Summary of Issues: MDCrashReportTool, Backup, Sync, Preparing to Sync

hi @Ron_NJ

I used a backup created with a process that was stopped by force quitting the MDCrashReportTool to reset my iPhone.

The result was that even the newly set up iPhone could not be synchronized.

I then restored the iPhone with an old backup from the time before IOS 14.2 and I had no problems synchronizing the iPhone. But after 2-3 synchronizations the problem was there again. I can't explain why exactly.

Based on my findings, I would say that the problem occurred with IOS 14.2 for the iPhone. My iPad 11" shows no synchronization problems. Not even with Sonoma 14.2.1

I have a new Windows 11 Laptop and a clean install of iTunes. Every time I try to sync my iPhone 15 Pro I have to force quite the file MDCrashReportTool.exe and as expected the sync continues without a problem...

BUT (and this is weird) if I rename the file MDCrashReportTool.exe and start iTunes, that works fine, I get no warning or anything during a sync with the iPhone (which is great) ..... BUT the iPhone local (encrypted) backup does NOT show up in Edit-Preferences-Devices.

If I rename MDCrashReportTool.exe back to its original name, the local iPhone backup shows up when I next load iTunes! (but of course I then have to force quit MDCrashReportTool.exe whenever I want to sync my iPhone)

What the heck!

Go figure?

Why does Apple not sort this out - it's not as if it's a new issue or probably even difficult!

PS I do own an Apple Watch 7 if that makes any difference?

Ron_NJ,

I’ve been trying more stuff. Based on posts in the other thread I rebooted my M1 MBAir in Safe Mode. When I synced my iPhone it worked without any issue. But the sync added a new song to the phone, which I didn’t expect. The new song was a 30 minute episode of a TV show that only exists in my TV library. It’s not in my Music Library. I selected the video on the phone and deleted it. I synced again. The synced worked and added the video again. Rinse and repeat, 4 times. Same result. Sync adds a video, I delete it, sync adds it again. Then the 5th time the sync gives me an error message . “This song cannot be added because it cannot be played on this iPhone “

I sync a selection of playlists and figured out which smart playlist might cause the video to be included. I deselected that playlist and synced again. No tv show video - No error messages, no issues. Synced fine.

Rebooted in Normal Mode. Synced no problem , Added the smart playlist - sync hangs. Deselect smart playlist - sync works.

Heaven knows why the sync is picking up one of dozens of video files in my TV Library, But if it does it causes an error and the error handling processes cause the hang.

This thing is data driven which is why everyone’s experience of it is slightly different, and there’s no universal workaround that works for everybody .

Except - don’t use sync, which is why Apple Support suggested iTunes Match recently.

sorry this is a bit longwinded. Hope it helps

The thread “iPhone 15 pro stuck….” Author, Norman18, alluded to the same thing very early on:

“. …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 it’s a capacity problem?…”

Maybe they guessed wrong, but at one point a playlist was checked that caused an error in the sync.

Safe Mode enabled me to identify a rouge file in the sync. Uncheck the playlist that contains the rouge file and the sync no longer stalls.

So my phone doesn’t have a playlist I would like, but I don’t have a stalling sync either!

I think that’s preferable to force quitting or cable pulling

Mine is now working but I am really unsure why.

1. I updated my Macbook Pro M1, iphone 15 plus and series 7 apple watch - still not syncing unless I force quit the MDtool
2. I have a very large music library that is actually mp3 old time radio shows. These were all stored on a separate flash drive that need to be plugging in when syncing. Yesterday I put this entire library in my documents folder so it is now in my icloud account (170 GB of data). It took a while to set this all up but in doing so I found a few files that were 'bad'. I deleted them all. Still did not sync without the force quit.
3. I opened Console and deleted all the crash reports. Synced successfully a few times and then it didn't
4. Unchecked 'automatically sync when this iphone is connected' - now it syncs successfully
5. ??? working but why?

Fingers crossed but I hate it when I do not know why something is happening or isn't happening.

Yes, let me add my thanks to Ron as well. I have taken a slightly different tack on this issue. As I already backup my iPhone/iPad (encrypted) wirelessly to iCloud nightly anyway I have reinstalled iMazing which I already owned a copy of. I uninstalled it about two years ago due to limited storage space. Originally I installed it for local backups (back when we used iTunes for syncing) because of it's many additional features but it does solve my persistant MDCrashReportTool problem for now, at least until Apple gets around to fixing it.

