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iTunes: Fix iPhone or iPad Not Detected in Windows 10

iTunes: Fix iPhone or iPad Not Detected in Windows 10

By Mitch Bartlett 124 Comments

I recently upgraded to Microsoft Windows 10 and found that iTunes no longer detected my Apple iPad or iPhone. Here’s how I fixed it.

Fix 1

  1. Ensure the latest version of iTunes is installed.
  2. Plug your Apple device into a USB port on your computer using the included USB cable.
  3. Ensure your device is on the Home screen. If there is any prompt to “Trust“, select to trust the device.
  4. In Windows, select “Start“, then type “Control Panel“.
  5. Select “Control Panel” in the list of items to open.
  6. Select “Devices and Printers“.
  7. Your iPhone or iPad should be displayed in the “Unspecified” section. Right-click it and select “Properties“.
    Note: If you don’t see your device listed here, ensure you have selected to trust the PC on the device and you are using a supported cable.iPod Device Properties option
  8. Select the “Hardware” tab, then click the “Properties” button.Hardware Properties button
  9. From the “General” tab, select the “Change settings” button.Change settings button
  10. Select the “Driver” tab, then select “Update Driver“.Update Driver option
  11. Choose “Browse my computer for driver software“.Browse my computer for driver software option
  12. Select “Browse…” then navigate to “C:\Program Files\Common Files\Apple\Mobile Device Support\Drivers“. If you don’t have this folder, check in “C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Apple\Mobile Device Support\Drivers“. If you still don’t see it, try uninstalling and reinstalling iTunes.
    Note: Since a few of you have messaged me that you still don’t see this folder, I have zipped up the files and made them available for download here. Unzip the folder somewhere, then point Windows to the files.
    Apple device driver location
  13. Click “Next” > “Close“.

Your Apple device should now be detected successfully within iTunes.

Fix 2 – Ensure Services are Running

  1. Select the “Start” button, , type “services.msc“, then press “Enter“.
  2. Ensure the following services are set to start automatically and are started:
    • iPod Service
    • Apple Mobile Device Service
    • Bonjour Service

FAQ

Why don’t I have the “Drivers” folder?

It is possible your installation of iTunes didn’t include it. Uninstall and reinstall iTunes and the folder should be re-created.

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Comments

  1. Anna says

    Can anyone help me please. Got an iPhone XR, syncing music was never a problem before, but now whenever I click the sync button, It does the syncing-like-thing like before but the music won’t transfer to my iPhone anymore. I have uninstalled my iTunes on Windows 10 then installed it again. I checked my storage. I even click the reset button on my iPhone but still I can’t sync music. Please help.

  2. Mike says

    I have to let you know, the zip file you provided saved my life.
    Stupid Apple removed Driver/ from itunes, reinstall doesnt make any changes.
    I wonder they know how ridiculous they are with these feature broken.

  3. Julian says

    You can´t imagine how much you helped me! I was looking for the driver file for around 4 hours and I just downloaded your and as magic, ITS WORKED!!!! Thank you!

  4. Ana says

    Thank you so much! I’ve read so many articles to try to fix the problem, finally I found this one.

  5. Long DK says

    My PC was missed “Apple mobile device USB driver”. So I download your file “iosdrivers.zip” and import it as your guide. It’s worked.
    Thank you so much.

  6. Joel says

    Absolute lifesaver! Had to extract your loaded zip drivers. I must of wasted about a days worth of time on this, but your fix works great and fixes within minutes. The driver is key to itunes adding your iphone , and allowing the ‘trust’ prompt. Honestly this is the ONLY fix, great job!

  7. Doug S. says

    On a new PC, the original admin user downloaded iTunes from the Microsoft site. A subsequent user downloaded iTunes from the Apple site. iTunes would recognize an iPhone, but not an iPod.
    Running the Windows Services app showed that the Apple Mobile Device Service and Bonjour Service were running, but no iPod Service.
    The user uninstalled and reinstalled iTunes to no effect. It was only after the iTunes installed from the Microsoft site for the admin user was uninstalled (which may have had some negative impact on the iPod Service) that an uninstall/reinstall from the Apple site fixed the problem and all 3 services were then running.

    Recommend going through each possible user installation of iTunes and uninstall. Then reinstall only from the Apple site.

  9. Maze says

    Hey Guys ,

    thanks a alot for this .. it worked . I downloaded the drivers folder from this page . copy and pasted in the Apple mobile folder as per step 1-12..
    it worked!!!!!

    Thank you..

