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Alex Neil Author

Level 2

171 points

Post 2.2.1 upgrade iPhone / iTunes sync crashes iTunes

I upgraded my 3G iPhone to v2.2.1 today after taking a backup.

Following an incident free upgrade - sync'ing the iPhone produces a crash in iTunes during the application sync section.

Has anyone else experienced this problem?

Thanks

iMac 2.8G, PowerMac G5, Graphite Clamshell, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iPhone, Mac OS X (10.5), Windoze.....

Posted on Jan 29, 2009 2:10 PM

264 replies

Jan 30, 2009 3:32 PM in response to keven-77

If you start up iTunes holding down the option key, you will get a prompt where you can start up a new library. In effect, it will be blank and no alleged corrupt songs will be loaded. I did this, and it still crashed for me.

Jan 30, 2009 3:46 PM in response to K Rick Schultz

Not sure, but if I make updates to my iCal or Address Book and use iSync to update those changes update fine. This would appear to fit your hypothesis.

Jan 30, 2009 3:48 PM in response to Jason Gutierrez

So now that 3 people have tried it with a fresh iTunes library & iPhone, I hope nobody else wastes their time...

Problem still appears specific to iTunes related data (even though fresh libraries have the issue). All non-iTunes related sync data (calendars, contacts, mail accounts, photos) appears to work consistently. Its only when iTunes specific data (ringtones, apps, songs, video, podcasts) attempt to sync that the issue pops up.

C'mon Apple. I want my phone back.

Jan 30, 2009 4:05 PM in response to K Rick Schultz

What is odd is that it is specific to the phone device. I can sync music, video and podcasts to my apple tv with the same itunes program that crashed trying to that to the phone. I did a full restore and then reestore from backup. My mail, calendaer, contacts and bookmarks all sync through mobile me so they are fine. I have used the phone itself to download apps I want while we wait for apple and find that my settings for each app are embedded in my phone since once installed even without itunes it has all the previous settings.

Has anyone tried setting phone up as new again? I haven't wanted to go down that level of starting over....

Jan 30, 2009 4:15 PM in response to Michael Goldrosen

My AppleTV sync's via the same iTunes as well so its definitely specific to the iPhone/iTunes and the 2.2.1 firmware update (though after the failure with 2.2.1, 2.2 devices also fail).

My "clean" efforts described earlier involved setting up the iPhone as a new phone. Between my tests and trusting some of the other tests described here, I don't think there's anything that can be done from the iPhone to fix this. Something within iTunes related to the iTunes data and iPhone sync is involved from what I can tell...

keven-77

Level 1

9 points

Jan 30, 2009 4:24 PM in response to K Rick Schultz

I know this is not convenient but I can sync my entire music library (including videos) as long as there aren't any "Protected" items. I just made a smart playlist where the "Kind > does not contain > protected" and was able to sync the entire playlist (1600+ items).

I have no idea about the applications though. I just turned the syncing off for now.

Jan 30, 2009 9:32 PM in response to Alex Neil

I'm glad I found this post. I am having the same identical problems with both my iPhone and iPod. Just connecting the iPod to iTunes causes a crash and syncing the iPhone crashes as well. I've reinstalled iTunes and rebooted both devices and the problem persists. I am having no problems at all syncing with my Apple TV. Whatever is going on here is a major screw up. Has anyone had someone from Apple to even acknowledge that there is a problem here, or are they denying that it has anything to do with them? It seems to me that the problems arising with Apple lately are getting progressively worse and more frequent and they are getting worse about denying any problems in the first place. Yes, I am getting frustrated. I have no clue what to try next.

Jan 30, 2009 9:43 PM in response to David Ivey

It's being looked into by Apple. Best advice for now is probably to use the phone without sync'ing. If you reset the phone, re-download any necessary apps using the App Store on the iPhone rather than trying to sync. Hopefully they'll work through the weekend and have a fix soon. Keep sending in failure reports to Apple when there is a crash if you try to debug. They're hopefully filtering the reports and putting the iPhone/iTunes issue at the top of the list.

Continued thanks to "Alex" for getting this started.

Jan 30, 2009 11:24 PM in response to keven-77

So, I have the same problem, I have gone through the same "clean-up" efforts (new itunes db, phone reset, firmware reinstall, itunes re-installation). The problem persists.

Your observation on the protected AAC files seemed the only constructive way to avoid the crash, so I delved into that for a bit. You sort of have a point.

