IOS – iPhone files not showing up on Finder

finderiosiphone

I have an iPhone 11 Pro Max running iOS 13.3 and a Macbook '16 running macOS Catalina 10.15.2.

When I connect my iPhone to my Macbook, it is recognised in Finder "locations" but I do not have access to the files, videos, etc. in the iPhone from within Finder.

I have made sure that my iPhone is "trusted" by the macbook.

What is see is the picture below (and this is the only thing I can see):

enter image description here

i.e I don't see the following:

enter image description here

I have no idea why. My iPad works fine and shows me the files, movies, general tab, etc. But not my iPhone.

I have tried the following:

  1. Resetting my privacy and location settings on the iPhone. After I do this, I get asked to "trust" the iPhone again, but it still does not display the files.
  2. I have restarted the iPhone and Macbook several times.
  3. I tried this on iOS 13.2 before updating and it already had this issue, so I don't think it's a bad update problem.
  4. I have tried different cables. No luck.
  5. I have tried restarting Finder on the Macbook, no luck.
  6. The interesting thing is that Photos on the Macbook can detect and load photos from the iPhone.
  7. As I said above, my iPad works fine and shows me the files, movies, general tab, etc
  8. I made sure the iPhone is unlocked during this whole time.
  9. Even if not needed, I made sure that "USB accessories" is allowed access when iPhone is locked inside the "Face ID and passcore" settings menu.
  10. Airdrop works fine.

Best Answer

Ok I figured out whats wrong. See this thread for an answer (TLDR: iTunes database was corrupted) https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4474508

DO NOT RESTORE

  • It could be one of two (or both) files are corrupt on your iPhone (or other iDevice), they are iTunesDB andiTunesCDB.
  • There is an fast fix for this, even if your iDevice is non jailbroken.
  • You want to disconnect your iDevice from your computer and close iTunes to ensure you DO NOT RESTORE.
  • Download iFunBox or iTools a Free Tool for accessing the iDevice file system. It has both a OSX version and Windows version for download.
  • After you download the version of iFunBox or iTools for your OS, you will need to install it and run it.
  • After installing and running iFunBox or iTools, connect your iDevice to your computer.
  • You will see a message in the Upper Right of iFunBox ”connecting to iDevice“, after iFunbox has connected to your iDevice, click on the tab “iFunbox Classic“.
  • On the left panel, expand “Raw File System” (click on the +), then expand “iTunes_Control“, then click on “iTunes“.
  • In the right panel you will see a number of files, right-click on the file “iTunesCDB” and select rename, please add X after the iTunesCDB in the file name, this will allow you keep the file in case you need it again (you should never need it, but better to be careful than sorry.) Do the same for iTunesCDB, iTunesControl and iTunesPrefs.
  • After you have renamed the file, click on your iDevice name on the upper right of iFunBox and select “Device Safe Removal“, this will ensure the file name change will be written back to your iDevice.
  • After you see your iDevice is closed (“No device connected” will be displayed in the upper right), you should now close iFunBox

Now run Apple iTunes, it will see your iDevice and you will be able to Sync again.

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