Catalina - iPhone sync issues

I have an appointment with Genius Bar to see if they can fix my communications problems. Only reason to do that is that I might learn something from the exercise.

My plan though is to bite the bullet and go back to Mojave. Communications worked, iTunes worked.

I do not think that Apple Executives realize one of the key reasons for iPod, then iPhone success was iTunes. It truly was revolutionary. Worked like a champ and was quick.

I hope some App developer out there writes an iTunes substitute. Lots of money to be made

#me2

So I updated to Catalina (and from what I've read and experienced) too soon!!!

Spent a fortune on a souped up MacBookPro, equally broke the bank with an iPhone X and ... Catalina won't sync my iPhone.

Either

my iPhone appears and disappears in iTunes with my phone beeping like an alien

Or

iTunes recognizes my iPhone and goes through some weird loop of syncing ... without doing anything.

Unbelievable!

I have similar problems to everyone else. I was able to (eventually) sync my music the first time, right when I "upgraded" to Catalina, but have not been able to since. I click Sync and it greys the button out, but HOURS later the music I added is still not on my phone and the button is still greyed out. No idea if it is actually doing something or has just crashed. No progress bar to show what it's doing. I don't know what inept moron decided that making the sync functions part of Finder was a good idea, but he/she needs to go look for a new job! Would it have been so hard to just create a "Sync" app?!?

Message for Apple (as they have apparently completely forgotten who their target audience is): You company was created to link directly with the creative segment of society - the people who create movies, music, art, etc. While I don't use my Mac(s) for that personally, I always thought that since this is your core business that you would make sure to be the very best at that portion of what you do. Everything you do lately indicates that you have completely lost sight of this important segment. This latest fiasco is just another indication of how far you have fallen. You can't even get music sync right??? Really??? This isn't rocket science! Stop trying to make all software run on all devices and go back to making your software actually WORK!!! Remember the slogan "it just works"?!? Apparently not. Enough already!!!!

The problem is on the Mac side. There will be no solution until: a, Some higher authority at Apple recognizes this; and then, b) They work on it and issue a release related to iTunes.

Until then we can just express our deep dissatisfaction. My home movies just show greyed out.

Hey guys!

I just read yesterday on Appleinsider that there's an app that brings back iTunes into Catalina. I haven't downloaded it, but I'm tempted to, as I miss the simple syncing process that existed up to Mojave. It also revives Aperture and iPhoto, though those two are not really of my interest.

The app's name is Retroactive. I was written by Tyshawn Cormier.

Cheers!

Just checking now if update to 10.15.1 is really helping.

What now is already clear: It's helping not with the sync symbols shown in the Finder:

After some minutes the eject button appears, but if you hit this, a message comes up that the iPhone should not be ejected while syncing - stupid.

I normally manually transfer my music to my iphone because a complete sync would just take too long. (and it erases my iPhone's current playlists) However with the Catalina update, I can't transfer music from my library to my iPhone anymore. It just wouldn't sync...Even the iTunes app was better.

This has to be the worst update ever, and it’s only getting worse.

Moving the sync process to the finder has to be the dumbest idea. My sync to my iPad is taking forever and guess what??? You cannot stop the sync, the X doesn’t function and that means there is no eject icon.

This now prevents a restart. Forced quite just relaunched Finder and sync continues.

So iPad has to be disconnected but it is connected through WiFi even though I unchecked that so obviously no syncing is taking place. with no status indicator, I have no clue what is going on other than the forever circles.

I have for hard restart the Mac. Wow, just wow.

I think i'm bit luckier that most of the people here. I can still sync but I do think lacking the 'sync progress' is irritating. In the past, on the iPhone, there is a iTune wifi sync that I can check the sync progress, but that was gone as well (not sure with which version iOS version, must be the last 1-2 version).

Besides, it seems now the sync will automatically be done as long as you iPhone is connected to power. Is there an option that I can disable the automatic sync??

MacBook Pro(late 2013) and iMac(2019)5K. Both upgraded to Catalina 10.15.1 My sync issues have to do with Finder and Movies. I just downloaded a movie bought via iTunes a few months ago. After download I see it in my library the new Apple TV app. Attached my iPhone 10xs max via usb cable to the MacBook, opened finder to sync transfer the new movie to the phone. The movie does not show up in the check list of movies in finder. Movies that were already on my Mac before the OS upgrade were on the list. Removed the downloaded movie, downloaded it again, not there. Tried it with other movies stored in the cloud, same results. Tried it with a purchased TV show and that worked. Not sure what do to solve this. Kinda wish I could get iTunes back.

I have the same thing. Movies bought earlier via iTunes or "Movies" app on aTV show up, new ones bought via the TV app don't.

Strangely, they show up in the "TV" app on IOS under music, not movies.

Can you check if the "kind" is "movie" in the "TV" app on MacOS?

I looked and the movies are not showing under TV shows for me. I even tried changing the 'media kind' field from Movie to TV Show, but still could not find the movie anywhere in the Finder sync list. Sorry

After my initial posts, I have had success in syncing both my phone and my wife's phone (all 24,00+ music tracks). The album art has seemed to stabilize after the initial replacement of the missing ~75 albums or so. Maybe that would have been fixed if I would have been patient longer. Subsequent syncs have been much quicker than with iTunes. There is hope... I am currently syncing my wife's phone to see if it restores the music files. Per the last sync she had ~18,000+ of the ~24,000+ files. What was bad was she was getting a cryptic message when she was trying to play her Christmas play list (not a good thing!!). The little clock dial thing seem to work ok and by the judge of the progress I would say the sync to work on her phone will likely take about 1/2 hour. I will keep you posted. I am glad it has finally worked....or seems good so far. It could be a good day my new AirPods Pros come today.

Does anyone know how I can get support by email from Apple?

I only get the options to call or chat, already did that but then I get first-tier support with a "genius" who's best idea is to do a clean install.

I solved 3 of my 4 problems with Catalina already by myself without doing a clean install and would like to get through to second tier, easier by email where I can list the many steps I already tried and add logs.

The music search field is at the top of the sidebar on the left. It gets hidden when/if you scroll down. Not a very elegant location in my opinion, but it does seem less intent on kicking you out of the search field than iTunes was.