The iPhone “iPhone” cannot be synced. The required file cannot be found.

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23 points

The iPhone “iPhone” cannot be synced. The required file cannot be found.

Sorry for the lengthy post, but this requires a lot of explanation.

There are many posts on this topic, however most are over 10 years old and don't apply anymore or if newer, don't work. Hopefully someone can lead me in the right direction to solve this issue.

Last month, I replaced my iPhone 7 with an iPhone 11 Pro and thought that I'd brought over everything when I restored the previous phone to the new one using Finder on my Mac. I don't use the Photos app much, preferring a different app for organization so never checked that. Today I went to backup and sync and without thinking updated ios from 16.1 to 16.2 before backing up. Never did that before, so of course it came back to bite me. I backup locally, not to iCloud.

After the update, I backed up and when synching my iphone 11 Pro, I get the title message above. In looking around, I noticed that Photos did not sync so there were no pictures there, other than a few. I looked at the setting & it was not set to sync. I ticked the box and got the error again. One recent poster suggested opening Image Capture on my Mac and selecting "None" for app to open on connection, however, that didn't work. Others suggested syncing without Photos checked and then doing it again with it checked. I have tried wiping my phone and restoring from a backup, reinstalling ios from Recovery Mode, all to no avail.

Note, after each step, I ejected the iPhone, rebooted it and also the iMac.

I guess, I could wipe the phone and restore an older backup from December 1, but am trying to avoid that. Any help would be much appreciated.

iMac 27″ 5K, macOS 13.1

Posted on Jan 1, 2023 4:20 PM

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Answer 1

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Rich B22 Author

Level 1

23 points

Jan 2, 2023 5:17 PM in response to hc1111

Much appreciate your reply.

I don't use iCloud Photos as I have way too many pictures and don't want to pay for that storage. The pictures are resident on my iMac and I synchronize via USB periodically.

Was going to post the solution I found earlier today on Reddit. In my case, at least, I had to go to Photos>Settings, make sure that the correct Library is listed and click the button to "Use as System Photo Library". All is good now and it syncs with no issues.

Don't know if that is a new requirement with updated OS's or somehow mine became "unclicked", but never had this issue previously.

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Answer 2

hc1111

Community Specialist

Jan 2, 2023 4:33 PM in response to Rich B22

Hey there Rich B22,

To make sure we understand, is the issue you're experiencing the fact that your photos did not transfer when restoring from an update? If so, you'll need to make sure the previous iPhone has Photos enabled in iCloud first. Without the previous phone available to use, there wouldn't be a way to get the original photos to the new iPhone.

If you have the previous iPhone, use the steps below to enable iCloud Photos:

1. On your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud > Photos.

2. Do one of the following:

• iOS 16, iPadOS 16, or later: Turn on Sync this [device].

• iOS 15, iPadOS 15, or earlier: Turn on iCloud Photos.

All the photos and videos in the Photos app on your device are added to iCloud. Also, any photos and videos already stored in iCloud Photos are now available on your device.

3. To view photos and videos stored in iCloud Photos, open the Photos app, then tap Library. All the photos and videos you see are stored in iCloud Photos.

Set up iCloud Photos on all your devices

If you no longer have the photos on the old iPhone, there wouldn't be a way to retrieve them.

Should you need additional help, please post a reply with more details.

Take care!

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The iPhone “iPhone” cannot be synced. The required file cannot be found.

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