Very slow first iPhone and iPad photo sync over usb-a with Catalina

I finally got (most of) my photos loaded... I split them into folders of 500 photos or less and processed them one at a time: I left a small (10 images) folder always on, and I'd add a new 2nd folder and let to process (by leaving most folders off, it processed in "only" 10 minutes). If they loaded okay, I backed up iPod Photo Cache to another folder. If most loaded okay and only a few were black, I moved them to a bad images folder that I don't sync. I then unchecked the new folder (leaving just the sample one) and synced again (this would just take a few seconds to send the delete command to the iPad). If the photos did NOT load okay (lots of black images), I deleted iPod Photo cache and copied the last good backup back into the main images folder. I then rebooted the Mac and iPad (rebooting the MBP is required to get images working for a while again, I don't know about the iPad).

Once I got to my iPhone X photos (.HEIC files instead of .JPG files), I never had any black images. I could have possibly processed them all at once, but I stayed to the previous method (folders of about 500 images each). Once all the photos were processed, I checked sync All folders, which took about 3 tries to get them all copied over.

(All that being said, I haven't dared sync another device with a different screen resolution and start all over again. But also, this time I remembered to back up iPad Photo Cache. (Hint: Time Machine does not back it up.).)

As already mentioned in one of my previous posts: I have been on the phone on several occasions for several hours with a support engineer to explain what the issue is and try several things. Log files were collected.

Today I received a call from the engineer again. He explained that the problem is formally accepted as an issue which needs to be solved by an update of the operating system and that the developers are working on it.

The only thing which seems to work properly at this moment is to NOT synchronize from the Photo library but directly from folders on the hard drive.

For anything else we need to wait for the issue to be fixed by an update of Catalina.

I understand everyone is annoyed by this but let’s stop cluttering this discussion with negative comments as we all know them by now and they only fill people’s email. Constructive feedback appreciated.

I have been having the same issue too. Started last February/March and only solution that was to get a copy of iTunes 12.9.2.5 and use that. Everything went back to normal..

Now that we are on Catalina and iTunes won't even open, a new fix is required. Only thing I've found so far is to delete the iPod photo cache every single time I press sync. It takes well under an hour to re-sync c10,000 photos/500 videos to my phone but if the cache isn't deleted every single time it just syncs for hours and hours to the point where I now only do it overnight.

It’s a bit hit and miss at the moment.

but deleting the cache will work. You just need to make Finder think the phone wants the photos synced.

I normally have to toggle the “Sync Photos” tick box a bit. Sometimes the button then says apply and will then sync, sometimes the button changes to sync but doesn’t do anything. It’s a total mess but if you get the sync button working at least you know it will work quicker if the cache has already been deleted.

I am experiencing the same issue as everyone else here on Catalina and iOS 13.1.2 - so far I have had repeatable success in syncing most photos by removing the "iPod Photo Cache" folder. However, I have also noticed that some of my photos are missing from some albums and I haven't been able to identify any patterns for those photos missing from different albums. While I am trying other experiments to see if I can get these missing photos to also sync, has anyone had similar experiences?

Another hint: It spends most of its time messing with the folders; it’s only at the very end that it uploads all the photos at once. As for the black thumbnails, they usually create OK if you only do a few hundred in a folder; I was doing them 1 folder at a time except for a bunch of small folders (under 50 images each) from an old Nikon camera (3.1 megapixels) and Motorola SLVR (probably measured in kilopixels). After each successful update, I copied iPod Photo Cache (one good thing from Catalina is the copies don’t use disk space); if a folder failed (black images), I deleted the current cache and copied the last backup. So far, everything processed except most images from an SE; I’m trying X images right now.

You're not alone. Many, many issues syncing photos through finder with Catalina. Finally, after several apple care calls with a senior advisor and now the 3rd visit to genius bar, I have a work around. No thanks to the engineers who we've all been waiting to hear back from (3 weeks now for me) but from some of the repair technicians who took sympathy on how serious this issue is. The whole reason for migrating to apple products was for management of photos/videos and they broke it......but I digress.

Syncing through the photos app on the mac just isn't going to work until the "engineers" correct the code in the new software.

Until then I am able to more easily sync photos through image capture and forget photos altogether. Yes, I know, it sucks because I never expect to need work arounds for apple!

Mine would never sync the same way twice when syncing with photos app on mac to iPhone through finder. Few times it would hang up and literally add duplicates of every photo and could not do anything until it finished that process......hours and hours....sound familiar.

To get it to stop that.....create new folder on desktop with nothing in it (empty folder).........change finder to sync through that folder and not through photos then click sync. It stopped the crazy sync and removed all photos from phone.

(photos are not gone, still on computer in photos app organized the way I like.....just can't sync through photos app)

basically have to create new photo albums with folders and sync through image capture as the photos appear automatically when iPhone plugged in. open image capture and plug in iphone

lots of dragging and dropping, time consuming but at least a way to make it work.....or so we'll see. Worked at genius bar appt few hours ago

I did the latest updates too. Instead of syncing all 30,000 pictures at once, I did it on batches. Every sync went fast. However... I have tons of duplicate pictures... So syncing speed is not an issue now, but duplicares still are...

You can „delete“ photos with 1. delete iPodPhotoCache-Folder 2. unmark all folders and 3. new sync. After this you can sync your photos in about 1 hour.

same issue here. I use the Photo Library as my default. I select a number of albums to be synced. The process starts (circle turning next ti iPad in Finder).

Then after a while it stops, the selected Albums are de-selected and there are no pictures on my iPad.

I tried the same thing by selecting to sync from folders. That worked .

My preference settings are the same as from LightYear12 except that I do not Copy Items to the Photo Library

If it helps anyone for now... a quick way to delete the photos from the iOS device is to go into photo settings and turn iCloud Photo Library on and then back off again. Every photo outside the camera roll will be gone within a minute or two.

Doing that first helps me speed things up when I need to delete the cache and re-sync the lot.

With this method I can do a full sync of 10k photos in well under an hour. If I then add just one single photo in a folder and press sync again it will take 4-5 hours.

My workaround is to:

1) Use Image Capture application (on Mac) to move new photos from my iPhone to my Mac.

2) Use Google Backup and Sync application (on Mac) to copy photos between my Mac and Google’s cloud storage.

3) Use Google Drive app (on iPhone) to view photos.

This workaround is NOT ideal, but it’s functional and it lets me get in with my life.