Photos won't sync from Mac to iPad via iTunes

Just did an upgrade to 11.2.5 on my iPad that's been failing since the 11.0 update....problem is gone. My entire Photos library synched to my iPad. Made some changes to some photos on my Mac and synched again....they synched fine to my iPad.....cautiously optimistic.......doing more testing......

Does anyone in this thread have a contact at one of the media outlets, like MacWorld, MacObserver, MacRumors, 9to5Mac and the like? Or perhaps someone that works at any of them is following this thread? I think it is time to call their attention. Seems Apple is responsive to media storms over some big issues - and this disaster has risen to the level of such a storm.

My issue is that when I try and sync Photos from iTunes, Photos don't even appear in the list of things to sync on that device, it shows Music, iBooks, Films etc but no Photos.

Photos is a backward step from iPhoto. Everything is more difficult, from making slideshows that you can export to creating Books that you can print.

I failed to follow-up after my last post on this subject. I was about to try and update iOS on my iPhone and iPad fearing the worst. I.e., that I would lose the pictures when I synced. Actually, I did not lose them and have successfully synced several times since the. My setup.

iMac mid-2011, OS X El Capitan 10.11.6

iTunes 12.7.3.46

iPhoto version 9.6.1 (910.42)

iPhone 5s iOS 11.2.5

iPad Mini, iOS 11.2.5

That said, I anticipate that I will again lose the albums/pictures on the iPhone/iPad at some future sync. I will try and document the specific situation.

I have no issues syncing photos between Mac to iPhone. I keep my photos under master folder Pictures. Within pictures, I have a lot of albums. In iTunes, when photos is selected, I choose from another folder and I pick Pictures. Once selected, you check box all the albums you want and click sync.

I also have problems. ITunes transfers a small part of the Photos every time you try to sync. Often gives an error "Can not sync iPad. An internal device error occurred. "

Already tried:

1. Delete the folder "iPod Photo Cache".

2. Deleted the backup.

3. Reset the iPad to factory settings and restore it from a backup.

iPad mini 2 (iOS 11.2.6)

MacBook Pro (13-inch, Early 2011), macOS High Sierra ver. 10.13.3, iTunes ver. 12.7.3.46

I've been using iTunes since 2009. Always considered his most convenient and reliable tool to support the phone.

The last 1-2 years, everything turned into a little nightmare and reminds some shamanism, and not work.

I also always sync photos from the folder on the Mac.

I initially had a problem with the iPhone 6S Plus. I removed this problem after updating the iPhone to the factory settings and restore from a backup. (On all devices I always had and have the latest version of OS and programs).

Now I can not solve this problem on the iPad mini 2.

I bought an iPad for media storage: photo, video, books. Now with the next update in my iTunes, the mark has disappeared: Sync photo. When this checkbox is set, iTunes has deleted all my photo albums. Now I need to reload about 20 000 photos.

iTunes transfers 100-150 photos and stops working, without messages and errors or hangs in the step (Waiting for objects to copy).

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iPad mini 2 (iOS 11.2.6)

MacBook Pro (13-inch, Early 2011), macOS High Sierra ver. 10.13.3, iTunes ver. 12.7.3.46

Now I transfer 100-150 photos in small batches. Each attempt is the same:

Waiting for synchronization to begin (step 1 of 6)

Backup (step 2 of 6)

Reading photos from the «MyPhoto» folder (step 5 of 6)

Copying a photo of K from M

Expect objects to copy (step 6 of 6) Hang!!!!!

Undo sync

Error: "The iPad can not be synced. An internal device error occurred."

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iPad mini 2 (iOS 11.2.6)

MacBook Pro (13-inch, Early 2011), macOS High Sierra ver. 10.13.3, iTunes ver. 12.7.3.46

I am having problems with an iPhone 8 and an iPad Air. I rebuilt my Photos library on my iMac last week but it had no effect. Yesterday I did a complete restore on the iPad and set it up as a new iPad using an iPhone, which (given enough time) restores apps and iTunes purchases but not anything that has to be transferred via iTunes on the iMac. I don't use Apple Photo Library (too many photos) and > 90% of my music came from CDs. I connect to the iMac using a USB cable. Today I started a new sync, trying to only sync photos, at 2:40 pm. I selected about 14,179 photos to be copied to the iPad. This is not the first post-restore sync that I have attempted. During one part of the process, the message appears "Copying x of 13,528 photos." But the sync eventually stops and a eject symbol replaces the "sync-in-process" symbol. So I ejected the iPad and checked the number of photos in the Photos app on the iPad. It said 832 photos were on the iPad. Before I tried another sync, I shut down the iPad and restarted, and quit iTunes on the iMac and reopened it.

