iTunes Freezes When iPhone 3GS Connected

Question

When I connect my iPhone 3GS to my MacBook Pro, iTunes "freezes": the spinning beachball appears, and it will not respond to any mouse clicks or key presses. Activity Monitor shows iTunes as "Not Responding".

The iPhone indicates that it is being charged, and otherwise seems normal.

When I disconnect the iPhone, iTunes immediately returns to normal operation. Connect again, and instant freeze again.

I have rebooted the MacBook, and have reset the iPhone (held home+wake button until it reset). No help.

If I run Xcode (I'm an iPhone developer), it sees the iPhone and I can install and run software on the phone. So the problem seems to be isolated to iTunes, and not to the Mac as a whole.

Everything worked fine yesterday. I haven't installed software or changed anything since the last time I synched.

iPhone 3GS is running version 3.0.1. It is not jailbroken.

Mac OS X 10.5.8; iTunes 8.2.1 (6)

Solution 1

I also had the same problem with iTunes hanging on me, whether it is on my iMac or my MacBook.

I've just allowed it to hang for about 10 minutes or so, and indeed, iTunes unfroze!!!

=D

Solution 2

After I let it sit with iPhone connected and iTunes frozen for about twenty minutes, iTunes finally unfroze, and synched the iPhone. So everything is "fixed" for the time being.

I'll leave this question unanswered for a while in case the problem recurs, or anyone has any more information, or if other users have similar problems to discuss.

Comments

[Jasarien]

Is Xcode running at the same time as iTunes?

[Kristopher Johnson]

Xcode was running at the same time as iTunes, after iTunes had been running by itself for a while.

[Edward Wilde]

After a ~3 minutes iTunes started to respond and sync