iPhone won't ask to trust computer again

Question

I accidentally tapped "Don't trust" on my iPhone after connecting it to my Windows 10 PC and planning to import the latest pictures and videos I have taken during the summer. This is part of my backup routine and I do it every couple of months, but I believe this is the first time I clicked the wrong option.

The problem is when I disconnect and reconnect the phone, it doesn't ask me again whether to trust or not to trust my computer.

I quickly googled how to fix the problem and have so far tried the following options:

• Changed the autoplay selection on the PC
• Changed the PIN on the iPhone
• Rebooted the PC
• Rebooted the iPhone
• Ran Windows Update on the PC and rebooted again
• Resat location and privacy settings on the phone
• Resat network settings on the phone

The only suggestion I didn't yet try is to install iTunes. I'm not yet quite desperate enough to go that far. I think I'd actually rather buy a new computer rather than going through the hassle of installing and using iTunes. I still have several traumas from attempting to use iTunes for some simple task in the past.

I suppose I could just wait for a couple of weeks. At some point the phone will have to ask me again.

But there HAS to be a simpler and easier way for a user to force the phone to forget a mistaken entry like this. Does anybody have the answer?

By the way, I am looking for a solution which is as precise as possible, so resetting everything, reinstalling everything or replacing everything are not my preference. I'm thinking, Apple can't actually force me to start completely from scratch just because I hit the wrong button? Fingers crossed. Thanks.

Edit: Just to make it perfectly clear, I am not using iTunes on the PC and never have. My import routine is navigating to "This PC" -> "Devices and drivers" and right clicking on "Apple iPhone" which has appeared in File Explorer. The phone does appear in File Explorer as usual, but when I click on "Import pictures and videos", a dialog box appears saying "No pictures or videos were found on this device". This, I imagine, stems from the lack of trust on the phone's part. Apparently, this seems outside the box to some, though I just see it as letting Windows handle stuff, iTunes otherwise handles. It has worked fine since 2013 on three different iPhones and three different PCs.

Update 1: The phone still doesn't ask me today, the day after the problem occurred. I have tested plugging the phone into a coworker's PC (identical to mine) and the question popped up immediately on the phone. Meanwhile, since the problem occurred, my phone has forgotten all wifi's and which apps may access camera, photos etc, but it won't forget NOT to trust my PC.

Update 2: Two days later I was asked after ending the YourPhone.exe process on the PC (see posted answer for details).

Answer 1

I have now succeeded in making the phone ask again. Turns out, the problem was on the computer.

I have this proprietary software installed called CopyTrans which allowed me to transfer some older pictures into my iPhone when I bought the phone a year ago. Haven't used it since. In order to troubleshoot, I opened CopyTrans Control Center, then updated and opened the CopyTrans Photo app. Then I reconnected my iPhone and it asked me whether I wanted to trust the computer. So CopyTrans was able to initiate the prompt on the phone.

I then went to This PC, right clicked the Apple iPhone and quickly imported my pictures and videos successfully.

Afterwards, I closed CopyTrans and made sure its processes were not running in the background. This caused the phone to revert to the state where it does not ask whether to trust the computer and the computer is unable to access pictures on the phone.

But at this point I noticed a background process called YourPhone.exe which was in suspended mode. According to several seemingly trustworthy sources, this is a built in Windows program which allows Windows to work with a connected phone. I ended the process and expected it to be necessary to restart it somehow, but as it appears, importing pictures works fine after ending the YourPhone.exe process. I suppose Windows may have some additional processes to handle the phone connection. At least it works, even if YourPhone.exe isn't running.

The process seemed to be suspended to improve system performance (had a green leaf in the task manager).

According to the details in Task Manager, the .exe file was changed on August 6th, so there might possibly have been a recent update which can cause the problem.

At least I can confirm that after a while, YourPhone.exe is back running, and is again suspended in order to improve system performance. And when I connect the iPhone, Windows is unable to access my iPhone's pictures and videos and cannot import anything.

So ending the YourPhone.exe process solves the problem.