iTunes sees my iPhone, but Windows 7 x64 doesn't

windows-7 usb 64-bit iphone windows-explorer

5,771

Solution 1

Anecdotally, I have seen (in the Apple support forums) that a similar issue has been solved by installing an older version of iTunes, specifically, downgrading from 10.2.1 to 10.0.

Solution 2

Workaround (FWIW): This isn't technically an answer to my question, but it's solved my actual problem, which is that I need get photos and videos off the iPhone. I've installed the CameraSync app ($1.99), which connects to my Dropbox account to automatically and continuously uploads my camera roll. It also connects to iDisk, FTP, S3, Flickr, and Box.net.

5,771

Herb Caudill

Updated on September 17, 2022

Comments

Herb Caudill over 1 year

After reinstalling Windows 7 (64-bit), it has stopped recognizing my iPhone. I can see it in iTunes but not in Windows Explorer, so I can't get the photos off. I'm having this problem on three different machines and two different iPhones (my wife's and mine). It's maddening.

I've had every version of iPhone since it first came out and I've never had this problem before.

I've uninstalled and reinstalled iTunes (currently at 10.2.1.1). I've updated iOS on the phone (currently at 4.3).

In the device manager, this is what I see:

Here's the properties screen for the unrecognized iPhone:

And here's what I get after going through the "update driver" process:

Any ideas? At the end of my rope here...
- goblinbox about 13 years
  
  You upgraded three different machines to Win7, and none of them can see either of your iPhones?
- Herb Caudill about 13 years
  
  @goblinbox - That's correct, except they were running Win7 before (& playing nicely with the iPhones) but all were recently reinstalled from scratch (scorched-earth approach to virus removal).
- goblinbox about 13 years
  
  Probably a dumb question, but have you run Windows Update to be sure these fresh installs have all the patches and hotfixes?
- Herb Caudill about 13 years
  
  @goblinbox: Yes, Windows Update is up to date.
- Jared Harley about 13 years
  
  Have you tried using a new iPhone cable or a different USB port on the computer? I wonder if it's not recognizing it because of a short in the cable. As well, should you need to, you can make an appointment at the nearest Genius bar and see if they can figure out what's wrong - it could be something wrong with the phone's dock connector.
- user3333603 almost 13 years
  
  Have you seen this thread (from 2009) yet?
- Herb Caudill almost 13 years
  
  Nano8Blazex: Thanks, just read through the thread; these people are clearly having the same problem, but there's no solution posted there beyond a soft reset (does nothing for me) and reinstalling the drivers (which I've tried as described above).
Herb Caudill about 13 years

Thanks for the suggestion. I tried uninstalling and downgrading iTunes, first to 10.1 and then 10.0; still have the same problem, and now iTunes is unhappy about the library from the more recent version, so I think I'll go back to 10.2.
goblinbox about 13 years

Ugh. Well, it was the best information I could find. :-(
Herb Caudill almost 13 years

No, please re-read the question. iTunes sees the iPhone. Windows doesn't.
Herb Caudill almost 13 years

The only problem with this solution (and the reason why I'm offering a bounty) is that CameraSync doesn't delete photos from the iPhone. If I can't open the iPhone's photo folder in Windows, the only way to delete photos on the phone is one by one, which takes forever.
Sharken almost 13 years

If you look at the top of the link where it says Symptoms, one of them is "An exclamation point, question mark, plug symbol, or "X" appears next to the device's entry in Device Manager.". This fits your description.