    Maze from South Africa

  10. Em says

    Thanks so much for sharing this, so glad I came across this post as I was going nuts trying to figure it out!

  11. Nobodyimportant says

    Didn’t work, I have Win 10 with latest udpates. Bought a used 6th gen iPod Classic and had to download drivers. But they wouldn’t install, I get “The best drivers for your device are already installed.”

  12. Nick says

    Thank you so much. You’re a hero. Got my girlfriend an Ipod Touch for her birthday and spent the day trying to put music on it for her with no success. After hours of searching I found this and your .zip folder and voila. Thank you very much good sir!

  16. Louis Rodrigues says

    I listen to a lot of music on my iPhone and having just upgraded my work PC to run Windows 10, I couldn’t sync any music. Your step by step fix was super-awesome along with the zipped folder containing updated drivers. Thanks a lot. Best wishes.

  17. mike says

    I love you Mr.Mitch Bartlett.

    I have spent countless hours installing and uninstalling iTunes. Trying multiple cables and ports on my computer. Following apples terrible troubleshooting tips and this worked immediately. Thanks again.

  19. abhinay says

    The zipped ios Driver is the only thing that worked on my Win10 laptop :) .
    Thanks very much.

  20. Mike says

    I have tried everything I could find on the web… The zipped file that is part of this article is the ONLY thing that worked for me. Thank you

  21. Rodrigo says

    Thanks! in my case I had to download the driver files from the internet and it worked!

  22. Amalia says

    Thank you for attaching the folder of drivers! I’ve been messing with this for a couple of days trying to get it to connect. I downloaded those, and the rest of the process was easy peazy.

  23. Hari says

    Hello my iPhone 7plus shows on iTunes and showed all installed apps but doesn’t accept to synchronize. When I try to synchronized on iTunes, it says : “This iPhone iPhone 7Plus can not be synced. An unknown error occurred (-54(.

  24. Bobby says

    Thank you! I tried to solve this for over an hour with various methods including reinstalling driver and uninstalling/reinstalling iTunes (I work as an IT tech BTW) but I think because I was installing from Microsoft store the drivers were not included and the Microsoft MTP drivers that were being installed only asked me to “Allow” to access pictures but not to “Trust” the device. Your zip file saved me with the drivers. I think if I installed from Apple website maybe the drivers would have been included but anyway I got it sorted with your zipped drivers.

  25. John Terdik says

    I downloaded your drivers and used them to update my Windows 10
    Two of the services you mention are NOT listed in my Services window
    iPod Service
    Bonjour Service

    Initially, Apple Mobile Device Service was manual, I changed it to automatic

    Still I cannot see the iPad in the Windows File Manager when I view “This PC”
    I’ve rebooted my PC, the iPad. When I connect the iPad I hear the PC confirming something has been connected (bing). On the iPad I see window to TRUST PC, I select TRUST and then I’m prompted for the iPad password. I enter it, the window closes, on the PC I cannot see the iPad.

  27. Aki Rina says

    Good day! I have a Windows 10 PC and in the following steps stated:
    “Select “Devices and Printers“.
    Your iPhone or iPad should be displayed in the “Unspecified” section. Right-click it and select “Properties“.
    Note: If you don’t see your device listed here, ensure you have selected to trust the PC on the device and you are using a supported cable.”

    I have numerous problems:
    1. No Trust Prompt appeared (if ever this could be a problem)
    2. Device wasn’t found under the folder
    3. BUT the iPad was charging, thereby, I guess I’m using a supported cable (?)

    Also, let me note on the following:
    1. There was no support driver so I had to download it.
    2. The desktop set-up I have is quite confusing as it had three drives: C, D and E. On all said drives, I couldn’t find a single Apple folder under Program Files.
    3. But iTunes is up to date somehow, somewhere.

    I am sorry if this is confusing. I just recently got a hand me down iPad wherein I have to back up the data. Thank you.

  28. ThankfulCommenter says

    Thanks dude. First one worked. Also I tried another USB port. Many thanks.

  30. Bill says

    It helps if the iTunes is downloaded from Apple.ca
    But it does not work with iTunes App from Microsoft Store. There is no Apple Mobile Device Services, iPod Services neither the driver for iPhone. If I tried to download the driver (from an old file), I need to erase all Ms iTunes before it runs. But, since last year update, iTunes (from Apple.ca) has failed to work properly. Only solution is to use MS Store iTunes. Every time I plug in my iPhone 10x only Photo App is activated but not iTunes automatically. I need to manually start up iTunes. Any solution ?

