Can’t sync with iTunes after iOS 17.1.1.update

I have an iMac running 10.12.6 Sierra and a iphone 12. Things were fine until I updated to ios 17 on the phone. Now, my itunes will not recognize my phone at all. I can no longer update my phone, move media or anything. Why can't apple/macintosh research things before doing this to people?? Now, I can't speak to any human from apple concerning this.

Update: After an Apple support chat last week I was offered access to a senior engineer but unfortunately nothing came of it (case assigned and call scheduled but no call came). I then put in a second request, this time through the Apple website, and that phone call failed to materialize too. Since I'm having no luck getting a hold of anyone at Apple who can confirm or deny whether this is a bug or an expected break with iTunes under iOS 17, I'd be interested in hearing from others who have had greater success reaching Apple senior tech support.

As far as I know, there is no Apple support document that spells out which version of iTunes is compatible with which version of iOS. It's all nonspecific information about "updating" — but hardware (and time) is the limitation for many of us. Exactly how new must the iTunes and/or macOS be in order for an iOS 17 device to sync (or even be seen)?

FYI: The iMazing tutorial on syncing with iTunes is either outdated or incorrect. Their support has confirmed for me that playlists don't transfer, even though the screen shot in their undated tutorial implies otherwise.

So far the comments here seem to center on Sierra and High Sierra. If anybody reading this is using iTunes with an iOS 17.x iPhone that is newer than 12.8 but *older* than Catalina (where the iPhone loads in the finder), please do us a favor and confirm if your iPhone can be seen (i.e. maybe someone with iTunes in Mojave can try this?)

Does anybody have an alternative to iMazing that supports the import of playlists?

@Servant of Cats. Sadly, your suggestion doesn't work. I'm already in High Sierra and iTunes 12.8 doesn't "see" my ioS 17.2 phone, either. In my case, I had just brought my iTunes library out of an even older version of iTunes (Snow Leopard!) with no prior history of syncing an iPhone with iTunes because there was little point in doing so when I had so little free space on prior iPhones to import my library. I then turned to iMazing only to find that ~20 years worth of playlists disappeared after waiting over an hour for my library to copy. iMazing support has since confirmed that playlists won't transfer. So those of us who are on High Sierra (maybe even Mojave?) or earlier need an alternative to iTunes and to iMazing…

Purchased a refurb iPhone 12 from Apple and while setting it up today I also found out that that it wouldn't let backup his phone to my iMac running High Sierra (10.13.6). The new phone is running 17.2.1. When I tried to select the new iPhone in iTunes it said I had to update iTunes to version 12.10.10. What? I can't find a version any higher than 12.8.3 anywhere. Where is this 12.10.10 prompt coming from?

Re: “From my discussion with Apple Support - You must purchase the Apple Music Streaming to sync the old and new!”

That doesn’t make sense. I suspect that the person you talked with does not know the difference between iTunes/Finder syncing, iTunes Match, and Apple Music’s Sync Library.

I did not read through ALL the posts, but on the ones I perused, did not see a resolution. For about the 4th time I contacted Apple Support, got transferred to a specialist, and he was GREAT! He was aware of the issue, a fix has not yet been implemented (seems to have broken with iOS 17.1.1). I also have an Apple watch, he had me turn it off, then try again. Syncing worked just fine. For anyone that DOES NOT have an Apple watch, there is a secondary way to get it to work (turning off some apps crash reporting or something) but in my elated state I did not stick around for the details. I am using a 2010 iMac which now syncs just fine with my SE 2020! (now to turn my watch back on)

Been using iTunes since iPhone I and had 16 GB library deleted from 15 ProMax and my desktop PC Running Windows 10.

All purchased music since 2007 is listed in receipts but also gone.

All 15 playlist also gone

I have spent about 10 hours total with Apple Support and about another 40 hours of my time with no resolution.

Please help us people with large personal music collections and purchased music to get it back working. I’m out of ideas. It appears they know but mine is still very much not syncing and deleted what I did have

I have an iPhone 15 Pro - 512 GB and I also have problems Syncing my iPhone with iTunes on a Windows 10 pc.

After several call sessions with Apple support (started begin december) they told me I will have to wait for an update which should solve the problem. Funny remark from Apple support was that the issue needs to be important enough before it gets in one off the following updates. So what I will be waiting till summer? Come on Apple!

This updating and trying to download what's been paid for is a consistent problem with Apple .Just about every upgrade causes a problem when it was all working before. Seems like my time is worth being paid for by Apple to find and fix these technical issues that they create in the first place. It Don't Just Work .

I've tried to restart EVERYTHING, and it seems to move past Step 2 whenever it decides to do it. Nothing has ever worked on the first time of shutting down/disconnecting or anything. I hope Apple comes up with a solution, because this is extremely frustrating as I need my music for my job (on my phone).

I'm having the same problem. It apparently isn't a problem with the last itunes update because I tried on my old computer which doesn't have the update and it still stops on step 2. I tried manually moving my new music from itunes to my phone and that doesn't work either. Hope they fix this problem soon.

I have a similar problem. After the latest update, iTunes recognizes my iPhone 13 Pro Max, does the backup and then seems to be in an endless circle with trying to sync (preparing to sync) calendar, contact’s etc. After a number of restarts of the iPhone and the MacBook Pro eventually I get them to sync. This seems to be a definite SW problem by Apple engineering and requires a bug fix. Why? Before the latest iOS update, there were no sync problems! Just for information: I am not using iCloud and I have never used it!

I'm pleased to read that I am not the only who still believes in having his music (cd's) physically on his iPhone. Spotify, Tidal and so one all very good, as long as there is a good connection.

I also experienced that the checkbox wasn't checked anymore for music. This probably has to do with the sync issue. The annoying thing is, that if you check the music box again, the system asks you if you want to delete the music on your iPhone. That means re-syncing all your music again to your iPhone. In my case we are talking about +/- 25.300 songs (1722 albums)! For that my iPhone needs to be hooked up to my pc for at least 10 hours. As long as Apple doesn't come with a proper solution for the problem I'm not checking that box again.

So Apple if you don't mind, work on this! It's all very nice to show off in events how beautiful it is in Cupertino, how great the new devices will be and environmental conscious you are. But what's the use if our pricy devices don't work as expected!