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I have a first generation iPad Air (with up-to-date iOS 8.1)

When I connect it to my 2013 iMac (with up-to-date OS X Yosemite 10.10) - it doesn't work.

Specifically - iTunes automatically launches, but then quickly shows a dialog window that says, "iTunes could not connect to the iPhone. This device is no longer connected."

(That's not a typo - it really says 'iPhone', not 'iPad')

Here's a screenshot:

enter image description here

Meanwhile - on my iPad - in the upper right-hand corner (where the battery life is displayed) - you can see the "plugged in" icon (lightening bolt) rapidly blinking on and off.

In other words - it seems like, when it's plugged in - it's rapidly connecting and disconnecting (several times per second).

If I click "OK" on that dialog window on iTunes - it instantly pops back up, and continues to do so as long as I keep the iPad plugged in.

So - bottom line - I cannot connect my iPad to my iMac.

I'm virtually certain that I was able to connect my iPad before I upgraded to Yosemite on my iMac, and iOS 8 on my iPad.

Thanks in advance for any help!

share|improve this question
    
sounds like a bad cable, try another. – Tyson Nov 13 '14 at 4:19
up vote 2 down vote

reboot your iPad, and restart your iMac. Then try again. This normally fixes the issue. Also try reversing the lightning cable to see if that works, sometimes it does, weirdly enough.

Also you can refer to the official apple support for the issue here.

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up vote 1 down vote

Using a different USB port worked for me. Not sure why, but it worked...worth a shot.

2014 Macbook Pro 15" Core i7 (thin version) with dual thunderbolt ports running OSX 10.9.5. Using left side USB port had the problem. Using top right side USB port connected fine.

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yeah.. it works for me when using a different USB port. but the previous port where I mostly connect it still getting an error message. – richardj Jun 4 '15 at 2:50
up vote 0 down vote

In case you didn't want to try the complex ways I just kept clicking with the mouse on the iPad icon in iTunes until I caught it when it was there --- and it came back!

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up vote -1 down vote

I had this error and it was because my iphone was connected using a cheap cable that I bought online for recharging. You cannot use these cables for data transfer, I believe that it has to be an apple cable to connect to itunes correctly.

share|improve this answer
    
Before we all switched to Androids here, we had a terrible time with the lightning cables. – jAce Jan 2 '15 at 13:27

protected by Community♦ Apr 5 '15 at 0:07

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