A bit more on the Watch connection., Ron.

Your experience differs from others I’ve read . Some users say unpairing their Watch does make a difference to the sync. I assume from the posts I’ve read that a phone that’s never been paired to any Watch doesn’t see this bug in the sync. It could be that it is a log and analytics data issue and it takes time for all the logs to be removed (as per Apple Support) . IOW, unpairing a phone does not return the iPhone to the same condition it was in before pairing ……. that takes time.

Still hoping for someone to prove me wrong and the Watch and/or its log data are red herrings.

All in all not much progress, but we are trying to debug Apple’s software with both hands tied behind our backs - and blindfolded.

Incidentally , Backups.. we’ve discussed incomplete or unreliable phone backups as collateral damage as a result of a stalled sync. But I’ve never had a problem with backing up my phone if I select “Back Up Now” in the Backups section of the Finder window. I class that as a fix for any backup problems that occur as a result of a stalled sync which included a backup step.

Happy New Year, N-S

Ron_NJ wrote:

In a reply to fantaisie-impromptu on December 26th in the iPhone 15 Plus stuck in “Preparing To Sync" thread, I posted that there are really two issues at work, not one. The first issue is the sync process not being able to justify file differences between devices and the second issue is the crash reporting process that cannot collect and report the error back to the Apple Development Team.

It is this second issue that is getting all of the attention in these message threads when in fact, the sync failure is more critical. I say this because I believe the failure to properly complete a sync could leave user files in an undesirable state whereas the reporting tool stalling is more an annoyance. I could be wrong but this is my opinion.

I think you make a very good point., Ron

Look at the range of data that could be involved in a sync. Music, movies, TV shows, podcasts , Books, Photos, Files, Contacts and Calendars. Plus analytics and log data

I’m very uncomfortable with forcing a stuck sync to terminate (by any method). We have no idea what condition or data caused an error and no idea about the integrity of the data, either on the phone or on the computer. It’s risky but we have no idea how risky.

Do Apple understand the risks.?

Apple Support suggest booting in Safe Mode ; or using iTunes Match (iCloud Music Library) , that avoids syncing completely …… I don’t see anybody posting that Apple have suggested Force Quiting anything.

N-S

Paperet wrote:

Hello! I was able to force quit MDCrashReportTool before, but now I cannot find it in the Activity Monitor. I tried to follow your advice, but I cannot rename the icon even if I am the administrator. This photo bug is a nightmare; I do not understand why Apple does not fix it. Transferring pictures and synching the phone have always been big sources of stress. EVERY TIME there is a problem. Please, please...what can I do!?

My recommendations:

If Music is your problem , either manage music manually or use iCloud Music Library (not to be confused with Apple Music)

If photos is your problem use iCloud Photo Library

These options may not appeal to you, but they avoid the syncing issues totally. Otherwise I think you’ll be waiting a very long time for Apple to come up with real, permanent fix. (this problem has existed in various guises for years)

My guess is that each time there is a software update MDCrashReportTool is reinstated and needs to be renamed again.

After updating Mac to Sonoma 14.3 the problem remains the same for me. (iPhone is on iOS 17.2.1). Sonoma 14.3 installed a new AppleMobileDeviceHelper.app, thereby renaming MDCrashReportTool back to normal. It still hangs at "Step 2 of 4").

So I tried a few things, looking into our belief that the problem has to do with uploading crash log files from the phone to an Apple server via the desktop machine's sync app. I'll list them here so others can continue checking into clues.

