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User profile for user: loupalladino
loupalladino Author
User level: Level 1
11 points

Like others, I can't get iTunes 12.8 to detect an iOS 12 device.

I have an older iMac that I specifically upgraded from 10.10 to 10.11 in order to support a recently-upgraded iPod (iOS 12). I've done the whole "unplug device/re-install iTunes 12.8/unlock device/plug-in device" about a thousand times over the past 2 days and I never get prompted to install the additional update. Has anyone else discovered any other workarounds here? I know the iPod works just fine because Photos on the same iMac can detect and import pics and I also tried the iPod on another 10.11 system, which immediately prompted me to install the update - I didn't even have to reinstall iTunes.


On the 10.11 system where it works, in Console, I can see both iTunes and "MobileDeviceUpdater" working together querying the device. The "MobileDeviceUpdater" ultimately says "MobileDevice reports the device needs an update. Asking the user to update." I never see the MobileDeviceUpdater thread on the system that isn't working. The last piece I see is iTunes saying "BootedOS device needs updated MobileDevice.framework; ignoring device." And that's it.


Is "MobileDeviceUpdater" part of iTunes? How does that get broken here?

Posted on Oct 17, 2018 11:32 AM

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User profile for user: loupalladino
loupalladino Author
User level: Level 1
11 points

Posted on Oct 17, 2018 12:39 PM

I was able to resolve the issue and here is what I did, in case it is helpful to anyone else. While researching the error message from Console about a damaged "MobileDevice.framework" led me to a couple of docs about Xcode:


https://github.com/ios-control/ios-deploy/issues/349


A software update is required to connect to your iOS device / iPhone - Ask Different


Since I had an older Xcode 6.4 install that I upgraded to 8.2.1 earlier today to see if that solved the problem (it didn't), I wanted to poke around this "MobileDevice.framework" stuff to see if it was indeed a part of Xcode. I noticed that the timestamps on the directories were from when I upgraded Xcode to 8.2.1 this morning.. and I also noticed that "MobileDeviceUpdater" was a ".app":


/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/MobileDevice.framework/Versions/Current/Resour ces/MobileDeviceUpdater.app


I went to that directory and manually ran it just to see what it would do (maybe fail with a permission error or something) - and it immediately opened the window telling me I had to install an additional update to use the mobile device. I clicked Install and *poof* - back in business.


I'm not sure the tie-in here with Xcode and iTunes - what happens on systems that don't have Xcode? Does this MobileDeviceUpdater.app not exist? Or does it and if you install Xcode, it gets "updated" with Xcode's version and mine was old/broken/busted? Dunno.


Anyway - tt2, thanks for helping. My kids will be thrilled as this iMac is their "syncing station" and they all have iOS 12 now and will be back in business.

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User profile for user: loupalladino
loupalladino Author
User level: Level 1
11 points

Oct 17, 2018 12:39 PM in response to loupalladino

I was able to resolve the issue and here is what I did, in case it is helpful to anyone else. While researching the error message from Console about a damaged "MobileDevice.framework" led me to a couple of docs about Xcode:


https://github.com/ios-control/ios-deploy/issues/349


A software update is required to connect to your iOS device / iPhone - Ask Different


Since I had an older Xcode 6.4 install that I upgraded to 8.2.1 earlier today to see if that solved the problem (it didn't), I wanted to poke around this "MobileDevice.framework" stuff to see if it was indeed a part of Xcode. I noticed that the timestamps on the directories were from when I upgraded Xcode to 8.2.1 this morning.. and I also noticed that "MobileDeviceUpdater" was a ".app":


/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/MobileDevice.framework/Versions/Current/Resour ces/MobileDeviceUpdater.app


I went to that directory and manually ran it just to see what it would do (maybe fail with a permission error or something) - and it immediately opened the window telling me I had to install an additional update to use the mobile device. I clicked Install and *poof* - back in business.


I'm not sure the tie-in here with Xcode and iTunes - what happens on systems that don't have Xcode? Does this MobileDeviceUpdater.app not exist? Or does it and if you install Xcode, it gets "updated" with Xcode's version and mine was old/broken/busted? Dunno.


Anyway - tt2, thanks for helping. My kids will be thrilled as this iMac is their "syncing station" and they all have iOS 12 now and will be back in business.

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User profile for user: loupalladino
loupalladino Author
User level: Level 1
11 points

Oct 17, 2018 11:45 AM in response to turingtest2

There you are - I was expecting some sort of reply :-) You have been quite helpful to lots of others on this issue, so thank you for them and myself!


The first roughly half of my attempts were using that order - unlock/plug-in/reinstall - and that didn't work. Additional digging landed me here on this post - If your iOS 12 device isn't recognized by iTunes, you might need to upgrade macOS or iTunes - Apple Support. That suggested a slightly different order, so I said what the heck and tried it, too.

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Like others, I can't get iTunes 12.8 to detect an iOS 12 device.

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