"Required file cannot be found" when syncing photos

Question

Level 1

11 points

"Required file cannot be found" when syncing photos

I'm getting the "The iPad "iPad" cannot be synced. The required file cannot be found" when syncing my photos. Everything else seems to sync successfully. I was able to sync my photos a couple of times until I started to delete some photos, change album names, move pics around in albums and merge/rename events. I've emptied my trash to get rid of the deleted photos.

When the library does seem to "update" on the iPad, I have some seemingly empty spots on Faces where I've deleted photos from the original photo sync-- if I touch there, the old name comes but the photo is gone.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.3), iPhoto '09

Posted on Apr 6, 2010 11:54 AM

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Answer 1

Apr 13, 2010 4:25 PM in response to localecho

I'm getting the same warning. The weird thing is if I click on the photos tab and click on "events from last 2 months" I get the error. If I change it to "events from last month," I don't get the error..

hmmmm..

any ideas?

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Answer 2

Bresaur

Level 1

4 points

Apr 14, 2010 5:53 PM in response to Rick Smith

I had sent to trash a number of photo's in Iphoto and when I tried to sync with Itunes I got the message " The IPad cannot be synced. The required file cannot be found." Although the photo's can be viewed in Iphoto I'm not able to transfer them on to the iPad.

Any suggestion?

Thanks

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Answer 3

Alex Neil

Level 2

172 points

Apr 15, 2010 9:51 AM in response to LindaPf

I also just received the "required file cannot be found" message. Not sure at what point in the sync. All the top status bar says is "Syncing...".

Syncing seems to be a tedious error prone process with the iPad. On plugging the iPad in, iTunes starts displaying the spinning beachball of death for 5 minutes before the iPad displays "Syncing" and then another few minutes before it shows up in iTunes.

Certainly not what I would have expected.

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Answer 4

Bresaur

Level 1

4 points

Apr 17, 2010 8:13 AM in response to LindaPf

I called Apple and talked to a senior tech who had me fix the problem. The problem is with the ipod photo cache.

He had me do the following:
1. go to home folder in finder
2. open pictures folder
3. right click on iphoto library and click on show package contents
4. Find "ipod photo cache" file and drag to desktop
5. Close finder
6. Reopen itunes and sync ipad
7. The ipod photo cache rebuilds itself

This resolved my issue.

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Answer 5

Apr 30, 2010 5:08 PM in response to Bresaur

Bresaur,

I just got home from the Apple store with my new 3G iPad and had the same error. I followed your "fix" and it worked perfectly, the photos are syncing as I type this.

You didn't know you were answering a question in the future but Thank You!

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Answer 6

May 10, 2010 3:47 AM in response to Bresaur

Awesome!!! But i ask why did it do this in the first place? I was splitting some events in iphoto and changing some picture titles… is this the reason? am i to leave everything as it is, never to touch the library again just so i can sync with my iPhone 😟 i will go mad!

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Answer 7

Jun 5, 2010 5:36 PM in response to TheMrSheen

Have you ever transferred photos from iPhoto to an iPod and/or iPhone?

When transferring photos to an iPhone or iPad, photos are optimized for viewing on the device as part of the iTunes sync/transfer process, which creates the iPod Photo Cache. If the cache gets corrupted for whatever reason, the error message will be the result.

I've been transferring photos from my iPhoto Library to two iPhones for nearly 3 years now and I haven't experienced the same yet. This includes making changes to photos in my iPhoto library, adding/removing photos from iPhoto albums selected to be transferred to the iPhones, etc.

This is not something that should be required on a regular basis.

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Answer 8

Khiem Le

Level 1

5 points

Jun 7, 2010 1:58 AM in response to Bresaur

Thanks,

It worked perfectly for me, even I was not syncing from iPhoto library.

For those who are not syncing from other folders, rather than iPhoto, you actually do the same steps mentioned above. There is always a folder called "iPod photo cache". Just delete it and re-sync the folder, you'll fine.

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Answer 9

mreddiel

Level 1

4 points

Jul 5, 2010 7:11 PM in response to Bresaur

Hey, I tried this process to fix the "required file cannot be found on my iPad" while trying to sync my photos and it worked. I noticed that iPhoto rebuilt the iPod Photo Cache Folder but my only question is, what do I now do with the old iPod Photo Cache folder that I dragged on to my desktop?

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Answer 10

Karelini

Level 1

4 points

Jul 31, 2010 7:14 AM in response to LindaPf

Follow the procedure... it works

1. go to home folder in finder
2. open pictures folder
3. right click on iphoto library and click on show package contents
4. Find "ipod photo cache" file and drag to desktop
5. Close finder
6. Reopen itunes and sync ipad
7. The ipod photo cache rebuilds itself

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Answer 11

Oct 2, 2010 5:02 PM in response to AmplifiedLife

just to clarify what one of the above posters was saying. i use aperture so i deleted the cache from the aperture package contents.

obviously if you are not using iPhoto then you don't delete that cache.

this worked perfectly thank you.

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Answer 12

Harry909

Level 1

15 points

Oct 5, 2010 1:59 PM in response to bippie999

Make sure Aperture, iTunes and iPhoto are closed. Use cmd-Q to terminate them if they’re still open.
Open Finder
Navigate to your Home -> Pictures folder
Right-click the “Aperture/or photo Library.aplibrary” folder and select “Show Package Contents”
You should see a folder named “iPod Photo Cache”
Delete this folder
Start iTunes
Re-enable photo synchronisation in the photo sync tab
Click “Sync Photos” in the dialog that pops up
Choose Aperture to sync sync photos from
iTunes will say that your iPhone is synced to another photo library. Click yes to overwrite the old settings in iPhone.
That’s it! Your iPhone should be syncing without errors now!

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Answer 13

jinette

Level 1

0 points

Jul 22, 2011 2:25 AM in response to Bresaur

It hasn't worked for me with my iPhone 4. The problem happened for the first time only 3 days ago after changing my settings in iTunes as to which albums and events I wanted to sync. The synchronisation of the iPhoto photos gets to almost the end of the process and then aborts with the message '...can't sync. Required file not found.' I've rebuilt the iPhoto library, deleted the ipod cache several times. Repaired permissions. Nothing seems to make a difference. Yet it is not troubling my iPad synchronisation, where I have also changed photo selections. What's going on? Do I need to restore my iPhone and start again?

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Answer 14

jinette

Level 1

0 points

Jul 27, 2011 11:50 PM in response to jinette

OK - I've figured it out - there is a missing step in the instructions about deleting the iPod cache. It is:

Before anything else: Quit iTunes

Delete the iPod cache

Open iTunes

AND then reselect the photos to be synced under the iPhoto tab

Click Apply.

The new selection will now sync.

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Answer 15

Aug 22, 2011 7:21 PM in response to Bresaur

How to right click on a touchpad? I use a laptop..(sorry for stupid question) I trashed the Ipod photo cache file ..restarted app but it still says I don't have required file. Now I can't find this file. Doesn't appear. Please advise.

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