Just upgraded iPhone 15 Plus to iOS 17.2 and am unable to sync music from Mac Mini also just updated to Sonoma 14.2. Operation seems to stall out at Step 2 of 4 “Preparing to Sync”. No further progress even after 3 hours. Shut down iPhone and restarted, then tried sync using cable, then re-tried sync using Wi Fi without success. Any ideas?
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
iPhone 15 Plus
Hello,
I have the problem since iOS17 (still with iPhone 13 Pro) and Watch OS 10 (Ultra2).
The change to the iPhone 15 Pro and a complete reinstallation of the iPhone did not bring any improvement. The strange thing was that the "fresh" iPhone (without any apps installed, no backup installed) could initially be synchronized just as easily as an iPhone SE, an iPhone SE3 and an iPad Pro 11 3rd. This actually made it clear that the problem could not be due to my computer configuration, especially since it also occurred on another notebook and with another Windows user. Nevertheless, I have gone through all these options together with Apple support.
When I had only installed my most essential apps on my iPhone and paired it again with my Ultra 2, the synchronization went wrong again. Out of sheer desperation, I tried to decouple my Ultra 2 again and, lo and behold, the synchronization ran completely smoothly and all data (including diagnostic data) was synchronized again. As soon as I had paired the Ultra 2 again, the same mishap. This morning, Apple support also confirmed to me that there is a problem that is being worked on in this context.
My workaround to the solution:
My explanation: After every restart of iTunes, iTunes apparently tries to load the diagnostic data onto the PC during the first sync operation of a device. This obviously does not work (for me) with paired Ultra 2. Therefore, the "killing" of the mdcrashreport tool in the task manager leads to the continuation of the sync. It seems as though access to the diagnostic data is blocked by pairing the Apple Watch. (Just a hypothesis)
Why do I prefer to disconnect the cable instead of using the task manager? When killing the tool in the task manager, the current sync continues to run, but the next sync runs back into the same problem because iTunes does not transfer the diagnostic data or the mdcrashreporttool does not register as performed. If, on the other hand, you pull the cable, iTunes seems to regard the mdcrashreporttool as performed and does not try to pull the diagnostic data from the iPhone again at the next sync. I.e. As long as I don't close iTunes, I can always sync my iPhone without any problems. If I close iTunes, the sh… starts all over again.
Which way you choose is, of course, a matter of taste. A fast solution would be very desirable.
I will try this... thanks. Why isn't apple chiming in? I tried tech support but it is their lower base collecting support team farmed out who to knows where.. they start from "is your power on" .. WTF ?? lol
Unfortunately Apple has no incentive to fix this. They'd prefer we backup to/and move all our data through their cloud, and "rent" our music from them. We dinosaurs, still doing a wired sync, are going extinct. LOL
That being said, hopefully everyone contacting support directly will help get a proper fix done.
Bros here the same and im really angry i text to this dumb apple chat support and they didnt help after that i call their number for helpin and this guy didnt help me too they both tell me to quit my media acc and sign back,activate sync in and hard reset my phone like im dumb 70yr old and didnt do this casual *****. FIX IT fuskin APPLE
Question, if it's a known bug, why is it still not fixed? I doubt that the development team relies on feedback from the tech support, otherwise, this issue would have been fixed.
Being with Apple for many years I can give my opinion about the tech support:
Pros:
Cons:
Again, my previous suggestion to the Quality Assurance engineers visit Apple Chat would be the best way to speed up fixing problems that would save time for consumers, technicians, and developers.
Thanks, xCowboy - this is the answer to this issue. Now if Mac would get off the jackwagon and fix the problem, that would be great. Seems like they know about it but won't resolve it.
Also, for the price of their equipment, you would think this should be resolved. They wrote the software, and built the hardware...
That’s the trick I’ve been looking for! I was locked up while trying to sync with a Windows 11 PC… tried all the “official” Apple Support recommendations - reboot this, reload that, update IOS, reinstall everything, unplug, replug, blah blah blah…
There’s a BUG. Fix it! And, oh, it’s not a Microsoft bug since it’s apparently happening with Macs, too.
Yeah, I don't mean this to be disrespectful in ANY way but… nobody who has used a Mac including and before the last 10yrs is using McAfee ANYTHING. If this solved your problem, that's awesome! But it's NOT our problem.
Sorry, noob here. How do I force quit the MDCrashReportTool? I've tried syncing my iphone ios 17.2.1 to my Macbook Air sonoma 14.0 but it gets stuck at step 2 or syncing. Hoping to sync so I can get my songs to my Music App
This happened to me also (not finding it in task manager.) When I couldn’t find it on the main task manager page (you do have to click the arrow next to iTunes to expand it)… I found it under the DETAILS tab of task manager. Alphabetical order. Was able to end or exit the task from there and syncing resumed after being stuck.
peterhamm wrote:
Forcing the MDCrashreportingtool is absolutely NOT working for me: Intel Mac running Sonoma with iPhone SE running latest iOS, I have tried this dozens of times to no effect.
Apple, fix this.
It's not a "cure all" and the end result may not be what you'd want. Nevertheless, if you provide some detail and context perhaps someone can assist you.
-R.
Thanks for this. What brought me down this path is that all the songs I synced to my IPhone from cds using Itunes got greyed all. I then got the dreaded invalid country or region error when trying to play any song. I backup to cloud so I only sync music using Itunes and I hadn't done it for years. Probably been through two different Iphones and I don't know how many IOS upgrades but sometime this year something broke. I just thought it was because I hadn't synched in so long and something changed or got corrupted. Anyway, finally I decided just to delete everything I had synced off the Iphone and just reload it. Then this preparing to sync crap started happening and I just started feeling like I got caught in a perfect bug storm. They say its been happening for years but this is the first time I can recall this exact problem. Lord knows I've had my share of others over the years. At least I can resync now with this workaround but I agree with everyone else. It's just ridiculous.
You saved me big time. I had uninstalled/reinstalled iTunes per other advice. Nothing was working. You solution sounded too good to be true but, not! Variation on old schedule on/off, perfect. BTW, I'm on a Win10 platform. I never did see an instance of MDCrashReport running as noted by others. Thank you very much.
Ron,
rsworden made a similar observation in another thread. Here it is:
“… (A few days ago) using Xcode I connected to my iPhone and clicked "Open Recent Logs". I could see a few dozen files, some very current and some from the last few days. I tried cleaning them out (Move to Trash one by one). When I went back to Xcode and went to Open Recent Logs again, the files had come back. I could not figure out where they were coming from. But if the AW is pushing *its* logs to the iPhone, that could explain it. Maybe looking at the log file names could tell us their source. …”
We could be off down a rabbit hole, who knows? But you’re right about one thing. It is a mess.
N-S.
Northern-Survivor wrote:
Ron,
rsworden made a similar observation in another thread.
We could be off down a rabbit hole, who knows? But you’re right about one thing. It is a mess.
N-S.
Northern-Survivor (& rsworden), thanks for your feedback and participation. Let's stay the course!
-R.
Northern-Survivor wrote:
And Ron,
There was this advice from Apple Support, posted by santTX earlier in this thread:
Allow the syncing to run overnight to allow enough time to remove the logs
Overnight?! How much log data is there? Sounds like Support does know something about log data issues.
Northern-Survivor,
Since I retired my 2400 baud modem, I usually ignore suggestions of letting any process run for hours.
Just sayin'
-R.
iPhone 15 Plus stuck in “Preparing To Sync"
