Windows 10: Installing Apple usbaapl64 uninstalls various WPD drivers for iPhone

TL : DR

If there are no device drivers installed for an iPhone on my wife's system, then Windows 10 Pro 64 will install the drivers so that the iPhone will be recognized by Explorer as a Portable Device mass storage device, but iTunes will not recognize the phone. Once I install the usbaapl64 driver to get iTunes support, Windows actually disables or deletes the drivers for a Portable Device. On my system, both sets of drivers are installed and active, so I can access the phone either in iTunes or as a mass storage device so I can copy off photos in the DCIM folder.

Why the difference, and how to get my wife's Windows to allow both sets of drivers to be active at the same time?

The gory details:

On my wife's system about two months ago, she could no longer access her iPhone as a mass storage device (like a drive partition) so she could manually copy or move photos from the DCIM folder. iTunes was working normally.

My wife's system and mine are practically identical, both Win 10 Pro 64, with all updates installed. On my system, I can access my iphone in both iTunes and as a mass storage device. I can also accesss my wife's iphone as a mass storage device if I plug in to my system. So the issue is narrowed down to Windows driver support on my wife's system.

By way of background, I posted a more general question here iphone doesn't show up in MY COMPUTER on wife's system but does on min - Windows 10 Forums, and I also found this thread helpful Win 10 won't register new iPhone SE - Windows 10 Forums.

Today I spent time with phone support with both Apple and MS. The Apple support guy went through some issues with me and finally said that it was a Windows issue, and to call MS. So I did, and the MS guy told me that he thought it was a hardware problem *Confused and, get this, I should bring in the desktop system to a MS store for help. Yeah.*really

I used a useful tool called USBDeview, referenced in the second thread above. I also spent some "quality time" with Device Manager. I found that if I set the HIDDEN DEVICES option on in Device Manager, I could actually see the iPhone as a Portable Device with WPD and WPDMTP drivers.. So I deleted that device, and hoped that Windows would recognize the iPhone as a new device and re-install the mass storage drivers. Didn't happen.

Then I deleted the usbaapl64 drivers that are installed for Apple USB Mobile Device Driver, for iTunes. Once I did that, then Windows recognized a new device, and installed the Portable Device drivers, and Windows displayed the phone as a mass storage device. So far, so good, right? Then I re-installed the Apple USB Mobile Device Driver, for iTunes. At that point, Windows apparently uninstalled the Portable Device Drivers. I went through this process several times, and I can reliably reproduce this behavior.

This is wrong behavior. *Banghead And I believe the Apple guy's view that this is a Windows issue.

:)

 

iPhone 5s stopped tethering via USB on Windows 10 and i can't fix it

My computer recognizes my iPhone in iTunes.

I can tether via my iPhone using wifi.

I cannot tether via USB.

Device manager shows

USB Controller> Apple Mobile Device USB Driver - drivers are usbaapl64.sys and usbaaplrc.dll

Portable Devices> MTP USB Device

The portable device MTP USB device has exclamation point. I tried to update the drive to the usbaapl64.inf located in C:\Program Files\Common Files\Apple\Mobile Device Support\Drivers, but I get an error that the driver is not compatible with my device.

I had this problem a month or two ago, and was able to do this to fix the problem, but it isn't working anymore.

I have iOS 9.0.2. And Windows 10.

Please help.

 

MY IPHONE IS NOT SYNCING WITH MY WINDOWS 10 - HELP

Is iTunes up to date?

Does the iPhone appear under iTunes?

If it doesn't appear try this fix:

Right-click the Apple Mobile Device entry in Device Manager and choose Update Driver Software.

• Select "Browse my computer for driver software."
• Select "Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer."
• Click the Have Disk button. Note: If the Have Disk option is not present, choose a device category such as Mobile Phone or Storage Device if listed,
  and then click next. The Have Disk button should then appear.
• Click the Browse button and navigate to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Apple\Mobile Device Support\Drivers.
• Double-click the "usbaapl" file. (This file will be called "usbaapl64" if you have a 64-bit version of Windows. If you don't see "usbaapl64" here, or if there is no Drivers folder, look in C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Apple\Mobile Device Support\Drivers.
  instead).
• Click Open in the Have Disk window. Then, click Next and then Click Finish. Windows will install
  the driver.

 

Hi x509.

Have you considered a clean install on your wife computer?

Now I ask that and obviously I don't know how complex your wife's environment is. That said it might actually be less time than trying to diagnose an obviously complex issue.

Just a thought, may be a lousy one.

 

Yes, it would be a lousy thought, and it would not solve the problem. Here is the latest.

