Apple - Why doesn't iTunes detect my iPhone?

Run Activity Monitor (Applications/Utilities); do you see the iTunes Helper service running? Make sure you set the view to "All processes", not "My Processes". If it's not running, that's your problem. Re-install iTunes and away you go.

I had this problem on Lion, which doesn't allow the deletion of iTunes through the UI. Therefore, it was necessary to force the uninstall of iTunes from Terminal:

• cd /Applications
• sudo rm -r iTunes.app

I then pulled down the latest iTunes installer from Apple.

All my iTunes settings were maintained and my iPhone and iPad showed up again under devices.

This worked for me on my Mac:

1. Connect the iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
2. Open Image Capture (located in Applications).
3. Select your device from the Devices list.
4. Select "iTunes" in the pop-up menu in the Device Settings.

Sometimes iPhoto recognizes the iPhone and overrides iTunes. Not sure why Image Capture is the middle-man, but something to do with recognizing the iPhone as a camera rather than a phone, I'm guessing. This is a simple fix!