ios8 and itunes sync issues - help required

[bambam]

Hi

After spending hours on this last night with no success, I thought I'd see if anyone here could help. Summary is:

- Laptop running XP
- itunes 10.7
- iphones 4s running ios 8.1(or whatever is the latest)

When I connect the iphone 4s it doesn't appear in itunes at all. I can see it on the machines under Devices, but in itunes. This is my daughter's iphone and she updated to ios 8 (we are all still on 7) and wanted me to add some music to her iphone. Hence the need to connect to itunes. We only really sync or update ipods via the laptop and are happy with itunes 10.7 as it is. The laptop is a bit old so I would rather just leave things as they are!

So after many hours trying to make sure that the Apple mobile device support files are installed on the device etc, I'm now thinking that maybe the issue lies with itunes 10.7 not being to see or sync a device running ios 8.

Is this true?

If so, what are my options? Ideally, I'd like to leave itunes as it is.

Thanks and hoping someone can help.

[PJ S]

There are other apps available which will let you put music on the daughter's iPhone, so you can leave your setup as is.
I've never used anything but iTunes, so can't advise on which ones to bother with, but a search should pull up a few, and from feedback, screenshots, you'll be able to decide which one to go with.

[Skier]

You need iTunes v12.0 or later to work with iOS 8.0 or 8.1.

[Franky Four Fingers]

It doesn't always auto-detect, have you made sure there isnt an icon on the lower task bar which is saying something like " an Iphone is trying to connect " or words to that effect?

I had this several weeks back and thought I was being really stupid until I found out I was.......check the lower task bar!!

[bambam]

You need iTunes v12.0 or later to work with iOS 8.0 or 8.1.

Hmm, that's what I suspected. If I reset the phone completely, any idea what version of iOS it will fire up with?

It doesn't always auto-detect, have you made sure there isnt an icon on the lower task bar which is saying something like " an Iphone is trying to connect " or words to that effect?

I had this several weeks back and thought I was being really stupid until I found out I was.......check the lower task bar!!

I did check this, but although the laptop could see the phone, it wasn't visible in iTunes at all. When I ran the diagnostics via iTunes, it failed on device sync and connecting to device - basically kept saying 'no iPod, iPhone etc. connected'.

[KurtKlaus]

If you reset it, it will still be iOS8 I'm afraid.

[PJ S]

The device does not need reset, but if you do, it'll be iOS 8.x – whatever is installed on it presently.
You will not be able to revert to iOS 7.

iTunes will need to be a newer revision, as Apple have made it such that newer versions of iOS require the latest version of iTunes for compatibility.
An element of it will be forced obsolescence of the hardware and/or the OS on the main computer being hooked up to – the latter more likely the case for Mac users, which Apple can control as opposed to Windows, which still has a massive contingent of XP users.
There might be security issues with older versions' iCloud access, etc.

Personally, I'd clone your existing setup onto an external drive, using Norton Ghost or anything better (probably the only useful thing Norton has released), and then update it with the latest version of iTunes.
If you like it and can get on with it (main change is in appearance), and the daughter's iPhone connects without a problem, then update the one on the internal drive.