How To Fix iPhone or iPad That Is Constantly Connecting And Disconnecting From Mac When Plugged In

Last updated on September 30th, 2020 at 08:24 am

Posted in Bug Fixes, How To by Vlad on June 5, 2019

iPhone with lightning cable connectivity problems

iPhone with lightning cable connectivity problems.

Have you just purchased a new Mac and you encounter problems when connecting your iPhone / iPad to it while using the lightning cable? Is the iOS device continuously acting as if you would plug and unplug it rapidly from your computer or notebook? Don’t panic! You’re not the only one that’s experiencing this problem. We’ve just tested a new Macbook Air and had to troubleshoot it for not being able to maintain a stable connection with any iPhone that was plugged in to it.

In this article I will highlight all tricks that you can apply in order to solve the connecting and disconnecting issue. The cause of the faulty connectivity can be either hardware or software related. We’ll analyze and provide solutions for both cases, as well as learn how to detect what’s the actual reason for this annoying connecting and disconnecting that makes transferring data between iPhone / iPad and computer or notebook virtually impossible.

How To Detect The Cause

If you own more than one iOS device and have at least two lightning cables available it’s quite easy to pinpoint the cause of this problem.

1. Faulty iOS Device

pulling out lint from iphone charging port First, switch the device. For example, if you tried to plug-in your iPhone and experience the connecting and disconnecting issue, grab your iPad or another iPhone and plug it in. If the problem persists it means that the problem isn’t iOS device related and you can move on and try with another lightning cable, to see if the connector is faulty.
On the other hand, if the problem doesn’t manifest itself with a second iOS device it means that the initial smartphone has a faulty lightning port. In this situation, try cleaning the port with a dry toothbrush and a toothpick to make sure that there’s no lint that’s preventing your iPhone from connecting properly. Read the detailed tips about how to clean the lightning port.

2. Faulty Lightning Cable

Next, change the lightning cable and see if this does the job. If you don’t have a secondary one, borrow it from a friend. If the second cable works, the problem is easily fixed by purchasing a new lightning cable.

3. Faulty Mac Lightning Port

This third and final hardware cause is the most unlikely, we haven’t encountered yet reports about Macs shipping with a damaged USB port. However, you can try connecting the same iPhone/iPad using the same lightning cable to another Mac. If this works, than the problem lies with your macOS device. However, this does not automatically mean that’s hardware related. It can be also a software issue and the fixes are available below!

How To Fix An iPhone That’s Plugging and Unplugging From Computer

So, if you’ve concluded that there’s no hardware issue, with your Apple devices, that’s causing your iPhone to quickly connect and disconnect from your computer, let’s troubleshoot the issue from the software point of view:

1. Reset Your iOS Privacy Settings (on iPhone)

how to reset location and privacy on ios If you haven’t connected your iPhone / iPad with your computer for a long time and the Mac got a new software update, some trust issues could arise. To eliminate them please follow these steps:
-> Grab your iPhone / iPad and open the Settings app.
-> Browse for General -> Reset and tap on Reset Location & Privacy.
-> Provide your Passcode to confirm.
Fact: This will erase all locations and privacy settings from your iOS device. Whenever you open an app you will be asked to confirm the privacy settings once again!

2. Relaunch the macOS usbd daemon program (on Mac)

how to relaunch usbd port on mac from terminal app If the quick connecting and disconnecting pattern continues to occur even after you performed the above trick, here is one more fine tuning that has to fix it. The usbd daemon program has to be restarted:
-> On your Mac open the Terminal app. Tap on “Finder” and search for “Terminal”. Open it!
-> Execute the following command. Type the text and press “Enter”: sudo killall usbd (This will terminate the usbd function and relaunch it right away).
-> You will be asked to provide your Mac Password. Type it. The password won’t be shown on the Terminal window. Type it fully and press “Enter”, although it might seem that you have no input.

Important: If the iPhone plugging and unplugging issue still persists after this, close the Terminal app. Open it one more time and repeat the above steps. This time execute the following command. Instead of the “sudo killall usbd” use: sudo killall -STOP -c usbd (Be careful to write it exactly like this, sudo[space]killall[space]-STOP[space]-c[space] usbd)

Hit “Enter”, provide your Macbook’s Password and hit “Enter” again. This should do the trick. Now, attempt one more time to connect your iPhone to your Mac and see if it works properly! If it does you can manage the content of your iPhone in iTunes, backup your device or just allow it to charge.

Please use the comments section available below and let us know if one of the above tips fixed the iPhone connecting and disconnecting from Mac issue. You can also ask for more help in case you didn’t manage to troubleshoot and even share a solution that we haven’t mentioned.

Related: You might also be interested in how to pair two sets of AirPods to the same iPhone, iPad or Mac.

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