[ Solved ] iPhone Does Not Show Up In My Computer | iPhone Icon Missing In Windows Explorer | Cannot Transfer iPhone Photos In My Computer | iPhone Disappeared Does Not Display As Drive With Camera Icon

Trouble:

This is one of the problem related to my iPhone 3G I had been facing since last 2-3 months, after I jail-broke my iphone second time and upgraded iTunes on my computer, now the iphone data cable had become quite old but it is properly functional after some days of jail-breaking, I started facing this issue on and off. When my iphone even after proper connection with the USB cable with computer, it does not appear with the other drives in My Computer.

Suddenly I started facing this issue when my iphone does not show up under my computer with the drives and although iphone is detected in iTunes but does not display as drive in my computer. This is a great problem as I cannot transfer my camera captured pictures on my iphone in the camera roll folder to my computer hard disk.

I Googled about the problem and came to know this problem could be due to Mobile Device Driver service installed with apple iTunes is not running or you might need to restart the service to make your iphone show up in windows explorer as driver. This is the crucial service which should be running when you connect your iphone to your computer to transfer pictures.

Here are all the possible solutions to the iphone not detecting in my computer

Fix:

Method 1: Fixing Mobile Device Driver Service    

1. Open Start Menu >> Run and type services.msc and press ok [ this will open up services ]
2. Locate the service named Mobile Device Driver  
3. Double click the service to open properties

4. In the "general" tab find the "startup type" drop-down arrow menu and make sure "automatic" is selected.

5. Also see the general tab to check the "service status". If it does not say "started" then click the start button to start the service and connect your phone again and click apply.

Note: If the above procedure does not helped in your case, then try restarting the service

Method 2: Solve Through Device Manager

1. Go to My Computer >> Manage and click Device Manager in the left tab.

2. Click Portable Devices >> Apple iPhone >> Uninstall
3. Unplug and plug your iPhone, now wait for windows to re recognize your iphone [ In Device Manager, you will see the new recognized Apple Iphone ]
4. Press F5 to refresh your windows explorer and your Apple iPhone will show up with a camera icon.

In my case none of the above method worked, but I want to copy camera taken pictures but there was no way to do it. Even my iphone was recognized with iTunes but it does not allow to transfer the camera pictures and then I figured out my own way of transferring images.

Follow the procedure to do the same, make sure that your iphone is connected to your computer with iphone data cable

1. Download DiskAid which is a free iPhone Explorer [ Lets you explore your iphone files and folder ]

2. Install and Run DiskAid it will automatically detect iphone and navigate to the camera photos folder on your iphone

root >> var >> mobile >> media >> DCIM >> 100APPLE or XXXAPPLE folder.

( as shown in the image below )

( click the image above to enlarge )

3. Right click any image and select Copy to PC and select a folder to copy these images, that’s it . This way you can copy the images from iphone camera roll folder when you iphone does not show in my computer.

Author + Admin: Rohit Khurana
Software Engineer by profession. I am a part time tech blogger and believe in blogging because I enjoy writing on technology. I also write about Cars and Bikes at www.carblogindia.com. You can catch me on twitter @rohit_khurana. Get in touch with me at RohitKhurana.in.