Q: Photos no longer sync with iPad

I am using Aperture 3.6

Unfortunately, deleting the cache did not work. It still stalls at Step 4 of 5 (importing photos). The cache was much smaller than I expected (~40 mb), even though I had previously synced thousands of photos to my oldest iPad. It probably should have been 10s of GB in size. After attempting to sync the iPad, it re-created the cache and it contained only one tiny file (Photo Database) which was only ~700 kb in size).

Also, I noticed that the “Storage Bar” (in iTunes) doesn’t change when I select more photo albums to sync. There are currently 8 photos (40 mb) on the iPad from photos I took with the iPad. After selecting ~500 photos to sync, it still says 8 photos and 40 mb. Other media (like movies) show the increased space needed and the number of items after selecting them and hitting “Apply.”

I had planned to use a couple of the older iPads as “Photo Frames,” but may have to look into an alternative method to load the photos.

Thanks!

David

I greatly appreciate your efforts to help me solve this issue. It sounds like you are experiencing some “flakiness” of your own!

I was ready to try your suggestion about exporting the library to “Photos” when I had some success with syncing. I was able to “occasionally” start the photo sync if I interrupted the stalled sync and added another media file to the sync (like a movie), then hit apply. This sometimes will cause the sync to add the movie to the iPad, then start syncing the photos successfully. It doesn’t always work, but I’ve managed to successfully sync my oldest iPad (Version 1 - 2010). I’ll try my newer iPads next and report back if I learn anything more in the process.

I also noticed another (probably unrelated) quirk with iTunes and Aperture while working on this issue. I probably have at least 1000 albums in Aperture and I noticed that (as least) 10-20 of these albums do not show up in iTunes as a choice for syncing. I have a collection of albums in folders organized by year. The latest years (2014 to 2016) do not contain all the albums (in iTunes) that exist in those folders (in Aperture). All earlier years appear to be OK. Very odd.

Thanks!

David

I have now been able to sync all three of my iPads. Once I completed the first iPad, the others completed without issue. Whatever the issue was, it seems to be OK now.

I had made no progress at all until I deleted the iPod Photo Cache from the Aperture Library, as you originally suggested. It didn’t immediately cure the issue, but I suspect it may have helped. It may have been entirely an iTunes issue, but I’ll probably never know. I’ll mark your cache deletion suggestion as the “solution,” so others with this problem will at least know to try it out. I never would have thought of it.

It looks like I’ll continue with Aperture for at least another couple years, or as long as my 2009 Mac Pro will last. Hope you’ll still be here for the duration!

Now if I only knew why several of my Aperture Albums don’t show up in iTunes!

Thanks again Leonie,

David

I don’t have Photo Stream enabled, so possibly that is part of the problem for you.

I have had several problems in the past with iTunes media syncing, especially when the “Cloud” was involved (e.g. iTunes Match and Apple Music). Some of these problems were a complete disaster and resulted in weeks of work to correct.

I just don’t think Apple does the “Cloud” very well (or syncing in general).