iPhone album says syncing at bottom of screen but never stops and photos are missing.

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movery Author

Level 1

24 points

iPhone album says syncing at bottom of screen but never stops and photos are missing.

Hi - so this is a continuation of the thread below. The thread was closed but the issue itself was never resolved.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250961400

Summary of Original Issue

Attempting to sync photos between your Mac and iPhone/iPad using Finder fails
It typically either hangs forever or 'completes' the sync but when it does so the photos are not actually all sync'd to the iPhone
Often the Finder sync process will 'complete', but when you look on the iPhone it will still say 'Syncing' in the black bar at the bottom of the screen as per the screenshot below.

History

This problem was first raised at the end of 2019 and I raised an Apple support case in January 2020. Despite regular follow ups the best answer I got was 'wait for Big Sur which should fix the issue'
Big Sur is now out, but the problem still remains.
My support case is still open with Apple so I am not following up again

Big Sur

Since upgrading I no longer get the black bar at the bottom of the screen, I instead get one of two problems:

When trying to sync an album with c.4,000 photos, the sync process in Finder never completes and just says 'Reading Photos Library' forever; OR
If I try and sync one small album of say 33 photos, the process does complete but it doesn't sync all the photos, e.g. only 7 photos sync.

If anyone else is having this issue please post below!!

Thanks.

iMac 27″ 5K, macOS 11.0

Posted on Nov 13, 2020 8:51 PM

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Answer 1

Nov 15, 2020 2:28 AM in response to movery

Photo sync drivers for iTunes/Finder were not updated normally for ages, better use AirDrop or third-party apps for this (still same drivers, but at least with some additional compatibility improvements/wrappers). Or Google Photos maybe.

In your specific case, try syncing with an empty folder to remove all synced photos from the phone, then try the import again.

If won't help, make an encrypted backup with iTunes > factory reset > restore the backup. It should remove all leftovers from sync as these photos are not included in the backup. Then, try to sync again.

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Answer 2

movery Author

Level 1

24 points

Nov 15, 2020 2:53 AM in response to Carl_Franz

Thanks for the suggestions. Unfortunately it's a bit more of a problem than that. The link I posted above has the full saga but I've even wiped the phone and rebuilt it from scratch, i.e. didn't reinstall from a backup, but still the same issue. It's also a problem on multiple devices, both of which suggests a Mac/Photos side issue. Apple Support have also installed diagnostic software on the Mac and taken logs etc but as yet have either been unable or unwilling to say what the root cause is.

Many other people have the same issue also and whilst using other sync methods may work, I've spent many thousands of dollars on Apple products and to have been unable to do a basic thing like sync photos for over a year now is more than unacceptable. Hopefully Apple fix this once and for all....

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Answer 3

Nov 15, 2020 12:23 PM in response to movery

Wouldn't count on it... They push to use cloud services for the last years, so not sure if they are interested in fixing local syncing. Best I can suggest is test it with iMazing if you'll decide to go away from Finder (app I use instead of iTunes, guide for photos management). Got no idea if it will work better in your case, but in my history it worked perfectly fine while iTunes couldn't detect my phone. Regarding photos specifically, on my side I had like 2-3 minor issues in a year with synced albums, but I rarely have more than 2k photos in 1 album.

Btw do you get any issues with albums that have 1500-2000 photos? (Sorry if it was in that thread already, not that much time to read it full)

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Answer 4

movery Author

Level 1

24 points

Nov 14, 2020 5:57 PM in response to movery

Forgot to say, I will keep this thread up to date following my interactions with Apple Support, but I would strongly suggest you contact them also if you have the same issue. Thanks!

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Answer 5

movery Author

Level 1

24 points

Nov 15, 2020 6:39 PM in response to Carl_Franz

Thanks, will try iMazing.

Reg the album size, even if I try an album of just 33 photos they don't all sync. Only 7 did..

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iPhone album says syncing at bottom of screen but never stops and photos are missing.

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