Take one reboot and call me in the morning

Every once in a while a client will call me with some strange, quirky tech-related behavior that they can't seem to make go away.

Today was one such day. A client of mine called me and told me his iPhone was no longer showing up in iTunes when he connected it to his computer via the USB cable. I immediately jumped into full analysis mode.

First, I had him try unplugging the iPhone and plugging it back in while iTunes was already running. Nope.

Second, I had him try unplugging the USB cable from the back of his computer and plugging it back into a different USB port. Nope.

Then I had him try shutting down iTunes, unplugging his iPhone, restarting iTunes and re-connecting his iPhone. Nope.

More advanced research

Then I hit Google. There were all kinds of solutions ranging from re-installing iTunes to downloading the latest version of QuickTime to making sure the operating system had all of its updates.

None of these options were ones I would dare walk a client through over the phone so I headed over to his office.

Before I even touched his computer, I thought of one last thing to try. It completely worked and fixed the problem.

Want to know what it was?

Rebooting. That's right. I rebooted his computer.

As cliche as it sounds when a techie asks you to reboot your computer, sometimes doing so really is the technical equivalent of taking two aspiring and calling in the morning.