iPhone 15 Plus stuck in “Preparing To Sync"

Seems to be fixed as of macOS 14.3 and iOS 17.3. But I was also having an issue with the an issue with network errors in Chrome and any Chromium based browser and had to unpair my iPhone in Xcode. I have no idea if they are related. But my iPhone sync is working now.

So, it turns out there is a very easy fix for this. If it doesn't sync within a minute, just unplug your phone from the computer, plug it back it in and sync again. It will finish within seconds.

This worked on windows 11 with iphone 15 pro max. Closed the MDcrashreporttool process listed under itunes in task manager and phone actually synced. Thank god for you sir! Itunes is almost useless to me every time I try and use it. Maybe this will work going forward. How is it that apple doesn't have a better product or make itunes better. This experience hasn't changed since I got my first iphone. Always problematic and difficult to use. I bet if I buy music from the app store it works like a charm.

I think it's this one:

Sync music between your Mac and iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support (English)

Pulling the cable out of iphone worked great and now backing up other devices. Has this been reported as a bug that needs fixing?

Thanks again for this great tip

You are incorrect, you can be completely up-to-date and the problem persists.

Forcequitting the MDCrashReportTool is the only workaround. There is no fix, no solution.

iPhone 14 (iOS 17.2)

Macbook Air M1 (macos 14.2)

I tried this (force quit MDCrashReportTool) and it did allow the sync process to continue. However, I do not believe this really allows the backup process to complete.

The "preparing to sync" process was step 3 of 5. Yes, following your suggestion allowed step 3 to complete, but then the backup process ended without running steps 4 and 5. Yes, a backup was saved. However, is the backup content really complete and useful if one attempts to use it to perform a restore? I have my doubts.

In the following post, users (Windows, MacOS) are discussing the renaming of the MDCrashReportTool. Thereafter, the tool never runs and the Sync and Backup processes will complete without any user intervention, (that is, no longer a need to cancel the stalled tool).

I am squarely on the fence as to whether renaming the tool is a wise choice. Sure, the Sync or Backup will run successfully. However, no error will be reported in a popup when the process completes. Also, what other processes use this reporting tool that will no longer do so?

Here is a link to the rename discussion:

iPhone - Stuck "Preparing to sync" when… - Apple Community

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.

Robert Kosinski wrote:

This thread is getting clouded with individual-use cases and becoming potentially confusing. MDCrashReportTool is the problem.

If this thread becomes confusing, Robert , try this one, it simply lays out the issues, thanks to Ron_NJ

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255358449?login=true&sortBy=oldest_first&answerId=260007173022

We (users) have no way of knowing what the problem is, only Apple has knowledge of the problem and only Apple can fix it. . We comment on the effects and suggest workarounds; some of which may not work or may not be appropriate for everybody. This is, after all, a user-to-user technical help forum.

The backup now feature (as per the last time I checked, and if my memory serves me correctly) is paired with syncing. If I hit "backup now" it triggers the five steps, with it getting stuck on preparing to sync.

I do have the manually manage music box ticked. When I hit sync it also prompts the five steps, but this has the option of skipping the backup. (I always skipped the backup since I don't need that big of a slice of storage used on my Mac).

Based on my observations, whether clicking "backup now" or clicking "synchronize" still prompts the steps, and it gets stuck on preparing to sync.

The reason I highly suspect it is my AppleWatch, other than reading some other user's comments, is that my iPad works flawlessly. My old iPhone (which is no longer paired with my AppleWatch, also works flawlessly). It's only my new iPhone with my paired AppleWatch.

I would just unpair the watch and move on, but I use the watch for health monitoring. That and I shouldn't have to choose whether to sync or use my iPhone with my AppleWatch.

I really, really, hope this gets fixed soon. Because I doubt, that out of every Apple Engineer, there isn't at least one who has an AppleWatch paired with their iPhone and they sync with their Mac.

fantaisie-impromptu wrote:

I doubt something is seriously wrong……

So you have successfully manually added songs to your new iPhone. Great!

I should have pointed out that the Music app only lets you add songs; if you want to delete any song manually you will need to open a Finder window and click on Manage Storage ( top right , next to details of your iPhone) that opens a window that displays the songs on your phone with a option to delete.

Note that Manage Storage is only shown if “Manually manage music, movies ……” is checked.✅

If manually managing music is too laborious, (since you already use ICloud) iCloud Music Library is another alternative (not to be confused with Apple Music, the music subscription service, but you will need an iTunes Match subscription). iCloud Music Library allows you to stream or download any music in your library on devices that have ICloud Music Library turned on. It totally avoids the need to sync music in the Finder.

fantaisie-impromptu wrote:

Tested it with my iPad. It doesn't work if you have the synchronize music in finder box ticked. If it is unticked, it does delete the entire music library on the device, but then you can add it back (manually manage I guess).

Are you saying syncing your iPad stalled at ‘Preparing to sync’ if sync is selected in the Music tab at the top of the Finder window? If so then it’s not an Apple Watch issue

(I can’t test a sync with my iPad because the iPad uses iCloud Music Library, but I did discover when this started that, on my phone , if I didn’t try to sync music, the sync didn’t stall)

Was the iPad previously synced with another Mac? If so, syncing to a different Mac will delete all music if no Music tab sync options are checked.

I had this problem with iTunes Windows 10 iPhone 15 Pro Max IOS17.2.1which was new.

My iphone 8 which only went to IOS 16.7.4 didn't have this problem and backed up and synched normally.

Backup to PC worked but hung on sync. When I used task manager to stop "MDCrashReportTool" the sync completed and the phone and iTunes agreed on the storage statistics.

This thread was very helpful

4192_Warrior wrote:

Ugh. I had to click off tasks until I found the right combination that allowed my computer to start syncing properly.

iPhone 15 Pro - ios 17.2.1

Windows 11 Education

64 bit operating system

The MDCrashReoortTool wasn't enough for mine. I had to click off

MobileBackup (32bit) FIRST to get past Step2, then

MDCrashReportTool second.

My songs finally starting downloading onto my iphone, after 6 hours of trial and error with various cords, restarting the programs, reinstalling, updating, youtube and webpage searching and applying what I found. Hopefully I can save someone else the hours of torturous searching and trying combinations and process killing...

But yeah, if you're finding that the MDCrash doesn't work first off, then open up your task manager and start killing processes to see which ones will allow your device to sync properly. Come on apple, we pay thousands of dollars for our devices not to work properly...

Tell Apple here:

Product Feedback - Apple