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I’ve got an early 2009 iMac running El Capitan and an iPhone 12 running iOS 17.0.1.
After the update the phone no longer shows up in iTunes but iPhotos does pick it up. After downgrading back to 16.6.1 it shows up in iTunes again.
Is there anything I can do? Or is this iMac just too old?
Same thing with me. I had absolutely no issues with the connectivity between iphone and my Black Cylinder running El Capitan until I upgraded to 17.1.1 on my iphone last night. After wasting an hour chatting with Apple folks my options were told I should just buy a new computer. I explained I am using quite a few older programs for my work that may not function with a newer operating system and since there was no problem, why chnage it. Now that Apple has messed up the pairing with their update I'm really in trouble.
Apple has really changed over the years and not for the better. I've been a customer since Apple began but I'm going to seriously look back into other options going forward as their support is terrible.
Same thing with me. I had absolutely no issues with the connectivity between iphone and my Black Cylinder running El Capitan until I upgraded to 17.1.1 on my iphone last night. After wasting an hour chatting with Apple folks my options were told I should just buy a new computer. I explained I am using quite a few older programs for my work that may not function with a newer operating system and since there was no problem, why chnage it. Now that Apple has messed up the pairing with their update I'm really in trouble.
Apple has really changed over the years and not for the better. I've been a customer since Apple began but I'm going to seriously look back into other options going forward as their support is terrible.
the tech specs state it needs
iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max - Technical Specifications - Apple
Rudegar wrote:
• the tech specs state it needs
macOS Catalina 10.15 or later using the Finder
• macOS High Sierra 10.13 through macOS Mojave 10.14.6 using iTunes 12.9 or later
iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max - Technical Specifications - Apple
That's the wrong link. The OP said they had an iPhone 12.
iPhone 12 - Technical Specifications
"Syncing to a Mac or PC requires:
If the OP is running a version of iTunes earlier than 12.8.2 – or is not sure what version of iTunes they are running – downloads for El Capitan are available here.
If the issue is that iOS 17 has changed the system requirements (cannot sync with El Capitan / iTunes 12.8.2), then the OP's iMac is (now) too old. For an early 2009 iMac, El Capitan is the end of the line.
The OP claims to have downgraded from iOS 17.0.1 to iOS 16.6.1. I thought that downgrading iOS wasn't possible except in the special case of uninstalling a beta test version.
Rudegar wrote:
the ios version is always what sets the requirements of the computer and itunes, it's never the computer hardware, same deal with apple watches really.
In that case, it looks like
Scott Bernard wrote:
New Info/ Half Solved
My normal system is a fully updated High Sierra with the highest possible iTunes allowed = It will not update support files to connect to my iPhone 13 mini, my iPhone 12 Pro, or my iPhone 15 Pro Max (all on ios 17.0.3). Sometimes it prompts for them, but fails to download and gives me a network related error.
I have no idea what about my normal system is different from the clean install, but at least now I know they CAN work correctly, and I just have to keep hunting for the problem.
More info/ Improved Solution!
Explanation:
In my case, I discovered that the failure to download the faceless support update error, was caused by a larger problem that needed to be fixed. We found the main problem, but not what was causing it in order to fix it. A Clean Install and migration is the best workaround instead.
The Main Problem:
It seems there is something local stopping connections to at least swscan.apple.com, but we don't know what/where it is in order to fix it in-place.
Do you have the same main problem?
1. First, I suspect you have to be on High Sierra to have this problem. I installed multiple Mojaves and they were all error-free.
2. Second, check for these related errors to the main problem. Errors 1-3 are the easiest to test for, but maybe some of the other errors look familiar too.
1) Can't add Google or Yahoo email accounts to Internet Accounts pane.
2) Software Update failing on High Sierra: (NSURLErrorDomain error -1012.)
3) iOS 17, iPhone not showing up on 2009 iMac iTunes. (this thread)
4) Can't download High Sierra full installer.
5) other unspecified "server" or "connection" errors.
3. Third, do 1-3 occur together? If you have 1 or 2 of the errors, but a 3rd one works fine, you likely don't have the problem described above, and this solution would be overkill.
Conclusion
If you think you have this main problem too, I would definitely do a Clean Install, per instructions at the top of this post.
4thDuckman wrote:
Same thing with me. I had absolutely no issues with the connectivity between iphone and my Black Cylinder running El Capitan until I upgraded to 17.1.1 on my iphone last night. After wasting an hour chatting with Apple folks my options were told I should just buy a new computer. I explained I am using quite a few older programs for my work that may not function with a newer operating system and since there was no problem, why chnage it.
I take it that by "black cylinder", you mean a Mac Pro (Late 2013). That computer shipped with some version of Mavericks or El Capitan – but it can run anything up to Monterey.
Even if you don't feel like upgrading your main startup disk to High Sierra or later, you could download a newer version of macOS and install it onto an external drive. In that scenario, you'd also make a copy of your iTunes Library on the external drive (and let that copy go through whatever conversion is needed for the newer OS.)
No need to buy a new computer. If you installed Monterey on the external drive, that would be a big jump, but there would be the bonus that Monterey would be one of "the most recent three" for roughly a year – until the successor to Sonoma came out. That might help if you were looking to run current applications.
How to download and install macOS - Apple Support
If you install Catalina or higher (Catalina, Big Sur, Monterey):
Now that Apple has messed up the pairing with their update I'm really in trouble.
Apple messed up on communication by not calling out the requirements for the Mac directly, in connection with the iOS version. This gives the false impression that the minimum requirement is based on the hardware model of your phone, and that you should be able to upgrade iOS freely, without also having to upgrade your Mac to keep on managing that particular phone.
