Quick Fixes to iPhone Not Showing in iTunes

My iPhone is not showing up as a device in iTunes when it is plugged into my computer, how do I fix this?

I have tried restarting my computer and my iPhone but this didn’t help. My phone is connecting to the computer and it is showing up in my computer but it will not show up in iTunes. I’m not sure what else to do. Please help.

– A user from Apple Support Communities

As the official recommendation to manage iPhone iPad iPod touch, iTunes does not bring convenience to our lives, but get us into various troubles occasionally, such as the firmware is not compatible, the backup was corrupt or not compatible, iTunes error 14, and more.

Luckily, Our iMobie team is always by your side to provide practical solutions to various such problems. In this guide, we will focus on iTunes not detecting iPhone issues.

We know that when we connect our iPhone iPad iPod touch to iTunes, for backup, restoring, syncing, or others, it will show up the device icon. As shown in the picture below.

However, sometimes iPhone will not show up in iTunes, just like the user above. Even though your computer has detected your iPhone, iTunes still has the trouble of finding it. And you probably see an unknown error or an “0xE” error. If you get this trouble of iTunes not seeing iPhone, follow these methods below and try to connect your device again after each method:

6 Common Ways to Fix iPhone Not Showing in iTunes

Method 1. Make Sure of the Latest iTunes Working on Computer

One of the most common culprits with iPhone not showing up in iTunes is with the old iTunes. Especially you’ve recently purchased a brand new iPhone and are connecting it to an old iTunes on Mac or PC. A brand new iPhone will always need the latest version of iTunes. So if your iTunes is not up to date, upgrade it, and then re-connect iPhone to check whether it’s showing up in iTunes.

Method 2. Restart Your iPhone iPad iPod touch

Restarting a device is a very common but practical way for any errors. For iTunes not detecting iPhone, it is also useful in some situations.

Method 3. Reset Privacy and Location Permissions

This way works when you have tapped “Don’t Trust”. You must know when you connect your iPhone or iPad to a new computer, it will ask you to trust it. But you might have accidentally hit “Don’t Trust” when you saw the request pop up. This could also lead to iPhone not showing in iTunes.

Mostly, in such a situation, all you have to do is disconnect and reconnect your iPhone to your computer and it will prompt you to trust it again. But if not, try resetting Location & Privacy.

1. Go to Settings on your iPhone > Tap General.
2. Tap Reset.
3. Tap Reset Location & Privacy > Enter your passcode when prompted > Tap Reset Settings.

Method 4. Uninstall Third-Party Security Software On Mac

Security software created by companies other than Apple could prevent iTunes from connecting to Apple servers or to devices. Sometimes, you might see a numeric error message when you sync, back up, or restore your device.

1. Hold down the Option key > Click the Apple menu > Choose System Information or System Report.
2. From the list on the left, select USB.
3. If you see your iPhone, iPad, or iPod under USB Device Tree, uninstall third-party security software.

Method 5. Fix iPhone Not Showing Up in iTunes by Repairing iTunes

If the basic restarting/reinstalling methods cannot fix the issue, maybe you can try an iTunes repair tool – AnyFix. This is software that is designed to help iTunes users fix 200+ iTunes errors, including connection/backup/restore errors, like iPhone not showing up in iTunes and other installation/download/update, sync/CDB errors, etc.

Now, AnyFix released the newest version for you to download and you can follow the simple steps below to fix the error.

Step 1. Launch iTunes and click iTunes Repair from the main interface.

Step 2. Choose iTunes Connection/Backup/Restore Errors and tap on Scan Now button. It will scan the component errors your iTunes got.

Step 3. Click Fix Now button and then, you need to give AnyFix authorization on your computer. Next, AnyFix will start to repair iTunes immediately. Wait a minute and you will see the Repair Completed page.

Method 6. Update the Apple Mobile Device USB Driver on Windows

The missing or outdated Apple Mobile Device USB driver can cause your iTunes not to detect your iPhone, so you should update your driver to fix the issue. There are two ways you can update your Apple Mobile Device USB driver:

Option 1 – Manually:

You’ll need some computer skills and patience to update your driver in this way:

Step1. Disconnect your device from the computer.

Step 2. Reconnect your device. If iTunes opens, close it.

Step 3. Press the Windows and R key on your keyboard to open the Run command.

Step 4. In the Run window, enter %ProgramFiles%\Common Files\Apple\Mobile Device Support\Drivers > Click OK.

Step 5. Right-click on the usbaapl64.inf or usbaapl.inf file and select Install.

Step 6. Disconnect your device from your computer > Restart your computer > Reconnect your device and open iTunes to check if iTunes detects your iPhone.

Option 2 – Automatically:

If you don’t have the time, patience or skills to update the driver manually, you can do it automatically with Driver Easy. This software will automatically recognize your system and find the correct drivers for it. You don’t need to know exactly what system your computer is running, you don’t need to be troubled by the wrong driver you would be downloading, and you don’t need to worry about making a mistake when installing.

