I upgraded to iTunes 11 today and my iPhone rarely shows up in iTunes. It almost never does through wifi (even though wifi syncing is on) and if I connect it with a USB cord, I have to restart the iphone for it to recognize that it is connected.
What could the problem be? (iphone is not jailbroken and has latest iOS and Itunes is just updated) and how could I fix it?
This is a partial answer, pertaining to the wifi problem. Upon re-reading the question I understand that the device may not appear when connected via USB either. I'm waiting for more information from the OP before tackling that. Meanwhile, this will be helpful to those suffering from the wifi sync issue, and might resolve the OPs problem:
iTunes not seeing the iOS device(s) is a fairly common and annoying problem with wifi syncing. I'm uncertain as to if it's a true bug or is a system conflict within certain environments.
First, you absolutely do not have to nuke your entire iTunes setup.
Generally you can get iTunes to recognize the missing devices device(s) by opening Activity Monitor (Mac OS) or Task Manager (Windows) and killing the AppleMobileDeviceHelper service. Note: you don't want to uncheck (remove) the service in Windows, you just want to kill or restart it.
If that doesn't work, you can connect the device to the computer and use iTunes to deactivate, then reactivate sync over wifi. You need to apply the changes for both actions—just clicking the checkbox twice in succession won't do it.
Neither of these solutions are permanent, though I can sometimes go months without a reoccurrence.
References:
Apple Knowledgebase: iTunes 10.5 and later: Troubleshooting iTunes Wi-Fi Syncing
OS X Daily: Wi-Fi Sync Not Working? Here’s How to Fix it for All iOS Devices
AppleMobileDeviceHelper, unplugging USB, and re-plugging worked for me. (Yosemite/iTunes v12/iOS 8) Thanks!
This happens to me, too. The computer is connected by ethernet to the wifi router. Sometimes exiting iTunes and the re-launching works to get iTunes to see the iPhone. (And connecting the iPhone to the computer by cable always works.)
This is definitely an iTunes bug. What you can do is, on the iPhone, go to Settings > General > iTunes Wi-Fi Sync > and tap Sync Now. That often starts a sync, and adds the iPhone to iTunes, but not always for me.
For me the following worked under Windows:
Turning off wifi and turning it back on has always worked for me. It was actually a more chronic problem before iTunes 11.
This method works 100%... Well, there may be some exclusions regarding the battery life of the iPhone, iPad or iPod. I'd say as long as the device has 30% + battery life remaining or it's currently being charged that this will absolutely work.
I found that the easiest thing to do is to reboot your wireless router. This anyone can do easily and with consistent results. Immediately upon the normalization of the network iTunes would recognize all devices that are available and setup for remote wifi sync.
I'm assuming this works due to a DHCP event forcing some type of broadcast to iTunes. The reboot causes a device to be reissued it's previous IP or be issued a new one. This occurrence forces a device to assert it's ip address (wether old or new) with all listening network devices, in this case iTunes. It's kind of like a change of address form from the post office.
Oh, snap! Sorry I didn't see that someone else had suggested the same thing.
I had the same problem, but I figured it out. Click the button in the upper-rightish of the iTunes window (the one that says "iPhone" and has an eject symbol). If you click that button, it will switch you to a familiar iPhone-view window where you can manage your iPhone.
Delete literally everything that has to do with iTunes or Apple from your computer. Start all the way over and download everything again. It was that simple.
