Issues with iPhone sync from MacBook after iOS17 Update

Yes! This can be sooooo annoying. I wish Apple had never gotten rid of iTunes. I’ve used iTunes since 2004, and no problems until Apple Music showed up. I like to manually manage all music, artwork, etc. I have a 2023 MacBook Pro 16 and iPhone 14 ProMax running iOS 17.4 and the syncing issues just started a few weeks ago.

What worked for me-close all apps running, complete shut down of both devices, then restart, connect usb cable to iPhone & MacBook. Syncing is back to normal, still not what it was with iTunes, but I can deal with it for now-as long as it’s working.

I had a similar issue, where my phone simply would not appear in the Finder side bar. Resolved when I switched the 3rd party cable that I was using with an Apple-supplied one. The 3rd party cable seemed fine at first (iPhone was charging), but apparently Apple will only let you transfer data using its own proprietary cables.

This worked!! Bluetooth off, syncing restored!!! iPhone 14, mac book pro

Hi elliottreed91,

We recommend that you try the steps in the link blow since you're having issues with syncing your device to your computer.

Sync music between your Mac and iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support

To perform the recommended troubleshooting steps via the link above, complete the steps in the section titled "Sync music to your device."

1. Connect your device to your Mac.

You can connect your device using a USB or USB-C cable or using a Wi-Fi connection. See Sync content between your Mac and iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch over Wi-Fi.

2. In the Finder  on your Mac, select the device in the Finder sidebar.

If you connect your device to your Mac using a USB cable and don’t see the device in the Finder sidebar, see If your device doesn’t appear in the sidebar. 

3. Click Music in the button bar.

4. Select the “Sync music onto [device name]” checkbox to turn on syncing of your music.

With the checkbox selected, syncing is set to transfer all your music to your device. 

5. To sync a selection of music, click “Selected playlist, artists, albums, and genres.”

6. Select the checkbox for each item you want to sync in the music list. Deselect the checkbox for any item you don’t want to sync.

Click Artists, Albums, Genres, or Playlists to see your content organized by that category. 

7. Select syncing options: 

* Select the “Include videos” checkbox to include videos when syncing.

* Select the “Include voice memos” checkbox to include voice memos when syncing.

* Select the “Automatically fill free space with songs” checkbox to have your Mac fill the free space on your device with songs when syncing. Use this option if you have a large music library on your Mac but don’t have room to sync all of your music to your device. This option syncs as many songs as possible. See Fill your device with a random selection of songs using Autofill.

8. When you’re ready to sync, click Apply.

You can select the “Sync only checked songs” option in the General options to create a selection of songs to your devices. Other songs in your library that aren’t checked are not synced to your Mac or devices. See Save storage space when syncing.

You can choose to sync your Mac and your device automatically whenever you connect them. See Turn automatic syncing on or off on Mac.

Before disconnecting your device from your Mac, click the Eject button  in the Finder sidebar.

We recommend the steps above because they will show you how to sync your device to your computer.

Please let us know the outcome after giving the above steps a try.

Thanks for using the Apple Support Communities.

Cheers!

I had exactly the same problem with that my phone to desktop would never proceed beyond the preparing for sync. Left it once overnight to prepare for since but also did not help by giving more time.

The below mentioned tip that the bluetooth needs to be switched worked fortunately well for me and the problem is solved now.

If that is a bug there should be some notification and bugfix

So turning off bluetooth solved one problem: I am now able to sync an album without each track being treated as a separate album.

But I am still unable to sync the Beatles Sgt Pepper album completely.

I deleted it (the album) from my phone, turned off the phone, rebooted, re-synced, and everything except "When I'm 64" syncs. This is the same situation I was in before turning off bluetooth.

I'm sure that there are other parts of my 300+ albums, 3500 songs that are missing too. I just haven't found them—not found them—yet.

As somebody else said, this seems like a major bug.

