Filed under: iPod Family, iPhone
Here's an annoying problem with a surprisingly simple solution. After upgrading to 1.1.3, many users found they could no longer properly sync their iPhones. If your iPhone or iPod touch develops a missing pairing record problem, you can fix things by...rebooting your computer. If this saves anyone else an hour or two of head-scratching, tech support and google-fu, then my job is, as they say, done.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Rhys said 7:12PM on 1-23-2008
Have people not worked out yet that the first step of tech support is always "Switch it off and back on again"?
Reply
Mo said 7:19PM on 1-23-2008
In a Windows world, maybe. Not normally with Macs.
I only really reboot when software updates hit (logging in/out, or even killing WindowServer if it's gone drastic, usually suffices).
Except now, wherein Spotlight has stopped working entirely. I think I may need a reboot after all. I'll get around to it in a day or two…
landon Harrus said 6:25PM on 1-24-2008
I have the same problem but a reboot doesn't seem to fix it. None of my computers will read it. Any help?
Odineye said 7:43PM on 1-23-2008
This is sadly seeming to be a regular thing with Leopard. I have come across a couple of different things - on a semi-regular basis - that require a re-boot.
When the iPhone begins to perpetually sync "contacts", for example, the fix is typically a re-start.
With Tiger I would literally go for months at a time without needing to re-start my computer.
Ugh!
Reply
yakov chodosh said 7:49PM on 1-23-2008
i can't figure out what planet you guys live on. i have to reset my computer all the time. it's tiger and i loves me macbook but it definitely gets sluggish and starts f***ing up if i leave it on for too long.
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Mo said 8:01PM on 1-23-2008
A reboot isn't necessary to sort that—it's just poor virtual memory management. Log out/back in again (quickest way to close all of your applications and release the memory they're hogging), let it settle, and it should be snappy again.
You'll also find that if you're low on disk space, the VM won't perform too well (the dynamic paging files will end up being horribly fragmented and slow to access). I tend to recommend a bare minimum of 10% of your disk capacity available for Mac OS X to do its thing.
yakov chodosh said 9:02PM on 1-23-2008
Logging in and out instead of rebooting -- you say potato, I say potahto. In both cases I have to stop everything I'm doing
James Grinter said 9:30AM on 1-24-2008
I find that, often, just restarting Safari is enough...
Reply
James Grinter said 9:31AM on 1-24-2008
(that was meant to be a reply to the 'sluggish' comment.)
Lenore said 2:33PM on 1-24-2008
Good discussion, but the original comment, I found, is actually not the only fix for this problem. I rebooted, because yes, that's always a first- (or second- or at least third-) step to troubleshoot, even with Macs.
I brought my iPhone into Apple last night and the "genius" told me how to fix it.
Go into Home=>Library=>Preferences, and move the three iTunes prefs onto your desktop for safekeeping. Just in case. Trash iTunes. Reinstall it. Voila. (You never need those prefs, they're just a backup as the new iTunes will supply new ones.)
The dealio is iTunes sometimes gets sticklery about old information and it just won't let go. I haven't tried it yet, but cannot WAIT to get home and have my old computer recognize my phone.
Good luck!
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Greg Bickel said 2:04PM on 1-31-2008
Did this do the trick
Reply
sassvideo said 5:23PM on 2-27-2008
I receivied the dreaded "iTunes could not connect to the iphone "iPhone" because the pairing record is missing" error.
• I tried restarting my computer - that did not work
• I reinstalled iTunes - that did not work
A final problem is that I can't even restore my iPhone because iTunes won't let it connect due to the pairing record is missing error.
Reply
bostonbilly said 12:27AM on 3-12-2008
had the same prob. saw something on another post about bad usb connect. simply pulled my cable out from usb1 and plugged into usb2. prob solved
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Username said 7:31PM on 3-19-2008
I fixed this problem by deleting the Lockdown folder from my ~/Library directory.
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Nick said 11:55PM on 4-10-2008
Wow. Deleting the lock down folder worked for me. What is that folder?
areeba said 7:56PM on 3-26-2008
I have been having the same problem.
I connect my iphone to my laptop and it tells me "pairing record is missing"
and then automatically restarts my laptop.
I have been trying to solve my problem. I was on the phone with the apple people all afternoon and they were not able to help me.
can someone please guide me to what i should do?
P.S i already tried to change the usb cable thing
and uninstalling my antivirus programmes
and uninstalling and then reinstalling itunes. nothing seems to be working
please help me out.
thanks
Reply
Dimplemonkey said 7:47AM on 3-31-2008
Don't know much about the rest of you but on my Mac (G5), all I did was quit out of iTunes and relaunch it again. Then it worked fine after that. Thanks TUAW for saving me several hours today!
Reply
Donna said 5:39PM on 4-21-2008
Deleting the "Lockdown" folder in ~/Library/Preferences and restarting iTunes worked here.
Reply