Fix it: Cannot Sync iPhone with Any Computer

1. Version =1.1.3
2 Unlocked yes
3 Jailbroken – Yes
4. Not sure as I have uninstalled most of downloads
6. Itunes version 7.6.2
5. Did not try Mac ..but have tried diff PC’s
7. Yes tried diff cables
7. Yes only USB cables ..are there others ???
9. No computer (s) do not acknowledge iphone
10. No
11. Yes have tried a soft reset as well as a Reset through Settings on iphone..where I chose Reset all Settings
12. Yes I do have a full backup ..
13. cannot seem to place iphone in recovery mode using ur instructions as nothing happens ..have held the home button down for more than a minute and have tried a couple of times ..!!!!!

Ok. Some quick thoughts back.
1. You are a version behind. The installer may have done something weird.
2. If you do a recovery, you may run into some trouble unlocking again. You can probably install 1.1.3 manually. At the end of this post I will point you to a post (that is a bit out of date) but tells you how to do that.
3. OK
4. Ok
5. If you can, try a mac to see if it even recognizes it.
6. So, you have the current version of iTunes. Good (I believe)
7. OK
8. There are firewire cables which you can use to charge only but not sync.
9. No beep or anything?
10. OK
11. OK
12. Good
13. So for the recovery mode, read this “Reboot your iPhone holding the top (power) and home buttons BUT release the top button 10 seconds into it (right after the screen goes dark) and continue to hold the home button until iTunes detects the phone in recovery mode. The iPhone screen will appear to be off, but start iTunes if not started yet .”

You might want to read through some of this post: http://www.hightechdad.com/2007/11/16/iphone-new-easier-release-of-112-jailbreak-application-released/
It talks about some ways to restore from a previous version of the firmware. It’s outdated a bit. Also, the instructions are pretty Mac-centric.

Best best is if you can get the phone into recovery mode, you should be able to get your iPhone connected again. BUT I’m not sure of the consequences with UNLOCKING. You may run into issues. Did you unlock it yourself?

Post back and good luck!
-HTD

HI
To No. 9..thats right no beep or anything .

It seems to me that the problem revolves round the fact that I cannot seem to put the iphone into recovery mode.
I can reboot the phone but I cannot put it inot recovery mode using the instructions given . I have held the home key ( my fingers went into fatigue mode) but itunes does not recognise the presence of iphone and nothing appears on the iphone screen . I have to than reboot ( hold both home key and pwer key ) till the apple icon appears and the phone than ( after a while ) get’s back to live again .

I think I somehow need to force the phone to go into recovery mode …which should than allow me to connect to itunes and than hopefully be able to start all over again .

I bought the phone unlocked ..

Yes, getting it into Recovery Mode is tricky. Do a search for that and see some of the other techniques that people had to get it there. Let me know what works.

-HTD

Ok, try these steps for setting into recovery mode:
1) Disconnect your iPhone form computer
2) Press and hold the power and home buttons at the same time for about 30 seconds. You should see a yellow triangle with an “!” with the text “Please Connect to iTunes”
3) Connect your iPhone to your computer and fire up iTunes (if it doesn’t start automatically)
4) You should see a prompt that iTunes detected an iPhone in recovery mode.
5) I believe at this point, you can choose the firmware you need following the instructions that I outlined and you have downloaded the appropriate one.

Let me know if it worked.
-HTD

Hello, I am having similar problems,

What version is your iPhone? 1.1.4

Has it been unlocked? Yes

Has it been Jailbroken? Yes

What were the 3rd Party Apps that you recently added? Unsure

Have you tried both Macs and PCs with iTunes? Yes, 3 PC’s and 1 MAC

What version of iTunes are you using? Older version, wouldn’t work, tried upgrading to latest still doesn’t

Have you tried different cables? Yes 4 different cables.

Are you using USB cables only? Yes

When you plug in your iPhone to the computer, does it acknowledge that it is attached? No.

When plugged in to the computer, does your iPhone charge? Yes, it charges the battery, but the iphone doesn’t know its charging, the battery indicater will still stay on empty, but phone will last very long time, if I turn it off and back on, then the indicator will increase.

Have you tried a Soft Reset? Yes

Do you have a full backup of your iPhone from a previous sync? No.

Have you tried to put your iPhone in recovery mode? Yes, However itunes still will not recognize the iPhone. I am unable to get the yellow exclaimation screen others report, however I can get a screen showing a cable and the itunes logo.

As with jeb above I can go as far as getting the screen to show a cable n the itunes logo ….. and after 3 weeks of googling and stress have decided to give up . Suspect that the port on my iphone is stuffed ……

My Iphone gets detected by itunes, but then when i click the iphone page, only the word Iphone appears and nothin else. i try draggin music into there but nothin would happen. how do i fix this?

