 421, now use the command kill -9 421


Now try again to delete iTunesHelper.app and replace it with the older version from iTunes 11


If your not comfortable using terminal commands, and moving files, alternatively, you could also just uninstall iTunes 12.2 and install iTunes 11


Ultimately Apple should be addressing this issue.

iTunes won't launch when my iPhone is connected

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