iPhone Update?

[Born2Fish]

Ok we are at wits end trying to update the iPhone. It says all we have to do is plug it into the computer and bring up iTunes and then update the phone. Well every time I plug the darn thing into the computer iTunes does not recognize it. I tried restarting both the phone and the computer...nothing. I did a quick update on the computer...nothing. Nothing seems to work and I can't really find any information on what I need to do or what to try. Does anyone have any idea of where we can start, short of actually calling either apple or at&t? Thank you very much in advance!

[Jim Almquist]

Are you sure that your USB cable is good ?

Can you go to My Computer/Computer and see it show up as a device.

Is there any dust or gunk were your USB cable connects to the phone ?

[upnorth]

I will add that you might want to try a different USB port on the PC, they do occasionally go bad. You could also try plugging a different USB device in to see if it will recognize a different device.

[Scott K]

Make sure you have itunes set so that it opens automatically when you plug in your phone.

[Born2Fish]

Well the computer is almost brand new. So there is no problems with the usb ports. I have used the ports for plugging in my camera to put pictures on the computer. The USB cord I am using is the one that comes with the iPhone, and it is also basically pretty new too. I haven't set iTunes to open when I plug in my phone though. I will try that out and see if maybe that will work. Also I might add, that when I plug it in and go to "My computer" it does not show up as a device. All it will do is charge the phone.

[Jim Almquist]

I really think that your USB cord is bad. If you know of someone with a IPhone that would let you try there cord it would be a good first step in trouble shooting your problem. Even without Itunes working or on your computer it should at least show up as a storage device.

[Shack]

Cables can be a pain and especially any of the aftermarket ones. Does not sound like this is the case though.

First have you rebooted your PC with the phone still plugged in? If not try this first. No go, than follow below.

Head into devices and printers and let us know what windows is classifying the iPhone as.

Control panel>Hardware and sound>devices and printers.

You should see it listed as this:

Under devices and this:

Down on the bottom as unspecified.

If not, right click the icon Apple device or unknown device that is listed and run the trouble shooter.

If the trouble shooter does not fix it, then try to uninstall how the iPhone was installed as, reboot and re-plug back in.

Control panel>Hardware and sound>Device Manager

It should be listed as this:

If not try updating the device drivers by right clicking and selecting update drivers. If a "no go" solution, uninstall, reboot and plug in.

I have run into this when trying to fool Win7 that my iPhone 4 is a Windows phone and have messed around with the drivers, but also have noticed it can happen on its own and iTunes will not see the phone because it is installed as an Apple camera, imaging device, etc... This can happen after a Windows update or for other reasons.

I assume you are upgrading to 4.3.5? Should go smooth, but FYI do a manual sync/transfer of the device and purchases prior. Also take note that it is backing up when the upgrade first starts. I am running iOS 5, beta 6 and using iCloud and things should be pretty cool when 5 comes out on an RC level. One thing that is nice about iOS 5 is there will be no more having to hook up to a PC and upgrading through iTunes. The phone upgrades itself over WiFi or your G platform. Not sure how this will play out with the RC as previous beta 4's had this and there have been some bugs, but it is looking as it will be released in the official iOS release to customer/consumer/candidate.

[Jim43]

Guess it might be a ATT issue.

[delcecchi]

Could also be that you need to update itunes or mobile-me.

[Born2Fish]

I will give that a try Shack thank you! And del I did upgrade iTunes before I even tried to do the update. I will try what Shack suggested and get back. Thank you everyone for the input. It is greatly appreciated.

[Shack]

I hope it works for you B2F. I was messing around with iTunes this morning and remembered something that you can try also. It most likely will not work because iTunes has to see the iPhone, which it is not, but may help out in some way or help others.

If you go to the menu bar on top and click on help, then Run Diagnostics, iTunes will do some simple connectivity and sync tests:

Could be worth giving it a try. If it is not being seen as iPhone or the drivers got tossed around, than this will most likely do nothing. Let us know how it goes.

[BoxMN]

I have occassionally had iTunes NOT recognize my iphone or ipad after having the other plugged in and synched in the same Windows session. Had to reboot Windows. Now they work fine, between iphone 3gs, iPad, and iPod TouchHD. BTW, I am not an big Apple fan, use them for work but I do like them. I still say that the iOS4 update made my 3GS slower...

[Mike Wallace]

You may have to authorize your computer to sync with iTunes.

Open iTunes. Under the heading "Store" go down to authorize computer.

ITunes will not automatically sync if this isn't done.

Good Luck.

[Shack]

Mike, that is a very good point you touched on. Once and a bluemoon and right after (prior to as well) an iOS or iTunes update, the PC or Mac hosting iTunes will need to have this done. Even though it will come back with a message of the computer already authorized, the action needs to be done again to satisfy something on Apple Store's end.

In this case the iPhone is not even showing up in the "computer" folder as an external storage device/drive. Windows is not recognizing the iPhone correctly and preventing it to be viewed and accessed in the proper fashion. Cord damage or not being compatible is very common and it was brought up above, but it sounds as though the cable is fairly new and has been known to work. It really sounds like an improper driver issues. We will see though.

If it turns out not to be a driver concern, let us know if you are seeing any error coeds B2F.

[SkunkedAgain]

Another thing to consider is that you've got lint and crud packed into the receiving port on your iphone. This happened a bit to my old ipod classic. A good blow of air can clean it all out. I learned after all that to keep my ipod and iphone pointed down when in my pocket, so that less lint and other stuff floating around in the bottom of my pockets gets packed into the port.