"The Finder can't quite because an operation is still in progress on an iOS device"

I managed to get out of this situation by having the device connected by cable to the computer. Then turn off the iOS device.Then disconnected the device from the computer. The device disappeared in the Finder and I was able to restart the computer. Then I restarted the device and reconnected it to the computer. When it showed up in the Finder, I clicked on sync and let it work. After that, everything worked for me. So far....

I is running Catalina 10.15.3 on my MacBook Pro and iOS 13.3.1 on my iPhone.

When this happened to me, I had to find the iOS devices under "Locations" in left sidebar of a Finder window. I dismounted (ejected) the one that wasn't active and waited for the other one to complete its process (i.e., the double arrow to stop spinning). Once everything was complete, I was then able to restart. In my case that restart allowed me to update to 10.15..

I haven't found a fix but I found a way to shut down the Mac.

To recall, the problem is the Finder is stuck "syncing" an iOS device, yet the iOS device wasn't syncing; try to stop the syncing on Finder doesn't work; relaunch the Finder and the problem still there.

The workaround is to relaunch the Finder, and while it was relaunching quickly shut down the Mac. You need to use the command+eject key on the keyboard to quickly call up the shutdown dialog.

You have to do these quick:

1. Relaunch the stuck Finder (command+option+escape)
2. Quickly press "command+eject", shutdown dialog pop up, quickly press "return" (enter)

I manage to shut down the iMac in this way whenever the Finder stuck

There's an easier way of doing that.

When you do a shutdown, the finder can't quit dialogue appears and then a retry window appears.

Before clicking retry, control+right click on finder, select relaunch, then click retry button.

The Mac should turn off normally.

iOS wifi sync never works properly when you move the backup folder to an external drive and the external drive is disconnected. (When you have a 512GB iPhone and a 512GB MacBook, there's really no alternative here.)

Best way is to turn wifi-sync off, and always sync via cable. Better yet, pay for the iCloud storage and never sync your phone with your Mac.

Hello, Dandelion1.

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.

From what I've read is that you're unable to restart because Finder came up with an error. I'd like to help you on this. You may have to pull up Finder to see if there's an iOS device syncing data: Use the Finder to sync your iPhone, iPad, or iPod with your computer

If no iOS device is connected directly, check to see if you have one syncing via Wi-Fi.

I would advise caution on this next step, but if you can't find any reason why this is occurring, try force quitting Finder: How to force an app to quit on your Mac

Let me know if this helps.

Cheers!

Odd, @bmturner2000. Ugh.

I don't have my notes, but I resolved this as I recall, by remembering how syncing works with Catalina and the new iOS and iPadOS (perhaps the wrong name for the OS?). So, if you're not using Catalina and the OSs, then my experience may not apply.

However, if you are using the up-to-date systems, opening a Finder window and looking at the left column of the display in that window should show you a list of all the devices (hard drives, phones, etc.) that are attached to your computer. You could try to eject (click the triangle stacked atop a bar) the device that might e stuck. It should sync the next time you mount ("attach") it.

I found this document helpful: Use the Finder to sync your iPhone, iPad, or iPod with your computer.

I hope you can solve it.

For me, this problem only started occuring when I updated to macOS 10.15.1 last week. I never had this problem before on any prior major macOS versions with either my 2018 Mac mini or my mid-2011 iMac.

The problem occurred again last night. During the week, I finally figured out how to have Catalina show all my devices under "Locations" in "Finder".

Last night, one of the iPhones (a Xr) had a rotating circle icon to the right of the phone's icon, which indicated (to me, at least..) a hung process. Catalina greyed out the option to back up this particular iPhone, although Catalina still enabled the back up option on other devices (they didn't have the rotating "circle of death" next to them). As soon as I powered off the iPhone Xr and it dropped out of Finder's Locations, the Finder error message disappeared. I powered down the Mac mini without issue.

Does anyone know how to troubleshoot the spinning arrows next to an iPhone when it's under "Locations" in "Finder"?

You can try this command in terminal:

sudo pkill -9 -U `whoami`

Remember to save your work before trying it. After that you can turn off the system.

Hello, Dandelion1.

Thanks for getting back us with those details and work around. Have you tried just turning off Wi-Fi sync? Are they are changes that are happening on the devices that would cause them to sync with Finder? Seems like that something may be triggering it to happen, for example like any music or photos that may not be on your Mac or vice versa?

You can also go to safe mode and test user account to see if it occurs there. Safe mode is a good start, because it can help resolve issues:

Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac

How to test an issue in another user account on your Mac

Cheers!

I finally managed to solve this for me.

Luckily I had been able to back up my iPad to my iMac.

Then I went to Settings>General>Reset>Erase all content and settings.

Once this has had wiped the iPad I restarted it and restored from the backup on the iMac via a cable. The iPad now seems to sync without problems

I have the same issue. This is what’s happening:

Power went out and my UPS battery unit kept my iMac (running Catalina) on. But I wasn’t using it so wanted to shut it down instead of wasting my battery reserves. Then i encountered this issue.

I couldn’t turn off my iMac despite making sure nothing is syncing or using the finder (ejected my iPhone connected wirelessly as seen on the sidebar). Tried restarting the finder (by the way, why the **** cant we just QUIT, or force quit the **** thing? The only option is to restart!!) and checked the activity monitor if anything is using the cpu (nothing), even restarting my iPhone and then tried shutting down the iMac still to no success. I ejected all external drives and stopped all sync and backup processes and still can’t shut it down. I got fed up and just did a hard shut down from the button behind the iMac.

i hope this helps (Apple) developers. Just another issue that needs your attention.

This happens to me twice now. On Finder sidebar an iOS device appeared to be syncing, but the iOS device itself shown no syncing icon on top. Hover the cursor on the syncing icon below shows a cross to cancel, but clicking it make no different.

Force quit (relaunch) the Finder and the Finder came back and still "syncing", I even tried turn off wifi on both the iOS and the Mac, it was still "syncing". Both time eventually I have to force shut down my Mac by holding the power button.

Very very frustrating.

I have the same issue as well.

The only way to shut down my iMac is to hold the power button until I force the machine to power down.

However the next time I sync my iPad I get the same issue.

It has only happened since I upgraded my macOS to 10.15 and my iPadOS to 13.2.3

I wonder if it is something in splitting iTunes. I also don't like the fact that now there is no information on the sync. Before I could see which of the 6 steps was underway and which song or film was being synced so I could see more exactly where any problem was occurring

I started experiencing the same Finder issue for the first time when I upgraded my 2018 Mac mini from Mojave to Catalin back in December 2019. I intentionally waited for Apple to send out 10.15.1 before I jumped ship.

I just updated the Mac mini to 10.15.3. So far, so good - the Finder error hasn't returned (knock on wood!!). WiFi and hard-wire backups went fine. Reboot went fine. Fingers crossed!

I'm wondering if maybe something in the macOS updates is introducing errors somewhere, or would 10.15.3 have fixed a known error?