Thanks anyway, guys.
Well, that turned out to be a
colossal waste of my time, with the only helpful thing to come from it is to convince me that Apple is about useful as teats on a bull when problems occur.
I've found Apple's support to be non-existent (or next to useless at best), only offering suggestions I'd already found and tried from questions asked back in 2017 and earlier. Seems that's how long this problem has existed, with a definite cause yet to be identified
Thanks,
@xrobwx71 but I'd tried the suggestions in that article several times. I found a dozen different suggestions, yet not one of them worked. I know the problem is related to the Apple Mobile Device Service refusing to start or terminate unexpectedly, but how to resolve it is anyone's guess.
Oh how I hate itunes - it was a happy day when iOS no longer needed iTunes to set up and use. Every time I've used iTunes it's been a lot of pain.
I rarely even opened iTunes up on a Windows or Apple machine before I wanted to sync my Outlook contacts and calendars, so I really only started with it when I did my big clean up of all contacts and calendar items in Outlook, iCloud, and Gmail.
In fact, the reason I own so many licenses for iPhone and Android mobile phone tools is because it was always just easier to purchase a licence for tools that worked when I would charge for repairs to clients like transferring of data from one phone to another (Apple > Apple or Apple > Android or Android > Apple) as well as recovering damaged OSs on both phones. The tools never failed me.
My point being, is there something you have to sync with iTunes for that you can't just achieve without?
Not really. It's more my stubbornness to not be beaten by a problem.
I'm a little embarrassed to admit I spent a minimum of 12 hands-on hours on this problem because I was determined to fix it, and that's before I posted here for help. Now it's closer to 16 hours, but even I have my limits. lol.
Could you also try WiFi sync?
Sync iTunes content on PC with devices on Wi-Fi I doubt it'd behave differently, but when it comes to iTunes you never know...
Thank you for the suggestion, but I eventually settled on this little package of tools.
CopyTrans Contacts - I purchased the 7 pack for $29.99 to get the lot of their different modules. They offer a 30-day money-back guarantee, but I won't be returning it because CopyTrans Contacts does everything I need and a whole lot more.
Syncs my Outlook, iPhone, iCloud, and Gmail contacts and calendars effortlessly and SO much easier to use than iTunes that only syncs with the Outlook, iPhone and iCloud and not everything in Outlook like CopyTrans does either. Well worth the money for that feature.
I've not even looked at the other modules that came with the pack yet. I just purchased them because getting the lot for an extra $10 was a deal too good to refuse and who knows when or if I'll ever need them. A couple of pics of it in action.
I'm marking this question as solved because so far as I'm concerned, it now is, but I'd still like to nut out the iTunes issue if anyone else has any ideas, if only for my own satisfaction.
Best regards,
Andrew
