Catalina - iPhone sync issues

Hi all,

I've struggled with this sync problem for the past 48h but I fixed it! I'll let you know how, maybe it'll work for you too!

Info: I'm using an Iphone 8 Plus + a MacBook Pro 15" 2018.

Background/Problem description:

Since I upgraded my MacBook to OS Catalina, iTunes was gone. I previously had had my iTunes library on my external hard drive, which isn't possible at least for audiobooks now that audiobook management moved to iBooks.

So I added some audiobooks to my internal MacBook drive/SSD via the iBooks app and then tried to sync my Iphone using the Finder. No luck. It would sync for 3-4 hours and the audiobook wouldn't transfer in the end. A lot of the times, I couldn't stop the "sync" which seemed like it would just go on for forever, and had to unplug the Iphone without ejecting...

Things I tried to fix sync that didn't work:

• Reset my phone and deleted all content + restored from backup
• Reset my phone and deleted all content + started fresh
• Upgraded to iOS 13.2.2
• Bought an original Apple USB-C to Lightning cable
• Used my old Lightning-USB cable and a USB-C adapter

Nothing worked, nothing changed.

I read a bunch of things on the internet and then, in combination, did these things:

THE FIX:

1. Eject and unplug phone
2. Eject and unplug any external hard drive that you don't need
3. Open Finder app
4. Click on Go > Go To Folder from the top menu
5. Type in ‘/~Library/Preferences/‘ without the quotes and press enter
6. Delete these files: 'com.apple.finder.plist' plus any .plist files that start with 'com.apple.' and then have something like AMP or applemedia... after it. They haven't shown up again and I didn't note down their names so I can't tell you the exact name, but those were like 2-3 .plist files.
7. If you have any photos that you sync from your MacBook to your Iphone, go to the folder on your Macbook that contains them. In my case, that was under Photos/foriPhone8. Search for a folder named iPod Photo Cache, and delete it. Don't worry, you won't break anything by just deleting a cache file :) Also: Yes, it's really called iPod Photo Cache, even if you have an iPhone only.
8. Press Cmd+Alt+Esc and in the pop-up window click on Finder and click "Relaunch".
9. Open a Finder window
10. Connect your iPhone to your computer and wait for it to appear in Finder
11. Sync.
12. Rejoice! 😃

For me, those steps let to a flawless sync within 5-10 minutes!!!!

Credits to these sites for contributing part of the solution:https://appletoolbox.com/items-could-not-be-synced-see-itunes-for-more-information-error-fix/

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3407102

https://appletoolbox.com/items-could-not-be-synced-see-itunes-for-more-information-error-fix/

Hi all, since 7. April everything works as expected, sync works correctly and automatically.

I had the same issues: iPhone X (13.4.1) and iMac with Catalina (10.15.4) not syncing right, producing double photos, never getting to an end with the sync symbol …

What I did:

Firstly, load all not already uploaded photos from the iPhone into Photos.app using the cable

Then:

• kill all four "AMP…" processes on the Mac (Activity app)
• restart Mac
• undo the sync of photos (cable or network, remove checkmark, thus removing all or most photos on the iPhone)
• on the iPhone remove remaining photos manually if there are any
• change the sync setting to your preferences
• redo a sync (let it take it’s time)
• do a new sync, check the process in the sync-window, if everything looks good, you are all set. The sync process should become visible by a round process icon just right of the iPhones name and the bar just at the bottom of the sync window.

That’s what did the trick on my system, and it behaves correctly since then. Good luck.

PS On the iPhone at the bottom of "All Photos" it will show "Syncing..." when sliding up, but nothing seems to happen now after the mentioned procedure. So this is probably still a bug, but  since the rest works just fine, I don’t care. Or maybe it works only after a certain amount of time.

It is goofy, but the MacOS side of sync doesn't log anything. However, the iOS side does log the synch process. So you can open the Console, select your iPhone or iPad on the left side and watch the log messages. If you set a search term like "importing" or something like that you will essentially get progress indication so you can see if it is doing stuff.

My first iPhone 11 sync with Catalina was very problematic as well... My situation is particularly complicated for the new "itunesless-sync" because I store my iPhone backup + my Photos Librairy on an external device, which wasn't connected when I tried to sync for the first time in Catalina...

What fixed my situation was to do the following :

1. Disconnect phone from computer & Wifi (so it doesn't Wifi Sync or sthg)
2. Open "Photos" so it can update the library, then close it. This can take time.
3. Make sure my previous iPhone Backup is in place (which shouldn't be a problem for 99% users, stored in the usual local storage "Mobile Sync" folder)
4. Connect phone and let it sync, or sync it once before changing all the sync-options/music/Photos selection... just let it do its first sync & backup (patience). As long as you see the "sync arrows" spinning or the pie-chart moving next to your connected device, wait some more (took me a good 30min).
5. Then start changing / adapting your sync options and medias... hopefully it'll go fast and without hickups

I have been having similar problems. TO mitigate the issue, I have unchecked the Photos tab (I have about 30GB of photographs).

