iTunes 12.13.3.2 Crashing During iPhone 14 Restore on Windows 11 Pro

Had the same problem.

Removed the Microsoft Store version of Itunes and installed the .exe version. Ran it as Administrator and then it worked.

https://www.apple.com/itunes/download/win64

Wow. A big time "THANK YOU" to @janfromfarum for posting a solution to iTunes crashing while updating iPhone.

Some details of my experience, in case it helps someone:

iTunes crashed for me in Windows 11 in the "updating firmware" step of updating an SE3 to iOS 18.2. And crashed with every subsequent attempt to Restore the phone, which left the phone unusable.

Installing the .exe version of iTunes, AND running as admin, worked to restore to factory settings.

However after the factory restore, iTunes would not restore the phone to the "backup to this computer" I had done prior to attempting the iOS update - the [Restore Backup...] button was greyed out.

I was able to restore the backup by installing the Apple Devices app, and restoring it from there.

Okay so I've had the most frustrating day with this, but I figured it out. I was updating my iPhone 11 to IOS 18.2 through iTunes when it crashed leaving my phone stuck on Recovery mode. This was followed by my phone no longer showing up as a device in iTunes. These are the steps I took to fix it:

1. Uninstall Apple devices, Apple TV and iTunes
2. install the newest version of iTunes off of the web after having deleted the apps previously mentioned, and run it as an administrator (thanks @janfromfarum)
3. The iPhone should show up again, but the 'update' might not work so I clicked 'recover'
4. Once recovered, iTunes might say you never made a backup for your iPhone (don't worry you did, it can be found on your C drive under users-> YourUsername -> Apple -> MobileSync). Uninstall iTunes once again and install Apple devices
5. From Apple Devices you should be able to restore your backup, so let your iPhone do its thing after that

Main Takeaways here, iTunes and Apple Devices only seem to work properly when they are installed at separate times, and no deleting and reinstalling these apps won't get rid of your backup. I hope this helps and I hope Apple fixes this issue soon. Cheers.

Thank you very much @janfromfarum and @appleetr2007.

I had to:

1. Uninstall iTunes
2. Reinstall iTunes https://www.apple.com/itunes/download/win64
3. Run iTunes as Administrator
4. Restore iPhone (15) - That have me a factory reset iPhone
5. No backup available via iTunes even though the file exists
6. Uninstall iTunes
7. Install Apple Devices from Microsoft Store
8. Restore most recent backup (found on your C drive under users-> YourUsername -> Apple -> MobileSync) which takes FOREVER
9. Cross fingers and say may prayers
10. It worked!
11. But, still the iPhone needs updates on all the apps and some settings need to be redone.

Thanks again to people that provided such good info. It saved me a trip to the Genius bar tomorrow.

Have a happy holiday and a great new year.

Yes!

THANK YOU.

I had major, long problems updating my iPhone 13 Mini from 18.1.1 to 18.2 today - hours of frustation.

iTunes (up to date, as I came to discover - it was not immediately evident in the original program) on Windows 11 Home crashed repeatedly during the update, leaving the iPhone stuck with about 2mm of progress on the Update screen - that or the restore screen. I tried repairing and resetting the program, two cables, different USB ports (and types of port), the Vol up/ down/ side-button reset several times in the course of the other changes ...

I installed the Apple Music and Devices apps - no joy there, even with Azeem's guidance in the MSoft store to uninstall iTunes before installing Devices - before seeing janfromfarum's post here. Out went the Music and Devices Apps, in came the .exe version of iTunes, and the download was repeated - after which the installation went ahead without any problem whatsoever.

I am mightily relieved.

Thanks again, janfromfarum !

I hope that for the remainder of time that you have on this earth, that both side of your pillow remain cool to the touch through the night. Bless you.

Hi. Thank you so, so, so, so, so, much for this fix. My update kept crashing iTunes about halfway every time and I was losing my mind because I thought I was going to lose all the wonderful photos of the most special people in my life that I (regrettably) did not make any backups of (never making that mistake again). I did some digging and thought I was most certainly doomed. But with the right phrasing in my web queries I came across this thread and the solution worked first try. I was so confident that it was not going to work, that I was going to have to live with this mistake forever. But sure enough, it did, and here I am with my first ever post to this community, to say thank. you. so. much. <3<3<3

I am an amateur ... smarter folks will hopefully jump in ...

but the first thing I would do is inspect my list of installed programs

and see if any/all of the following are installed:

1. Apple Music
2. Apple TV
3. Apple Devices for Windows

If they are installed, uninstall them, reboot, and try again.

I still no go, uninstall & reinstall iTunes

The programs above and iTunes do not play well together :-(

Jim

This worked 😭😭 you're a hero

Just giving my thanks to @janfromfarum for the best response!

Thanks for the steps! I have never used Apple Devices, so that was a big help. However, as part of the failed update, Apple iTunes did not create a backup somehow and I had to restore from a backup 6 months ago and lost a whole vacation worth of photos. Usually, I manually backup before an update, but somehow I skipped this part. (I also normally download photos after a trip, but got lazy.) And then it took over an hour to get my phone back to normal. Thanks Apple for a terrible app and unrecoverable loss of photos/data. Apple stuff used to "just work", but that is no longer the case.

The answer is that you should always manually backup your phone before an update and NEVER try to update through iTunes. Also, don't get lazy.

Thanks @janfromfarum , this worked perfectly.

I love you, the time this was posted is a blessing. I had a heart attack and everything but because of all of you, I got everything back!

Thanks, iTunes was not seeing my iPhone & uninstalling Apple TV fixed it.

Good news! I was able to restore my iPhone by plugging it into a different PC