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Mike-MBPro Author

Level 1

17 points

iPhone sync hangs at "Preparing to sync".

I have a 13 Pro (iOS 17.2) that I'm trying to sync with a mini M2 (OS 14.2). This was working until the end of Nov. 2023. I have tried rebooting both devices, and deleting all folders in the MobileSync folder. When the Iphone is connected, it will create a backup, then never get past "Preparing To Sync". I have given them an hour to move on to syncing, but have had no success. I am using an Apple cable that is connected directly to both devices, there is no hub involved.

Mac mini, macOS 12.7

Posted on Dec 13, 2023 7:20 PM

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Stephan-S

Level 1

32 points

Posted on Dec 17, 2023 8:34 AM

Reporting back, as I updated my Mac today from Ventura 13.6.3 to Sonoma 14.2 - to no avail as iPhone sync with Finder still gets stuck at stage 2 'Preparing to sync'. This is happening with 2 iPhones - me and spouse, iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro both with iOS 17.2.

Tens or hundreds of US$B in spare cash, and yet shifting onto customers the burden of testing the software through so-called 'beta releases', and yet again managing to deploy a botched release that breaks critical functionality.

I found 2 more threads: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255265364 and https://www.reddit.com/r/ios/comments/16sc6sp/iphone_stuck_on_step_two_preparing_to_sync_phone/

Shutting down my Apple Watch didn't help in any way. Terminating the MDCrashReportTool however did provide a valid work-around. You don't need to fiddle with Terminal or have administrative rights. Just launch Utilities/Activity Monitor, and after your sync operation has gone stuck in stage 2 'Preparing to sync', search for 'crash' in Activity Monitor (see screenshot) then Force-Quit the MDCrashReportTool process (regular Quit won't do) as in Quit an app or process in Activity Monitor on Mac – Apple Support (UK)

iPhone sync was subsequently able to transfer new song tracks to my iPhone, so this looks good so far.

Does this work-around work for you?

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32 replies

Dec 21, 2023 10:17 PM in response to Stephan-S

Stephan-S wrote:

Doctormelodious wrote:

I'm on iOS 17.1.2 at the moment. I see in other comments that the 17.2 update didn't fix the bug. Anyone know if the just-released 17.2.1 fixes it?

Sorry no, it doesn't.

Okay, thanks for the reply.

Feb 4, 2024 12:49 PM in response to tugboat0902

>>Mike-MBPro wrote:

>>I updated the Mac to 14.3 and found that the issue remains. The work-around of force quitting the crash reporter still holds.

I'm running Catalina on my Mac as well, and my iPhone SE 2020 is running iOS 14.3 (the latest as of this post). The force-quitting of MDCrashReportTool still works, but I also still have to do it every time I sync via UBS cable.

Feb 11, 2024 3:29 PM in response to kkovak

kkovak wrote:

Saw on Reddit to put iPhone 12 in airplane mode, turn off bluetooth and wifi. Sync happened immediately and fast.

Just tried this with iPhone SE 2020. It still stalled on "Preparing to sync." Force-quitting MDCrashReportTool in Activity Monitor is still the only thing that fixed it.