When trying to connect your iPhone to your Windows computer via iTunes, there’s a chance that you’re going to encounter an error with the drivers. Since Windows lacks the requisite drivers by default, the “iTunes is waiting for Windows Update to install the driver for this phone” error isn’t very rare.
At face value, there’s nothing very unusual about Windows Update trying to install a driver for a phone. What’s unusual, however, is you waiting for hours, only to see the same message with no signs of progress. That’s when you discover it’s a problem that is fixed, and fix it. We will.
In this article, you’ll learn why you keep getting the waiting for Windows Update error message when you try to connect an iPhone to your computer. Also, I’ll show you some tips on how to solve the problem and get your iPhone connected to your Windows computer.
Why Does It Say “iTunes is Waiting for Windows Update to Install the Driver for this Phone”
Whenever you connect a new device to your computer, you’ll need to install the appropriate drivers to ensure that the computer can communicate effectively with the device. Since your iPhone is also an external device to your computer, you’ll have to install the drivers to make the iPhone work as intended.
However, when you leave the responsibility of installing the appropriate driver to the iTunes app, you’ll almost certainly encounter errors. If you’ve used the iTunes app on Windows before, you’ll know how buggy and messy it is; naturally, I don’t expect that kind of app to install a driver successfully.
With that said, you only encounter the message when iTunes informs your computer that it’s installing drivers for your iPhone. If the process gets stuck halfway, it becomes a dilemma; you don’t get the drivers you signed up for, and the error message won’t leave either.
Fortunately, there are several possible solutions to this problem whenever you happen to encounter it. In the following section, you’ll learn some of the most effective solutions for when your computer displays iTunes is waiting for Windows Update message.
How to Fix “iTunes is Waiting for Windows Update to Install the Driver for this Phone”
As mentioned earlier, you can easily get rid of this error message and get your iPhone to work properly with your computer. Since numerous iPhone users have encountered the problem in recent times, we can build on their experience to learn how you can fix the error.
Some solutions that work include installing the drivers manually, reinstalling or updating iTunes, or reconnecting your computer. Here are the steps required to get rid of the message and have your phone work properly with iTunes.
- Manually install the drivers for your iPhone
If Windows Update is incapable of automatically installing the required drivers to connect iTunes to your iPhone, you should consider doing it yourself. Fortunately, it’s pretty easy to speed up the installation of drivers manually by following certain steps.
In case you haven’t noticed, Windows offers a utility called the device manager for one sole purpose: managing and updating drivers. You can find the drivers associated with the iPhone or iPad and try updating it right from the Device Manager.
If you intend to update your drivers using the Device Manager, you can press the start button on your computer and start typing “Device Manager.” Before you finish typing it, the search results should highlight the correct option; press the Enter key to open the utility. This process works in Windows 7, 8, 10, and 11.
When you get to the Device Manager window, you should see plenty of driver categories on your computer. Head over to Portable Devices and click on it twice to reveal the devices in the category. Here, you should see “Apple iPhone” or something similar, depending on what device you connected.
To update the driver, right-click on Apple iPhone and select the “Update driver” option. When prompted, choose to search automatically for driver software. When the driver has updated, restart your computer and try connecting your iPhone to iTunes once again.
- Update iTunes on your Windows computer
An outdated version of iTunes could be the reason you’re receiving the “iTunes is waiting for Windows Update to install the driver for this phone” error. One way you can troubleshoot it is by updating the iTunes app on your computer to the latest version.
The steps for updating iTunes will differ depending on how you installed the software on your computer in the first place. If you got it from the Microsoft Store, you can head to the Updates section of the store to see any pending updates. Apply all the updates, restart your computer, and see if the error message is gone.
However, if you installed iTunes using an EXE file, you can’t possibly update it using the Microsoft Store. Instead, try to download an up-to-date version of the executable file from Apple, run it on your computer to overwrite the outdated software, and restart your computer to save the changes.
If updating iTunes doesn’t seem to work for you, you may also want to consider updating your iPhone’s iOS version. The USB cable you’re using to connect the device to iTunes, as well as the computer’s USB ports may constitute some other faults that may cause the error to appear.
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Conclusion
The ability to connect your iPhone to your computer via iTunes is crucial to using an iPhone with a Windows computer. When random errors like “iTunes is waiting for Windows Update to install the driver for this phone” start popping up, you should know there’s a problem.
This article explains some of the most effective solutions to try if you start facing this problem. From installing the drivers manually to updating your iPhone’s software, you don’t know what might work to fix the problem.