Months ago, when IOS7 came out my iPhone 5 refused to sync with my PC (which is running Windows 7). Any time I would try to sync, iTunes would give me a message that it could not read the contents of my iPhone and I should do a factory reset. I went to the Genius bar in my city and they told me that was the best fix. I did that. It seemed to work. Then I tried to sync the next day, got the same message. I reset the phone again and the same thing happened. I gave up.
I got back to trying to fix it again, and went to the Genius bar again for another reason and brought this up again. I was told to deinstall and reinstall iTunes. I attempted that but could not get one of the files to delete because it was in use by another part of my system. I sort of gave up again.
But today I got the bright idea of syncing on my husband's Mac! That had to work because I was not getting interference from Microsoft. He said that would be OK with him and I plugged the phone in but was told that the Mac could not read the contents of my iPhone! It's the same problem.
What is wrong? It looks like my iPhone is corrupted or something. What can I do? I am using 7.0.4 version of the IOS.
UPDATED: I bit the bullet and restored it to factory settings. I then plugged it into my husband's Mac and it was readable, tried it again in my PC and it worked just fine. Next idea is to try my main PC at work to recognize it. Then (if I can get it recognized by all machines) then I will try restoring it from my PC at work. if that works, I will try restoring from the iCloud. I did read where it is possible to get something that would mess up your phone, like a game or a song which interferes.
CONCLUSION: The problem was coming from an app which was interfering with the workings of IOS7. When I restored it to its totally clean state, the problem disappeared. I went into the iCloud setting in Settings on the iPhone and asked it to delete all of the apps which I don't use and bought long ago. I then asked it to backup the iPhone using just the ones I had chosen. I was taking a risk that the problem app was among those I was deleting, but that is what it turned out to be.
I tested the iPhone by plugging it into my computer and turning on iTunes. iTunes could now read the contents of the iPhone, even with the apps reinstalled. So, the problem was fixed.
One last problem was that I had songs in my computer which had not gotten on my iPhone. I had bought them in iTunes but they didn't automatically sync into the iPhone. I chose the setting to manually manage songs, and told it to only add the checked songs. Then I manually had to go to my library, check the songs I wanted, highlight them and drag them into the music part of my iPhone. It worked. I think that once iCloud backs up the contents of my iPhone, they will be in the iCloud.
So, if you are having problems syncing it might be because of a faulty app or one which now interferes with your operating system. And, you can indeed sync songs from a computer you thought you could not sync.
I got back to trying to fix it again, and went to the Genius bar again for another reason and brought this up again. I was told to deinstall and reinstall iTunes. I attempted that but could not get one of the files to delete because it was in use by another part of my system. I sort of gave up again.
But today I got the bright idea of syncing on my husband's Mac! That had to work because I was not getting interference from Microsoft. He said that would be OK with him and I plugged the phone in but was told that the Mac could not read the contents of my iPhone! It's the same problem.
What is wrong? It looks like my iPhone is corrupted or something. What can I do? I am using 7.0.4 version of the IOS.
UPDATED: I bit the bullet and restored it to factory settings. I then plugged it into my husband's Mac and it was readable, tried it again in my PC and it worked just fine. Next idea is to try my main PC at work to recognize it. Then (if I can get it recognized by all machines) then I will try restoring it from my PC at work. if that works, I will try restoring from the iCloud. I did read where it is possible to get something that would mess up your phone, like a game or a song which interferes.
CONCLUSION: The problem was coming from an app which was interfering with the workings of IOS7. When I restored it to its totally clean state, the problem disappeared. I went into the iCloud setting in Settings on the iPhone and asked it to delete all of the apps which I don't use and bought long ago. I then asked it to backup the iPhone using just the ones I had chosen. I was taking a risk that the problem app was among those I was deleting, but that is what it turned out to be.
I tested the iPhone by plugging it into my computer and turning on iTunes. iTunes could now read the contents of the iPhone, even with the apps reinstalled. So, the problem was fixed.
One last problem was that I had songs in my computer which had not gotten on my iPhone. I had bought them in iTunes but they didn't automatically sync into the iPhone. I chose the setting to manually manage songs, and told it to only add the checked songs. Then I manually had to go to my library, check the songs I wanted, highlight them and drag them into the music part of my iPhone. It worked. I think that once iCloud backs up the contents of my iPhone, they will be in the iCloud.
So, if you are having problems syncing it might be because of a faulty app or one which now interferes with your operating system. And, you can indeed sync songs from a computer you thought you could not sync.
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