iphone could not be synced because the sync session failed to start

Yes, Run as Administrator solved it for me as well, in Windows 10. Thanks.

I left the phone plugged into the PC with the sync cable, then I exited iTunes. I then went to device manager, found "Apple Phone" listed under portable devices and disabled it. I reopened iTunes and the sync process started (and finished). I went back to device manager and enabled Apple Phone.

Worked like a charm!

iPhone 4 running iOS 5.0.1

PC running Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit

iTunes version 10.5.1

I was having the same problem. Out of all the suggestions here the only thing that worked for me was to keep my phone plugged in and restart my computer. When iTunes automatically launched it started syncing on its own. Thanks guys

None of these solutions worked for me. I am running iTunes as an Administrator, as suggested previously. Then I had to completely shut down and restart everything again. Then I had to enter my password to unlock the ipad which let the syncing begin.

All I did was exit itunes and open it again. It began syncing automatically. Whew.

Hey Dude,

Its super easy,

Just connect your device. Open Itunes not syncing right?

Keep your device plugged in and exit itunes and then launch itunes again.

Works like a CHARM!!

Thankfully for me i didnt have to do anything more than rebooting my PC with my iPhone5 connected.

Resart both iTunes and the iPad worked for me - no need to restart the PC.

Reminds me a bit when General Motors issued a press release stating : If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:

1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash twice a day.

2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.

3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this.

4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.

5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive - but would run on only five per cent of the roads.

6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single "This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation" warning light. or in iTunes case there an unknown error -5001 has occured.

7. The airbag system would ask "Are you sure?" before deploying.

8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your cr would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna

9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.

10. You'd have to press the "Start" button to turn the engine off.

www.netlingo.com

On you iPhone, force close all the Apps in the multitask window.

Follow these steps to force an app to close:

1. From the Home screen, click the Home button twice.
2. Tap and hold on the app.
3. When it starts to jiggle, tap the to close it one by one until all cleared

Now do a Soft reset of your iPhone:Hold both Home and Sleep button for around 10secs until you see the Apple logo then release. After it returns to Home screen, connect to sync and see if this resolves the issue.

Stopping/Starting service worked for me. Shouldn't have to do that, though. Apple needs to fix something...

[FIXED] Closing all the apps, and not transferring purchases from the iPhone to the computer did it for me. It's a shame the firmware is so locked down and hard to control. Google FTW.

I tried everything you all have posted here. Nothing is working.

I've disabled syncing for apps and photos. I've restored my phone. I've reinstalled iTunes. I've left my device plugged in and quit and reopened iTunes.

Syns still fails to start. what. the. heck.

Is this issue new ot the 4S? I'm thinking about getting rid of my iPhone because of this, if Apple can't make stuff that works the way it's supposed to!

Thanks for all the steps to try.

Syncing works fine for all items except for one. this is a private recording, it was a wav. , downloaded from dropbox...that I converted to mp3 under File, convert to new version. This mp3 is over 3 hours, does size matter on a sync? I was wondering because I also converted with a downloaded program that synced a copy, the only problem was the voice logo every 30 seconds that interups the recording.

Thanks

new iPhone user

steve

I've tried about everything I can find on the internet and I still can't sync my MSoutlook 2013 to my iPhone. My PC crashed and I had to resintall most of my software including MS Outlook 2013 and iTunes. Prior to the reinstall, I could not synch iPhone to my MS outlook 2013 without any problems.

I think the problem may be at the stage when iTune and MS outlook tries to communicate.

ITunes unchecks the "sych contacts oulook" and "sycn calendar with oulook" buttons when the synch button is pressed.

This is what I am running: Windows 8.1, IOS 7.1.2, iTunes 11.3.1.2, Ms Outlook 2013 locally installed on my laptop

This is what I've done. The "-" is the result.

1. Run as administrator -done. Didn’t work
2. Msoutlook addins -All modules enabled and installed.
   1. itune outlook addin
   2. outlook change notifier
3. ran scanpst.exe. -Seems okay. Didn’t work
4. Stop zonealarm -didn’t work
5. Check read write access right. -Seems Okay. Didn’t work
   1. C:\Users\USER\AppData
   2. C:\Users\USER\AppData\Roaming
   3. C:\Users\USER\AppData\Roaming\Apple
      Computer\SyncServices\Local\TFSM
6. Run network connectivity test on iTunes (under Help menu).

   Test results

1. Deleted lockdown folder -Didn’t work
2. Deleted -Didn’t work
   1. C:\Users\USER\AppData\Roaming\Apple
      Computer\Logs\MobileSync
   2. C:\Users\USER\AppData\Roaming\Apple
      Computer\MobileSync
3. Uninstall in the following order: -Didn’t work
   1. iTunes
   2. Apple Software Update
   3. Apple Mobile Device Support
   4. iCloud
   5. Bonjour
   6. Apple Application Support
4. Reset Iphone to factory setting -Didn’t work

This solved my problem, too. Thanks!