Level 1

78 points

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

I updated to Catalina last night on my iMac. Today I've tried synching my iPhone Xr and my iPad Pro via USB/Finder (separately) to my iMac and the synch is very very slow. The iPhone never finished after a few hours and I'm trying my iPad now but I don't see any progress in the changes I had made to the photos (I deleted some before I synched, but the deleted ones still show on my iPad). I do have several thousand photos. Is the Photo Cache being rebuilt or something? Should I delete that and start again? Should I sync one photo folder at a time to start with? Is there anything else I should try? Previously I had posted issues with the latest iTunes in this thread:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250270137

and solved that by using an older version of iTunes. I would hate to think that Catalina will be as problematic as iTunes for synching photos was before. Any help/advice would be appreciated, thank you.

iPhone XR

Posted on Oct 8, 2019 12:14 PM

Top-ranking reply

George_S3

Level 1

9 points

Posted on Oct 21, 2019 7:03 PM

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.).)

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176 replies

Squiddz Author

Level 1

78 points

Oct 30, 2019 9:26 AM in response to JPEWBDEN

JPEWBDEN

I generally agree with your statement about negative comments.

However, in my opinion, having to delete the photo cache, delete the photos from your i-device, and sync over a multiple-hour period, and having to repeat the process for each i-device you want to sync is not "working properly" - but a "workaround".

As I stated in a post above, this is a "regression" error because in previous years I could sync each device, one after another, without rebuilding anything, in matter of minutes. I am very much hoping for that past functionality to return with an update!

And I reserve the right to an occasional "ARGH" when new updates don't help! 😉

Squiddz Author

Level 1

78 points

Nov 19, 2019 11:24 AM in response to Squiddz

FWIW (not much) I was just at an Apple Store having a genius look at an issue with my iPhone. I told her about the photo synching problems and the two threads I am following. She said that they have a lot of customers coming in and complaining about these photo (and other) issues and that she agrees that Apple did not do a good job with Catalina regarding this.

Dec 16, 2019 2:55 PM in response to tiredofhavingmytimewasted

Okay, I've been remiss at posting my Information from purgatory. I updated my iMac to Catalina 10.15.2 and my iPhone XS to iOS 13.3. I deleted my photos and then used my test photo folder of about 5,000 photos to sync. Once I got them on, I did another sync, which, in principle, had nothing whatsoever to do. It took 23 minutes. Obviously, the two updates did not address the problem of photos. I wrote my senior advisor about it but have not heard back. There are, of course, apps that deal with photos nice and quick, but they do not sync. One of the joys of Apple's sync when it worked was that you could have 20,000 photos on the phone, want to delete 10 and add 10 others, and it would take 2 minutes to sync instead of 6 hours. Steve

EIET

Level 1

4 points

Mar 25, 2020 4:38 PM in response to Squiddz

I synced 10 more pictures. This time it took about 45 minutes and to my surprise all duplicates (about 7,000) got removed. So everything looks good now, but this process still seems very inconsistent. I have no idea what will happen next time I sync... This is funny, but a little sad...

Apr 3, 2020 5:08 PM in response to Squiddz

Not overly surprised by some of these failures. I now find Apple stuff as buggy as Microsoft used to be in the old days. In particular, I have to reboot frequently just to take care of problems that shouldn't exist.

I would not hold my breath for another fix from Apple on this. Hold it for 13months and you won't do well.

I had issues starting, but I just kept doing it over and over and I think it finally works for me. I did add a few folders at a time in the beginning. Even that didn't work well. I think it just has to get used to doing things right again and isn't generally inclined to do that. Repeat, repeat, repeat

Steve

Squiddz Author

Level 1

78 points

Apr 5, 2020 9:15 AM in response to W Stephen Wilson

W Stephen Wilson

Yes, what you say makes sense to me. Started from scratch once (for each device to be synched) and then sync & sync & sync. I believe they haven't sorted the issue using the Photos app yet, and again I hope that fix doesn't "break" ours...

best of luck!

Squiddz Author

Level 1

78 points

Apr 15, 2020 7:37 AM in response to briccojc

briccojc

Oh what a bummer!! It can be a very time-consuming workaround to have to do that each time, I found myself basically not doing it - until 2 updates ago when sync started working properly (for me).

I wonder if you've tried anything in the very long thread started by someone using the Photos app. (I haven't).

Specifically - the post

Apr 11, 2020 9:12 AM in response to rodm7

and here is the first page of that thread.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250716707?answerId=252449025022

I doubt it would help but I thought I'd try anyway, and wish you good luck in getting this fixed some day!

Apr 15, 2020 7:40 AM in response to briccojc

Third time I've tried to post, but it crashes and doesn't post. I have to eat my words and curse Apple. Tried to put an audio book on the iPhone yesterday and sync decided to re-copy 10K of my 20K photos. True, it only took half an hour instead of the 4 hours it would have taken for the last year. But, I hadn't touched many photos if any, just wanted to put a book on. I have a suspicion that my problem is caused by using the same folder of photos for both the iPad and iPhone. I my last sync was to my iPhone, then the iPhone sync is smooth. If the last sync was to my iPad, then it is not smooth for my iPhone. Can anyone else confirm this? Do not want to have two folders of 100GB of the same photos. Will not bother Apple with this since it is better than things were and they are not likely to help given their record so far. Steve

JPEWBDEN

Level 1

17 points

Oct 9, 2019 8:06 AM in response to Sommersturm

I was just on a chat with Apple Support. The person advised: https://support.apple.com/de-de/HT204063 (NVRAM oder PRAM auf dem Mac zurücksetzen).

I don't think that is going to solve the issue

Old Toad

Level 10

215,268 points

Oct 10, 2019 1:22 PM in response to JPEWBDEN

No. If you want to let Apple know about your problem contact them via Feedback - Photos - Apple

briccojc

Level 1

24 points

Oct 16, 2019 1:35 PM in response to Squiddz

Did you delete the photos on the iOS Device before new Sync?

Apr 15, 2020 6:10 PM in response to W Stephen Wilson

That might be it rebuilding the image copies with the resolution used by your other device (I think every time you sync with a device with a different resolution, it rebuilds all of them.

Oct 8, 2019 6:04 PM in response to W Stephen Wilson

Sorry, when I went to this link, I only saw the introductory post. I also have no interest in using the Photos app because you have to do folders within it, you can't import folders. I have my folders and organization that I want and don't want to start from scratch just to do it the way Apple wants me to. Steve

Oct 8, 2019 6:37 PM in response to Old Toad

Hi Old Toad,

I, on the other hand, am using the Photos app. As described in two other threads (Under Catalina, my photos are not syncing from my Mac to my iPhone :( and Catalina keeps forgetting which Photos albums are to be synced to my iPhone), syncing from Mac to iPhone via USB is not working for me.

My Photos General Preferences pane says:

AFAIK, my Photos Library is my System Photo Library. I've just done the trick with launching Photos with the Option button depressed and confirmed that it is the only Photo Library I have.

Thanks

Squiddz Author

Level 1

78 points

Oct 9, 2019 5:16 PM in response to LightYear12

Could I ask if "My Albums" is something created whilst using the Photos app?

I'm guessing the "albums" are not the same as ordinary "folders" on a Mac?

I've never played with the Photos app so don't know. Many thanks to you or whoever answers!

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