1. What version is your iPhone?The first one: 8GB 2. Has it been unlocked? i dont know what this is 3. Has it been Jailbroken? No 4. What were the 3rd Party Apps that you recently added?none 5. Have you tried both Macs and PCs with iTunes?No 6. What version of iTunes are you using?7.2 7. Have you tried different cables Yes 8. Are you using USB cables only Well, i can only charge from my Docking Station 9. When you plug in your iPhone to the computer, does it acknowledge that it is attached (through sound or visual)?No 10. When plugged in to the computer, does your iPhone charge? nope 11. Have you tried a Soft Reset? (Hold down the home button and the power button until it restarts and you see the Apple logo showing)Yes 12. Do you have a full backup of your iPhone from a previous sync (and do you care if you lose anything…I hope not).yes 13. Have you tried to put your iPhone in recovery mode (Turn your phone off. Press and Hold the HOME button and plug in your iPhone into your Mac or PC. Continue holding the HOME button until you see a yellow triangle and the text “Please connect to iTunes”. Release the HOME button. Open iTunes, if it isn’t already open and see if it is recognized now. You might be prompted to restore or recover. This may take a bit of time.)Didnt work

Hmmm. That is a tough one. What happened when you went into recovery mode? Or are you saying that it didn't work? It is tricky to get it to that mode. Try starting iTunes first and then do the Recovery process. Turn your phone off, press the Home button and then plug it in (you may or may not see the warning message about recovery). Keep trying it until it is recognized. If it still isn't, bring it in to an Apple Store.-HTD

Maybe is has something to do with the software beeing broken, or worse, its adapter

33 weeks after this post, and you saved my @!@#$@$! Thank you much

Yea my iphone is doing something simular. computer doesnt recongize the iphone and doesnt charge when hooked up with the usb. I tried multiple USB data cords. My iphone isnt jailbroken. I have itunes 8.02 the most recent. I tried the soft reset and it doesnt work. I even tried turning it off and it TURN BACK ON! I have a full back up. Also i tired the outlet charger that it came with and it doesnt charge. But i use a Ipod outlet charger and it works i think its a Firewire outlet charger. But say if i put my iphone in recovery mode will i brick it bc i cant connect to itunes?

Putting your phone in recovery mode and connecting to iTunes shouldn't brick your iPhone. It will, hopefully, put your phone into a state where iTunes CAN connect to it and reset it. It will fully erase everything on it.Good luck!

ok i put it in recovery mode…it showed the connect to itunes logo…and my itunes was closed nothing happened…opened itunes..still doesnt see my iphone. tried putting it in recovery mode while itunes us running…still nothing. I guess ill have to get it sent in. thanks anyways

I have been having a hard time getting my Iphone to sync to Itunes. I kept getting an error message that Itunes did not recognize my Iphone. I tried #13 and put my phone into recover mode and I finally was able to sync my Iphone to Itunes. Thank you for this information it was very helpful. I have been to the Mac store three times and on the phone with Apple Care and no one else has been able to help me.

Glad that it worked for you! I'm surprised that the Apple Store Genius Bar nor Apple Care could help.
-HTD

What version is your iPhone? 3.1.2
Has it been unlocked? NO
Has it been Jailbroken? (I’ m assuming in this case “Yes” because you say that you loaded some software) NO
What were the 3rd Party Apps that you recently added? NO
Have you tried both Macs and PCs with iTunes? Just use PC's
What version of iTunes are you using? iTunes 8
Have you tried different cables (You answered “Yes”)
Are you using USB cables only (iPhones won’t sync with Firewire)
When you plug in your iPhone to the computer, does it acknowledge that it is attached (through sound or visual)?
When plugged in to the computer, does your iPhone charge? (I’m assuming not) YES
Have you tried a Soft Reset? (Hold down the home button and the power button until it restarts and you see the Apple logo showing) NO
Do you have a full backup of your iPhone from a previous sync (and do you care if you lose anything…I hope not).
Have you tried to put your iPhone in recovery mode (Turn your phone off. Press and Hold the HOME button and plug in your iPhone into your Mac or PC. Continue holding the HOME button until you see a yellow triangle and the text “Please connect to iTunes”. Release the HOME button. Open iTunes, if it isn’t already open and see if it is recognized now. You might be prompted to restore or recover. This may take a bit of time.)

My question is I am unable to sync my applications or even music or videos using iTunes, I use different computers to sync my iPhone, and one in particular but that particular system too has greyed out everything on me and doesn't allow me to sync either songs videos, photots or applications…. and gives me a warning that I will loose all the apps or songs on my iPhone and whatever songs, apps..are present in the iTunes library would be added to my iPhone. I want to keep existing songs, apps.. and also the new apps and songs from this itunes can it be done. Thanks for helping

My problem is slightly different. My itunes keeps telling me it cannot read the iphone content and that it needs to be restored. I got this phone 2 month ago, just after 3.1 came out and everyone was losing their unlocks. it was JB and unlocked when I received it. I have never connected to itunes and received anything other than this message. I can't back up, and I can't sync. other than that the phone works fine.
1. Version =3.0.1 3GS
2 Unlocked yes
3 Jailbroken – Yes
4. not sure… it came all effed up like this :(
6. Itunes version 9.0.2 (completely uninstalled and reinstalled from apple site today)
5. Did not try Mac, don't have one. have not tried another PC yet
7. Yes tried diff cables
7. Yes only USB cables ..are there others ???
9. Yes, the computer recognizes it w/iTunes and AutoPlay
10. Yes
11. Yes
12. No, i've never been able to back up… will i lose all my contacts or will they be safe on my SIM?
13. No… afraid to lose my unlock and my content that can't be backed up.

