Sunday 11 September 2011

iPhone Unable to Connect to Windows Vista iTunes library - Firewall Won't Keep Settings

iPhone Unable to Connect to Windows Vista iTunes library - Firewall Won't Keep Settings Error

I've been trying to get my iPhone to connect to my iTunes library on my Windows Vista PC using the iPhone Remote app. Initially the Remote app reports "Remote can't connect to your itunes library. Check network settings" having paused for some time "connecting"

I assumed this was due to the Vista firewall so I followed the instructions on the Apple website to add iTunes as an exception to the Windows firewall. Tried again and the same error message occured. I checked the Windows Firewall again and iTunes was no longer ticked, something had reset the firewall settings and removed the itunes exception.

To confirm that the Windows Vista firewall was causing the problem by blocking access to iTunes from the Remote app on my iPhone via my local wireless network I turned off the Windows Vista firewall. The Remote app connected immediately to the iTunes library showing that it was something in the Windows Vista firewall that was blocking the remote connection between the iPhone 3GS and iTunes.

On further investigation there are additional Windows Vista Firewall settings under Administrative Tools. These allow further configuration of the Windows firewall.

I found that there was an entry under "Incoming Connections" for iTunes that was set to disabled. I enabled this entry and changed the other 2 entries for iTunes under TCP and UDP protocols to be enabled as public profiles.

As soon as these settings were saved the Remote app on my iPhone 3GS was able to connect to the iTunes library.

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