sync iPhone 12 mini with McBook Air not working

Hi there lornefromnewglasgow,

Thanks for posting in Apple Support Communities!

Get started with the details below from Use the Finder to sync your iPhone, iPad, or iPod with your computer:

Instead of the Finder, you can also use iCloud and Apple Music or similar services to keep content from your Mac or PC in the cloud. That way, you can you can access your music, photos, and more on your devices when you aren't near your Mac. If you do that, some of the Finder syncing features described below might turn off.

If you use iCloud or other services like Apple Music to keep your content up to date across all of your devices, some syncing features through the Finder might be turned off.

With that information in mind, check to see if you have iCloud Contacts enabled on either of your devices: Set up and use iCloud Contacts

This page can help with using Sync Library to keep your music up to date across devices: Turn on Sync Library with Apple Music

You can also learn more about syncing your photos with iCloud Photos here: Set up and use iCloud Photos

We hope this information helps.

Thanks for that updated info. So we need to know a few things. If the option is there, it sounds like you are not using iCloud.

That being said, where are your contacts coming from? We need to check your settings to see if the Contacts account is set up through a third-party provider. This article will help: If your iCloud Contacts, Calendars, or Reminders won't sync

"If your contacts, calendars, and reminders are in iCloud, then iCloud automatically updates your information. If your information is in a third-party account, like Google or Yahoo, you can change your default account to iCloud. Changing your default account to iCloud won't move your existing information from a third-party service to iCloud."

Don't change it to iCloud, but find out where your contacts are coming from, and then if you turn off that account, you should be able to sync other info across then.

Music is similar. If you use iCloud, the option to sync manually may be removed, so it sounds like you might not be using iCloud for Music either. Use the Finder to sync your iPhone, iPad, or iPod with your computer

See the picture in that above article. If you wish to remove something, make sure that music is not selected. Let us know if you get any alerts or error codes. Thanks.