Any help would be greatly appreciated… it's annoying not having my music, but my phone works fine and i'd rather not lose that by trying to fix this.

It's tricky when you inherit a device that has already “had the work
done” on it. Part of the process that I used in the past really did
involve first syncing and backing up on the same machine (so that you
have the ability to restore later after you JB the iPhone). The
jailbreak process is pretty easy actually, and you should do it soon
before Apple further locks it down. I cannot guarantee that anything
will work so you do it at your own risk. First you could try to
restore and see if that puts the data on there. It “shouldn't”
overwrite your OS assuming you don't upgrade (when it prompts you).
However, I was able to JB on the latest version of the firmware w/o
issue, including ATT activation and restoring my apps/music/photos/etc.

Worst case, you lose the JB (are you on a different carrier than ATT?
I have no need to do an Unlock so I can't talk to that process). Then
you have to start from scratch. So, you would just install the latest
firmware, then sync to your iTunes (for later restore), then use the
appropriate JB/Unlock app, then restore your data. It does take a bit
of time.

LMK how it goes. Good luck. Again, you do this at your own risk so
don't blame me (or the JB dev team) for any issues – grin!

I'm not an iPhone owner (yet) but I've had all sort of phones. Sony Ericsson phones have this problem. They won't sync just to any computer although they should. It never happened to me with Nokia phones though.
___________
Mathew Farney – Web Hosting

I am not able to sync my iPhone as when I connect my iphone to the computer with itunes open it says that 'This iphone cannot be used because the Apple mobile device service is not started '

Hi there, am stress with similar problem with my iphone 3gs16g (version 3.1.2(7D11) Modem firmware 05.11.07) to my pc.(windows xp sp3, intel celeron 2.53GHz processor, 760mb ram). I hv tried every tutorials on the web but problem still unsolved. Pls help. Tks.

1.What version is your iPhone? >>3.1.2
2.Has it been unlocked? >> not locked
3.Has it been Jailbroken? >> not jailbreak
4.What were the 3rd Party Apps that you recently added? >>None, only from apple store
5.Have you tried both Macs and PCs with iTunes? >>Yes, it can work/sync with my friend Macbook.
6.What version of iTunes are you using? >>9 (downloaded the latest version, reinstall few times)
7.Have you tried different cables? >>No, you meant the cable from phone to pc? I only have one cable provided with the iphone.
8.Are you using USB cables only (iPhones won’t sync with Firewire). >>Using the white cable from the iphone. Sorry what is Firewire??
9.When you plug in your iPhone to the computer, does it acknowledge that it is attached (through sound or visual)? >> Yes, promted “iphone” found by hardware manager but failed to install. After the searching process prompted “The device cannot installed properly etc… Data is invalid”……
10.When plugged in to the computer, does your iPhone charge? >> No
11.Have you tried a Soft Reset? (Hold down the home button and the power button until it restarts and you see the Apple logo showing)>> Yes i did.
12.Do you have a full backup of your iPhone from a previous sync (and do you care if you lose anything…I hope not). No, no back up was previously made.
13.Have you tried to put your iPhone in recovery mode (Turn your phone off. Press and Hold the HOME button and plug in your iPhone into your Mac or PC. Continue holding the HOME button until you see a yellow triangle and the text “Please connect to iTunes”. Release the HOME button. Open iTunes, if it isn’t already open and see if it is recognized now. You might be prompted to restore or recover. This may take a bit of time.) Yes, the phone screen appeared a connector sign arrow to itune that's all, nothing else happen then. And my pc hardware manager also prompted “iphone iboot (recovery) found” but still the same after that showing problem occured in installation, data not valid.

Although my pc specs is kind of old, but the requirements needed to install the iphone should be enough, tested with friend Macbook is working fine. Therefore shouldn't be the iphone's fault. Dun tell me i have to change a pc just to sync with the iphone? :(

Hi dad. Thank you for the prompt reply.Yes, I used the same cable on my friend's Macbook. I on Windows Xp Home Service Pack 3. (Is this what you meant on “version”) Very likely is a driver/software issue as every installation of the iphone to my pc failed. When i connect the phone to the pc usb, it shows found new hardware “iphone”, then i select install it automatically and it searches then will show “the hardware was not installed bcos the wizard cannot find the necessary software” When i choose to install from specific location, the wizard searches and prompted ” there was a problem installing this hardware – iphone”, There is no driver selected for the device information set or element.
I also have just tried again removed everything in order manner from a tutorial from apple site and reinstall e latest itune AGAIN and yet still same problem face.
I will now try yr suggestion using the revouninstaller to fully remove itunes and all apple software and try install again…….. Thanks.

I am still thinking through things here. Did you check your window
error logs? There should be something in there that will give you some
additional details. Also, take a look at your windows services and be
sure the apple and iPod services are started and running.