You can update your drivers automatically with either the FREE or the Pro version of Driver Easy. But with the Pro version it takes just 2 steps (and you get full support and a 30-day money-back guarantee):

1) Download and install Driver Easy.

2) Run Driver Easy and click the Scan Now button. Driver Easy will then scan your computer and detect any problem drivers.

3) Click the Update button next to the flagged driver to automatically download the correct version of that driver (you can do this with the FREE version), then manually install it .

Or click Update All to automatically download and install the correct version of all the drivers that are missing or out of date on your system. (This requires the Pro version which comes with full support and a 30-day money back guarantee. You’ll be prompted to upgrade when you click Update All.)

4) Restart your computer to take effect.

While, if you have tried all the methods above, and they don’t still fix the iPhone not showing up in iTunes issue, here are another three particular solutions in the following, when you plan to backup, restore, and sync music with iTunes. Check them now.

Fix iPhone Not Showing in iTunes When Backing Up

If you encounter iTunes not detecting your iPhone X/8/7/6s/6/5s when you would like to use iTunes to back them up. We sincerely recommend you an iTunes alternative – AnyTrans to help you with the job. And it can surely do the task better than iTunes. Here are some main features of it:

• AnyTrans can back up data quickly, even the whole device, normally 1-3 minutes, depending on the amount of your data.
• It provides two backup modes. You can back up your whole device, just like iTunes, but also selectively choose exact data types to back up to a computer, like contacts, messages, photos, notes, etc.
• Support media files backing up, songs, and videos, which iTunes cannot.
• Another outstanding feature is that AnyTrans enables users to view backup files, which iTunes definitely cannot. So you do not only save your iPhone data on the computer, can also access them anytime you want.

So why not download AnyTrans now, and follow the steps to backup your iPhone wholly and selectively?

Backup iPhone iPad iPod touch Wholly with AnyTrans

Step 1. Run AnyTrans on your PC/Mac > Connect your iDevice to it > Go to Backup Manager tab.

Step 2. Click Back Up Now. After it finishes backing up, you can now open the backup file to view all titles in it.

 

Backup iPhone iPad iPod touch Selectively with AnyTrans

Step 1. Go to the homepage of AnyTrans and tap on Device Manager. Choose the data type you would like to backup to computer. Here we take Photos as an example and choose Photos.

Step 2. Choose My Photos > Select the ones you want to backup > Click on To PC (or Mac) button to start.

Fix iPhone Not Showing in iTunes When Restoring

If iTunes does not see your iPhone when you plan to restore it from iTunes backup, you can get PhoneRescue – iOS Data Recovery to replace iTunes totally, which is an all-sided iOS data rescuing application.

PhoneRescue is good at getting back various iOS data from iPhone directly, iCloud backups, and iTunes backups. Different, or saying better from iTunes restoring, PhoneRescue supports previewing iTunes backup files. It means you can check whether the backup contains what you want before restoring.

Besides, you can also selectively choose what types of data to restore with it. There is no need to restore the whole backup file to iPhone. And the existed data on iPhone will not be erased, either. Totally getting rid of iTunes various restoring drawbacks. So why not give it a try now?

Restore iPhone iPad iPod touch from iTunes Backup with PhoneRescue

Step 1. Run PhoneRescue on your PC/Mac > Choose Recover from Backup > Click right arrow to continue.

Step 2. Choose the iTunes backup, which contains the lost data > Click right arrow > It will pop up a screen for Data Comparison option.

Step 3. And then another page pops up for choosing what kind of exact data types you would like to scan. Take Messages as an example > Click on OK button to continue.

Step 4. It will start scanning all photos in iTunes backup. After finishing, select the messages you would like to recover > Click on To Device button to download them to your device directly, or To Computer button to save them to computer.

Fix iPhone Not Showing in iTunes When Syncing Music

Using iTunes to sync music from computer to iPhone is the main usage of it. If iTunes is not finding your iPhone X/8/7/6s/6/5s, you cannot complete this job. However, with AnyTrans, you can do it again.

We know that iTunes music syncing only supports the songs purchased from the store, while songs from other sources cannot be synced. And syncing will erase your iPhone data. But with AnyTrans, you can transfer all songs on computer to iPhone, without any erasing. You can also transfer songs between iDevices, and from iPhone to computer. Download it now, and follow the steps to transfer all songs on computer to your iPhone.

Sync Music to iPhone iPad iPod touch with AnyTrans

Step 1. Run AnyTrans > Connect your iPhone iPad iPod to it > Go to Device Manager and click Music tab from the category box.

Step 2. Choose Songs option. Here is the function box on the top-right corner. Click Add button, and you can choose Import from PC or Import from iTunes.

The Bottom Line

For iPhone not showing in iTunes is definitely not the only iTunes error you may encounter, here are 6 common tips for you to fix iPhone not showing in iTunes, including an iTunes Repair tool – AnyFix. Moreover, we sincerely recommend you choose the best iTunes alternatives – AnyTrans to transfer or backup any data you need.