"The iPad/iPhone cannot be synced because it cannot be read from or written to"

Instructions for deleting the photo cache > iTunes: Understanding the iPod Photo Cache folder

Tried it. DId not work. BEst alternative solution for now is to disable photo syncing from itunes. All works perfect.

When you pug your iPad, click on it then to the right click on the "Photos" tab (on the top bar), and uncheck "Sync Photos". You can choose to keep or remove the photos you already have on your device. Hope this helps. :-)

Best alternative solution for now is to disable photo syncing from itunes. All works perfect.

When you pug your iPad, click on it then to the right click on the "Photos" tab (on the top bar), and uncheck "Sync Photos". You can choose to keep or remove the photos you already have on your device. Hope this helps. :-)

Did you find a solution to this?

I bought an iPad to use for photos, but the only thing I cant do is use photos!! - I have the same problem you describe, trying to Sync photos fails the sync. Turn it off, It works.

But now I have a $600 brick because the purpose of the iPad is to use with my photography...

I have restored the iPad twice, but the issue remains. I have also rebuilt the iPhoto Library.

For those that follow~

After speaking to Apple Support for about 2 hours, the issue has been narrowed down to a corruption problem in the computers iPhoto Library.

To confirm this:

Problem: When ticking "sync photos" in iTunes, your sync fails with the error "cannot be synced, unknown error -50". (syncing other data is OK, only when ticking photos is there a problem)

Test: HOLD alt/option (mac) & open iPhoto. You will be prompted to create a new Library. (the old one will be left untouched)

Import a few photos to your new library.

Quit iTUNES & re-open it. Connect your device & go to the photo tab. Click Sync Photos, you will see your new library. Sync - it should now work.

In iPhoto you can switch between your old & new Library using the FILE >Switch Library option.

Additionally: You may also import photos to your device by using iTunes "Sync Photos *From Folder* " option.

This is a work around to get your photos onto your device without using iPhoto.

This is not a fix, my issue is ongoing. I am posting only to help future readers. In my case rebuilding the iPhoto Library (hold option/alt when opening iPhoto) was not able to correct the problem.

WWeill replacing the device help?

It was deleting the iphoto cache as instructed in this Apple document iTunes: Understanding the iPod Photo Cache folder in order to free up space (it was literally dominating my harddrive) that caused the photo sync problem. Disabling photo sync from itunes may help but like others here I actually want my photos syncced to my phone. Im experiencing this problem under iOS 8

Hello,

I had this same problem with my iPod with iOS 9.2, and iTunes 12.3, running on OSX 10.11, but apparently it's not a new problem.

Following some advice in this thread, I was able to get my iPod to sync by deselecting the sync photos option in iTunes, then deleting the photo cache.

However, with the new Photos app, the cache wasn't in the place described above. In Finder, I used "show package contents" on my photo library, and then sent two folders to the trash: "Previews", and "Thumbnails". I rebooted the iPod and the sync was able to actually happen, instead of crashing with that awful error message.

I then tried putting my photos back into the sync process one folder at a time, suspecting that maybe one of them was causing the problem and not the others. It turned out that a folder called "3D sbs" was the culprit and caused the crash to reappear. I also noticed that within other photo folders, files which started with numbers rather than letters did not appear on my iPod. So, I renamed the offensive folder "sbs 3D", and also renamed the other photos to not start with numerals, and all is well.

My theory is that something in the iPod or in iTunes is unable to handle files or folders that start with numbers. If this is the case, then I hope that Apple can fix it soon and easily.

I also hope that this helps other readers of this thread.

ZK