iPhone 6s Plus (OS 14) Unable to connect to iTunes

Good afternoon stevenfromlake tapps,

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities!

It sounds like you are not able to connect your iPhone 6 Plus or iPhone 11 with iOS 14 to your computer with macOS High Sierra.

iOS 14.0.1 was released on Sept 24, 2020.

Let's try quitting the Music app and updating your iPhones.

Update your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

Then, restart your iPhones to refresh them and reestablish a connection to the internet.

Refresh the iTunes installation and restart the computer:

Update to the latest version of iTunes

Now, try connecting to iTunes again:

If your computer doesn't recognize your iPhone, iPad, or iPod

If the issue persists, please reply to this thread and we'll do our best to help you!

Take care.

BTW, Stephen, I was able to fix my problem ultimately with help from this posting below. I'll copy in the thank you I sent to the community lister who provided the fix:

"Thanks so much for this. Hours with Support today and they couldn't fix it. Only said I needed to upgrade to Big Sur, which I can't do. But installing iTunes 12.8.2 from your link did it. Strangely, it was 12.8.2.3 that was initially my problem, and even though the link simply said it would install 12.8.2. (I thought I was "back-grading" to 12.8.2), it reinstalled 12.8.2.3 but maybe some different version, I don't know. Regardless, once installed and restarted, it told me to allow an upgrade, which I did, (at first I thought it was going to force Big Sur on me, but no).

When all done, my new iPhone SE 2020 was recognized by iTunes and sync'd up perfectly. WOW. I had given up. Thanks again."

Here's the link to Paulmont's solution:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251817249?page=2

Steve314 wrote:

Unfortunately, this no longer works. The dmg you get from the "previous versions, 12.8.2". is identical to the one you get for 12.8.2.3 and just reinstalls 12.8.2.3. They must have just changed this recently.

See my updated information at https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251817249?answerId=254027357022#254027357022

Hello,

I'm having the same issue with my iPhone 6+ that was recently updated to 14.1.

Phone is not connecting with iTunes now. Prior to update it was.(13.7)

We're operating OS 10.12.6 and prefer to stay there, we do not want to update our OS on our Mac at this time.

Is there a work around to back up our iPhone via iTunes?

Should we downgrade back to our previous version? Restore to the older version?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

I'm having same problem. Spent 2 hours with Apple Support. Problem is newer iOS 14.2 can't "talk" to High Sierra. Until they fix it, (if they ever bother doing so), you won't be able to sync your iPhone to the computer and subsequently to iTunes. They offered me no alternative except to upgrade my Mac to Big Sur, which I can't do because I'll lose a number of Adobe apps. My antique iPod and old iPad still sync just fine with my Mac, but my brand new iPhone SE 2020 is worthless for music playback. Way to go Apple.

If I may ask, which "antique iPod and old iPad" are you using that connects with your High Sierra machines?

We are still using two Macs here that cannot upgrade beyond High Sierra. They're both doing their jobs admirably and we see no reason to update to the latest shiny object simply because it's newer. However, I have the need to go portable and was considering a current iPad (either spec'ed out iPad Air 4th gen or lower tier iPad Pro 11"). Obviously that decision is in question since it's apparent iPadOS 14.x won't sync with High Sierra. But, if I can find one for a decent enough price, maybe an older iPad will work for me. Thus my question.

Unfortunately, still doesn't work for me ....I've tried everything, even deleting iTunes via terminal, making a clean install of the version from the link above, and nothing, same problem.... I hope someone will solve this in some other way soon... :(

This won't work for me as I am already running Catalina; iTunes has been replaced by Music.

I downloaded and installed the "required" update (not sure what it was or whether it went on the iMac or the iPad). I don't get the update required message anymore, but Music still doesn't see the iPad

IPad 5 and iPhone SE (new) both running iOS 14.2, iMac running 10.15.7; connected device, received update required message, but no description of whether update was for computer or device. After update, music is 1.0.6.10. Update required message is gone, but neither iPad nor iPhone is recognized.

Unfortunately, this no longer works. The dmg you get from the "previous versions, 12.8.2". is identical to the one you get for 12.8.2.3 and just reinstalls 12.8.2.3. They must have just changed this recently.

Hello fellow Apple users,

first of all I hope you all have a safe Christmas. Does anyone know if that problem with iOS 14.2 is going to be fixed anytime soon?

I have an iPhone SE (the older one) with 14.2 iOS and a MacBook Air 2015 with Catalina 10.15.5 and I can't even connect my iPhone anymore (do a back-up / update my music files - none). Doing an update is not a big issue if I free up some space with additional iCould but I'm afraid that my Mac just won't be able to handle the new Big Sur with no issues (also it takes up significantly more space and I have a 128 GB SSD). Is there any solution to this?

BR - E!

Hello,

I'm having the same issue with my iPhone 7+ that was recently updated to 14.2 (18B92)

and MacBook Pro HighSierra 10.13.6

Yes, Stephen, my antique iPod Touch is on iOS 6.1.6 , like I said ANTIQUE.

My less old iPad Mini is on iOS 9.3.5

Hope this is some help.

@Notatrubeliever

Thanks for the answers and update. It's good to know that iOS 14.x can still sync/connect with High Sierra, given the workaround. :)

Thanks so much for providing this link! Fixed my problem as well with ease and I had spent a long time trying to find a solution. Very grateful!