• When Apple Watch is turned off, it still hangs. After I deleted the phone's Recent Logs, they reappeared even when the watch is off. So I think the watch is unrelated.
• Log files reappeared, but quickly, so I assume the phone is copying them from their actual locations to an upload location.
• MDCrashReportTool's parent process is AMPDevicesAgent. In Console you can search for this in the log stream and see what it's doing. (Its parent process is launchd, so that's the end of the ancestry.)
• There is a log entry "sync> requested sync options = 0x100340018E3 (AllowUI, IsUserInvoked, UpdateMusic, UpdateMovies, UpdateTVShows, UpdateAudiobooks, UpdateBooks, SubmitCrashLogs, UpdatePlayCounts, CopyOnTheGoPlaylists, InstallProfiles)" That includes SubmitCrashLogs which tends to support our belief. Maybe there's a way to disable this?
• Some of these should *not* be requested. I have Movies, TV Shows etc. turned off in the sync dialog.
• After the log entry for the start of "Step 2 of 4" there is eventually:
• Assertion failure: (amsStatus == AMSStatus_OK)
• AMSConnectToCrashReportCopyTarget failed (3) but only after I killed MDCRT. This makes me think it is failing to connect to an Apple crash log server for upload.
• Yet later there is "airtraffic> Count = 1235, PhysicalSize = 284311552 for Logs dataclass" which makes me think log upload succeeded. (There are several such counts for different data types.) Maybe the server is failing to notify the client after the log upload succeeds?

There are other messages about symptoms and "flows". There are often 11 or 12 flows. The count does not seem to relate to the number of log files that are waiting to be uploaded.

In and around these log messages there are "airtraffic> sending Ping for device 00..." every 15 seconds. These stop after the "airtraffic> Count..." set of messages. So air traffic seems to think it's done, but it does not cause Step 2 of 4 to finish.

Hope this helps.

rsworden wrote:

On the iPhone go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Analytics & Improvements. Uncheck "Share iPhone & Watch analytics.

This caused my iPhone to sync properly - just after I wrote that long update!

I found this here: What is jetsam event and how can I stop it - Apple Community

Yes, there was a short discussion about this yesterday on the “iPhone 15 plus stuck…..” thread. Here’s the bones of it.:

Northern-Survivor

User level:

Level 1

36 points

Jan 26, 2024 2:47 PM in response to udofromberlin

udofromberlin wrote:

Completely disable all crash reporting 1.

Tried that. It didn't work for me. It likely only works if the sync encounters an error in the log, analytics or diagnostic data. Even so, disabling all Analytics & Improvement reporting to Apple is probably a good idea and I left it disabled.

Hi All,

another individual case with individual data context, but crazy and disappointing anyway. I was away from home for a few days, so I updated today:

• iMac24 M1 updated to 14.3
• connected my iPhone 13m with 17.2.1 via USB cable (the one that came with the iMac)
• sync started automatically since the respective checkbox is ticked
• sync stalled at step 2, ForceQuit of MDCrashReportTool allowed it to continue and finish (new fotos successfully synced in later steps)
• the iPhone stayed connected, I performed a backup of the iPhone to the iMac24 (always encrypted)
• next, new fotos were loaded from the iPhone into Photos.app on the iMac24 and deleted from the iPhone (Photos setting)
• iPhone still connected, updated with "Finder" to 17.3
• the iPhone did not show up in the side bar after the update as it usually should
• detaching and reconnecting did not help; I am not an expert, but since connecting the keyboard to the USB-C cable was not recognised by the iMac, I suspect that the USB-C port was somehow blocked.
• detached the keyboard and performed a reboot of the iMac24
• USC-C cable connection to the keyboard works as usual (loads and reports loading)
• iPhone shows up in the side bar of the Finder window when connected via USB-C
• again hanging sync between iPhone and iMac at step 2 via USB cable
• set my AppleWatch (watchOS 10.3) to FlightMode, and the iPhone followed automatically
• the iPhone disappeared from the side bar of the iMac Finder window, reappeared shortly after and the sync continued
• I switched off FlightMode on the AppleWatch, the iPhone followed and then a crash report of MDCrashReportTool showed up on the iMac screen (set to happen this way for all crash reports by hidden system preferences)
• iPhone still connected via USB, but not shown in the side bar.
• (yes, crash report sent to Apple)

Conclusion: in my context, the update to 17.3 / 14.3 has not helped.

While I write the above, the iPhone was detached and connected again. MDCrashReportTool is active and listed by Activity Monitor. This time no playing with AppleWatch and FlightMode. ForceQuit of MDCrashReportTool allowed the sync to continue and complete, and the iPhone stayed in the side bar.

I accept this is a complex problem. But I think Apple should deal with complex old problems first, and increase complexity with new features only after wiping out "old" problems.

BW