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Catalina - iPhone sync issues

So I upgraded to Catalina today, and then tried to sync my iPhone (knowing to expect differences with the upgrade due to the departure of iTunes). However, when connected, it just continues to sync, and there is no status bar to show the progress, so I'm left guessing where it's at, what it's doing. etc. It has been syncing now for over an hour, and still no signs of coming to an end any time soon. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

iMac Line (2012 and Later)

Posted on Oct 7, 2019 7:56 PM

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Posted on Nov 13, 2019 4:16 AM

Thank you for sharing all this information. I looked at the /~Library/Preferences/ directory and found that I have 56 com.apple.*.plist files. So do you think it is safe to delete them all? Most of them look like they are config type files. I am having a hard time pulling the trigger on the delete button.

247 replies

Apr 7, 2020 2:36 PM in response to ledwatch

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.

Apr 11, 2020 9:25 PM in response to Steven Smith3

It's 2020 and after 10 years of using an iPhone as a music player I'm set back to use my 2005 Palm Treo. Pretty amazing progress. That device can also look at my photos I put on it, unlike the iPhone now in 2020. Pretty smart to link only those photos of the iPhone onto my iWatch since I can now see 3 photos on the iWatch out of my 88 000 I have. It's an amazing stuff-up and all linked back to the ridiculous system of somehow syncing the iPhone to a computer, instead of just being able to use the iPhone like a USB drive where you just move folders and files to and away whichever way you like. Siyncing has been the bane of my life for 10 years, sometimes faster, sometimes slower but never this long- it's now been syncing for 96 hours and nothing is happening! It's disgraceful. Stop bloody improving and improving and advancing, just make something as basic as music and photos work instantly. I don't need all this crap trying to sort through my photos, I just want my photos my way with my filenames. Simple and basic

Apr 25, 2020 4:49 AM in response to Steven Smith3

Same here. Syncing Photos to my iPhone never stops, even after disconnecting - at the bottom of "All Photos" it shows "Syncing..." and I can notice that day after day the number of Photos and Videos on my device are going down! I also get duplicates, blank (gray) photos. So it has been more than half a year I'm fighting this problem to no avail...


I'm on the latest release Mac OS 10.15.4 / iOS 13.4.1

Apr 26, 2020 4:49 AM in response to glanz

Thanks, I have repeated all those steps even twice, but this did not solve all the Photos syncing problems. I still see duplicates and the numbers of photos/videos on the iPhone don't match the numbers on Mac.


I am guessing somehow not all users have this problem. What is interesting whether we are the majority or the minority, which would determine approximately how long it will take Apple to solve it.

Apr 26, 2020 9:30 AM in response to henrikas225

Thanks to all for testing,..,.but I have not tried any of the suggestions here waiting for at least several people to confirm whether any of them work. After the last update, we were able to to sync albums that were missing since Catalina and IOS 13, but the workaround we used to sync photos is no longer working: In order to avoid duplicates, we were deleting all photos first. This would take a couple of tries for complete photo removal. Then we would sync. It would take a while but it somehow worked. Now, I can’t remove all the photos. And when I sync to add new photos, theduplication of photos appear again, now with empty black boxes to signify a photo. However, when I look at the photos that were synced in the albums view it all appears without duplicates and without the black boxes.


It seems every one’s experience is slightly different but generally filled with bugs. Im hoping for a solution soon as this has seriously changed my mind about this expensive phone we purchase every several years.


good luck!

Catalina - iPhone sync issues

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