Then when you upgrade IOS (as they strongly encourage you to do), and can't roll it back (because they don't allow iOS downgrades, by design), you may be in for a nasty surprise. That Mac that you had reason to believe would always be able to manage your phone, now can't manage your phone.
If you have a 2013 Mac Pro, you actually can upgrade your version of macOS (even if only on a secondary boot drive, used for managing your iPhone). Not everyone is so lucky.
Servant of Cats wrote:
High Sierra should be able to manage iPhones running iOS 17 – but it will require a new release of iTunes (12.9) to do so. One that hasn't shown up at iTunes - Apple yet – but that might be accessible through the https://itunes.com/download• link in the Technical Specifications for any of the iPhone 15-family phones.
• El Captain and Sierra cannot manage iPhones running iOS 17.
Tried the iTunes download link. It's still 12.8.3.1. I even re-installed it. No change.
Which iPhone?
The iPhone tech specs will tell you the exact minimum OS required to sync.
Apple - Support - Technical Specifications
If you meet the requirements, and it just doesn't work, then you may have a different problem.
If you are below requirements and don't want to upgrade your OS, you can do Servant of Cat's external drive upgrade suggestion above.
Scott Bernard wrote:
Which iPhone?
The iPhone tech specs will tell you the exact minimum OS required to sync.
Apple - Support - Technical Specifications
Except when they don't. The specifications may tell you that, for instance, your iPhone 12 can be managed by a Mac running El Capitan 10.11.6 and iTunes 12.8 (or better).
iPhone 12 - Technical Specifications
What they don't tell you, and what Apple doesn't tell you elsewhere, is that when you upgrade that iPhone 12 to iOS 17, it will no longer be possible to manage that phone from a Mac running El Capitan or Sierra.
If you meet the requirements, and it just doesn't work, then you may have a different problem.
Yes, Apple's failure to document changes in the real requirements, from one iOS version to another.
Users are given no reason to believe that the requirements will change, either in the Technical Specifications for their phone, in the advertising for new versions of iOS, or in the notifications to install new versions of iOS.
Scott Bernard wrote:
Glad I found this thread.
I AM on an iPhone 15 pm, and a mid-2010 MacbookPro, running High Sierra. Same situation, Photos app can talk to the iPhone 15 fine, iTunes 12.8.3.1 doesn't even see it to say it's incompatible. Yes, iPhone 15 specs say High Sierra should be fine, but it isn't
I think iTunes 12.9 is what came on Mojave. I don't expect a new version for High Sierra.
In the past, when I bought new iPhones and plugged them into the MBP, iTunes would prompt me to okay a faceless support update in order to work with the new iPhone. It doesn't do that for the iPhone 15.
Any new thoughts since last post?
The Technical Specifications for the iPhone 15 clearly mention High Sierra, Mojave, and iTunes 12.9.
You might want to contact Apple and find which of the three is the case.
I recently saw an Apple bulletin which mentioned that they were cutting off the ability for newer devices from working with older systems, but there was no specific details in that document on which devices or operating systems were involved and would be dropped. I assumed it had to do with AppleIDs & iCloud compatibility, but it would not surprise me that an older OS would be unable to access the new iOS.
Apple probably changed either the APIs used to access features, or those APIs are now returning data in an incompatible format for such an old OS to understand. I am familiar with this because of how difficult it is to access features on an iPhone when using a Linux OS on my computer. The data is there, but not in any easily parsed format.
I'm only aware of one open source project which attempts to utilize the iOS API to access "publicly" allowed interface to iOS, but this is a command line only set of tools which probably won't help much if the data is stored in a different format. I don't know if there are any macOS apps which would support iOS 17 and be able to translate the data into a format accessible by an older version of macOS.
The photos are available because the iPhone is being seen as a camera device.
Glad I found this thread.
I AM on an iPhone 15 pm, and a mid-2010 MacbookPro, running High Sierra. Same situation, Photos app can talk to the iPhone 15 fine, iTunes 12.8.3.1 doesn't even see it to say it's incompatible. Yes, iPhone 15 specs say High Sierra should be fine, but it isn't
I think iTunes 12.9 is what came on Mojave. I don't expect a new version for High Sierra.
In the past, when I bought new iPhones and plugged them into the MBP, iTunes would prompt me to okay a faceless support update in order to work with the new iPhone. It doesn't do that for the iPhone 15.
Any new thoughts since last post?
I actually already talked to them about this because I wanted to use itunes to upgrade to ios 17 on one of my older iPhones. Rather than looking into the failing support updates, the agent was insistent that I just update to ios 17 via OTA. To them, that solved the problem, and the session was over.
New Info/ Half Solved
My normal system is a fully updated High Sierra with the highest possible iTunes allowed = It will not update support files to connect to my iPhone 13 mini, my iPhone 12 Pro, or my iPhone 15 Pro Max (all on ios 17.0.3). Sometimes it prompts for them, but fails to download and gives me a network related error.
I did a clean install of High Sierra onto a thumb drive. The full installer was downloaded from Apple 2 days ago and is almost fully updated at time of install. It looks like it only needs a couple security updates. However it includes an outdated iTunes. I installed the highest possible iTunes allowed, the installer downloaded from Apple yesterday = Now suddenly the thumb drive High Sierra saw my iPhone 13 and iPhone 15 (IPhone 12 traded in), prompted me to install the support updates, and SUCCESSFULLY downloaded and installed them. Both phones pop up in iTunes and work as they should!
I have no idea what about my normal system is different from the clean install, but at least now I know they CAN work correctly, and I just have to keep hunting for the problem.
the ios version is always what sets the requirements of the computer and itunes, it's never the computer hardware, same deal with apple watches really.
iOS 17 iPhone 12 not showing up on 2009 iMac iTunes.
