Updates are a key part of the entire smartphone experience as they bring feature changes as well as fixes and security patches that are crucial to the functionality and improvement of a device. The same is true for iOS updates on iPhone, iPad and iPod.

While you’ll receive a notification on your iPhone if a new update is rolled out and you can check for it manually via the device’s settings too, it’s possible that due to some bug or WiFi module malfunction, you are unable to download or install the latest iOS update. In such cases, Apple iTunes can also be used to update your iPhone and other iOS devices to the latest version.

Here we’re going to guide you through the process of updating your iPhone on iTunes. The software update will be verified with Apple by iTunes. The same steps will also work for updating your iPad or iPod on iTunes.

Also read: How to update Amazon Fire TV Stick?

How to update your iPhone on iTunes?

Make sure iTunes is installed on your laptop or PC and working fine. Then connect your iPhone via the lightning to USB cable to your laptop and wait for the sync to begin. Make sure you give the necessary permissions via your iPhone and laptop to sync — you’ll see notifications if you haven’t on your iPhone and laptop.

Once your iPhone and iTunes have synced, if there is an iOS update available, iTunes will show a notification (refer to the screenshot below) prompting you to either Download and Update or Download Only the update. If your iPhone’s data backed up to the computer and cloud, select Download and Update to update your iPhone. However, if you haven’t created a backup yet, it’s recommended to select Download Only and proceed with backing up the data before updating your iPhone.

However, if no pending update notification pops up, you can check for updates manually too. Follow the steps below if iTunes doesn’t automatically find an update.

Step 1: Once your iPhone is connected to the laptop, it’ll show the name of the device under the Devices heading in the left sidebar. Look for the phone icon at the top-left of the iTunes window and click on it to open your iPhone’s Summary page — in the toolbar that’s second from the top.