presramsey

Q: Photos aren't syncing to iPhone 5 - HELP!

I have connected my iPhone 5 to my MBP to sync up apps, music, photos, etc. While everything seems to work fine, I cannot seem to get my photos (using iPhoto) to sync onto my phone. This has never been an issue before today. Any thoughts on how I can fix this problem? Thank you in advance!

iPhone 5, iOS 7.0.3

Posted on Nov 9, 2013 2:26 PM

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Q: Photos aren't syncing to iPhone 5 - HELP!

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  • by jason269,

    jason269 jason269 Nov 11, 2013 1:59 PM in response to presramsey
    Community Specialists
    Nov 11, 2013 1:59 PM in response to presramsey

    Hi, presramsey. 

     

    Thank you for visiting Apple Support Communities. 

     

    If you have the sync photos preference selected in iTunes and photos are still not syncing, I would recommend processing the steps in the article below. 

     

    iTunes: Unable to sync photos

    http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3697

     

    Cheers,

     

    Jason H. 

  • by Christian Riley,

    Christian Riley Christian Riley Nov 12, 2013 12:16 PM in response to presramsey
    Level 2 (254 points)
    iPod
    Nov 12, 2013 12:16 PM in response to presramsey

    Can you describe more of the problem?  If you are in iTunes can you select the Photos tab?  Do you get the photos there?  I am seeing a similar problem where when you select the Photos tab you only get a spinning icon, and no way to select the albums to sync.  (Other people are seeing this too on the forums).

     

    Latest versions of everything and the steps in the Apple KB are not useful.

  • by presramsey,

    presramsey presramsey Nov 12, 2013 12:48 PM in response to Christian Riley
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 12, 2013 12:48 PM in response to Christian Riley

    Can you describe more of the problem?  If you are in iTunes can you select the Photos tab?  Do you get the photos there?

     

    Yes - I can select the Photos tab, but I do get the spinning icon (see below). Once that does go away, I am able to select iPhoto form the sources and select my albums. The problem is that even though I select a given album and click Sync, nothing happens.

     

    I am seeing a similar problem where when you select the Photos tab you only get a spinning icon, and no way to select the albums to sync.  (Other people are seeing this too on the forums).

     

    I definitely have gotten the spinning icon much more than I'd like as of late. However, after about 15-20 seconds (most of the time) it will go away and allow me to select whatever I'd like within the Photos tab. Unfortunately though, as mentioned above, no matter what I select and try to sync - nothing happens.

  • by Christian Riley,

    Christian Riley Christian Riley Nov 13, 2013 8:00 AM in response to presramsey
    Level 2 (254 points)
    iPod
    Nov 13, 2013 8:00 AM in response to presramsey

    Did you try deleting the iPod Photo Cache?  (http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1314)

     

    That has helped me temporarily...although I think we have different problems because mine was just staying on the spinning icon for hours (I didn't leave it going for days so don't know if it ever went away)!

  • by DaveFlows,

    DaveFlows DaveFlows Nov 14, 2013 8:37 AM in response to presramsey
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Nov 14, 2013 8:37 AM in response to presramsey

    I'm having the same issue.

     

    I notice that iTunes is reporting that it is seeing zero photos in each album I'm trying to sync with my phone.

     

    I've control clicked iPhoto and ran all the options there without any joy, I've also deleted my iPhoto library cache folder without it resolving the problem.

     

    iPhoto it working fine, and I'm syncing photos to my Apple TV without any problems.

     

    Would appreciate some help too.

  • by djamo,

    djamo djamo Nov 14, 2013 11:58 AM in response to presramsey
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 14, 2013 11:58 AM in response to presramsey

    I am have the EXTACT same problem DaveFlows is reporting. My iPhoto works fine, but in iTunes, it's showing "0 Photos," I have attemtpted to clear the iPod Photo Cache several times, and that did nothing. I have restored my iPhone twice, and it wasn't the phone, because after the both restores, I ended up syncing Photos with another iMac that I have, and it was able to transfer everything successfully (Photos, Albums, Events, Etc.). I have tried just about everything I can think of, even to the point where I almost lost my computer to an "invalid node structure," and it didn't even want to turn on! Any help would be appreciated!

  • by Christian Riley,

    Christian Riley Christian Riley Nov 14, 2013 12:54 PM in response to djamo
    Level 2 (254 points)
    iPod
    Nov 14, 2013 12:54 PM in response to djamo

    Just some additional information.  We are seeing it with multiple devices in the household:  iPhone 5, iPhone 5S, iPad 4, iPad Air, iPad 3. The AppleTV sees the albums fine via sharing.

     

    I am updating to the new iOS 7.0.4 right now, but it seems like an iTunes problem instead of an iOS problem.

  • by DaveFlows,

    DaveFlows DaveFlows Nov 14, 2013 8:08 PM in response to Christian Riley
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Nov 14, 2013 8:08 PM in response to Christian Riley

    I just tried to re-sync my iphone this time by including all photos, Event and Faces.

     

    When I did this the photos copied directly to my iPhone 5s no problem.

     

    I obviously can't leave it like this because it uses too much space but maybe it points to a more specific problem with how iTunes is seeing Folders in iPhoto.

     

    Do others get the same behavior?