Info/Mail accounts will sync (I use mobileme for OTA sync).
Photos will sync.
Podcasts will sync.
Music will sync - AS LONG AS IT'S NOT UNDER DRM. Even AACs will sync without DRM.
Video will sync - AS LONG AS IT'S NOT UNDER DRM.
Applications will NOT sync - but guess what, they're all under DRM.

Seems to me the failure here is DRM-related. I have made my iPhone semi-functional by parsing the DRM stuff out of my music and audio (via playlist/selection) and then doing a sync. Afterwards I downloaded the applications I desperately needed directly from the phone.

Cumbersome, but I am back to a semblance of "working phone". And I'm staying away from syncing again until this is resolved. Ack.

Jan 31, 2009 12:59 AM in response to Alex Neil

Just thought I would post my 2.2.1 upgrade experience here.

Plugged my iPhone in dock and left it upgrading. When I came back the iPhone was in a state where the only solution was full restore, so I did that. However whilst syncing my music, the iPhone would disappear from iTunes (but indicated it was still syncing) and I had to undock and dock it to continue (several times). Eventually everything was back on the iphone, but syncing still failed every so often.

I decided to do a fix permissions, then rebooted my G4 and syncing appears to be working and the iPhone is no longer dropping off iTunes.

Jan 31, 2009 1:21 AM in response to Alex Neil

hi i upgraded my first generation phone from 2.1 to 2.2 in the process it come to the point that only restore was a suitable option so i pressed restore after that my phone got strangely locked in a sense that it can read my sim card i can receive and make calls also i can receive sms but phone does not open only screen showing usb and i tunes, connecting to i tunes says sim card not valid . can any body have a solution for this?

Alex Neil Author

Level 2

171 points

Jan 31, 2009 2:52 AM in response to Alex Neil

Poster nekulturni postulated that DRM was the culprit and went to lengths to demonstrate that this was the case.

Since I had nothing to lose I decided to replicate nekulturni's scenario.

I reset my iPhone to factory state (ouch).

Once the iPhone reset and activated I set it up as a NEW iPhone in iTunes.

Restarting iTunes produced no immediate partial sync activity (iPhone goes immediately to sync even though auto sync is turned completely off - iPhone in devices in iTunes shows sync icon - iTunes display bar only shows black apple).

Music, Photos, Podcasts, Video and Applications were unchecked for sync.

I created a new playlist with 3 non-DRM MP3s and selected only the playlist for music. I also turned on ringtones and a small iPhoto album and ran a sync. iTunes crashed. No music, ringtones or photos were loaded on the iPhone.

BUT a restart did not cause the immediate partial sync (see above) condition.

I deselected music, ringtones and photos from sync.

Sync seems OK.

I added back only the non-DRM MP3 music.

Sync is OK with non-DRM music on the iPhone..

I added back photos.

Sync is OK with photos on the iPhone.

I added back ringtones.

Boom - sync crashed with no new ringtones on the iPhone.

Deselected ring tones from sync and selected Podcasts.

Sync is OK with podcasts on the iPhone.

I added back non-DRM movies.

Sync is OK with movies on the iPhone.

At this point, at least for my symptoms, it would seem that DRM content is indeed the culprit.

Great job nekulturni!

I have sent these results along to the Apple agent and engineers for review.

Jan 31, 2009 5:31 AM in response to Alex Neil

I have been experiencing all the problems shown above and have to agree it seems to point to DRM issues. A few days before i upgraded to 2.2.1 I upgraded to Itunes plus which replaced about 900 purchased songs for DRM free versions. Could this be related. Thanks for all your advice above and I agree leave sync well alone until Apple finds a fix. Phil

dhill00

Level 1

0 points

Jan 31, 2009 5:42 AM in response to Alex Neil

I'm experiencing this problem with all 3 of my household's iPhones as well as a 5th gen 30GB iPod. iTunes crashes at sync attempt. My library has a mix of protected and unprotected music.

I was able to deselect all music in the iPod menu before it crashed which seemed to stop any subsequent crashes on connect. I then created a smart playlist and filtered out all of the Protected files. After that I was able to successfully sync the iPod. However, this did not work with any of the iPhones.

Also, once I tried to sync an iPhone and induced a crash, the phone tries to complete the sync the next time it is connected even if auto syncing is turned off.

Alex Neil Author

Level 2

171 points

Jan 31, 2009 5:58 AM in response to Alex Neil

Purchased AAC files should be OK. Protected AAC not.

Also, until I tested I had forgotten that ringtones were DRM'd, so be sure to deselect them before attempting a sync.

Post 2.2.1 upgrade iPhone / iTunes sync crashes iTunes