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You are here: Home / How to / A Device Attached to The System is Not Functioning, Fix

A Device Attached to The System is Not Functioning, Fix

Last updated on December 22, 2018 By Serhat Kurt 124 Comments

Many iOS (iPhone and iPad) and Windows users are reporting that they have been receiving an error message saying “A device attached to the system is not functioning” (see the image below).

a device attached to the system is not functioning

This error message occurs because your computer is not properly communicating with your iOS device. This could be because of many reasons, for example:

  • Your iPhone or iPad is not connected to your computer properly
  • Your computer’s USB port may not be working
  • Your USB cable may not be working

You may see this error when you attempt to copy and transfer photos and videos from your iPhone or iPad to your Windows PC. This short article explains what you can do to fix this problem.

See also: Easiest Way To Open / Edit a .Pages File On a Windows PC

  1. Reconnect your iPhone to iPad to your computer. Try a different USB port. Try a different USB cable.
  2. Restart your computer and your iOS device. You can turn off your iOS device by going to Settings > General > Shut Down. Then you can restart. Restart your PC also.
  3. On your iOS device, go to Settings > Photos and scroll down, find the “transfer to Mac or pc” section. And select “Keep Originals”. Photos keep originals
  4. On your computer, switch between USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 ports.
  5. Update iTunes to the latest version on your PC. There are two ways to do this depending on your initial installation. If you downloaded iTunes from Apple’s web site, in iTunes, choose Help > Check for Updates. If you downloaded iTunes from Microsoft Store, on your computer, go to Start > Microsoft Store > More… > Download and Updates.

See also: How To Transfer Photos & Videos From iPhone & iPad To Computer (Mac or Windows)

Filed Under: How to Tagged With: Windows

Comments

  1. Amit says

    October 25, 2020 at 4:55 am

    ‘Keep Original’ Solved my problem too. I was not getting resolution to it since very long.
    Thanks a lot.

    Reply
  2. farooq ali says

    October 10, 2020 at 8:22 am

    “Keep Original” Solved my problem. Thank you so much!

    Reply
  3. Scot Maciver says

    October 8, 2020 at 10:19 pm

    THANK YOU THANK YOU. I’m so glad I found this. Switching to ‘Keep Originals’ fixed my problem. And sped up the file transfers I’m trying to do manually. That was so frustrating.

    Reply
  4. Glenn says

    September 21, 2020 at 9:43 pm

    If you don’t need HEIC then go to settings>camera>format and choose most compatible. You will get .jpg/.h264. Then you can transfer without conversions.

    Reply
  5. michael toney says

    August 13, 2020 at 2:52 am

    once you download it after you check ” keep originals” , open it in windows veiwer, when you do it will prompot you to buy something from the microsoft store for 0.99$ and it will say codec or something. anyway sign into to paypal or enter your card info and buy it, then it will work. its something about the format that is being transfered with “keep originals” cheeked, that only allows you to have the sound from the file. yes the file will be smaller but when you buy the thing from the microsoft store it will havw the vid in it! please know Jesus is the way the truth and the life!!! ANd He loves you all so very much!!! He just wants to make you family again!!!

    Reply
    • Nate R says

      August 29, 2020 at 7:39 am

      Your jesus don’t have anything to do with the answer. Keep it to yourself.

      Reply
  6. Bill says

    August 4, 2020 at 4:34 pm

    I have tried all of above ie “Keep Original”, “Most Compatable”, turned off WiFi, and still get “A device attached to the system is not functioning” when I try to upload Quicktime *.MOV files to Windows 7 PC via USB cable. Transfer of *.JPG, *.PNG pictures works just fine with the same PC, USB cable and iPhone 7. All software is the latest of both PC iTunes and iPhone.

    Reply
  7. emi says

    August 4, 2020 at 1:44 pm

    “Keep Original” Solved my problem. Thank you so much!

    Reply
  8. Asgeir says

    July 30, 2020 at 1:16 pm

    Keep original trick solved it! Thank you!

    Reply
  9. Mike Wizowski says

    July 25, 2020 at 1:10 pm

    The Keep original trick worked for me on iphone 7 transfer to windows 7 PC

    Reply
  10. Roger says

    July 14, 2020 at 4:21 pm

    The “Keep Originals” trick worked for me. I wasted hours trying to access my iPhone X on a Windows PC. I could only “see” the iPhone on an ancient Netbook running Windows 7 Starter – but whatever works. Then I faced the “A device attached to the system is not functioning” issue, which was thankfully easy to fix. Can’t say I’m a fan of Apple after this ridiculous run-around though. Thanks for the solution.

    Reply
  11. JP says

    June 15, 2020 at 4:23 am

    This worked for me with my IPhone 7. Make sure under settings > photos you select automatic

    Go to Settings > Camera.
    Tap Formats.
    Tap Most Compatible.

    Reply
    • Sagar Irakal says

      July 27, 2020 at 2:39 am

      This worked, thank you

      Reply
  12. amdnotox says

    June 3, 2020 at 10:59 am

    Thumbs up for you sir! You gave me a great pill for my headache 🙂

    Reply
  13. Sonnet says

    June 3, 2020 at 7:11 am

    Oh my God thank you 🙏🏼 I made it. Finally. I transferred all my videos in a minutes ! Its unbelievable!!! I can’t explain how happy am I)))))) I was struggling with this 6 months and just one click on “ keep original “ changed my life)))

    Reply
  14. pgmark says

    June 3, 2020 at 3:33 am

    Have been trying to move pictures from iphone 8 to computer (Windows 10) but cant do it. Switching to “Keep originals” caused a whole new set of problems – worked, but all the pictures were in .HEIC format, whatever that is. My computer cant read them and neither can the programs I use to edit pictures, so this was no help. I can sometimes get some pictures to transfer before I get the error, but the inconsistency of this is strange. Any ideas what else I can do?

    Reply
    • Zhelle says

      July 17, 2020 at 4:55 pm

      I’ve experienced the same. Sometimes it works, but sometimes it doesn’t. It’s annoying at times! And I get this message, “The requested value cannot be determined.”

      Reply
      • Tomas Péntek says

        July 24, 2020 at 11:45 am

        I were connected with cable to a pc. shutting down wifi on phone made it work for me.

        Reply
        • Rick says

          August 17, 2020 at 1:02 pm

          I was having an issue where the copy just stopped, no error. putting the phone in airplane mode, allowed the copy to complete without issue.

          Reply
    • Lindsey says

      July 17, 2020 at 11:16 pm

      Have you been able to find a solution? I am running into the same problems with my iPhone 8 plus and my Windows 8 PC. I have done the same things as you: repeatedly attempted to transfer pictures, converted the formats, changed the settings on my iPhone, etc. The end options were that the transfers kept failing or I had a bunch of .HEIC files that I would have to convert. This is ridiculously frustrating. Makes me consider getting an Android.

      Reply
  15. Qammar says

    June 1, 2020 at 7:31 am

    By changing the setting to “Keep Original” Solved my problem.

    Many Thanks

    Reply
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