iTunes stuck at 'sync' stage after iPhone 12 Pro updated to IOS 7.2

I have the same problem trying to sync to a Windows PC with iTunes 12.13.0.9. Yesterday I could sync with no issues but today since I updated my iPhone 14 Pro to iOS 17.2 it gets stuck at the 'Preparing to sync' stage.

I had no problems with syncing my iPhone 11 and iOS 17.2. The iPhone 15, on the other hand, exhibited the same inability to sync as described. So many thanks for this fix. Following the steps outlined, the phone syncs with my Mac and I am pleased with the results.

Ah, someone who syncs their music library to their phone. Can you still control your iPhone music library from your watch? I haven’t been able to do that in years. Someone found a workaround, but that workaround stopped working.

Oh, and to answer your question, yes the phone in question is paired to my Apple Watch

Ope, the reason I ask about the AppleWatch is it seems like that might be the issue (According to other parts of the internet). My old iPhone 12 syncs just fine, but my new iPhone 15 suffers from this bug. I have my AppleWatch paired with my iPhone 15. (They're both running 17.2)

Some people have been able to narrow it down to it possibly being the AppleWatch. They allege that they have had luck by turning their AppleWatch off before syncing, or turning off bluetooth. I haven't tried fully unpairing my AppleWatch to see if this is true, because to be honest, it's not the user's responsibility to troubleshoot that drastically.

I just hope that this gets fixed soon.

The reason I ask about the AppleWatch is because some users claim that that is the issue. (I replied in more detail to someone else on this thread).

I have reached out to AppleSupport about this. I didn't get connected to an engineer, but the person I spoke to said that yes, Apple is aware of this issue.

Hopefully, they address this soon. I use music daily.

Purchased a refurb iPhone 12 from Apple and while setting it up today I also found out that that it wouldn't let backup his phone to my iMac running High Sierra (10.13.6). The new phone is running 17.2.1. When I tried to select the new iPhone in iTunes it said I had to update iTunes to version 12.10.10. What? I can't find a version any higher than 12.8.3 anywhere. Where is this 12.10.10 prompt coming from?

That's an odd glitch message because 12.10 was a windows iTunes. There should be a helper app for iTunes in High Sierra that allows syncing . . . but that OS is over 6 years old at this point so some limited compatibility should be expected.

xCowboy had the answer for Windows 11, thank you! Start iTunes, when sync gets stuck (mine was hanging on Step 2) open "Task manager", from the drop down menu select "MDCrashReportool", then "end Task". Sync immediately un-stuck finished it's business & all was right with the iTunes/Sync world

OMG!!! This worked. I had to unsync my apple watch to my other phone that was having connection issues with my music app, and I had to pair it with my other iPhone 11 that I use for work. This made the process so much faster and it actually worked well. I didn't mind syncing it with my other iPhone. My playlists were with my other iPhone that I connect to Apple Car Play in my vehicle. Again, Thank You. I've been frustrated for a few days now trying to figure out how to fix this issue and again with someone above saying that with all of these expensive apple products, this is the only one that was the fix and that apple support couldn't even help me with solving this issue. Apparently, they were sending me to the Genius Bar at the Apple Store next week, and now I don't have to do that. Thank you again for helping me solve this issue.

Hey guys. The Apple Watch was the issue for me. I had an old watch still paired to my iPhone. I unpaired the watch and sync is working as normal again. I am running Mac OS 12.7.2 and iOS 17.2.1 Life is back to normal.

erksworld wrote:

Syncing iPhone with iTunes stuck - the culprit for me was also the "MDCrashReportTool.exe" file.

To permanently stop the problem I went to where the actual file is located. I cut the file and pasted it into a folder I created in my documents (just in case I need it in the future). Problem permanently solved!

erksworld, it is great that by not executing the MDCrashReportTool you have a working sync process. However, I will caution you to not assume all is solved.

Since MDCrashReportTool is a "black box", we do not know what steps are included in the process that are no longer executing. For example, could it be there is a step for cleaning up remnants left behind by the sycn process? Is there a log entry not being created that the next sync will need for efficiency?

Maybe not running MDCrashReportTool is better than quitting a stalled MDCrashReportTool. Maybe neither is better than the other. Who can really say other than someone with visibility to the process details?

Anyway, good luck,

-R,

Thanks, erksworld. This worked for me as well. I had some difficulty accessing the WindowsApps folder but once I was able to do that and delete the offending folder, I was able to sync my iphone.

Shame on the Apple nerds who can never leave well enough alone.

Thank you all for your input. I have for the last few days kept the Task Manager (Windows 10) open while syncing my iPhone 12, iOS 17.2.1. Ending the "MDCrashReportTool" task worked to un-stick the syncing. (I took a while to update to 17. This issue started to express itself when I left iOS 16.5 [only a week ago].) I have been able to locate the "MDCrashReportTool" file. I have renamed the file by adding an "xxx " (with the space) to the beginning of the file name. I can't believe how fast my syncing is now. Again, thank you all for your input and insights and knowledge.