fixed : can’t connect new iPhone (iOS 12) to MacBook Air Late 2010

Question :

I have a new iPhone 8 (running iOS 12) and I want to connect it to iTunes on my MacBook Air (Late 2010), but when I connect them using the Lightning-to-USB-cable I get an error message saying the software on my Mac should be updated.

I found that I had OSX 10.10 Yosemite installed, so I used the Mac AppStore-app to upgrade to macOS 10.13 High_Sierra. That went smoothly, so I also installed all available updates for my apps from the Mac AppStore. Then, I ran into a strange error : I can’t upgrade to the newest version of iMovie because my version of macOS doesn’t meet the minimal system requirements…

I also ran iTunes, but even now my iPhone 8 isn’t recognised when I connect it…

I found that for some reason macOS 10.13.4 is installed, and not 10.13.6, but still : Mac AppStore says “no updates available”…

Is my MacBook Air late2010 not meeting the minimal system requirements for macOS 10.13.6 for some reason ?

I looked up my MacBook Air late 2010 in MacTracker, and found that is should be able to run macOS 10.13.6 so why won’t it install ?

How can I fix this ?

 

Answer :

For reasons unknown, you need to upgrade your MacBook Air to macOS 10.13.5 manually using this download :

download macOS 10.13.5 upgrade

And only after macOS 10.13.5 is installed, you can manually upgrade to macOS 10.13.6 using this download (this is an incremental upgrade, not a combo upgrade) :

download macOS 10.13.6 upgrade

After macOS 10.13.6 is installed, you should be able to update to the latest versions of iMovie and iTunes via the Mac AppStore.

If iTunes won’t update, you need to (re)install it manually, using this download :

download iTunes

After installing the latest version of iTunes, connect your iPhone to your Mac using a Lighting-to-USB-cable. Now, an extra update will be downloaded, which will put an extra Devices-button in the iTunes and your iPhone will be recognised in iTunes.

That’s it !

enjoy 😉

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test : is the HEMA 8pin Lightning-to-USB cable Apple Certified ?

Question :

I saw this good looking Lightning-to-USB cable for iPhone and iPad at my local (Dutch) HEMA store : HEMA has named it “8pin USB Charging Cable – extra long (2m)”.

Since it only costs €4 it’s far cheaper to have around as an extra than the original Apple Lightning-to-USB cables. But I’ve purchased some third party and white label Lightning-to-USB cables previously, and most cheaper ones all give the “This cable or accessory is not certified and may not work reliably with this iPhone.”-warning and I don’t want any new cables giving me that same error message.

How can I make sure that this HEMA Lightning-to-USB cable is ‘Apple Certified’ ?

Answer :

The HEMA Lightning-to-USB is available in various colors :

blue HEMA 8pin USB Charging Cable

orange HEMA 8pin USB Charging Cable

mint (pale green) HEMA 8pin USB Charging Cable

But there’s no way to be sure if it’s a 100% Apple Certified cable, since such a certification is not explicitly mentioned on the box…

The only things that are mentioned on the box are :

– for use with iOS-devices running up to iOS 7.1

– supported iOS-devices include the iPhone 5/5C/5S, iPad & iPad mini Retina, iPad mini, iPad Air, iPod nano, iPod Touch

…so basically, it’s a cable suited for any iOS-device that doesn’t have the ‘old’ broad (30pin) iPod-connector but the new (8pin) Lightning-connector, which would include the iPhone 6 & 6Plus also…

And what about iOS-devices running iOS 8 ?

That’s a “you won’t know until you try” situation :

From my own experience, I have not encountered the “This cable or accessory is not certified and may not work reliably with this iPhone.”-warning yet on these iOS-devices :

iPhone 5 (2012) & iOS 8.1

iPad mini (2012) & iOS 8.1

iPad mini 2 “Retina” (2013) & iOS 8.1

…that doesn’t mean that this cable will always be seen as a “Apple Certified”-cable at any time in the future however… there is mention that the “Not Certified”-warning did pop up in some situations, but the cause of those was not figured out… it might just have been an ill-produced sample, or it may have been incompatibility with iOS 8.0 only for some reason (which was then fixed with the release of iOS 8.1).

Conclusion : at this €4 price tag, this is a handy Lightning-to-USB cable to have one or two around as an extra, but keep in mind that this cable might not stay supported by Apple in the long run.

Note : if your iPhone’s (or iPad’s) battery is completely exhausted and it shuts itself down because of ‘lack of power’, using this cable to recharge will take notably longer before ‘minimum level to operate’ is achieved (might even take up to 60 seconds as opposed to the regular 10 seconds), probably because this cable is significantly longer (200cm as opposed to the regular 100cm)

😉

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