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Level 1

0 points

iTunes keeps re-optimizing photos for iPhone and iPad

Hi all,

I'm not sure when this started, but for a while now, every time I make any sort of change on my iPad or iPhone (adding a podcast, changing a contact, etc.) iTunes decides to re-optimize 78 photos (I don't know why 78, I have hundreds of photos saved), delete them, and then sync them again. This only seems to happen when I change any kind of content to sync to the iPad or iPhone, though I'm not sure if that's really the case and it may be more random than that. It does happen a lot and it is such a waste of time.

I tried deleting the iPod Photo Cache from iPhoto (using Clean My Mac) and it didn't help... In fact I'm wondering if using Clean My Mac is what started this. However I'm also not sure if this started when I got my 3GS and started adding videos on iPhoto, which I do sync to my devices. But the number is always 78 and I have less videos than that, so this doesn't make sense.

Please help if you have any ideas at all... It's a big nuisance and I don't understand why it's happening. Thanks.

Macbook, Mac OS X (10.6.3)

Posted on Apr 15, 2010 12:09 PM

89 replies

May 10, 2010 4:28 AM in response to tzohar

Same problem with my iTunes. It started when I first synced the iPad to iTunes. Now with every iPad sync 34 photos are being optimized and with every iPhone sync 16 photos. Annoying...

gmurch

Level 1

0 points

May 11, 2010 10:18 AM in response to tzohar

Having same issue and I have several thousand photos.

Somebody from Apple needs to respond to this thread that they acknowledge the issue.

May 14, 2010 1:09 PM in response to tzohar

I've been having the same issue on my iPad. 127 photos for me. iPhone is fine.

I have over 7800 photos or something like that, but it's only doing this on that portion of 127 pics.

May 15, 2010 7:07 AM in response to tzohar

Same thing here, started after getting the iPad and syncing it. I think it optimizes differently for the iPhone than the iPad and has to do it each time a different one is plugged in from the last.

May 16, 2010 9:11 PM in response to tzohar

I followed the instructions in the link above on how to rebuild the iPhoto library.

After doing so I've unplugged and replugged, restarted iTunes several times, etc, and the behaivior seems to be completely fixed now. After the initial sync, post rebuild, it also rebuilt the library on the iPad when I started the app the first time.

Thanks a lot for the tip. Everyone should probably at least attempt it and see if they have the same success I did.

May 17, 2010 2:36 AM in response to Hickeroar

I also tried to rebuild the database. It did not help for me.

May 26, 2010 10:55 PM in response to guido4000

Ditto for me. Syncing pics to my iPhone via iTunes takes forever.

Never used to be an issue when I used iPhoto, but switched to Aperture, and rebuilt the library accordingly. Now I get either a small batch of photos re-optimised & re-synced or iTunes elects to re-optimise and re-sync the whole **** library of 8000+ pictures.

Grrr...

Spoke to Genius at Apple Store. They were initially unfamiliar with the problem, but some guy in the back room suggested switching options within iTunes to sync individual projects with iPhone, rather than the catch-all "sync all photos" option. So I tried this. First couple of syncs went to plan - not ploughing through the full 8000 pic library.

But today it's back to its old tricks again. Churning through them all again.

This is getting very boring now...

May 28, 2010 10:30 AM in response to tzohar

Ditto. Not only does it optimize the photos every time. It seems to take forever even though it only shows it's optimizing a small number of photos. I, too have an Apple TV. But, it seems to happen to people without Apple TVs, too.

Jun 1, 2010 12:34 PM in response to Brian Smith7

In my case, this appears to be related to the "Include videos" checkbox in the "Photos" tab in iTunes. If the box is checked, the "Optimizing Photos" window pops up on EVERY sync and it takes forever. This does not happen with the box unchecked.

Jun 1, 2010 1:19 PM in response to Paul Bienick

More info: the initial sync after "Include videos" is checked optimizes 224 videos. Subsequent syncs optimize only 72 videos. I did some digging, and it turns out that all 72 videos were created with a specific camera: a Canon SD780 IS. Videos taken with my older camera or the iPhone only need to be optimized on the first sync.

What a pain.

fishbert

Level 1

14 points

Jun 2, 2010 2:17 AM in response to Paul Bienick

I get this repetitive optimizing as well.

My iPad has "include videos" checked for syncing.
My iPhone has "include videos" UNchecked for synching.

When everything is fine, I have 2832 items in my ~/Pictures/iPhoto Library/iPod Photo Cache/ directory.
After syncing my iPhone, I have 2728 items in that same directory (104 fewer).
When I then sync my iPad, I get a message saying iTunes is optimizing 104 photos.
After I sync my iPad and it re-optimizes those 104, everything stays fine at 2832 items… until I sync my iPhone again.

In my iPhoto library, I have 128 videos. Of these, exactly 104 are .mov files.
Most of these files (102 of the 104) were taken by my iPhone 3GS, the others were taken by a flip video knock-off from Creative Labs.

I don't know if there is a log file somewhere of what was optimized, but I'd put money on it being those .mov files.

Jun 7, 2010 3:05 PM in response to tzohar

I'm having the same problem (optimizing 113 photos in my case), but I'm using Aperture. So it's not strictly an iPhoto problem. Didn't used to do this with my iPhone; only now with iPad. Annoying, especially as iTunes becomes unresponsive when it's optimizing photos.

Jun 9, 2010 10:59 AM in response to tzohar

I have the same problem but with a windows PC.

RobM9876

Level 1

0 points

Jun 13, 2010 9:10 AM in response to rschwarzjr

I know this is in the Mac section but I'm having this issue with iTunes for the PC on my iPad. Really annoying.

Jun 28, 2010 5:48 AM in response to Aandroid

Still having same problem..

Everytime I want to add photos I simply "check" the photo tab on..then when it's done syncing (over 3500 photos) I turn it off again before I eject the phone.

Sigh...

iTunes keeps re-optimizing photos for iPhone and iPad