iPhone 15 Plus stuck in “Preparing To Sync"

I’ve only had a problem with syncing music (I note others have had problems syncing other data).

If I deselect “Sync Music…” in the Finder everything works fine..

My solution (since I don’t like to use Force Quit) is to check “ Manually manage Music, Movies…” in the Finder and use the Music app to drag and drop (songs, playlists ) onto the phone. I realise this may not suit everyone in all circumstances

i-f

It’s not iTunes Match but iCloud Music Library that avoids the need to sync - and that’s free. And storage of all your songs in iCloud Music Library doesn’t count against your ICloud storage plan. I’m not recommending it - it’s simply another option.

This thread has highlighted several possible workarounds to overcome the bug in Finder syncing. The choice is yours. My favoured options are disconnecting/reconnecting the usb cable and manually managing music in the Mac Music app.

The Apple Help article you refer to is all about syncing, which we know is faulty. It doesn’t mention Backups nor manually managing music and other media which is what we were discussing.

Thank you for this solution. I tried everything you had done in the question to no avail. It even wiped some of my songs off and also said some songs were half synced and now “Not available in my region”. FORCE QUIT worked for me for the process "MDCrashReportTool" and now syncing has progressed

Norman18 wrote:

This is what I just did to resolve my own problem. First, I have 12 playlists that I always updated without any problems prior to IOS 17.2. Second, what I did was uncheck all but 1 playlist to see what would happen. The sync worked fine (however, the other 11 playlists were removed from my iPhone. Third, I then rechecked a few of the playlist check boxes and the sync worked fine again, and the playlists appeared on my phone as usual. When I rechecked the remaining playlists, the sync once again stalled. I’m guessing its a capacity problem?

I tried that, but it didn't work for me. That could be because the first playlist I tried has almost 4000 songs, but just a guess. If the problem is caused by preparing the list of items to be considered for syncing then it certainly could be a volume/capacity issue.

12/19/23 1300 PST and Apple released iOS 17.2.1 and,... it did not fix the sync issue. Remains stuck at "Preparing to Sync". Still need to end process of MDCrashReportTool to complete sync. If only Apple Company gave a ****... 😠

am not any expert but want to share my experience. Run Activity Monitor and look for a product called “mdCrashReportTool” under Memory tag and double click it. A new window will prompt and choose quit button. You may find a force quit button and choose it. The sync process will then jump to reading photo library in my case.

Hope that this sharing may help. Please ignore if it doesn’t of course.

Tomalii wrote:

Does ist worc constantliy

i have to quit crashtool at every sync process again?

Yes, you will have to force quit the MDCrashReportTool for every sync unless:

1- no errors are detected during the sync process

or

2- the tool extension is renamed so that it does not execute

or

3- the tool code is modified to return control to the parent process without doing anything else

or

4- Apple fixes the offending code one and for all

Good luck!

-R.

Northern-Survivor wrote:

My solution (since I don’t like to use Force Quit) is to check “ Manually manage Music, Movies…” in the Finder and use the Music app to drag and drop (songs, playlists ) onto the phone. I realise this may not suit everyone in all circumstances

I believe the only sync issue I have experienced is with podcasts which can be resolved either with a manual sync or by never syncing and instead streaming without a download. Like you, I am not in favor of the Force Quit method. I have asked in more than one thread if the content of the sync that previously stalled was verified as successful after a force quit of MDCrashReportTool. Anyway, you get my vote (and upvote).

-R.

I read these two ideas on another site:

1. Turn off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. That apparently worked for some people, not me though.

2. Turn off your Apple Watch. Crazy. You wouldn't think there was a connection, but this one worked for me. iPhone now syncs perfectly.

Hello, and happy almost New Year! My old iPhone was an iPhone 12 Mini and that one syncs fine since my AppleWatch is no longer paired. There have also been a few other people in this increasingly growing thread that also stated that when their AppleWatch is disconnected, it syncs just fine. I can't say for certain that the AppleWatch is the cause of the problem, but it seems that it is at least a factor.

fantaisie-impromptu wrote:

I am on macOS Sonoma 14.2.1.

When I go to my iPhone on the sidebar in Finder it gives me the options of (the names may be slightly different since my Mac is set to French) manually syncing music, films, TV Series, Podcasts, Audio Books, Books, Photos (Which has no available settings because I am using iCloud Photos),

These settings are even available on my MacBook Pro running Monterey. My iPhone does equally show up on the sidebar of the Music and Photos apps. My settings are set to not have my iPhone sync over wifi or to sync automatically when plugged in.

I would also like to sync the play count on my music. Whether I choose backup or sync it prompts the five steps. If I skip the backup it skips that step but gets stuck on "Preparing to Sync".

In French! c’est la vie, tant pis!

You can’t have “manually syncing “. It’s either manual or sync.

In Manual (manually manage…. box checked) the tabs on the top line Music, Movies, TV Shows, Podcasts etc are irrelevant , they only apply to sync.

if you have any media or info in iCloud then neither sync or manual apply if the iOS device is also set to use ICloud

For Backups use Back Up Now.

you must check the option for “Manually manage music….. “. to see that option you must select the General tab at the top of the Finder window.

macinoregon wrote:

Then - he asked me if I was using an Apple cord - I said no and switched out. Voila - it synced right away.

Hey macinoregon... Happy to hear this worked for you as I hope it does for others. I wonder if the reason for the successful sync has less to do with the cord change and more to do with "interrupting the sync" that was then restarted with the new cord. Can you tell us whether you are able to replicate what was done to conform it is a repeatable process?

Thanks!

-R.

iPhone connected with a cable, I found it in the Activity Monitor > Network tab, once it hit the "step 3 of 6 preparing to sync" notification. Once Force Quit, sync immediately moved on and finished up in seconds.

Turn off apple watch before syncing and it works.

Same problem, different equipment. Read this thread, tried the force quit of the mdcrashreporttool, and that unstuck the process. Whether that helped the backup/sync to be correct is another thing!

So, here's one for the books. Went to the Apple store genius bar. I have a Macbook Pro 14" 2021 and iPhone 15 pro. This started around October 2023. Anyway, the fellow at Apple said his engineer was aware of the issue and tested the solution. Connect to the right-side single (dedicated) thunderbolt port. Was using the port(s) on the left side. Well, the sync went smooth. He also said there is a firmware update for this and that the single port on the right side is "dedicated thunderbolt". Somthe ones on the left side are not? He said the firmware update is fast, yet did not offer to do it? Anyway, port issue for others?