iPhone 15 Plus stuck in “Preparing To Sync"

Hello R,

I tried it several times but it just stops the syncing altogether... I can however, back up the iphone but I can't sync. Have to use a different app to play my music. Hope Apple can fix this soon. Still, thank you for trying to help. I super appreciate it.

Ai

AiPB wrote:

Hello R,

I tried it several times but it just stops the syncing altogether... I can however, back up the iphone but I can't sync. Have to use a different app to play my music. Hope Apple can fix this soon. Still, thank you for trying to help. I super appreciate it.

Ai

Hi Ai, I am unsure what you are telling me when you say you tried several times. Backing up? Syncing? Force quitting MDCrashReportTool? Are you running wired or wireless?

Can you share what devices you are using, the OS versions and whether you are starting up a backup or sync from Finder or iTunes? Some detail and context would be helpful.

-R.

Had the same issue. Experimented and found the MDcrashtool.exe file along with a MDcrashtool.dll.

I renamed the file to MDcrashtoolx.exe, added x at the end of the name, did NOT delete it. There is also a MDCrashTool.dll file, I did not touch it at all.

Tried Sync again and it went through flawlessly.

The file was in MY: C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Apple\Mobile Device Support

It may be different for others but you dont find it just start in your root directory and do a search for MDCrashTool and look for the .exe file and just simply rename it.

HOPE it works for everyone until Apple can do something.

Hi! I just started using my iPhone 12 mini for Music for my Fitness Class as my iPod touch was aging out. Yes, after teh IOS 17.2.1 update my iTunes on my PC is also is sticking on "preparing to sync". But I am unfamiliar with and do not see on my iPhone the Activity Monitor App. Can I get it from the App Store? Anne (Not an iPhone guru :)

I concur. The file I found was mdcrashreporttool.Exe but I figured this was what you were talking about. I popped an x at the end of the name like you did and it synced my music just fine. Music is all I do and all I’m interested in. I don’t even do that all that often but it’s not unreasonable to expect it to work when I need it. Again, Apple are you listening? Fix the dang problem!

That seems to be the prevailing problem/theory. Some people say that the AppleWatch is what is causing the sync to not work. They say that unpairing the AppleWatch solves the issue. My iPhone 12mini works flawlessly, but when I upgraded to iPhone 15 (which had my AppleWatch paired, it doesn’t work) :/

I’m waiting for Apple to fix this, because I’m not impairing my AppleWatch. People shouldn’t have to choose between syncing or AppleWatch. Hopefully this gets fixed soon.

ZumbaAnne wrote:

Hi! I just started using my iPhone 12 mini for Music for my Fitness Class as my iPod touch was aging out. Yes, after teh IOS 17.2.1 update my iTunes on my PC is also is sticking on "preparing to sync". But I am unfamiliar with and do not see on my iPhone the Activity Monitor App. Can I get it from the App Store? Anne (Not an iPhone guru :)

Hey ZumbaAnne, the Activity Monitor app is not on your phone. It is one your computer.

For Mac users, it is an app you can find with spotlight or by searching in the Utilities folder.

For PC users, use the Task Manager instead of Activity Monitor.

-R.

If you can, file a report with them. I also use music all the time, and the more people that talk about this, the more likely it is to get fixed. I hope this gets fixed soon, because I have a brand new iPhone 15 Pro I can't sync my music to right now.

fantaisie-impromptu wrote:

If you can, file a report with them. I also use music all the time, and the more people that talk about this, the more likely it is to get fixed. I hope this gets fixed soon, because I have a brand new iPhone 15 Pro I can't sync my music to right now.

Here’s my tips ( based on observations and guesswork)

/ Unpair your Watch (if you have one)

/ Deselect “Share iPhone & Watch Analytics data with Apple”. (In Privacy & Security Settings)

/ Backup your iPhone by selecting “Back Up Now” in the Finder

/ Use USB not Wi-Fi.

/ Check only one short playlist to sync (say less than 10 songs)

/ Let the sync run overnight even if it appears to be stalled ( it may flush out the logs)

/ Wait. (hours, days, until next year ! , who knows, but the longer the better. That’s the hardest one! )

/ if the sync still hasn’t finished when your patience runs out try the cable disconnect method to clear the stall.

None of that is guaranteed to work, and probably won’t, but it will be quicker than waiting for Apple to fix it.

Could people maybe read through this entire thread before offering solutions about Apple Watch? This is not exclusively an Apple Watch problem. It's a problem with MDCrashReportTool. Unpairing your Apple watch might not invoke MDCrashReportTool or whatever, and fix it for you. I am personally NOT unpairing my Apple Watch every time I sync.

PLEASE report this to Apple. This thread is getting clouded with individual-use cases and becoming potentially confusing. MDCrashReportTool is the problem.

You literally just said you have an AppleWatch. I’m not unpairing mine either, but what people on this thread are saying is that they have had success when they unpaired the AppleWatch. Every single person on this thread has either, A: stated that syncing doesn’t work and that they have an AppleWatch paired, or B: stated that syncing doesn’t work but never stated whether they have an AppleWatch or not.

If you read closely at the comments /last I checked/ no one has explicitly stated that they can’t sync their device and they don’t have an AppleWatch paired.

Given that information, one can say that the issue may indeed be with the AppleWatch.

Agreed, this is a forum. I’m not sure why some people think this is going to be the official instruction page for fixing the problem. These are evidently going to be individual user experiences.

Having said that, on another note, respectfully, I don’t think it’s wise to have the thread be split off. This thread has nearly 15k views last I checked. Apple is more likely to look into the issue if a thread has thousands of views and hundreds of comments. Splitting it off would detract from the severity of said issue.

Thanks for the solution! Using a Mac mini (m2) and this synced perfectly with my iPad Air (gen 5) and iPhone SE (gen 2). However, my new iPhone 15 refuses to sync without following the MDCrashReportTool force quit procedure. Works every time but not ideal…

I haven’t seen anyone mention looking up what mdcrashreporttool.exe does so I did. Excuse me if someone already posted this and I missed it. This is of course only useful if you are a Windows user but I imagine it’s something similar on a Mac.

https://www.file.net/process/mdcrashreporttool.exe.html

One thing I found interesting is that it states “This is not an essential Windows process and can be disabled if known to create problems.”

I had already changed the name like someone else suggested and that seemed to work. I guess you can also just disable the process so it won’t even try and run.

Northern-Survivor wrote:

In any case, I’m not sure anyone exercises such control over threads. The moderators edit or delete posts as they see fit. Threads run their course and any user can start a new one . I agree the volume of posts and “me too”s should focus Apple’s attention.

Hi N-S,

It would appear some people think these posts are being read by Apple and the volume of complaints will help to get Apple to take action. While I have no inside knowledge about what the moderators do, I suspect that unless moderators file reports back to Apple, nothing will happen because of what is posted here. As you correctly stated, this is strictly a user-to-user forum.

-R.