iPhone Digital Camera Driver Issue, iPhone Not Showing Up Under My Computer
Posted by alex in Insights at 4:18 PMI typically transfer images from my iPhone to my Windows XP computer by clicking on My Computer, clicking on the Apple iPhone icon, and then transferring the images to another folder on the computer. Today I plugged in the iPhone via USB to my Windows XP laptop and I was surprised to see that the iPhone Camera was not showing as a drive after clicking on My Computer. To verify I hadn’t made a configuration change on accident that was causing this to not show up I verified that the computer was not seeing the iPhone’s camera by opening up Control Panel and clicking on Scanners and Cameras.
**UPDATE: The first solution is what worked for me but there have been some comments confirming that the below will not solve everyones issue. Another solution to try is to delete any images you have saved to the Camera Roll from email. It appears in some situations if images are saved from emails that it is causing issues with the digital camera driver and you will be unable to retrieve images from the iPhone if you have saved images you received via email. I attempted to duplicate the issue with emailed gif’s and emailed jpg’s but I was unable to though I am sure this issue exists for others as it has already been confirmed at least twice in the comments below.
iPhone Not Showing Under My Computer:
Everything else did seem to be working fine with the iPhone’s USB driver on my computer. I was able to charge the iPhone, backup the iPhone, and sync the iPhone to iTunes. I don’t believe the driver had been updated recently though I am not sure that it wasn’t. Below are instructions on how to resolve this issue by removing the Apple Mobile Device USB Driver which is used by the iPhone and letting it reinstall itself.
Reinstall Apple Mobile Device USB Driver:
- Attach iPhone Via USB:Make sure the iPhone is attached to the computer via the USB cable. Wait to proceed with the steps below until the iPhone has completed backing up and syncing to iTunes.
- Open Device Manager: Right click on My Computer and select Properties from the drop down menu. This will open System Properties as shown below. System Properties opens on the General tab so you will need to click on the Hardware tab which is the active tab in the image below.
Click the Device Manager button to open the Device Manager as shown below.
- Remove iPhone USB Driver:As you can see in the above image the iPhone USB drive is actually called Apple Mobile Device USB Driver. We want to remove this driver by expanding the list of USB drivers which can be done by clicking the + next to Universal Serial Bus controllers. This is already done in the image above but I wanted to mention in case you were unfamiliar with the Device Manager. Now right click on Apple Mobile Device USB Driver and select Uninstall from the drop down menu. A confirmation like the one shown in the below image will require you confirm you want to remove the iPhone USB driver.Click the OK button on the pop up confirmation window as shown below which will remove the driver.
- Reinstall iPhone Driver:Once the driver has been removed you should unplug the iPhone from the USB cable. To reinstall the iPhone USB driver plug it back into the USB cable and the reinstalling of the driver will start automatically. There will be numerous pop up messages displayed near the system clock in the lower right corner of your Windows XP desktop. Once you see the pop up message confirming that your new device is ready to use everything should be working properly again.
- Verify iPhone Camera Detected: Open My Computer now to verify that the iPhone is displayed and you can click on it as you previously were able to do. The below image shows the iPhone Camera icon displaying underneath My Computer.
Another way you can verify the driver is reinstalled properly is to open Device Manager and expand Imaging Devices. You should now see “Apple iPhone” displayed again as shown in the below image.
You can now go back to transferring images to and from your iPhone.
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Tags: Apple, apple mobile device usb driver, Camera, device manager, driver, imaging devices, iPhone, iTunes, my computer, properties, scanners and cameras, system properties, USB, usb cable, usb driver
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i am having the same problem my iphone isnt showing up on MY COMPUTER anymore and i cant seem to get none of my pictures out of my phone into my computer
[Reply]
alex Reply:
June 17th, 2010 at 12:19 PM
Hello stefanie,
There are solutions in the article as well as feedback in the 77 comments that have been posted.
Thanks.
alex
[Reply]
Casey Reply:
July 14th, 2010 at 7:54 PM
I’m having the same issue but when I plug my phone back in the same faulty drivers get installed. Do you know where I could locate the correct drivers and install them manually?
[Reply]
alex Reply:
July 15th, 2010 at 12:32 PM
Hello Casey,
Make sure your iTunes and Apple Mobile Device applications are updated. Those drivers are included with those packages. If you still have issues then try a different USB port to see if that makes a difference.
Thanks.
alex
[Reply]
Casey Reply:
July 15th, 2010 at 4:48 PM
Completely removed and uninstall-ed Itunes, Quicktime, Appple Mobile Device, the Apple USB support, Bonjur. Verified after restart that NO Apple services or mobile devices are running before I re-installed iTunes. again my iphone fails to install and shows up in the “other devices” in my device manager with a yellow yield triangle for trouble shooting. also Bluetooth Peripheral Device comes up with error triangle as well. I was told installing Windows Mobile Device Center 6.1 has the updated driver for the bluetooth but recieve an error message when I try to install/upgrade saying at least one or more windows components required are missing
[Reply]
alex Reply:
July 18th, 2010 at 1:00 PM
Hello Casey,
Have you tried a different USB port and/or a different USB cable? I also commented on the questions regarding the Mobile Device Center on the other article I wrote.
Thanks.
alex
I am having the same problem with my iphone not showing up in my computer folder anymore. If I connect to my computer at work, the phone shows up in my computer but not on my personal computer at home. The phone was showing up in the imaging device tab, but not in the my computer folder. I tried the solution above and uninstalled the apple mobile device USB driver. Now it does not show up anywhere. Next I deleted all my photos that I received via email or mms and that didn’t help. I then deleted all photos and that didn’t help either. I also tried different usb ports on my hub, then connected directly to the computer’s port and still it doesn’t recognize the phone. I can sync with itunes with no problem.
[Reply]
alex Reply:
August 14th, 2010 at 6:57 PM
Hello Earl,
After you removed all photos you might try reinstalling the Apple Mobile Device drivers again to see if the device is now showing up. It sounds like you have tried all of the easy resolutions that I have heard of though besides trying the latest Apple Mobile Device drivers. Once you do get this figured out it would be great if you could post the resolution here since it sounds like it will be a new solution. This will help others in the future that may run into the same problem.
Good luck and thanks.
alex
[Reply]
I did uninstall and reinstall the Apple Mobile Devicve drivers and still the same result. I finally just took my phone to work and plugged it in there and it popped up in My Computer. I can transferr the photos to the desktop and then email them to myself. Kind of a pain but it will have to do until I figure out what’s wrong with my home computer.
[Reply]
alex Reply:
August 18th, 2010 at 10:28 AM
Hello Earl,
Is it exactly the same operating system? Glad to hear you got it working at the job.
Thanks.
alex
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Deleted the 4 photo’s I had downloaded from e-mails and my PC shows the iPhone 3gs as a drive again and the Camera and Scanners wizard works again. The weird thing is I have had those photos and transferred them to my PC before this but just did not delete from my camera roll. Very strange but thanks for the heads up!!
[Reply]
alex Reply:
August 23rd, 2010 at 2:52 PM
Hello Dan,
I believe it is only specific types of images that cause this problem. So in the past maybe you had downloaded a specific GIF or JPEG type of image however this time one of those four images was a different type of image with different encoding and that caused your issue. Regardless thanks for taking the time to leave feedback and glad to hear you got the issue resolved!
Thanks.
alex
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