Getting iTunes 10.7.0.21 to Wi-Fi Syn with iPhone 4S

With the advent of the new iPhone 5 and iOS 6 in September, I obligingly updated my
iPhone 4S and the iPad 3rd generation to iOS 6. Alas, the new iOS eschewed my iPod 3G, a soon-to-be digital relic. It behooved me also to update my Windows XP iTunes to version 10.7.0.21 as the new gatekeeper for iOS 6 apps. It quickly became apparent, however, the latest iTunes version was not intuned with the iPhone 4S sporting the iOS 6 system. It wouldn't recognize it as a legitimate device allowed to do iTunes Wi-Fi Sync. Thus my quest to have all three i-devices, including the problem-child iPhone 4S, wi-fi sync-able to iTunes. Getting all three devices recognized for wi-fi sync through the iTunes gateway is akin to playing the slot machine wanting three "7s" to line up. I finally succeeded in beating the odds playing against iTunes.

The bugaboo in iTunes 10.7.0.21 is it does not like to Wi-Fi sync when the iPhone 4S had previously opened a celluar connection (i.e. mobile calls or cellular data access).

My findings are summarized in the following table:

Windows XP iTunes 10.7.0.21 Wi-fi Sync iOS Devices

i-Device	i-Device Comm Specs	Sync Failed	Sync Worked	To Sync All Devices Concurrently
iPad 3G 64 Gb iOS 6.01*	Wi-Fi & Data Plan	NA; Always synced	Always synced	iTunes must be the first app to start when computer awakes from a pre-requisite sleep mode
iPhone 4S 16 Gb iOS 6.01*	Wi-Fi, Voice & Data Plan	If cellular data or calls had been opened prior	When used the sleep-wake switch to stop & restart again	iTunes must be the first app to start when computer awakes from a pre-requisite sleep mode
iPod 3G 64 Gb iOS 5.11	Wi-Fi	NA; Always synced	Always synced	iTunes must be the first app to start when computer awakes from a pre-requisite sleep mode

*On a related sync topic, iOS 6.x devices could give a false-positive time stamps for a planned once a day scheduled backup to the iCloud. For a given i-device, if by checking >Setting>iCloud one finds the iCloud time stamp is updated frequently whenever the device is locked, plugged in, and on the wi-fi network, this means the iCloud DID NOT backup at all. All the stats one sees relating to the backup IS FALSE. Invariably, an iOS system pop-up message stating "iCloud has not been backed up in n weeks..." My iPad 3, since updated to iOS 6.x, has been by this problem. It took several manual backup attempts for the iCloud server to accept and lock-down only one backup per day for the iPad. The success of this forced backup approach, however, is tenuous at best. The remission could be temporary. The long-term problem of auto-iCloud backup for the iPad using this iOS version still exists.


One final point. Occasionally, iTunes pops up a message box saying the iPad is detected but not yet wi-fi syncable. The message would show while all three i-devices are being synced simultaneously. It asks the user to unplug the iPad USB and reconnect it again. By following this system hint, the iTunes-to-iPad wi-fi detectction might not work either. There is a better way to get the iPad to wi-fi sync with the iTunes gateway sans unplugging the USB adapter.

Here is how. By going through the steps of doing a wi-fi sync but short of pressing the grayed-out "SYNC NOW" button will get the wayward iPad back to sync with iTunes gateway. This is another undocumented but usefual trick I discovered in using this method.

On my Windows XP system, it can take anywhere from < 30 seconds to 4 minutes for the iTunes to recognize the iPad as wi-fi ready. To possibly expedite the iTunes to iPad recognition time, I just do the iPad wi-fi sync simulation as discussed in the preceding paragraph.