Second sync: Started at 3:04 pm. "Copying x of 13,385 photos." Number of photos on the iPad afterwards: 974. (I had to give it a little time to adjust. When I first opened the Photos app, it still said 832, but that changed after several seconds.) I shut down the iPad and quit iTunes again.

Third sync: Started at 3:32 pm. "Copying x of 13243 photos." iPad photos afterwards: 1116.

Notice a pattern? Each time, a sync adds either 143 or (more often) 142 photos to the iPad. If this keeps up, it will only take me about 90-100 syncs to get all 14,179 photos on the iPad. At 25 minutes each, that's barely 2 days! Working constantly, of course, no breaks for sleep or anything.

The fourth sync I had trouble with. Right in the middle, I logged into this site, and the 2-factor identification ******** got activated. I think the iPad couldn't handle it and the sync as well. And the Photos app on the iPad wouldn't stay open (kept crashing), so I couldn't check on the number of photos in the app.

Update: Even though the 4th sync looked like it had been interrupted by the 2-factor identification routine, when I restarted the iPad, I found that the number of photos on the iPad had increased by 146. Evidently, the 142-146 limit per sync isn't based on the number of photos. Perhaps it is based on memory?

Sync 4: 3:55 pm "Copying x of 13,101" iPad photos: 1262 Change: 146

Sync 5: 4:24 pm "Copying x of 12,955" iPad photos: 1406 Change: 144

Sync 6: ?:?? pm "Copying x of 12,811" iPad photos: 1542 Change: 136 Uh oh, that's less than 142.

Sync 7: 5:01 pm "Copying x of 12,674" iPad photos: 1688 Change: 146

Funny, 12811-12674=137, whereas 1542-1406=136. Those should be equal.

I'm bored now. Syncing 14,000+ photos 135-150 at a time is time consuming.

I have been trying to transfer a newly created Album from Mac to iPad Air. Have latest software updates on both.

Like others the transfer is always incomplete and I get the same error message. Upon multiple tries, more photos transfer each sync, but not all.

I’m only trying to sync 505 photos! The closest I got was a little over 400.

I tried to unsync the Album and that worked! So, I tried to sync it back to my iPad again and only 119 transferred this time! Totally frustrated.

I’m not as tech savvy as some of the other posts so I’m basically dependent on iTunes to do its job.

Help!?

I hear you. I have 80,000+ in Photos and ~30,000 going to my iPad. I have about 20,000 scanned images (and about as many more to be scanned) that I haven't gotten into Photos because correcting the dates is so time-consuming and cumbersome there.

I had the same issue with a new 9.7" 128GB iPad.

Okay to sync most things from the mac laptop, but not the photos, on the iTunes Photos sync page, said could only sync via iCloud. Not a show stopper but had work.

Searched through iPad support & found this......

"Note: If you turn on iCloud Photo Library, you can’t use iTunes to sync photos and videos to iPad.

Turn on iCloud Photo Library. Go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud > Photos, or go to Settings > Photos."

......So, in settings, turn off iCloud Photo Library & go back to iTunes Photo sync page and select what you want to sync from Photos or Aperture, Select SYNC & you're off !!!! (Well you're some of the way there).

Yup, there is a bug somewhere that stops the photo sync mid-way.

Took me about 5 or so syncs to transfer around 10,000 images.

Quit iTunes after each attempt unplugged / replugged cable & tried again...got there in the end.

Note to APPLE, nice to know about the new features in a new device or software, would be good to know what old features have been changed or removed !

Got there in the end.🙂

It's great that you were able to finally get your 10,000 photos onto your iPad after only 5 or so syncing attempts. And the comment about having iCloud Photo Library turned off is no doubt important, but certainly not useful for people like me, who had turned it off even before attempting to sync. Apple "helpfully" turns it on by default, so every time I did a restore on the iPad, iCloud Photo Library had to be turned off before proceeding. My most recent experience in trying to sync 14,179 photos only lets me add 135-150 photos at a time.

I got a few error messages, these cleared by...

1. Quitting itunes.

2. Restarting the iPad.

3. Unplugging & replugging.

4. Restarting the computer.

Did not do all of these all the time.

Like you, the folders / albums all copied across but either some were empty or only a images were copied.

I did have issues with an early iPad where some images just would not transfer from Aperture. This was fixed by rebuilding the library as suggested by another Apple support forum thread. I believe there may be similar issues with Photos?

Good luck.