Installation failed: Can't install the software

I had the same problem when connecting iPad Pro (iOS 12.01) to a MacBook Pro (OS X 10.13.6). Changing the lightning cable did not help. Then I connected the lightning cable to the USB port on the HDMI port side of the notebook and everything worked just fine. I suspect that there is a problem with the USB port on the left hand side of the machine. I will try the following: http://osxdaily.com/2015/08/09/mac-usb-ports-not-working-fix/

Look back at the post in this series by rbcmsa....something like that. Anyways, they are pictures of the exact same dialog boxes that appear when I am in itunes trying to update an ipad. The ipad recovery process is crap. You can't go back and, you can't always get the 2gig download without three tries. Then, everytime you think you may have bricked your ipad after four tries of updating, the sixth try works. Yes, sixth.

If I ask the imac to go looking for updates, everything is current. So again back to the original post....What is this update?

[SOLVED] Hey guys, i had this problem too for a few days while trying to connect my iPhone 8 to iTunes. As you guessed it, click on install -> downloading item -> Installation failed. i am running the latest iOS 12.1 on my iPhone 8, latest MacOS Mojave 10.14.1 on my 27" iMac late 2013, and iTunes 12.9.0.164. All my Apps are updated as well.

Called Apple support, was told to Reset NVRAM and Systems Management Controller (SMC), and to check that my date and time was set correctly on my iMac. Was told to try different cables to connect my iPhone 8 to iMac, used my old original apple cable from my iPhone 6. All these DID NOT WORK.

I downloaded Xcode as well. DID NOT WORK too.

So i read here that some guys used different cables (no brand) and it worked. So i remembered i have another original apple cable in my car, gave it a last try and this time it WORKED. Finally i could connect my iphone 8 to iTunes. Previously i could have used my wife's iPhone 7Plus cable and it did not work.

So the moral of the story is -> try using different cables and try different methods because YOU NEVER KNOW!

Good Luck!!

Oh man! That's crazy. I was having the same problem with the software pop up that wouldn't install and the phone would sort of register in the Photos app then disappear and not show up at all in iTunes. So I tried a new cable like you suggested and sure enough it's working fine again. Thanks so much!

This thread is frustrating because the solutions were inconsistent and haphazard. Still, I tried several of them which did not work for me including rebooting all devices, and numerous cable swaps. I have Mac OS x 10.13.6, iTunes 12.8.0.150, iOS 12.0.1. Nothing worked until I downloaded and installed Xcode 10.1 and started it up, whereby it installed several components. Then everything worked. Thanks to all who contributed to possible solutions.

Well, here we are (see date/time of this post), and I'm also having this problem. Specs: iPhone 6S running iOS 11.4.1, 2015 MacBook Pro running macOS Mojave 10.14.1.

Before I address the "date and time preferences", I want to also add that while all the above mentioned alerts are happening, the electrical connection to the iPhone is rapidly toggling on and off. That's gotta be good for the battery (obvious sarcasm). That doesn't happen when I plug anything else into the USB ports.

The only thing that's different about my date/time settings between the devices is the city, but otherwise, everything else is the same.

Hi everyone, I just got off with apple support on this. Finally got it to work. So the thing is you need to use iPad cable to connect to iMac to sync. Don't use iPhone or any other cables. The issue immediately was gone once I used iPad cable.

An iPad cable, as opposed to an ordinary lightning iPhone cable … what will they think of next!

Well, here's what I discovered to do the trick: plugging in through my Mophee Juice Pack, the solution I would've thought least likely.

Same problem (including power flickering). XS max iOS 12.1, MBP 2013 OS10.13.6, iTune 10.8.0.150

Was using previous iPhone (genuine) lightning cable. Switching to cable that came with the new phone fixed the problem. I will need to label it to remember.

All lightning cables are equal but some are more equal than others! :-)

My daughter just upgraded her phone. We tried to restore her new iPhone Xs to a fresh, complete, encrypted backup on our iMac that was done this morning. We initially plugged her phone into the iMac using the reasonably new lightning cable that was already plugged into the Mac's USB, but iTunes wouldn't recognize the device and kept giving us a message that iTunes needed to install an update, but after clicking the "Ok" button, we got a message saying it was unable to download the update because it was not available on the update server. Then I tried using the lightning cable that came in the new phone case and voila, the phone immediately connected with iTunes and we could carry one with the restore. All went smoothly and she's up and running with her new Xs.

I was having the same problem. I shut down iTunes, I turned off my Wi-Fi, then I turned everything back on. I was also using a cord that was not from Apple, so I used the original Apple cord after I did all of that everything worked just fine.

I had the exact same symptoms and setup as everyone, switched to an older Lightning cable, and the problem went away, connected to iTunes, didn't have to download anything. Who woulda thunk it was a stupid "New" cable from Apple.

I solved this by the most non-intuitive of means. I just restarted my computer and then used the usb cable from the keyboard to connect to my phone instead of the one from the trackpad. Boom. No more bizarro messages like this that would prevent me from syncing anymore.

No serious solution that I’ve seen. For me, even though I got past this hurdle, I hit a second one. My intent was to backup my iPhone to iTunes, then restore to the new phone. Even though using the old cable allowed me to back up, no cable new or old let me restore (said it ran out of memory on the phone, which was not true). I ended up restoring from an iCloud backup, which worked. iTunes is a disaster.

PROBLEM SOLVED

Like previous users have stated before, I solved this problem by unconnecting all peripherals besides power. Then I turned WiFi off (weird I know). Lastly, I plugged my iPhone back into my computer with an official lightning cable, and it worked like a charm.

The big thing that got this to work was turning off the WiFi.