How to Fix iPhone Not Showing Up on Computer (PC/Mac)

We often connect our iPhone to it to import photos and videos in camera roll, but it happens sometimes your iPhone does not appear as a portable device on your PC or Mac. This problem usually takes place on Windows 10/8/7/XP computer and happens occasionally on Mac.

Then, how to fix this problem of “iPhone not showing up in computer”? Next, we will analyze the reasons for this problem and show you some potential solutions to solve this problem.

Why is my iPhone not Showing up on my Computer?

Why won’t iPhone show up on your computer (Windows PC/Mac)? There are most common reason:

• The most common reason is that the USB cable not working or even broken but you don’t aware of it. Or the USB port on your iPhone/computer not working.
• If your computer or iPhone got software issues, you also can’t see your iPhone on computer.
• Also, the Apple USB driver issue or other unknown reasons can cause PC not to recognize iPhone.

How to Fix iPhone Not Showing Up on PC

7 Basic Tips to Fix iPhone not Showing up on PC

Tip 1. First, make sure your iPhone is unlocked and on the Home screen.

Tip 2. Make sure your Windows and iPhone are running the latest iOS. If you’re using iTunes, make sure you have the latest version.

Tip 3. Restart your iPhone and PC.

Tip 4. Make sure you connect your iPhone with the original Apple USB cable and try a different USB port on your computer.

Tip 5. Unplug and plug in your iPhone two or three times.

Tip 6. On your PC, after connecting with your iPhone, you’ll see a message on iPhone asking if you want to trust the computer. Unlock your device and tap on Trust. Sometimes, you may need to repeat a few times.

Tip 7. Update iPhone drivers:

1. Open Control Panel > Hardware and Sound >
2. Look for Apple iPhone under the “Unspecified” section > Right-click on it, choose “Properties”.
3. Click the Hardware tab> Choose change settings button > Click on the Driver tab and Update Driver.
4. Then Browse my computer for driver software.
5. Now navigate to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Apple\Mobile Device Support\Drivers and click Ok, then Next.

Try Driver Easy to Recognize iPhone

If there is no updating option for you or no such driver at all, you can try Driver Easy to help you with it. Driver Easy will automatically recognize your system and find the correct drivers for it. You can update your drivers automatically with either the FREE or the Pro version of Driver Easy. To connect iPhone to the computer successfully:

1. Download and install Driver Easy.
2. Run Driver Easy and click the Scan Now button. Driver Easy will then scan your computer and detect any problem drivers.
3. Click the Update button next to the flagged xxx driver to automatically download the correct version of that driver (you can do this with the FREE version), then manually install it. Or click Update All to automatically download and install the correct version of all the drivers that are missing or out of date on your system. (This requires the Pro version).
4. Restart your computer to check if iPhone appears on the computer.

How to Fix iPhone Not Showing Up on Mac

View iPhone with USB Device Tree:

1. Connect your iPhone and make sure that it’s unlocked and on the Home screen.
2. On your Mac, hold down the Option key > Click the Apple menu > Choose System Information or System Report.
3. From the left list, select USB.
4. If you see your iPhone under USB Device Tree, get the latest macOS or install the latest updates. If you not, please contact Apple Support.

View Your Connected iPhone with the Finder App:

Starting with macOS Catalina, your devices appear in the sidebar of the Finder windows. Open the Finder and click your device’s name to select it.

Alternative Way to View and Transfer iPhone Data to PC/Mac

If there are no pictures or videos showing up on your computer, then here is an alternative way that you can easily sync iPhone data with computers. This is a better way to manage all your iPhone data on the computer, which is AnyTrans. It is an iOS file transfer and management tool, and it works on both Windows PC and Mac.

Here show the simple steps of transferring & managing pictures on iPhone with AnyTrans.

Step 1. Install and launch AnyTrans on your computer, and connect your iPhone > When AnyTrans has detected your iPhone, you will see the main interface shows below > Select Photos.

Step 2. View your iPhone photos, like Places, People, Photo Videos, etc in My Photos, or click Albums with photos.

Step 3. Then select and export pictures to your computer by clicking To PC button on the upper right corner. You can also transfer the pictures to iCloud or to another iPhone device by click More.

Fix iPhone Not Showing Up on Computer with iOS Repair Tool

If the above methods didn’t work, maybe the iPhone not showing up isn’t caused by hardware-related issues. Here we recommend you try AnyFix – iOS System Recovery, which is designed to fix 130+ iOS/iPadOS/tvOS problems. With the help of AnyFix, it can solve the most stuck on issues, iPhone frozen, computer not recognizing iPhone and other iPhone system problems. Now, you can download and install AnyFix on your computer. Then follow the steps below to fix the problem.

Step 1. After launching it on the computer, you will see the interface as below. Click System Repair and continue.

Step 2. Choose iPhone Problems and tap on Start Now. Remember to connect your iPhone with computer.

Step 3. Now, you need to choose a mode to repair. Standard Mode and Advanced Mode feature will ask the device to enter Recovery Mode. Ultimate Repair will ask the device to enter DFU mode. Normally, Standard Repair supports the most common system issues without data loss, which is the top choice of users. Tap on the Standard Repair button to continue.

Step 4. Now, you need to enter recovery mode when you choose Standard Repair mode. After entering the recovery mode, you can check your device info as below. Then click the Download button to get the firmware for your iOS device.

Step 5. Once the firmware has been downloaded, click Fix Now button to start repairing. Wait a while and when the recovery process is completed, you will see the completed page.

The Bottom Line

That’s all possible methods for you if your computer doesn’t recognize your iPhone. Some basic but efficient ways are introduced, and you can use AnyTrans to transfer photos from iPhone to the computer. More data like movies, ringtones, notes, contacts, etc, are supported. And AnyFix – iOS system recovery can solve computer doesn’t recognize your iPhone due to software issue. If you have any better solutions to fix the iPhone not showing up on computer issues, please leave a comment below.