If I use my computer and I plug in my phone via USB, then Windows recognizes the phone and photos folder (DCIM), and iTunes recognizes the phone. And the phone asks if I want to allow photo sharing. And Device Manager shows the phone as a Portable Device. That's the desired outcome. However, if I plug in my wife's phone to MY computer, then iTunes recognizes the phone, but Windows does not recognize the phone. And, Device Manager doesn't see the phone as a Portable Device.

This difference explains why on my wife's computer her phone is not visible in Device Manager, and Windows doesn't install the correct driver for her phone as a Portable Device. So I think a visit to the Apple Genius bar is in order.

I spent an hour on the phone with Apple Support, but they said that it was a Windows issue. Guess not.

 

You know what you might try, create a new user on your wife's computer and test.

 

Even though iTunes on Windows is, umm, absolutely awful, I tend to agree with Apple Support. Since Windows 95, Windows has suffered from a largely-unrecognised issue with the accumulation of 'connected USB device' history in the registry which, unfortunately, ends up with what is essentially 'device not recognised'... which, IMO, is what you are faced with here.

TL;DR
The following may work... it's quicker than a reset or repair install in that it doesn't impact upon installed programs or data. It's all supposition... but based upon dozens and dozens of hours I spent investigating USB connection issues at a company with 6,500 Win 7 devices. Since then I've seen that the same issue appears to be unresolved in Win 10.
/TL;DR

Basically, USB device enumeration appears to eventually fall over if you connect USB devices to different ports. I have no idea why (it's like it runs out of storage space in the registry... but that's ridiculous)... just that it does and, IMO, is a reproducible fault connected with the way the registry records USB host/port connections.

(To trigger it yourself, just keep plugging different USB sticks into different USB ports... you'll get to a point where you'll hear the 'device connect' "doink" sound but the device won't be recognised [and looks like it writes a VID/PID key under the ROOT HUB sub-key with a hardware ID description of 'USB\UNKNOWN']. I believe that that's where you are now... your device can recognise it as a USB-connected 'mass storage' device but cannot announce its presence to iTunes because the appropriate device 'trigger' has not been written to the registry correctly under the port it's connected to. Before you ask... no, in my experience there's no point moving it to a different port 'cos the 'USB\UNKNOWN' info has already been written to the registry... and device enumeration (watched using TechNet/Sysinternals' brilliant ProcMon) appears to just iterate down through the main HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\USB sub-key looking for matches in, I think, a ContainerID key.)

As the history is stored in the registry 'per machine' (in the HKLM hive), not 'per user' (in the HKCU hive), creating a new account (and thus new profile) is unlikely to let you test the issue.

USBDeview does a good job, IMO, of cleaning the 'connected device' history from the registry (from the HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\USBSTOR sub-key) but there are times (such as this) that you may also need to clean out the hub/port history in HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\USB as well.

This is pretty drastic so don't do it from within the Registry Editor (and make sure you create a system backup before starting).

Instead, clean out all 'connected device' history (except for USB keyboard and mouse, obviously) using USBDeview then, using Device Manager, uninstall every device you can from within Universal Serial Bus controllers working upwards from USB Root Hub to each USB Host Controller (some you won't be able to if they're in use) then reboot. (Note that you may need to use the 'Power' button to do a hard reboot.)

It will take some time but Windows will re-enumerate each USB host controller then each root hub, writing new information to the registry. The bad news is that Windows will need to enumerate every single USB device that you connect... and, unfortunately, Apple devices take a long time to install their USB device drivers, irrespective of which Windows version you are using.

Hope this helps...

 

RichC and Caledon Ken,

As I mentioned in an earlier post, MY system properly detects My iPhone as a mass storage device and itunes recognizes the phone. Same port, same cable, MY system does not detect my wife's phone as a mass storage device, but does recognize it in iTunes.

I'm pretty PO'ed at Apple right now. My wife's phone worked fine on her system until about 2 months ago. And Apple is constantly updating iOS.

Given these facts, should I follow your advice about a new user profile, uninstalling USB devices, etc? Or should I just take my laptop and both iPhones to the Genius Bar in the local Apple store?

 

Very clear. My opinion is no to my idea.

You may wish to investigate the "Reset All Settings" on iPhone. As I understand it it leaves data just puts everything back to Apple setting. Please research before trying.

In any event I would do a full backup of phone, whether you do something or let Apple.

Having just erased all my contents from phone, had battery replaced, I realized that backups do not backup passwords and will reset Authenticator Apps. (So when I needed to log into gmail my app was useless and I needed one of my emergency codes.)