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.
Same problem. Stalls on “Preparing to Sync” Syncing an iPhone SE (3rd gen.) on iOS 17.2. with a MacBook Air on Ventura. Upgraded MB Air to Sonoma 14.2. No change.. looks like an IOS 17.2 problem
Restarted phone and Mac. (Getting the stalled sync to abort was not easy, relaunching the Finder did not kill the process, neither did turning the phone off)
In the Finder I checked the option ‘Manually manage music, movies….’
Launched Music app and dragged and dropped ,on the phone in the sidebar, a couple of songs that I knew were not already on the phone. A sync started and copied the 2 songs to the phone.
So, a workaround is to manually manage the music on your phone using the Music app.
Thats the best I can do.
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?
PS.
To stop the original stalled sync, I right clicked on the phone device icon at the left pane and selected “eject”. All this did was to see another stalled process for “stopping sync”. So I just pulled the cable from from iPhone to end the sync process (without any apparent ill effects).
I had the same problem with iOS 17.2 on iPhone 14 and syncing to iTunes on Mojave.
The solution was to Open the Activity Monitor app and Force Quit "MDCrashReportTool", syncing should proceed just fine after that.
Unfortunately it seems that process starts back up with every sync, so prepare to do this a lot...
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.
This is the only solution that's worked for me. Having the same issue, this is insane to keep doing everytime I need to sync my phone.
Hoping for a fix from Apple soon!
Thanks for this tip btw!
You're a genius. This MDCrashReportTool was certainly hanging my system too. (Sonoma 14.2, iPhone 14 17.2) Force quitting it (on every sync) fixes it straight away.
Incredibly frustrating. Thank so much for the tip.
C'mon Apple: my 2023 MacBook M2 pro and new iPhone 14 "just oughta work"! Fix MDCrashReportTool ASAP!
MaxClayton wrote:
C'mon Apple: my 2023 MacBook M2 pro and new iPhone 14 "just oughta work"! Fix MDCrashReportTool ASAP!
This is a user forum, Apple don’t read or respond to comments on here .
Try:
Good idea. Done.
I got Apple support on the phone yesterday. I mentioned ending the "MDCrashReportTool" process allows the syncing to continue.
At first, he had me uninstall iTunes which I originally downloaded from Apple's website and install the one from the Microsoft Store. When that did not help, he believed the problem could be syncing to iTunes is not removing the logs and analytics. I have about 90 days of files. He said cancelling the MDCrashReportTool process prevents the logs from being removed. I reminded him that the problem occurred as soon as I upgraded to iOS 17.2. Prior to that the problem did not occur.
He gave two suggestions:
1) Allow the syncing to run overnight to allow enough time to remove the logs
2) Do a factory reset and restore from a backup
After doing the factory reset/restore, the logs still are on my iPhone and iTunes still gets stuck.
When he suggested the factor reset/restore, he did recommend backing up to the Cloud. I restored from a password-protected backup on my computer.
iOS 17.2 broke iTunes sync. On Windows PC, it hangs at "Preparing To Sync". The culprit MDCrashReportTool (32 bit). MDCrashReportTool (32 bit) does not appear in Task Manager/iTunes UNTIL iTunes arrives at the Preparing To Sync step. And subsequent Sync requires repeating ending the process MDCrashReportTool (32 bit) each time until the Apple Programmer which broke it fixes it. 😠😠 credit appletrav on YouTube (@NoMathHere123) has the workaround for Windows PC here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HczFwxWHj2c
SantTX wrote:
He gave two suggestions:
1) Allow the syncing to run overnight to allow enough time to remove the logs
2) Do a factory reset and restore from a backup
I tried option 1 the first time (when my MB Air was still on Ventura) . Only because I didn’t notice the sync had stalled until the following day….. connected by USB, syncing and charging the phone at the same time; I expected the phone to be synced and fully charged ready for a new day. I guess the sync was running for around 8 or 9 hours.
I haven’t checked the logs .
Same here. Just upgraded to iOS 17.2 and Sonoma 14.2. I have an iPhone 14 Pro Max as well.
I had the same issue with my iPhone 11 (just updated to iOS 17.2 earlier today) syncing to iTunes (12.13.0.9) via a USB <-> Lightning cable to my Lenovo X1 Carbon PC (Windows 10 V22H2).
With iPhone connected and iTunes running (stuck), launch Task Manager, left click on iTunes, right click on ‘MDCrashReportTool’ then End task. Should complete the sync process shortly thereafter.
Fyi… I repeated the backup / sync just to see if I would need to repeat that process every time. Yep… I hope Apple remedies this soon.
xCowboy, no idea how the heck you sussed that out, but thank you. Worked on my Windows box, too. It had been hung forever this evening as I patiently waited for it to get its act together, but after I zapped that process in Task Manager, iTunes had moved on to the next step before I even clicked back over to it. Thank you so much!
iPhone 15 Plus stuck in “Preparing To Sync"
