sync session failed to start

As jcolgan says ... voipsri's instructions worked. Hooray and thnx.

I have had this issue and tried just about everything including restoring and deleting backups but still got the same error.

After 8 hours or so i figures out a way to resolve this:

Device has to be connected to computer!!

1. On the iphone or ipod touch go to "settings>icloud> storage and backup" and turn on icloud backup and backup all of your data. You will see a message saying backups will not be made on your computer.. just press ok as you can change this in the future.

2. After you have successfuly created an icloud backup. select your device in itunes and press "Restore" and download the required software.

3. When finished downloading the updated software continue with restoring your device

(Optional) you can press create a backup just to be safe but is not needed as you already did so in icloud

4. When your device finishes restoring Itunes will ask to restore from a backup and in my case restore as new iphone IMPORTANT!!! DO NOT PRESS ANYTHING ON THE COMPUTER.. the rest of the process will be done on your device.

5. On your device go through the setup and configure the wifi if it available ""(WIFI REQUIRED FOR IPOD TOUCH)""

6. Continue the setup until you get to the icloud settings. You want to restore your device from icloud backup.

sign into icloud and you will see your device backup just select it and your device will begin to restore itself.

7. When the restore is complete go to itunes and try to sync your device. If the steps were done correctly you should now be able to sync you device

I haven't seen a fix like mine on the internet yet but if this works for you just remeber RED1994 discovered this 🙂

Try this.

STOP iTunes.

Plug your gadget into the USB port.

START iTunes.

If it starts automatically, STOP it and RESTART it with the gadget plugged into the USB port.

I dunno why, but it works for me!

All you really have to do is restart your iphone/ipod. I did that and now it is working perfectly

In some case, yes, this may work--in many cases it doesn't and it's much more complex.

If it were that simple in every case, this thread wouldn't be here.

It seems this symptom may have a variety of causes and a variety of (different) solutions -- which explains why different people get different results from each recommendation.

My phone stopped synching for no particular reason, then after trying everything under the sun and having nothing work, one day (a month later) I plugged the phone in and it simply worked again -- without doing anything.

This is how it worked for me:

While the iPhone is connected.

Under Devices

Select iPhone and

Eject

Reconnect and

Click on Sync.

Worked!

worked for my ipad. Thanks.

Very fast and easy option for error "Could not sync the iphone/ipad because the session failed to start" is to do the following steps:

STEP 1. Remove iphone/ipad from usb.

STEP 2. Close iTunes.

STEP 3. Press Ctrl+Alt+Tab and select Task Manager (WIN 7)

STEP 4. From the list select "disnoted.exe" press right button of mouse and select 'Kill Process Tree".

STEP 5. Select any other running program from apple directory and press right button of mouse and select 'Kill

Process Tree".

STEP 6. Press Esc button.

STEP 7. Start iTunes and then plug-in your iPhone/iPad, and VIOLA here you go.

YOU DON'T NEED TO MESS UP WITH YOUR BACKUPS.

Hope this Works. If it works for you please.......... press like😊

Thank you so much. Problem solved!!!

this worked like a charm

I had the same problem recently after updating to 5.1.1. I solved my problem by unticking "Sync with this iPhone over Wi-Fi".

The steps here worked for me on Windows 7, the critical step was to restart iTunes after deleting the backup and reseting the history. Without the restart, iTunes would still not talk to the iPhone.

Thanks.. I'm also using ITunes 10.6... but on Windows XP. The solution worked fine.

Most of these solutions haven't worked for me.

1-I can't delete backup history through iTunes because it's failing to start on my first attempt to back up using iTunes. The device isn't even listed in the prefs devices list and there is no backup history. The buttons are greyed out.

2-Rebooting iPad didn't help.

3-Manipulating the connection/launch order of iPad/itunes doesn't work.

4-Turning off WiFi syncing doesn't help.

5-Backing up to iCloud and then disabling iCloud backing doesn't help.

My next step is try try a restore.