MobileSync has stopped working

I like to share my experience and findings

When I updated to iTunes 9.1 every time when it sync with the iphone the error message “mobile sync has stop working” began popup up. Like many of us I am at a lost. I uninstall and reinstall all the apple component and itune 9.1 but without success. After reading hirenpatel’s thread in the forum, I begin to search for the DLL in my notebook hard drive. I notice the DLLs (libeay32.dll and ssleay32.dll) are found in many program folders as well as in the apple mobile support folder and the iphone configuration folders. I also notice that the libeay32.dll is also found the system32 folder. The time stamp on this DLL is 2005. Instead of downloading and replace the DLLs as advice I decided to rename the DLL in the system32 folder as “old” I restart the machine and to my surprise I am able to sync again with outlook and iphone using iTunes 9.1 without any error message. I search on the net for the function of libeay32.dll and found that the primary functions is to allow for coded communications over networks. That explains why the same DLL of the similar name are found in many program folders because each software developer has customized the DLL to suit their software. The libeay32.dll which is in the System32 folder could be outdated or not compatible with Apple’s proprietary libeay32.dll.
But because it is locate in the System32 folder the priority for Window OS is to use this DLL instead of the one in the apple folder. So when I rename the DLL in the System32 folder. The window OS will now select the DLL in the program folder.

I hope someone can confirm my findings.

Alvin

Message was edited by: Alvin Chuan

Did you manage to get MobileSync going?

Yes. No more errors. I can sysn with outlook, I can syn with Yahoo address
book.

I suspect is the compatiablity of the DLL found in the window system32 folder.
These are not standard window OS DLL. It could be left behind by program that I installed previously.

Alvin

Renaming libeay32.dll in the windows\system32 fixed the problem for me! Thanks Alvin! I didn't even have to restart my computer!

Hi Alvin --

I took a look inside my copies of libeay32.dll and ssleay32.dll
in %SYSTEMROOT% (aka C:\Windows) and found some useful bits that
show at least my copy of these files is very, very backdated:

cygwin% strings libeay32.dll
...
platform: %s
VC-WIN32
compiler: %s
cl /MD /W3 /WX /G5 /Ox /O2 /Ob2 /Gs0 /GF /Gy /nologo -DWIN32
-DWIN32 LEAN_ANDMEAN -DL_ENDIAN -DDSO_WIN32 /Fdout32dll
built on: %s
Sun Nov 2 09:13:54 2003
OpenSSL 0.9.6k 30 Sep 2003
...

Looking at ssleay32.dll confirmed the same:

cygwin% strings libeay32.dll
SSLv3 part of OpenSSL 0.9.6k 30 Sep 2003
...
SSLv2/3 compatibility part of OpenSSL 0.9.6k 30 Sep 2003
...

So regardless of the date you see on your copy (mine says
2007), internally it might be ancient SSL code from 2003.
I think it's fairly safe to move those files off to the
side if that's the case for you -- here's a security warning
about this version from Mitre's CVE system:

http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2003-0851

I really dislike developers who plonk their stuff in
%SYSTEMROOT% .....


chris

alas, the dll solution did NOT solve the problem for me 😟

After 2 weeks of trying a variety of things I finally hit upon a cludge that works for me on my system (iTouch, Vista Ultimate, Office 2007).

Preparation:
1) Downloaded and installed MobileMe.
(MobileMe is hung with its own issues but keep going)
2) In \Windows\System32 disable both libeay32.dll and ssleay32.dll by renaming them. For example to libeay32.dll.orig and ssleay32.dll.orig
3) Reboot

Running the Kludge:
1)Plug in iTouch start iTunes if necessary.
2)Wade through the error messages.
I still get error message - "MobileSync has stopped working"
Close error message window.
I still get error message - "Yahoo Go Sync Client has stopped working"
Close error message window.
iTunes sync is still running at this point - let it complete the sync this will update podcasts, install apps but WILL NOT sync with Outlook.
3)Once the the sync is done open the Help menu at the top of iTunes and select "Run Diagnostics"
4) When the Diagnostics window pops up - uncheck everything EXCEPT "iPhone/iPod touch sync tests" and then click the Next button.
5)Click Next on the "begin iPhone/iPod Touch Sync Tests" page that comes up next.
6)A black command window will pop up saying "Performing Sync Diagnostics for iTunes!" and an error message saying "EventFixer has stopped working"
- close the error message window.
7)WAIT UNTIL THE DIAGNOSTICS WINDOW CLOSES ON ITS OWN -
On my system after a bit of a lag (sometimes up a minute) I see a variety of messages on the command window. At this point my Calendar is being synced!
If there are conflicts a window will pop up asking how I wish to resolve them.
When the syncing is done the command window closes and the Diagnostics window changes to tell me "Sync tests completed successfully".