I am having a similar problem. In my case I believe its related to WatchOS 10.

If you also have an Apple Watch see my thread: Issues with iPhone sync from MacBook afte… - Apple Community

I toggled off the bluetooth and wham it worked! However, it wont do it again. I do have an apple watch also, this makes no sense. Terrible on the part of Apple. Seems like a poor oversight.

That's exactly what I did for my wife with iPhone 14pro, iOS 16 and a 2018 iMac 27" which will run ventura when I install it (it is with mojave currrently)

BUT DID NOT WORK this morning with my iPhone 15, iOs 17 and a 2020 MacBook Air with ventura up to date.

It "mounts" the iPhone, when you click sync, it moves to calculating and does not move (there is plenty of space in the iphone as i used to have a 64 Gbs mini, so i have 80 GB free

Thanks

YES!!! I am glad that its not just me that is having this very FRUSTRATING problem. I prefer to sync my phone my physically connecting it to my computer versus using the cloud sync, for some reason the iCloud sync just does not do what I need it to do. I've tried all the things suggested in these replies, I even had luck ONCE by restarting my Macbook and the iPhone (14), however, I continue to have issues thereafter. I am starting to think that this is something that needs to be fixed on Apples end with an update. It feels like yet another ploy by them to get us all to update to the newest phone, UGH!!!!

Currently running: iOS 17.2.1 (iPhone) // iOS 10 (Apple Watch) // macOS 11.7.10 (MacBook) the troubleshooting mentioned above, has allowed me to progress past the issue (inability to sync iPhone w/MacBook). ✌🏽

Thank you so much for your suggestion!! This is so frustrating to me. I've tried what you suggested and while it did allow my phone to go all the way through the syncing process..... it didn't sync anything :-(. The only thing that worked for me recently was going into my Music settings and turning on "sync library" for a few mins, then turning it off... then connecting my lightning cable and syncing. That worked ONCE and I cant even get that trick to work anymore. There once was a time where syncing by connecting my cable only took a few mins, easy-breezy.... now it's become a nightmare. Apple needs to fix this bug FAST!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am going to continue to try what you suggested though because it seems to have helped for others. Thanks again!!! :-)

This is all so frustrating. Brand new iMac, Brand New iPhone 15 Pro and I cannot sync my Phone, my iPad or my wife's iPhone to iMac. I've tried toggling off blue tooth, but doesn't work. Even worse for me is that inn the Finder, I can see the iPhone and iPad, but that's it. No data shown in either ( that is Music, Video tabs don't show). On the other hand, the Samsung drive ( which is used for backups) does show content of drive.

Awww man, I'm SO glad it worked. Yea, it takes a WHIIIIILE!!!! I don't understand it because there was a time where a sync only took a few mins, now it's become a daunting task. It looks like Apple is trying to push everyone to use cloud sync, which I don't care for at all. I want to manually sync my stuff.

I am joining this club ! 3 days asking myself what was wrong with synchronization and after a few searches I end up here... I had several thousands of pictures and vídeos that I kept synchronized with my iPhone 13 against around 30.000 in my Mac book pro. Everything worked fine until I got no space in my Mac... So I decide to try iCloud, then I realized that if you travel a lot or living in 2 countries is not compatible because of the data charges of the communications company... So after paying 10€ for a month and analyzing the 2 TB iCloud I decided to cancel the subscription to take a better solution: buy a brand new Mac (1TB memory) I though it would be smoothly as always, but then, the change from iCloud to local has been a pain, just because it was impossible for me to turn back into the local previous syncing...I didn't know what to do until I have read this solution that seems to work for the moment... I am at step 6 of 6, let's see if the selected folders and pictures from my Mac are finally copied into my iPhone ! Let's hope !

I have an Apple Watch too and I performed the toggle off of bluetooth.

Why is happening? The question is, do I have to do the same everytime I want to sync? Have you tried to sync wireless already? This will be my next step, once all pictures are copied.