  32. Lesmana says

    Thank you very much. Fix 1 work for me. The drivers file saved me a lot of time.

  35. Javier Rosero says

    Thanks a lot, I tried with Windows Update and didn’t work, try to download the drivers manually and try other programs and asked me to subscribe and pay a fee. You are great, keep it up..

  38. Mikhail says

    Hi, I have a slightly different problem: when I connect my iPhone to my Windows 7 computer everything works well, AutoPlay window pops up and I can transfer pictures to my PC. For some reasons it is not the case with my iPad mini: no AutoPlay window and I don’t see it under Computer file structure in Windows Explorer. At the same time i do see it in iTunes, so I can transfer videos and music files to the iPad mini. I tried both solutions that you recommended above and nothing helps. I can’t find a way to transfer photos from my iPad to PC. My iPad mini has the latest SW installed, no support for Windows 7 any longer but this problem had existed long before support for Windows 7 was stopped. Any recommendations on how I can have this problem solved? Thank you in advance.

  40. Cole P Thompson says

    I don’t have an iPod Service on the computer that does not recognize my iPhone.

    I then went to another computer that does recognize my iPhone, and it doesn’t have this service either.

    Is it named something else or do they no longer use that service?

  41. Musab says

    Yo this guy is a lifesaver. Been trying to figure this out for hours and he came up with the only solution that worked.

  43. Amikatt says

    Your Fix 1 worked – I needed to copy your zipped files and create folder structure to drop drivers into. Thank you! Seems the Microsoft Store version of the iTunes installer isn’t doing the full job. (I tried uninstalling and reinstalling multiple times before I found your post.)

  44. Olaf Blancho says

    Hey,
    I have done exactly what you have said, but my computer tells me that the file does not contain a compatible driver (or that the driver is not made to function on Windows 64) , do you know what is the problem ?
    Thanks !

  45. Teresa says

    I have tried everything but my iPod Classic is still seen as a generic USB driver (named F:) by my computer. iTunes doesn’t detect it. After trying the first method (no results), I’ve gone through the second one: the Bonjour and the Apple Mobile Device Service are up and automatically running, but the iPod Service is missing. Every time I try to open the F: driver, things freeze. I am pretty desperate. I don’t understand if the problem is the iPod or my computer (which I’ve reinstalled just today).

  47. Shakir says

    Your Rock !! Spend more than 30 mins with Apple support person but he was not able to fix it. Followed your simple steps and yup my iphone 7plus is now connected to the iTunes. Appreciate.

  49. Ed Love says

    You fixed my iPod Touch not being recognized by iTunes in Windows 10!
    Your instructions were simple and quickly fixed my missing Driver.
    Thank you very much!

  51. jeffB says

    Thank you so much for this write up and for linking the drivers. Was finally able to fix my broken install! Appreciate it!

  53. Klubags says

    I went through these steps several times. Always the same error message following insertion of the USB cable with my iphone “The required software is not available for you to be able to connect your i-phone to itunes ” or something along those lines.

    I replaced the version of itunes on my computer with the version of itunes that I downloaded directly from the Microsoft website. That fixed the problem..

  55. Laura says

    Thank you so much! After doing a million other things as suggested by apple and Microsoft, this is the first thing that actually worked! I spent hours trying to remedy this, now finally it worked!

  57. Jon Lee Strough says

    Thank you so much been a rough 2 days trying to figure this out on my own.

  60. Evan Tinker says

    This was a huge help! And the only way I was able to get it to work was because you posted the drivers. Thank you for sharing your expertise!

  62. Harweth says

    Win10, Iphone 8Plus, Problem solved, thank you! I also did not see the folder so I downloaded the drivers you have shared with us. thank you!

  71. Mr. Fixit says

    In case it helps someone, “Search automatically for updated driver software” worked for me while the “Browse…” option did not.

  74. Dennis says

    Hi – followed everything step by step and when I go to load the drivers from your ZIP file I get the following message – The best drivers for your device are already installed. Windows has determined that the best driver for this device is already installed. There may be better drivers on windows Update or the device manufacturere’s website.

    I realize this is not Apple’s fault but rather Microsoft’s but I can’t utilize my Ipod or music which stinks.

    Thanks

  75. Mohamed Cader says

    Thank you so much for the very useful information. I was able to download the drivers from your link and install it on my Laptop. iTunes worked perfectly after that.

    Cheers!

  76. Erman says

    I never usually post messages but I wanted to than you for sharing this information and the driver folder too. Much appreciated!!

  77. Seth Bollinger says

    It wouldn’t work for me, when I clicked on properties I couldn’t see the hardware button. What do you think I should do?

