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steveald Author

Level 1

30 points

Syncing between Mac and iPhone stuck at "Reading Photos library"

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015) macOS v. 11.3.1

iPhone 12 Pro iOS v. 14.5.1

I still backup and sync my iPhone via USB to my MacBook Pro. After the most recent OS updates, that no longer works.

I open a Finder window and plug in my iPhone. I select my iPhone from the sidebar and watch it begin Syncing as "Automatically sync when iPhone is connected" is checked. This is normally a step-saver, but now it's become a nightmare.

The progress bar indicates it is backing up. Then it gets to "Syncing (Step 5 of 6) - Reading Photos library." And that's as far as it gets. Even leaving it running overnight. And nothing works - the Skip Photos button does nothing. Clicking the X next to my iPhone in the sidebar does nothing. Even quitting or force-quitting the backup and backups-helper processes in Activity Monitor does nothing. Only unplugging the iPhone from the USB has any effect.

I was able to click the Sync button. But that just started the process all over. When the Eject symbol appear next to my iPhone in the sidebar and I clicked on it, it asked if I was sure I wanted to eject it because it was currently being synced. I click Eject, but nothing happened.

I can uncheck "Automatically sync when iPhone is connected" and all of the Sync photos, Sync music, etc. options; but the sync process never completes so those options never stay unchecked. So, every time I plug my iPhone in via USB, the process starts all over again.

As a result, I have not been able to complete a sync between my Mac and my iPhone. So, my Music playlists and Photos library aren't getting updated. And I can't trust the backup to be of any use.

I have seen this issue has been reported for the last several years. But there has never been a viable solution posted that I can find.

Please help.

Posted on May 4, 2021 7:27 AM

Top-ranking reply

steveald Author

Level 1

30 points

Posted on May 4, 2021 9:16 AM

Solution!

I finally found a fix in an old Apple Community post titled "Delete iPod Photo Cache?" (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250823014).

There, léoni posted a redacted Apple Support Document that spelled out how to delete the iPod Photo Cache folder. I had seen this potential solution mentioned elsewhere but did not know how to do it. After deleting the folder, I tried to sync again and it worked quickly and flawlessly!

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Similar questions

56 replies

Erny71

Level 1

4 points

Aug 4, 2021 6:05 AM in response to ifff

Yes it worked. I did all of this + additionally I had to turn on + off iCloud Photo sync. Then played around with syncing until I got the message it would delete all pictures from device and sync with this library. After 7 minutes of "reading library", it started copying to iPhone. Finally...

In the Photo Library (Show Package Contents) it has rebuild the "iPod Photo Cache" folder.

Aug 16, 2021 5:31 AM in response to wim_vdb

Thank you for posting such detailed instructions. Your process worked for me. I can now sync photos to my iMac. However, every time I do, some of the photos are duplicated leading to multiple copies. I’m not sure how to stop that.

Aug 25, 2021 6:19 AM in response to steveald

I have the exact same problem, I called apple support and we did a work around....

Step 1....created another user on my iMac, named it (TEST), and did a sync (make sure all the pictures you have are on your computer), this erased all pictures and completed.

Step 2....Then, we went back to my userid, tried to sync the photos to my device from "PHOTOS", would not work...stuck again....so...repeat step 1.

Step 3. Changed the way my computer sync photos from a folder....I have pictures in folder too (just for a backup), I was able to pick a folder and sync to my phone.

Step 4......Is to still try and fix or just use Step 3.

Erny71

Level 1

4 points

Aug 30, 2021 2:19 AM in response to PurpleCountry

Apple support guided me in doing similar steps, that didn't solve the “Photos app-iPhone” sync and finally suggested to reinstall MacOS.

Fortunately the solution presented before in this chat worked and saved me much time.

Lemonsat

Level 1

9 points

Sep 21, 2021 5:19 AM in response to steveald

SOLVED in this way:

I've rebuilt from scratch a new library and it worked. I have about 10.000 fotos and about 100 albums.

I've done this because my library was very old, with some photos referenced and some internal. And I was needing a backup of the photos divided in folders in the same way they are divided in albums, so I've created a folder for each album in a SSD and copied photos from the app. Then I've deleted the old library, create a new and reimported each album. In this way I've fund and correct each error.

May 18, 2021 3:48 PM in response to steveald

I am having this exact problem. The suggestion to delete the IPod Photo Cache did not solve the problem. Did you solve it?

steveald Author

Level 1

30 points

May 18, 2021 7:48 PM in response to harryfrommansfield center

Sorry, deleting the iPod Photo Cache folder as described above did work for me. Assuming you have tried everything I mentioned, I don't know what else to suggest.