iPhone isn't recognized by iTunes

I have been having trouble with my iTunes for about a month now. Mainly two issues so I'll explain the best I can.

It began when I was trying to sync my dads iPod to my iTunes. For whatever reason his iPod would not become recognized by iTunes, even though it had been used with it before numerous times. He has the newest iPod Nano, and I at the time was updated with iTunes as well. I tried restarting my computer, uninstalling iTunes, reinstalling iTunes, and nothing worked. I still have not found a solution for that.

My next problem began after I wanted to put some songs onto my iPhone that had been transferred to my library from my flash drive. After I tried plugging in my iPhone, it would not show up in my devices. I have a iPhone 5 32gb, and my iTunes software is update (I fixed that as of 08/28/2016). I have unplugged all the USB ports from my computer and only plugged in the device, and I have ran diagnostics, restarted my computer and device. And also checked that my iPhone is up to date as well. Anything will help, and all advice is welcome. Thanks!