  78. Katerina says

    Thank you so much for the information provided and especially for the drivers folder! It helped me a lot!

  80. Jonathan says

    Thanks a Lot, Fix 1 worked fine, once I browse the Program Files and Common files, It recognized right a way. Nice and easy steps, helped I was struggling with all the cables and USB Ports for days. thanks

  81. Tim S. says

    Yes, Fix 1 worked for my iPhone X. For some reason, with the new version of iTunes, it didn’t recognize the iPhone anymore. It took less than a minute to fix once I found your page. Thanks!

  83. Cath McG says

    Thank you so much for making it easy. Your folder with the drivers saved me from being admitted to the asylum (hyperbole!)

  85. Sherine Dias says

    Thanks a ton man!! i just deleted some files and had to restore the things back when i tunes started acting up!

  96. Steve says

    Mitch! You are awesome, dude. Thank God I found this site, and your zip file. That was what was needed. I did not have the “Mobile Device Support” or “Drivers” file folders . . . even after re-installing iTunes . . . so I created these folders manually, and placed your zip files in the “Drivers” folder . . . and voilà! iTunes worked. I greatly appreciate your help.

  103. Ben says

    Thank you so much! I didn’t have the folder, Unzipped your files, installed and it worked perfectly. Thanks again, You saved me a ton of time.

  106. Monique says

    Cannot BELIEVE the performance to get a new 6s plus set-up but at least I got this step to work with your tip! Thanks!

  107. Inger Lise says

    I had to connect it to an USB 2 port, It wasn`t recognized when connected via USB 3. ( Old Iphone to Windows 10)

  108. sam125 says

    i tried ur method of unzipping ur given downloadable file but then it shows u are already having the latest drivers and it cant update any further and it still shows the device in the unspecified list and not coming in itunes as well

  111. Harj says

    Thank you so much for this fix! For some reason after updating iTunes, the iPod drivers were corrupted and a reinstall didn’t work, but after following these instructions it’s all fine again. Very much appreciated!

  113. Steve Koszylowsky says

    Thank you so much Mitch! While your solution didn’t work exactly as laid out, it pointed me to a solution that did.

    I was good up until Select “Browse…” then navigate to “C:\Program Files\Common Files\Apple\Mobile Device Support\Drivers“. If you don’t have this folder, check in “C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Apple\Mobile Device Support\Drivers“

    The problem was I didn’t have the Mobile Device Support file so it ended there. However…at the bottom of that box (in blue under Search for drivers in this location) I clicked on Let me pick from a list of available drivers on my computer.

    The next box showed Apple Mobile Device USB Device (the only option). I clicked on it, pressed Next.and…voila!

    When I reopened iTunes the symbol recognizing my iPhone was showing and a sync was initiated automatically.

    Thanks again!

  115. Bob says

    Uninstalled and reinstalled itunes 4 times and still do not get an Apple folder under either Common Files folder. When Automatic is selected it says it has most current version. Have latest Windows 10 and latest iphone IOS installed. Anyone else have same and found success?

  116. Janet says

    Yes, worked for me. Thank you for the clear directions. I was not able to find the “C” folder, but I typed in what you listed, and I found it worked like a charm. Thanks very much.

  119. Mark G Sherman says

    I was still having trouble till I tried a different cable. Seems not all cables are the same.
    Thanks for your help!

  120. Demar Grant says

    Fix 1 worked perfectly and immediately after I implemented it. Thanks man, good looking out.

  121. STEPHEN WILLIAMS says

    The “Browse My Computer blah blah blah” didn’t work because after re-installing iTunes 4 times (NOTE: you have to remove ALL Apple software not just iTunes!) I still did not have the “Apple” subfolder, so I selected the ‘”Search Automatically…” and kazaam! Windows says it loaded the driver software and now my iPod Touch 4 works! praise the lord, it is now recognized, clicked on the iPod icon in iTunes, then I clicked on the Music tab on the left pane, then select “Synch Entire Library”… it is now copying 3,000 songs onto my new Touch 4… gawd whatta frustrating ordeal this was (caused by my iPod Nano 7 dying) Thanks for pointing me in the right direction

  123. Amy Brown says

    Same as Jill above. No response when I right click Apple iphone. Only option is to left click and remove device.

  124. Jill says

    Right clicking apple iphone did nothing at all.
    I have reinstalled itunes so many times…still no iphone driver on my pc.

    I should not have uninstalled my older itunes as it all worked well with my phone..
    But thank you.

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