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

Dec 19, 2019 8:35 AM in response to Squiddz

Finally heard from my Apple guy:

Hi Steve!

I’ve reached out to engineering for an update on the issue and I’ll be sure to get back in touch with you once I’ve heard something. All I currently know is that this something they are investigating and hoping to provide a resolution to soon.

Best,

Floyd G.

Mac+ Senior Advisor

Avail. M-F 8:00a-5:00p EST

On Dec 16, 2019, at 17:57 Stephen Wilson <wwilson3@jhu.edu> wrote:

Floyd,

Please send proof of life.

Thanks.

Steve

Squiddz Author

Level 1

78 points

Dec 19, 2019 9:01 AM in response to W Stephen Wilson

W Stephen Wilson

Proof of life! Love it, thanks for posting! I'll mention your post in my new thread too.

Feb 5, 2020 7:21 AM in response to W Stephen Wilson

Wrote my Senior Advisor who has been working with me on the problem. Nothing useful here, just reporting. S

Hi Stephen,

Thank you for the update in regards to updating the MacOS and still experiencing the long sync times. I’ll make sure to keep the engineering team informed and hopefully we can hear something back soon in regards to a resolution.

Best,

On Feb 1, 2020, at 08:50 Stephen Wilson <wwilson3@jhu.edu> wrote:

My photos were almost all on my iPad when I ran the first sync. It took 5 hours but didn’t put my new few photos on. So I deleted the iPod cache and tried again. Seems like the photos are all there, but can’t be sure. I had to kill the sync after 9 hours. There isn’t anything that should be possible to do with an iPad and an iMac that would give them something to talk about for 9 hours. Neglected customer. Steve

On Jan 31, 2020, at 8:40 AM, Stephen Wilson <wwilson3@jhu.edu> wrote:

Floyd,

Well, I was excited to see 10.15.3 come out so immediately updated my iMac’s software and checked to see if if fixed the sync problem with photos.

Won’t bore you with the details of the check, but the update didn’t solve the problem.

This problem started back end of Feb 2019 or early March. It has been around for nearly a year now. There was a time when photo management was important to Apple, but we are coming up on a year where they don’t seem to give a ****. This after 10 years of doing it right.

My Apple Care will run out long before they fix the problem, so not sure why I bought Apple Care. I used to expect more from Apple.

Steve

Feb 9, 2020 7:14 AM in response to W Stephen Wilson

Updated the iPad to 13.3.1 and tested the photo sync. Didn't work any better. Same old same old many hours to do nothing.

Steve

Squiddz Author

Level 1

78 points

Feb 9, 2020 7:22 AM in response to Squiddz

Will post in my other thread too.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250927454

EIET

Level 1

4 points

Feb 18, 2020 3:21 PM in response to Squiddz

Talked to Apple Care. They collected data from both mac and iPhone and sent it engineers. Waiting for their response.

Feb 18, 2020 5:11 PM in response to EIET

They did the same with me back in mid October. I hope someone is listening to you more than they did to me.

Steve

EIET

Level 1

4 points

Feb 18, 2020 5:15 PM in response to W Stephen Wilson

That is not very promising... I’ll report here if I get any resolution from the engineers.

Squiddz Author

Level 1

78 points

Mar 3, 2020 3:07 PM in response to EIET

It's been about a year now, since syncing broke (for me. Thanks for posting, many of us are waiting for a fix!!

Squiddz Author

Level 1

78 points

Apr 3, 2020 10:52 AM in response to briccojc

briccojc

Hi - and sorry to hear that. Because it's working for me, I have to ask you if you followed all of the steps I recommended? If not, would you like me to repost them?

briccojc

Level 1

24 points

Apr 3, 2020 11:07 AM in response to Squiddz

Thank you for your tips. Do you select the folders individually or do you use the option „all“?

Squiddz Author

Level 1

78 points

Apr 3, 2020 11:45 AM in response to briccojc

briccojc

Either works for me, either "select all" or individually selecting each folder (and still doing the sync all at once). It hasn't made a difference for me.

EIET

Level 1

4 points

Apr 3, 2020 1:28 PM in response to Squiddz

I did start from scratch: removed previously synced pictures from my phone, moved ipod photo cache to the trash, emptied the trash, and restarted my mac. After all that, sync is still unreliable.

briccojc

Level 1

24 points

Apr 3, 2020 1:41 PM in response to EIET

Unfortunately, I have exactly the same experiences. Apple still needs to fix the bug

Squiddz Author

Level 1

78 points

Apr 3, 2020 2:04 PM in response to briccojc

briccojc

and

EIET

I am seriously bummed that you both went through all of those steps and still have an unsatisfactory outcome. Grrrrr!

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