iPhone Photos won't download 2

I've covered this problem before in a previous post, but it has resurfaced in a new variant, so it is time to mention it yet again.


Here are the symptoms: For the second time, my iPhone won't download photos to my Mac. This time, Image Capture refuses to acknowledge that my iPhone is even connected to my Mac, even though iTunes knows it is connected and is quite happy to sync it.

In fact, my newly updated to 8.2.1 version of iTunes was very happy to download and install the 3.0.1 firmware update to my iPhone recently, and I began to put two and two together...

My iPhone dock has been repeatedly reporting that it is not an Apple accessory (it is!) for some time, but it connects to my Mac via a USB hub, and I have been reading up on the Palm Pre debacle recently, where Palm and Apple are seem by some to be fighting an escalating war of attrition.

Many people seem to think that iTunes should be forced to connect to non-Apple USB devices because iTunes is popular (not sure I understand this, but...). It seems that each time Apple try to re-assert their right to make their software talk to their devices (standard practice for proprietary device software - my HP printer drivers do not work with printers from any other manufacturer, and I would not expect them to, nor would I expect any other printer manufacturer to try to make their printers talk to the HP software drivers), then Palm alter their device's software so that it will talk to iTunes.

Allegedly some part of the recent updates increase the tests that iTunes makes to determine if a USB device connected to it is actually made by Apple. One of the side effects of this seems to be that my iPhone is no longer recognized by Image Capture, and so I can no longer download photos from my iPhone to my Mac.

This was confirmed when I removed the USB hub, and connected my iPhone dock directly to my Mac. Suddenly Image Capture was able to see my iPhone, and I could download photos again. Prior to the updates the hub had not prevented this from happening. Putting the hub back in between the Mac and the iPhone dock made Image Capture unable to detect the iPhone again. Hmmm...

So it appears that collateral damage is happening as a result of Apple and Palm's activities. If you can't download photos from your iPhone, then try removing your USB hub and connecting your dock straight into your Mac... It worked for me, although if the current activities continue to escalate, then this topic may well surface yet again.

(Later) Actually, this was only a partial solution. The next time I tried to download photos, even with no hub present, and my dock connected directly into the Mac, Image Capture still refused to acknowledge that the iPhone was connected, even though iTunes disagreed and happily did a sync.

I'm also less than happy that my iPhone dock gives false (I'm not an Apple product) reports - apparently due to wear and tear on the connector, which seems weird given that the connector is bound to see lots of use... I do wonder if all of these are connected?

Conflict creates casualties, and this time it was me, an innocent bystander, who was hurt, if only metaphorically and sometimes recoverably. Let's hope that this can be solved amicably and we can return to a world where things don't suddenly stop working.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Apple gives Palm the boot - again (theregister.co.uk)
• iPhone users report problems with software update (telegraph.co.uk)

Is it okay, or isn't it?

You know when you get that sudden sinking feeling because you realise that you may have inadvertently done something wrong? Something triggers the putting of things together in your head and you have a moment of panic where the world wobbles a bit?

It happened to me today.

There I was, listening to the idle banter at work, and the subject of Top Gear came up, and I thought about watching the episode in question in iPlayer, the Beeb's phenomenally successful 'catch-up TV' player. Which is when the guilt suddenly overwhelmed me - it suddenly occurred to me that I had watched programmes on iPlayer at work, without a TV licence! I have a TV licence at home, but not at work...

Time moves slowly under these circumstances. The web browser crawled, snail-like, to the FAQs and an intriguing link to the TV licencing web-site, where it seemed to indicate that watching 'live' TV required a licence. The link away from the FAQs intrigued me, so I went back to the iPlayer web-site and dug around a bit more...

Which is when things got really interesting.

The iPlayer web-site and other places make it very clear that you can't watch a tv programme using iPlayer if it is being broadcast at the same time - a 'simulcast' - without a TV licence. But if the programme isn't being shown at the same time - 'live' - then you don't need a TV licence. All of which seemed clear enough, until I thought about what a 'simulcast' means...

Top Gear is one of the BBC's most widely sold programmes. Many countries show it, and so there is a finite probability that when you watch it on iPlayer, it is also being shown in one of these countries. Multiply that small but finite probability with the large number of people using iPlayer, and you end up with the realisation that for some of these people, they are watching Top Gear at the same time as it is being broadcast, somewhere in the world. Now with lots of countries showing it, and no easy way of finding out if is is being shown at the time that you want to watch it on iPlayer, this means that you have no way of knowing if it is being broadcast at the same time, and so you don't know if you need a TV licence in order to watch it. Alternatively, then you have to limit what you mean by a 'simulcast' to a limited geographical area, which it currently isn't...

So as far as I can see, there's no way of knowing for certain if you need, or don't need, a TV licence in order to watch a programme on iPlayer. So you can't know definitively if you are actually breaking the law, but you can work out, reasonably accurately, what the odds are that you are. Deliciously ironic, particularly since the more popular a programme is, the greater the chance of unknowingly breaking the law. I'm expecting the TV licencing people to start sending out demands any moment now...