After doing this: Backup took from 5:15 to 5:20 yesterday- which is acceptable.  Today I used a USB C to Lightning cord.  Back up took 3 minutes!

Auto sync selection was remembered across boot ups.

Suggested steps.

1. Disable autosync on connect.
2. Select what you want to sync - Music, Photos etc to minimize sync time
3. Press ‘Apply’ - OR - ‘sync’ on General Page.

I did find duplicates in my Podcasts folder on the phone yesterday. I plan to check it again and delete them.

NOTE:  My iPhone asks “ Trust this Computer” every time it is connected.  Make sure you answer this!  I hope Apple SW mavens remove this feature - why should this be required if both devices (Computer and Phone/iPad) use the same AppleID.  Even if you think it is needed, then once, NOT EVERY TIME.

I fervently hope that Apple QC improves, and they restore the functionality that iTunes gave us.

Finally the sync worked today after I fiddled with attached storage (now removed) and after I went into the 'Music' menu item and found out that in the list of Artists and Albums blank items were 'on'. I did de-select those, restarted the iMac.

Also I made sure the iPhone was unlocked when attaching it to the USB-cable to link it to the iMac.

So

• check attached disks (mine has Mojave on it and maybe that is a security risk for syncing the iPhone ?)
• check the Music (or other items) that are synced. I did de-select blank items.

hopefully this is helpful

I keep my fingers crossed though......

Hi all, I had the same issue: iPhone X with the most recent iOS and iMac with Catalina not syncing for a while.

Today I checked what Activity Monitor would disclose. There is a process called AMPdevicesAgent reacting when I push the Sync button in the finder window.

So my conclusion: kill all "AMP…" processes and try again. In my setup this worked, everything with sync now does, what I want it to do. So for me this did the trick.

Try it, best Max

PS It took several sync steps to sync every part, specially the photos took time. After some time, none of the recent photos appeared. Then I did restart the iPhone, plugged it in via USB cable, unplugged it again … then it took on to sync properly.

Now the iPhone goes into connection with the iMac when in the same WIFI network. The sync starts also with the iPhone asleep.

For me, this worked well.

Hi all, I had the same issue: iPhone X with the most recent iOS and iMac with Catalina not syncing for a while.

Today I checked what Activity Monitor would disclose. There is a process called AMPdevicesAgent reacting when I push the Sync button in the finder window.

So my conclusion: kill all "AMP…" processes and try again. In my setup this worked, everything with sync now does, what I want it to do. So for me this did the trick.

After that it took several sync steps to get all synced, but now it seems to work.

So after doing the 10.15.4 update today EVERYTHING WORKS AGAIN. So far. Even nested albums within folders in Photos seems to work.

It only took 4 release revisions to fix this.

Unchecking photos or music and then sync’ing is a very good idea. The problem is that sync starts immediately on connecting (default). My plan is to 1. Uncheck sync when connected; 2. Uncheck photos; 3. Connect IPhone, 4. Press backup and then press sync.

I’ll time this keeping my fingers crossed

My experience so far: updated to Catalina both on my 2017 iMac Retina and on my 2015 MacBook Air. Transfer of iTunes library to Music has been quite easy with a little bit of scripting. I added an album to Music's library.... so far so good. The troubles started when I tried so sync with my iPhone X. All music has been deleted from the phone (nearly 200GB), waited a whole night and the sync was stuck. Tried again, nothing. Restored the iPhone from a backup made with Mojave, still no music. Synced. No music. Factory restore, still no success. Then I did all the same from my MacBook Air where I have the same library on an USB drive, guess what? Nothing. Always stuck with this circle filling up, sometimes it finishes in 30 minutes, sometimes it takes 4 or 6 hours but there's no way it syncs my music. What's been the solution? Download Mojave from the App Store, installed it on a Virtual Machine, restored the old iTunes library and my iPhone synced everything in nearly 30 minutes. Catalina is buggy AF. I've always been an Apple fanatic: I didn't always agreed with all the choices the company made, but -in the end- I've always found great hardware and a great OS. This time I'm really disappointed: I've lost 3 days and the only solution came to my mind because I'm an IT guy and it was a downgrade! It seems that Apple became Bethesda: release it no matter how buggy it is and maybe fix all the issues in the next months. Really, really frustrating.

There is a status bar in the finder if you show the sidebar. It's a circle that slowly fills in a clockwise motion next to your device name. However, syncing now takes much longer than it used to. I used to be able to create a backup of my phone in about 5 minutes. Now it takes 60+ to sync my phone, even if the only content that has changed since my last backup is new text messages received.

Catalina needs a lot of work to be usable.

Ok, again, kill all "AMP…" processes and try again. It did work for me, but then it doubled some photos. But after setting the sync of photos to zero, thus removing all photos on the iPhone, then changing the sync setting to what I wanted, it seems to work now. Actually, I had to remove some photos and videos manually from the iPhone to really emptying it.

So maybe this will arrange for your problem with the music too. I think (I'm not an expert), it has to do with some sync directories from before and after update to Catalina. There might be more than one of them.

Good luck, and happy easter.