I’m having a problem with iTunes (Version 12.11.3.17) on a Windows 10 (21H1) computer. When I connect my iPhone 12 to the computer, iTunes starts up but the iPhone never shows up as a device in iTunes. On the iPhone, I trust the computer, and that trust process seems to work just fine because I am able to access the iPhone with the Windows File Explorer, and I can copy photos from the iPhone to my Windows computer.
However, the iPhone never shows up as a device in iTunes. If I uninstall the Comodo Firewall (12.2.2.8012), everything works as advertised.
In Comodo, I only have the Firewall enabled (Custom Mode), all other Comodo components (Auto-Containment, HIPS, Virus Scope, Website Filtering) are disabled.
I have not found a way to get past this Comodo issue. Any suggestions?
Check your firewall logs for blocked alerts related to iTunes, dashost.exe (device association host) and svchost.exe. I feel those processes would be most likely utilized to communicate with connected devices.
I did not see anything being blocked… But just to make sure, I changed both of those programs to allowed applications in the firewall rules… Still no luck…
Try adding an exception for shellcode injection detections in Comodo’s settings: Advanced Protection > Miscellaneous. That once solved a software issue for me, although I’ve HIPS disabled, but in a passive way it still seems to monitor stuff and interferes somehow.
You could add your entire itunes folder like “C:\Programs\Itunes*” to be sure. And perhaps there are some app-data or driver pathways you would need to add there as well.
Have you used the Forum Search function to search for iTunes for example?
There are quite some hits on iTunes, maybe someone posted a solution, not sure though.
I did but all those posts were very old… nothing really relevant… And I’m only using the firewall, no other components. And this issue did not exist in prior versions…
Not sure if it is possible for you to physically disconnect from the internet while leaving the iPhone connection intact but then you could try to put FW into “training Mode” to see if iTunes then connects to your iPhone. If it does then you can check the auto created Firewall rules and filter the ones that are needed for iTunes to work.
Note: export you active configuration for safety first and then physically disconnect internet and then activate a default CIS configuration like the Firewall Security configuration before switching to Training Mode and trying iTunes again.
I’ve tried with the firewall in training mode as well, but no luck there either… I do not believe the issue is with the firewall, but instead something to do with HIPS. Despite HIPS being disabled, something is Comodo is still preventing iTunes from functioning properly… One thing I noticed is that iTunes takes a little longer to load than usual (without Comodo).
Are there no system events or iTunes application events reported by Windows event viewer or perhaps any logs created by iTunes itself (e.g. inside iTunes program directories) that could reveal anything wrong?
I started digging around the Event Viewer and there isn’t a single error iTunes/Apple related, and nothing around the time when I start iTunes and plug the iPhone into the computer.
In regards to iTunes logs, I was able to find this in the user appdata roaming folder… The times are from around when I plug the iPhone into the computer…
[5560 @ Sat Jun 26 10:31:33 2021] [(unknown facility) iTunesHelper.exe] _SubscribeForMuxNotifications (thread 14448): USBMuxListenerCreate: timed out
[5560 @ Sat Jun 26 10:31:33 2021] [(unknown facility) iTunesHelper.exe] AMDeviceNotificationSubscribeWithOptions (thread 14448): Failed to subscribe for mux notifications: 0xe8000063 (kAMDMuxCreateListenerError)
How do we know if these iTunesHelper.exe log errors correlate to having Comodo installed.
The question is do these log errors also appear without having Comodo installed.
Do you happen to have any old logs (without Comodo installed) around the time you plug the iPhone into the computer just to check those logs if it contains the same errors around that time?
I removed Comodo from my computer, then rebooted it. Upon bootup, the error file had this:
[1616 @ Sat Jun 26 20:05:33 2021] [YSLog iTunes.exe] defaults key ShouldLog in domain com.apple.iTunes is (null)
[1616 @ Sat Jun 26 20:05:33 2021] [YSLog iTunes.exe] defaults key ShouldLog in domain iTunes.exe is (null)
[6960 @ Sat Jun 26 20:05:35 2021] [_ISDVLog SyncServer.exe] Logging initialized, engine version (null) : log level 3
[6960 @ Sat Jun 26 20:05:35 2021] [(unknown facility) com.apple.Safari.isRegistered] dataClassNamesInstalledForClientWithIdentifier: app not installed
[6960 @ Sat Jun 26 20:05:35 2021] [(unknown facility) com.apple.Safari.isRegistered] dataClassNamesInstalledForClientWithIdentifier: app not installed
Then, when I connected the iPhone to the computer, iTunes worked properly, and no additional error messages showed up on the log file.
Then, I reinstalled Comodo Firewall only, with all features disabled except for the firewall in Custom Mode only. Rebooted the computer again.
Upon boot up, even before the iPhone was plugged into the computer, the log file already had these errors:
[13760 @ Sat Jun 26 20:14:52 2021] [(unknown facility) iTunesHelper.exe] _SubscribeForMuxNotifications (thread 13776): USBMuxListenerCreate: timed out
[13760 @ Sat Jun 26 20:14:52 2021] [(unknown facility) iTunesHelper.exe] AMDeviceNotificationSubscribeWithOptions (thread 13776): Failed to subscribe for mux notifications: 0xe8000063 (kAMDMuxCreateListenerError)
And when I connected the iPhone to the computer, it does not show up in iTunes.
Looking at the Comodo Logs, there is nothing being blocked by the firewall, or HIPS, or anything else…
So, something in Comodo is prevent iTunesHelper.exe from working properly and likely impacting the recognition of the iPhone in iTunes.
Thanks for doing all that.
It looks like that Comodo blocks or prevents the iTunesHelper.exe application right after boot from doing needed things.
In your search for iTunes on this forum have you come across this? : Firewall appears to be blocking iTunes10
And, have you tried to set all listed related iTunes applications (or at least iTunesHelper.exe) to Ruleset “Allowed Application” in FW?
Maybe also check if all those listed iTunes applications are rated “Trusted” in “File Rating → File List”.
As another attempt to solve the issue: Add the same listed iTunes applications to the HIPS Rules using Ruleset “Windows System Application” (of course enable HIPS first to see if this works then).
EDIT: After adding all listed related iTunes applications to HIPS Rules using Ruleset “Windows System Application” reboot you computer and after log on to desktop check the iTunes log files again to see if the errors have gone. Try also plugging in your iPhone to see if iTunes now sees the device.