iTunes Photos Sync Problem

Sync your photos manually with iTunes

You can set up iTunes to sync photos to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch from the Photos app, or from a folder on your computer. Each time that you sync your iOS device with iTunes, the photos and videos on your iOS device update to match the albums on your computer. If you have photos on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch that aren't on your computer, follow these steps to import them.

1. Make sure that you have the latest version of iTunes.
2. Open iTunes on your computer.
3. Use the included USB cable to connect your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to your computer.
4. Click on the device icon in iTunes.
   
5. In the sidebar on the left side of the iTunes window, click Photos.
   
6. Click the box next to "Sync Photos." If instead you see "iCloud Photos is On," all of your photos and videos are already on all of your devices that use iCloud Photo Library. You don't need to sync them through iTunes.
7. Choose the app or folder that you want to sync from.
   If you choose to sync a folder with sub-folders, the first level of sub-folders will appear as albums on your device.
   
8. Choose to sync all photos or selected albums.
9. Select "Include videos" to sync the videos from your app or folder too.
10. Click Apply.

You must import Slo-Mo and Time-Lapse videos through the Photos app or Image Capture in OS X Yosemite or later for their effect to be synced via iTunes. When you use iCloud Photo Library, Slo-Mo and Time-Lapse videos keep their effects.

Live Photos keep their effect when you import them to Photos in OS X El Capitan and later, but they lose their effect if you sync them back to your device via iTunes. Use iCloud Photo Library so that Live Photos keep their effect, no matter what device you use

Hello Jeremy,

I have the same problem with GirijaSankar. I have done all the above steps you are reporting but the problem continues to exist. the problem started after the upgrade the ipad to iOS 11. While sync starts and syncs everything normally, once the photo copying starts, it hangs up and shows me a message that sync was stopped due to an internal problem with the ipad.I have already done twice a restore from iTunes but the problem continues to exist.

Do you know any solution?

Thanks

Hi together, please see my previous post for the description of the problem I had.

After numerous calls with the Apple Support hotline I have come to resolve the issue myself.

Here is what I did:

1. I uninstalled iTunes and all of it's components from my PC. The support hotline told me to do this in a certain sequence: 1. iTunes itself; 2. Bonjour; 3. Apple Software Update; 4. Apple Mobile Device Support; 5. Apple Application Support 64 Bit 6. Apple Application Support 32 Bit (I hope I remember the sequence right)

2. Restart PC

3. Download latest version of the iTunes installer and installed iTunes again

and here is the "special" part. As I had de-activated the Photo Sync in iTunes and applied it, all my Albums on the iPad were gone (which is what I wanted). However, by chance I saw that the iPad still thought that 15.000 pics were installed on it, which I gathered might be part of the problem as to why no pictures we synced anymore.

So here is what I did to resolve that:

4. I used Windows File Explorer to copy all pictures from the camera roll (DCIM Folders on the iPad) to my PC (assuming they would get lost in the next steps)

5. I activated the iCloud Photo Library on the iPad to upload what was on my iPad onto the cloud (assuming this would delete them from my iPad, which was the case for some but not all pictures)

6. I manually deleted all remaining pictures from the iPad (ATTENTION; this also deletes them from the cloud, hence step 4)

7. I restarted my iPad (Home+Start button on the side)

8. Checked the number of pictures (General --> About), now showing 0

9. Search and deleted ALL "iPod Photo Cache" folders on my PC

10. Connected my iPad to my PC (as advised by the support line directly to the USB Card and not thru a Hub, although I do not think this would cause the problem), do not forget the "Trust" the PC when asked

11. Started iTunes

12. Went into Edit --> Preferences --> Devices and clicked "Reset Sync History"

13. Selected my iPad and told it to sync a folder

and....... yeah it worked !!!

I have no clue what created the original problem, but at least this worked for me.

At the time of writing, iTunes has 4600 pictures out of the 15000

Just purchased a new ipad yesterday. I set it all up and was so excited to move over my 4000 pics overnight via cable-to-itunes on my PC with the cloud turned off.

It synced my large music library no problem. But I have the same issue with moving the pics over. it stops after a while with a internal issue pop-up. Buteven after i disconnect the ipad it still shows a syncing on the bottom of my photos app. It's VERY frustrating.

