Can’t sync with iTunes after iOS 17.1.1.update

It would have been great to know this was coming before causing this big of an issue. I am a musician and have or had 16 GB of music, my music, on my phone and now it is all gone. In addition to every single song or Al I’m purchased from Apple since 2007.

ALL GONE!

Apple, PLEASE fix this debacle. I have invested approx 50 hours of my own time and another 10 plus hours on the phone with your technicians and it is all still broke and a huge mess for us the believed in this application.

I am not going to pay more money for an application I don’t need! The first Apple Rep said I needed more cloud storage, but I do not and will not buy anything else. This has worked for almost 25 years and then it blows up with zero remedies. I cannot invest more time and money and can’t make a positive reference to anyone wanting to use this application going forward

Macbook Pro running OS 13.3 Ventura and iPhone 11

I have a similar problem- all worked fine till I updated to iOS 17.2.1. Now all the music has gone off my iPhone and is greyed out. When I touch the title of a track I get the message

"This song is not currently available in your country or region"!!!

Apple Support spent over an hour without any success apart from admitting there was a 'glitch' and I should now update my laptop software. . . Also Apple are trying to tell me that I now have to update my laptop software, which will almost certainly then render all my Photo editing packages useless and as a photographer, that is a risk I am really not prepared to take. Very very frustrated and not a little angry at this entire mess!!

This was originally posted in November. It is now mid-January and my phone with iOS 17.1.1 update will not with iTunes past step 2 or 3. I have music I that I want to sync via iTunes.

Apple, you need to get this fixed.

Dear Community

Don't get your hopes up, but for me ios 17.3 didn't solve the problem. Thank you Apple!

Looked for an update on iTunes (now on v. 12.13.1.3), but nothing.

Luckily the work around with the removal of "MDCrashReportTool" still works on my Windows 10 pc.

I was having this syncing issue as well. late 2015 27" iMac running Catalina. Once I updated to iOS 17, I was unable to sync with the computer and load my music and photos onto the phone.

iOS 17.3 was released yesterday and has fixed the issue!!!!!!!! I am successfully able to fully sync with no issues!

Thanks you Apple!

Today I went to an Apple Store, and they told me this is not a bug. They said IOS (17) is not compatible with iTunes anymore, and there's no way to fix this. You can only connect your IOS 17 iPhone to your Mac through the Finder. When I asked them how could this be even possible, that my iPhone was perfectly compatible with iTunes when I bought it less than a year ago but now I can't use it for my music, they (there was a group of 5 "geniuses" paying close attention as if I were a rare cretaceous beast) just stood looking blank-faced at each other.

Seriously, I'm fed up with this guys

(You had to see their faces when I said the word "iTunes" —"iWhaaat?")

Beyond frustrating considering I've purchased thousands of dollars worth of music and now we are forced to pay to listen to what we've already purchased. I'm hoping for a fix along the way but it doesn't seem promising at this point. I guess my next question would be, Can an Android connect to iTunes on a Mac? If so, I'm ready to ditch my iphone considering my music collection is a prized possession.

I can confirm IOS17 versions will still sync with iTunes on Windows computers (even Windows 7), but not MacOS Sierra. Luckily for me my Macbook still has Windows 7 Bootcamp, so now I have been forced to use Windows by Apple.

I really wish you were right.

But, again, according to Apple geniuses, IOS 17 is no longer compatible with iTunes, no matter the macOS version, no matter the iTunes version. Period. You need to use the Finder (they said).

If your system cannot sync using the Finder, you cannot sync. (And again, I wish this was not the case, and I am still looking for a workaround)

I asked them about High Sierra, specifically, as this is the lattest macOS version that supports my laptop, and they said "No sir. Sorry sir."

Anyway, I downloaded High Sierra Installer and will try next weekend. (Thanks for the link! Will keep you posted ;-)

I'm using Windows (thank God I'm not in complete thrall to the evil empire of Apple) and there are apps available on Google Play for Android phones that act in a similar fashion to iTunes. My music is stored as mp3 files as well as on iTunes in my computer so next upgrade, I'll be switching to Android if this isn't resolved because truth is, the only reason I've been using iPhones is the iTunes program and its easy way of creating playlists etc. Streaming doesn't work for me because I'm usually listening in my car or on my motorcycle.

Not mine. Windows 11. After upgrading my iPhone 14 Pro to 17.2, iTunes recognizes the phone but when syncing, it gets hung on preparing to sync.. I still have my old iPhone SE 2020 which has iOs 17.0 and it syncs fine. If anyone knows a way to downgrade back to 17.0 please let us know.

I'm in the process of unloading my Apple stock. I don't wanna be an investor in a company which downgrades its product retrospectively and without warning. A glaring example of arrogant and breathtakingly shoddy, in fact anti-customer, customer care. That, along with the lack of any new/improved product, well except for the ridiculously expensive VR headset, does not bode well for their future success. Steve Jobs must be puking in his grave.

Ok, my first attempt was a success:

I had some pendrive with macOS High Sierra lying around. Plugged it, booted, updated everything and connected my iPhone 13 with IOS 17.3 and the message about needing to update some software in order to connect the phone showed up. After that, I openned iTunes, and the phone showed up there as always.

Given the fact that the system in the pendrive had no music at all (it was meant for testing), I didn't try to sync the phone, but this looks definitely promising.

Now, I will install High Sierra and try to sync.

Thanks again, Servant of Cats

once I updated to the latest iPhone version (iOS 17.3), it has been syncing. I will say this....it does look like it's going to get stuck again on "Step 2 of 4", but give it some time and it actually does sync.

Once I updated to the latest iPhone version (iOS 17.3), it has been syncing. I will say this....it does look like it's going to get stuck again on "Step 2 of 4", but give it some time and it actually does sync.

I'm on a MacBook Pro with Mac OS Sonoma (14.3), and an iPhone 13 with iOS 17.3.