  • by djamo,

    djamo djamo Nov 14, 2013 8:29 PM in response to DaveFlows
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 14, 2013 8:29 PM in response to DaveFlows

    I have the same thing happen. I can sync up my whole iPhoto collection, and this shows under "Photos" under my iPhone. However, even though all the photos sync up, none of the corresponding Albums, Events, Faces show under "Albums."

  • by Paolo Vasta,

    Paolo Vasta Paolo Vasta Nov 17, 2013 5:13 AM in response to presramsey
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Nov 17, 2013 5:13 AM in response to presramsey

    I cannot sync any pics from Aperture (3.5.1) with iTunes (11.1.3): if I select whole library, it shows 0 pics and does nothing, if I select "Selected Albums, etc." and I select last 12 months, still nothing to sync. The folder and project view is correct.

    I cannot sync also to iPhoto (9.5) as it shows always a library I am not using anymore and that I have even on a drive which is disconnected.....

    I have restored my iPhone 5S and set up as new - it still does the same - so iPhone 5S and iOS 7.0.4 does not seem to be the issue here.

    Aperture and iPhoto do work fine. I have done "update previews" for all photos in Aperture and the same for iPhoto using Command+Alt at startup of iPhoto and nothing happens in iTunes - still the same.

    It seems like as if iTunes sync library/pref/whatever is corrupted and does not update correctly which photos needs to be synced from where - as if it is not "talking" to iPhoto and Aperture anymore.

    The library iPhoto persists to sync to, even when not connected, was a library I was using before updating iTunes.

    I don't think Mavericks (installed on my iMac) is the problem at all.

  • by DaveFlows,

    DaveFlows DaveFlows Nov 17, 2013 5:16 PM in response to presramsey
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Nov 17, 2013 5:16 PM in response to presramsey

    I've just taken a look in Console at my log files. I noticed these suspcious entries:

     

    11/17/13 4:56:41.685 PM iPhoto[53423]: ImageIO: CGImageSourceGetType image source parameter is nil

     

    11/17/13 4:56:47.893 PM iPhoto[53423]: ImageIO: JPEG Corrupt JPEG data: 221 extraneous bytes before marker 0xd1

     

    11/17/13 5:01:24.122 PM sandboxd[349]: ([53540]) mdworker(53540) deny file-read-data /Volumes/iPhoto/iPhoto Library/iPhoto Library/Contents/PkgInfo (pre-plugin fstype:hfs fsflag:4A09018 flags:250000005E diag:0 isXCode:0 uti:public.folder plugin:internalPlainTextImporter - find suspect file using: sudo mdutil -t 96)

     

    Help?

  • by DaveFlows,Solvedanswer

    DaveFlows DaveFlows Nov 19, 2013 9:08 AM in response to DaveFlows
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Nov 19, 2013 9:08 AM in response to DaveFlows

    Everyone I've found a solution to this issue.

     

    In the end I downloaded iPhoto Library manager which is a 3rd party application from FatCat Software.

     

    The application has a 'Rebuild database function' but rather than the way Apple tries to do it by recreating meta data, iPhotoManager creates a new Library and then imports all of your Photos anew.

     

    In my case it took about 10 hours to run and reported out of my 26,000 photos 35 photos couldn't be imported because they contain zero bytes (i.e. the photo's are corrupt).

     

    I've resync'd it with iTunes and my devices and everything is working fine now.

     

    Once the rebuild is complete you need to do the following:

     

    1. Quit iTunes.

     

    2. Set the new library to be your default by opening iPhoto with the ALT Key held and selecting the new Library from the list.

     

    3. Preview it to make sure it's as you expect.

     

    4. Open iTunes and sync your device.

     

    I've spent a lot of time researching this problem and as I'm sure anyone who's looks around will be aware, it seems to be a fairly common problem.

     

    I couldn't find a single piece of advice on all the threads i visited by anyone on the iPhoto team about how to move forwards.

     

    If anyone from Apple reads this may I strongly suggest that you 1. Try and consolidate these threads into a single set of information that people can find easily. 2. Take another think about how the functionality works in the rebuild library functions.

     

    I hope this helps you guys out.

     

    All the best and good luck.

     

    Dave.

  • by Christian Riley,

    Christian Riley Christian Riley Nov 19, 2013 11:58 AM in response to DaveFlows
    Level 2 (254 points)
    iPod
    Nov 19, 2013 11:58 AM in response to DaveFlows

    I am going to give it a try (while keeping an original backup) and will report back when it completes!

     

    Thanks for the suggestion!

  • by Christian Riley,

    Christian Riley Christian Riley Dec 5, 2013 1:52 PM in response to Christian Riley
    Level 2 (254 points)
    iPod
    Dec 5, 2013 1:52 PM in response to Christian Riley

    One thing I have noticed is that iTunes was running on a mid-2011 Mac Mini.  It only had 2GB of RAM.  I upgraded it from MacSales to 16Gb now (less than $200), and now I have noticed that the spinning icon does go away after a while, maybe 5 minutes the first time.  I am trying it now to see if adding the extra memory helps to solve the problem.  I am thinking that perhaps some of it had to do with the lack of memory because under Activity Monitor the "memory pressure" (10.9) was in terrible shape.  Now it is all green, so given that it seems (fingers crossed, synced the iPad 4) to have improved the situation, perhaps it is a bug that is exacerbated by low memory or perhaps it is working, just paging so much that it takes forever to finish.

     

    If things are not better, I am going to try "Rebuild database" from the iPhoto Library manager.

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