Same problem here. Using Windows 10 with recently added photos in same directory as previously synced. But iPad iTunes sync fails repeatedly with "internal device error". iTunes is most recently updated version. iPad is 11.2.1 The iPad Photos app shows "3,186 Photos, 7 Videos Syncing..." but iTunes has generated the above error and aborted.

I have this exact same problem. iPhone 7, manually syncing folders from my macbook pro. Started happening after upgrading to iOS 11.x. Issue continues to persist intermittently across various versions of iOS 11 and up to the latest version of iTunes running on Sierra and High Sierra. It's completely stopped syncing any new photos as of yesterday after I moved to a 2017 Macbook Pro and used migration assistant.

Is there any fix in the works for iOS 11 and iTunes local photo sync in progress? Has this issue been escalated to product management and engineering?

Same issue here on iPad Pro with latest version of iTunes and IOS 11.2.6

My Photo Albums on iPad were totally messed up (some Albums from PC appeared 2x on iPad, pictures were showing in the wrong Album etc..). So I decided to first tell iTunes not to Sync Pictures, which deleted all Albums on the iPad and then tell iTunes to sync again. I restarted my PC (W10) and iPad several times. I even tried with one subfolder only. An empty Album gets created in my iPad, but no pictures are synced. Sometime I get an error message “unknown error (-50)”, sometimes iTunes just hangs saying it is preparing the pictures.

IS THERE ANYONE FROM APPLE WHO MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN RESOLVING THIS????

I continuously had the same problem for over a year now. After trying it this morning once again, it just started copying all the photos. Thanks apple, for taking care!

EDIT: Without the steps mentioned above!

I just bought a new iPad mini4 and have same photo sync problem. Worked with Apple Care Support and went to Genius Bar but still can't resolved. Please tell if the itune problem persist so I won't waste time on it for the time being, and can avoid syncing my other iPad so the already sync photo can be kept.

I have this same issue. Brand new iphone 6s as of February 2018, updated, latest iOS and lates OSX.....many calls with Apple specialists level 1 and 2, but still no solution.

The syncing is fine up until the photos option (step 6 of 6) then iTunes prompts "error in syncing".

I just installed latest IOS and itunes and now my ipad will not sync with my computer, on Windows 10. It will sync a few and then I get 'an internal error device occurred'. To start with, all the photo folders were duplicated and photos were in the wrong folders. It all worked perfectly before I 'upgraded'. I have spent HOURS trying to get this to work. Any suggestions?

G'day Jeremy

I'm running Windows 10 64 bit (latest updates installed), iTunes V12.7.4, iPhone V 11.3, iPad version 11.3. All the latest & greatest. But my photos sync on both my iPhone & iPad has stopped completing. Most times it just sits there saying "Reading photos from "Pictures", a very few times it says there's a device error.

I am syncing over 13,000 photos, a lot I know, but both my devices have space, and they used to work perfectly until the latest update.

I have tried this on two different computers both W10 64 bit, both with the same result.

I've correctly uninstalled iTunes several times with virtually no change, once I got a few photos across, but nothing since.

I've followed your suggestions to the letter. Still no changes.

I've tried doing it folder by folder, but it hangs at the same "Reading photos from "Pictures" after two or 3 folders.

I've researched this and there doesn't seem to be a solution. It looks as if this problem has been around since Mid 2017. Just crazy. I don't use iCloud nor do I want to. I just want them to sync via USB cable like they used to.

Do you have any further ideas?

TIA

Regards

Alan

I have the same exact problem. On both my iPad 4th gen. and my iPhone 8. I have tried restores, sequential deletes then re-installs of all the Apple apps, every setting change you can imagine and still NOTHING! It's really ******* me off! I have been trying to figure this out for like 2 months at least. I had high hopes that Apple would have fixed this issue with the last update but was sadly disappointed obviously. It just sits there displaying "reading photos from my photos" forever. I let it run all night once and never moved from that stage of sync. Nor did I get any sort of error message. I'm on windows 10. I sure hope someone figures something out soon! Accessing, updating, and sharing my photos was what I did most on my iPad! Apple has really dropped the ball here....very disappointing....

I had the same problem, but found a simple solution. I had one album with two folders in it. I discovered that if I did not check the album, but checked only the two folders, It synced properly. Worth a try as it worked for me.

There must be more to it than that - I've been deleting the iPad photo cache folder and it STILL doesn't sync! I agree though that this is where the problem stems from somehow....were there any other steps you took to have it work for you?