sync session failed to finish

I hope I understand your question right.

First setup as a new phone without using any backups.

Then go for restoring from the backup.

You may try to erase the IPone then restore from backup directly and tell us what happens with you, It could work.

I chose the long way to make sure that the issue disappeared before I restore the backup.

Good luck.

Two points:

1) I misunderstood you: You speak about "restore": Yes this needs a backup (unfortunately, none of my backups in 4 macs work).

2) My earlier comments were about "reset" the iPhone (≠ "restore" from a backup), namely, erasing everything that one added to the iPhone from the purchase day on. That doesn't need a backup.

When I have time I shall visit an Apple store with my MacBook (that has all the photos) and iPhone (that has photos up to one year ago), and confront them with the iTune problem.

Ok? You have totally confused me! Haha! I have done a complete restore from backup using iTunes already - It doesn't work - no. Did all of that & still got that error message "sync session failed to finish" when I tried to sync. Next I will do a restore then instead of restoring from a back up - I will use the function "set up as new iPhone". My question to you (because in your one message - I thought you did this) was when choosing this option - set up as new iPhone - I didn't know if it required a backup or not. Make any sense? 😃

OK! I got my iPhone 8 to sync again!!! This is what I did...I backed up my iPhone to iCloud from iTunes....Then I did a complete restore from iTunes....after software was extracted from my iPhone and new restored software was put on...I used option "set up as new iPhone". My phone started syncing photos again immediately....NOW on my phone itself...no apps or nothing was on there....I went through the process of connecting to my wiif, etc. but on phone itself - it asks if you want to restore from a backup...here I selected yes and restored from iCloud backup which put my apps back, etc... That was last night & my iPhone is still syncing today so...TAADAAAAA! All in all it wasn't too bad. You can do all of this from your phone itself too w/o using iTunes at all also. Just make sure you do that back up to iCloud first & remember to restore as a new phone NOT restore from backup initially! Good Luck!

Same here: Factory reset; only solution, spend huge amount of time on it with an iPhone 6 with latest iOS and new iMacs (2x 2017 versions!) and High Sierra. I don't think Apple pays attention to customers who don't buy their new hardware (i.e. iPhone) to replace suboptimal software on older (> 2-3years) hardware.

I have an iPhone 8! Just got it last November! No I think Apple sometimes doesn’t have a friggin’ clue what they’re doing is more like it buddy! Anyway..good luck & if you need help with the process - let me know - J.

Hey there MuNiba Iqbal,

It sounds like you are trying to sync your phone to your computer, but keep getting this message that the sync session failed to finish. I know how frustrating it can be when you cannot update the content on your phone. Use the troubleshooting in the following article to help resolve the issue, named:

iOS: Troubleshooting USB-related alerts when syncing

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS5254

Try the following steps to check the connection between your device or computer. You might need to do only one of these steps to resolve the issue, so test your connection after each step.

1. See if the cable connection at the device or computer has come loose or unplugged.
   Unplug the cable you're using to connect your iOS device from the USB port on your computer, and then reconnect it. Then unplug it from your iOS device, and reconnect it.
2. Remove any third-party battery packs or cases from the device and ensure that the USB cable is connected directly to the port on the device.
3. If your Lightning or 30-pin cable is connected to a keyboard, display or USB hub, try plugging it directly into a USB port on the computer instead.
4. Close any virtualization apps (such as Parallels or VMWare).
   These apps may interfere with your computer's ability to communicate over USB if they aren't properly configured, or up to date. If this resolves the issue, contact the developer of the app to see if an update is available.
5. Restart your computer.
6. Restart your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch.
7. If you're using an accessory or third-party cable to connect your device, try using an Apple cable with the device instead.
8. Update to the latest version of iTunes if you have not already.
9. Disconnect other USB devices from your computer, except for your keyboard and mouse. Then, reconnect your iOS device. If the issue is resolved, reconnect the other USB devices one at a time. Make sure your iOS device is still recognized by the computer after adding back each device.

If one of these steps resolves the issue, but it comes back later, make sure you haven't changed how the device is connected. For example, check to see if you plugged the device into a specific accessory, or used a specific cable that reintroduced the issue.

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.

All the very best,

Sterling

sterling r , It does not work , I have the same problem

I have had this problem all year!!!!

Spent hours trying different things, hours on the phone to apple... and I think I just fixed it!!!!!!!!!

When your phone is plugged into your computer, if you look at "Music" under the "on my device" section (on iTunes) you may notice many songs with a circle or an exclamation mark next to them. I used to see this when my iTunes could not locate the files.. however in my actual iTunes library they still worked...

Anyway I decided to delete everything in my iTunes library! I then went File>Add to Library>iTunes (folder) to reload all songs again. Any songs without artist names I tried to fill in or correct, and I deleted any duplicates I could see.. then i did a sync of all the songs... and it worked!!!!!!!!

I think maybe a previous update of iTunes resulted in a loss of songs/inability to locate or something stupid..

Give it a try 🙂

PS: ensure your iTunes and iPhone software are both up to date!

I had the exact same problem.

I agree that something went wrong with an iTunes update and caused the problem.

Deleting most of my iTunes library and then reloading them into iTunes fixed the problem.

I also deleted all my podcasts and reloaded them.

My iPhone is now syncing.

Thanks for the fix. I have been fighting this for a month. Really appreciate it! 🙂

Now if Apple will just get on the ball and prevent this from happening again, I'll thank them as well.

It's hard to believe. I spent many times find the easily solution for this. After try a lot of thing one step make it works.

When you plug your iPhone, on the Summary tab then "Options" boxes. I've just deselected the "Automatically sync when this iPhone is connected" and "Manually manage music and videos".

There's no box selected on that "Options" menu. So now it works fine.

Thank you very very much. Your suggestion worked fantastic.

Try also to close all the apps on your phone. I tried everything above and I kept getting the same error. I then realized I had about 25 apps open. Once I closed the apps and then hard reset my iphone - it FINALLY finished the sync.

Whenever you get the "Sync failed to Finish" error.. Keep your pc & iDevice still connected & In iTunes.. Just go to File > Devices > Transfer Purchases from iDevice. Your stuff will get synced.

I spent around 15 hours finding a way to solve this problem along with error -50, -54, and few other sync issues.... tried various ways I could find on the internet.. but in the end the above method solved all these issues for me.

So, whenever you get a sync error of any sort... just try the transfer from idevice thing before wasting time on other type of solutions.

None of these worked for me. Haven't been able to sync in a year. Either my backup fails without explanation (different thread, tried everything there too), or the sync fails to complete.

I want to remove a ton of photos from my phone that were synced from photo albums, can't do it. Won't let you delete albums from the phone, can't do it from the Mac.

How do I get out of this and get my photos and music to sync?