Connect to computer to refresh iPad 2 wifi sync 7.1.1

Question

Not a question as much as a suggestion.
I recently began syncing my iPad 2 via wifi using iTunes and my iMac.
I apologize for not getting the precise wording of the prompt which appeared on my iPad 2 screen during the install of IOS 7.1.1, but it went something like:
'Connect to computer to refresh iPad 2 wifi sync'
I did as I was prompted and as I recall after connecting my iPad 2 to my iMac there were on-screen prompts which had to be answered in order to proceed with the operation, something like 'Trust the computer to which the iPad is connected?' and a similar prompt on my iMac's monitor. After answering both in the affirmative the operation was completed. A few seconds later I get another iMac alert to the effect that the sync could not complete because the iPad could not be found, or words to that effect. Initially I had this sinking feeling, wondering what else might go wrong so I began to click the tabs / buttons at the top of my iTunes iPad 2 interface to discover that my photos seemed to be missing, etc.
It's easy to over-think a situation like this and while I do not profess to be any sort of an Apple guru, I have been a Mac user since the release of the very first Black and White Mac Classic which is to say I have owned and operated my share of Apple 'devices' over the years and have found that sometimes the most effective 'fix' for a problem is to do nothing at all EXCEPT to restart, so that's what I did. I quit iTunes and while it wasn't running I restarted my iPad 2. After my iPad was completely up and running I re-opened iTunes and eureka! Problem solved.

Answer 1

I guess "a reboot" might have been a little ambiguous, but I meant that I restarted OS X (10.8.5, iTunes 11.1, iPad on 5.1.1, iPhone 3Gs on 6.1.3, iPhone 5s (originally not showing up) on 7.0.2).
Prior to that I had rebooted the iPhone 5s a couple of times, connected via cable and toggled WiFi sync settings a few times, restarted iTunes a few times, attempted to "Sync Now" from the iPhone 5s (connected to power and not) a few times. None of these actions had any apparent effect.
I also renamed the iPhone 5s, which originally had the same name as the 3Gs, but that didn't appear to make any difference either, and probably isn't at all problematic, nor is it part of your scenario.
The only other thing I did that might have been related was to assign the iPhone 5s a DHCP reservation on the router, which the other devices already had, effectively giving it a fixed IP. But, even that appeared to make no difference. It was only after I restarted OS X that it showed up. The iPad showed up first, and fairly quickly, the iPhone 5s, finally, after a delay of maybe a minute or more.
The OS X restart was almost certainly the first restart after installing iTunes 11.1, so it's possible the install wasn't able to take care of everything it needed to w/o the restart.
Your "Automatically sync..." option is probably disabled because you have the "Prevent iPods, iPhones and iPads from syncing automatically" option (iTunes Preferences/Devices) turned on. My "Prevent..." option is unchecked and "Automatically sync..." is checked, as well as having "Sync ... over WiFi" checked.