I tried about a dozen different things including uninstalling/reinstalling iTunes, the older version DLLs that someone posted on this or a similar thread, etc. and this is the only thing that worked for me. Hopefully it will help you out if nothing else has worked for you either.

...Steven

iSOFTLisa wrote:
Renaming libeay32.dll in the windows\system32 fixed the problem for me! Thanks Alvin! I didn't even have to restart my computer!

Well, an update on this. Another application (Crystal Reports) needed the libeay32.dll in the Windows\System32 folder. When I went to launch it, it went through an installation process and put libeay32.dll back. It is the one with the 2005 date. So, I guess that was only a temporary fix.

Hi iSOFTLisa

I believe the problem is that Crystal Reports installs an older version of
LIBEAY32.DLL in \windows\system32

Copy the newer libeay32.dll from the iphone configuration "C:\Program Files\iPhone Configuration Utility\libeay32.dll" into the system32 folder
or the one from C:\Program Files\Common Files\Apple\Mobile Device Support
Try running the Crystal report and itune 9.1 to see if there is conflicts.


Alvin

Hi iSOFTLisa

Just in case the previous suggest didnot work for crystal report.
You may want to try to move the original copy of the libeay32.dll installed by crystal report into the crystal report program installation folder normally found in the c: /PROGRAM_FILES/ crystal programme folder OR in the programme files/ common files / crystal program folder.

REMEMBER TO REMOVE THE PREVIOUS DLL YOU COPY FROM APPLE FOLDER FROM THE SYSTEM32 FOLDER.

If this still not possible, you may have to seek support from crystal report for advise

Libeay32.dll this file is part of The OpenSSL Toolkit and contains encryption functions, for coding. There are usually located in the %PROGRAM_FILES% sub-folder. This is to avoid dll conflicts

But for some reason, the programmer may require to install them in the Window libraries.

This is a chicken and egg problem. If apple will to place their DLLs into the window system libraries it will replace the old dll. ITunes will run perfectly but the programme that relies on the old DLL will have problem.

It’s an open source and there are bound to be conflicts. Each software has their specific dependency on its version and it's required for their software to connect to the network. Some of them have to be in the system32 folder. 99% of the time it's not an issue. In this case it is. It is not an easy problem to solve especially if the software has specific connectivity security requirement.

Just my reflection

Alvin

Message was edited by: Alvin Chuan

Alvin,

That's what I was trying to do yesterday, but I couldn't find Apple's .dll using Vista's search. I have never gotten Vista's search capability to work correctly 😟. Anyway, I don't have an iPhone Configuration Utility folder under Program Files, but I did find a new copy of the .dll in c:\program files\common files\apple\mobile device support! Thanks! I copied that into my Windows\System32 folder and Crystal worked (so far)! Just for fun, I tried your 2nd suggestion and Crystal DOES want the .dll in the System32 folder. It doesn't see it when I put in the Crystal program folder. Obviously, the sync worked! I'll let you know if I come across any other problems with the newer .dll, but I'm hoping it's all backward compatible.

Thanks Alvin!

Alvin,
This has proved to be the best fix for my setup thus far. The dll's from the Apple Mobile folder fixed my long backup times. This was the only problem I still had after the previous dll's fixed my syncing issues.

I just hope when Apple does get around to updating itunes they actually fix this and not break it again.

Nothing appears to be working for me:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2400464&tstart=0

I have tracked down and fixed my "SyncServer has stopped working" error with iTunes 9.1. I wanted to share my solution in case it helped to point someone else in the right direction. I am running Vista64 with the 64-bit iTunes 9.1.

First, the error that I was getting (in the windows event viewer - windows - application logs) was:

Faulting application SyncServer.exe, version 16.578.8.3, time stamp 0x4b8fb279, faulting module libtidy.dll!_tidyAttrNext@4, version 6.0.6002.18005, time stamp 0x49e03824, exception code 0xc0000139, fault offset 0x0006f04e, process id 0x1964, application start time 0x01cadb96c8d890c4.


The key here was libtidy.dll.

I looked in the path, and there was another application that had a older LIBTIDY.DLL that had put itself into the path. I renamed this file so that it would not get picked up - and instead the LIBTIDY.DLL included in the apple sync directory would get selected. This solved the problem right away.

So if you're getting an error message, look at the full text of the error log, check to see if there's a DLL conflict somewhere in the path and go from there.