iPhone - Stuck "Preparing to sync" when trying to sync with iTunes via USB cable

Prytz333 - you need to install the Apple Devices app, which will allow you to connect and sync

you are the best! i spent the whole day trying to figure out why it‘s not working. first iTunes somehow pushed iCould to download 400GB of data over night. even if it was set to use iCloud for sync and not local. it filled the harddisk to 0Byte of free space. i could not even uninstall iTunes anymore because there was no space. then i searchd for the data. I found a 75GB folder which was 1.5 years old, ThunderItunesExtractor or so. Then i deleted iCloud and the 400GB fotos it downloaded. multiple re-installations and so on. even on another PC it did not work. apple support could not help me. then i found your post. killed the task (sub-task of iTunes in Windows 11) and it immediately started syncing. it‘s a shame what Apple delivers regarding iCloud and iTunes for windows. very bad user experience.

Well, after shutting down and rebooting, the next time I tried to back up after renaming the file it wouldn't work, backup or synch. So, I changed the file name back to the original and the backup works fine, but of course the sync doesn't unless I went into the task manager. Then copied and saved the batch file that was mentioned by another member which can be run while iTunes is stuck on "Preparing to Sync". That works and saves the time opening up the task manager and finding the file to end task. Still frustrating but at least I can still backup and synch my Outlook calendar and contacts.

LucertolaMc wrote:

I can't even find the MDCrashReporter.exe file on my PC nor is it on my task manager as running

Lucertola, you are using iTunes, right?

MDCrashReportTool can be found in your Task Manager after expanding the iTunes app.

Look at the post by IronMike778 (Dec 18, 12:57 PM) in the following thread:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255342772?sortBy=oldest_first&page=2

Good luck!

-R.

Files appear to be here:

C:\Users\<USERNAME>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps\AppleInc.iTunes_nzyj5cx40ttqa

Contents:

AppleInc.Defaults.exe

AppleInc.MDCrashReportTool.exe

iTunes.exe

It happens with my environment below.

M1 Mac mini Sonoma 14.2 +

iPhone 13 pro max iOS 17.2 +

Apple Watch SE2 watchOS 10.2

After pairing off my Apple Watch, this never happens.

All I have to do is force shut down iTunes (still on iTunes with Mojave), turn off apple watch, then open iTunes again and it syncs quickly.

Unfortunately no. I just set my new iMac M3 and synced my iPhone. No joy! I had to force quit the crash report tool.

Found a logfile here:

C:\users\<USERNAME>\AppData\Local\Packages\AppleInc.iTunes_nzyj5cx40ttqa\LocalCache\Roaming\Apple Computer\Logs\DeviceLink\MDCrashReportTool.exe.00.log

This may give some clues as to why the process is hanging, however my issue seems to have resolved itself overnight.

The error logs from yesterday when it stopped working are as follows, hopefully they can help in finding a solution:

2023-12-13 12:26:18.817|MDCrashReportTool.exe|10788:94461040|MDCrashReportTool.m:_cancelCopySubmitCrashReports| ERROR: No crash report copier running for target 00008110-001A18901E7A801E

2023-12-13 12:26:18.859|MDCrashReportTool.exe|10788:23666616|CrashReportCopierAFC.m:_I_CrashReportCopierAFC_waitUntilCrashReportMoverFinished_| ERROR: SSL_read returned error 0: 5

2023-12-13 12:26:18.924|MDCrashReportTool.exe|10788:23666616|CrashReportCopierAFC.m:_I_CrashReportCopierAFC_connectToCrashReportCopyTarget| ERROR: AMDeviceStartService for mobile

2023-12-13 12:26:22.356|MDCrashReportTool.exe|10788:23666616|CrashReportCopierPrivate.m:_I_CrashReportCopierPrivate_device| ERROR: Could not find a device with UID 00008110-001A18901E7A801E

2023-12-13 12:26:22.356|MDCrashReportTool.exe|10788:23666616|CrashReportCopierDL.m:_I_CrashReportCopierDL_connectToCrashReportCopyTarget| ERROR: Error -402653177 connecting to device: (null)

MDCrashreport.exe appears under the iTunes process when iTunes is running which is where you can kill it if you don't use the great .bat file that someone kindly posted here. I'm just keeping that bat file on my desktop until Apple sort this out.

On that note, Apple support have been back to me three times already asking for bits of info and diagnostics so they do seem to be taking this seriously, although no solution yet and it’s been about a week since I first got in touch with them.

using @minok's fix has worked for me, also..situation update, whilst trying to troubleshoot an issue purchasing content via the apple tv app on my iphone se, I was directed to and did, update itunes(desktop program) and the mdcrashreporttool.exe workaround fix survived the update.

Yup - worked. I'm on a Mac Studio (original M1) with Sonoma and an iPhone 12 running 17.3. I added a few tracks to Music and then sync'd with my phone. Normally, it would stop at Preparing to Sync. Stopping MDCrashReporter using Activity Monitor would allow it to continue. This time, MDCrashReporter did not start and the sync completed successfully. Yay! Many thanks to all who have contributed to this forum and to Apple for finally fixing this.

Just tried an experiment as people have been discussing it. Just played some songs on my iPhone then synced to my iMac. This time I shut down my Apple Watch Ultra. Lo and behold after about a minute of sitting at step 2 it synced. Played some more music, turned on AW and once again no sync until force quitting the crash report tool. One other thing, this happens on wifi or cable syncing.

iMac M3 Sonoma 14.3

iPhone 12 iOS 17.3

Watch OS 10.3

I'm not sure if I found a solution, but I stumbled upon something that seems to be working.

What I did up to this point was to reset my iPhone settings & start fresh. This didn't nuke my data, but it did remove all of my personal settings.

After that I downloaded iTunes fresh from apple.com/itunes & ran an admin repair from the exe file.

I also went to C:\Users\"Your User Name"\AppData\Local\Apple Computer\iTunes & renamed the iPodDevices.xml to iPodDevices.xml-old

Finally, I went to the Windows Settings & ran a repair on Apple Mobile Device Support then restarted Windows.

Somehow I managed to get my iPhone to run a backup, but I did have to stop the MDCrashReporter.exe file when it started up in the task manager.

I don't know how to explain it in less technical terms, but I might have found the workaround to get our iPhones to backup in iTunes. At least for Windows.

All I will say is when I ran diagnostics in iTunes the Apple iTunesHelper File & iPod Device Service wasn't running at all.

I hope this helps! Upvote me if it does! :D

TechAzn.

As Minok said, you need to find by Task Manager->Details->find it in the list->End Task

Worked for me as I couln't see as running either :)