Photos app on iPhone not syncing in iOS 11

I have been having issues wth this for months but was finally able to sync all my photos (35000) and complete a full backup @ 30Gb. This morning the iPad Pro 256Gb froze at the Apple Logo so i had to recover and restore. The restore worked completely except for the fact that none of the photos was restored despite iTunes reporting that all of them were there.

Just to be clear, after the restore, iTunes was showing that all photos were on the iPad but Settings/General/About was showing a photo count of ZERO. Songs and Movies were restored correctly.

Not happy - I will now have to spend months syncing my photos again with all the issues that have been presented ad nauseum in this forum.

Screen shots here:

Restored from this Backup - Note Size of 30Gb

After Backup - iPad according to iTunes - 35000 photos using 80Gb of space and 120 Gb free

After Backup - iPad according to iPad - 0 photos using 0Gb of space and 215 Gb free

With respect to Apple there clearly is an issue with IOS 11 and photo sync - iTunes is not reading the state of Photos on IOS so it is not surprising that there are errors when it attempts to sync.

Btw the size of the current iPad backup is now only 4Gb, so I have 26Gb of Photos to sync - thank you Apple for such a well tested IOS update.

This sorry saga continues with seemingly no end in sight. Now Apple seem to have compounded the problem, this time with an update to iTunes, not iOS.

Up till now, as I’ve posted previously, I’ve been unable to sync all my photos to my iPad mini running iOS 11.3. Same as everyone else - sync cancelled by iTunes, variety of error messages etc., but syncing my iPhone 8 Plus has more or less worked. Main glitch has been when adding a few photos, iTunes manages to ‘sync’ many more than needed. Last sync I did, all I was adding were 4 new photos, but iTunes reported it was syncing 1414 photos, but it did sync the required pics. However, after an update to iTunes 12.7.4, even this sync to my iPhone failed; iTunes got as far as ’Reading Photos from .....’ then stuck, even after leaving it running all night, so no new syncs were possible at all.

There’s another whole thread on this, but the (sort of) solution to this bug was to revert to iTunes 12.7.3 - follow this link for details can not sync photos with ios 11.3 and itunes 12.7.4. This did work for me, so at least I can still sync my iPhone, with the previously mentioned bug of syncing far more than necessary.

As for the ongoing iPad photo sync fiasco, my solution (for the moment) has been to buy an iPad 4th generation 128GB on eBay. Retina screen display, and crucially it can’t run ios11, being ’stuck’ on iOS10.3.3, so joy of joys, it syncs perfectly OK and at last I’ve got all my photos back on a device with a decent display. Not ideal (makes you remember how heavy older iPads were!) but a lot cheaper than jumping to Android. Looks more and more like any possible solution from Apple (and I’m not holding out much hope for any sort of resolution) is likely to have to wait for iOS12, so another 6 months of frustration at least.

No idea, but to be able to once again sync my library to my iPad, I felt the risk for me to run a beta worth the try. I would encourage to make an archived backup first though in case you had to go back.

.... continued from previous post:

7. I deleted the "iPod Photo Cache" folder that was created in step 6 (when 76 photos were successfully synched).

8. I copied an additional 12 albums into the new sync folder, with a total of 2348 photos now.

9. A brand new photo sync, and viola, all 13 albums and 2348 photos are all in the iPad Air 2 now !!! (due to the number of photos, the sync took longer but at no time did it stop).

==> At least it works, but this means I had to delete the **** "iPod Photo Cache" folder every time, and more albums mean more time. It worked for a couple of thousand photos. Those devices with tens of thousands of pics will need an overnight sync job. :-(

Undaunted.... I deleted the iPod photo cache folder and tried syncing almost the same things again. This time 46 albums and 5350 photos, and it worked completely, and photos in all albums appeared in the Photo app.

I'm using a Mac and syncing via USB. I toggled iCloud sync on/off to remove a previous incomplete sync and also deleted the iPod photo cache folder. I also restarted my iPad Air and iMac just in case. All photos and albums were synchronized correctly. Then I added some photos to my iMac Photos software and re-synced them. New photos were added without any problems.

It worked for first time since September.

I only waited until the next day because my WiFi was super slow, and I was busy running errands for an upcoming vacation. I tried again the next morning, and I was pleasantly surprised. I still haven’t tried my iPhone 8 because I’m too busy preparing for my vacation. I’ll probably wait until after my vacation. I’m hoping that it takes only 1 sync and I’ll add my vacation photos as well.

FWIW, I've had this endless problem ever since last September, trying to sync my iPad mini 2 to my PC, via USB/iTunes, with a library of around 25k pics on my PC. Same as everyone else - iPad sync failed, stopped, error messages, etc etc. Have just returned from holiday and updated the iPad to IOS 11.4, plugged the iPad in to iTunes, hit sync (nothing else others have mentioned, like turning iCloud sync on/off, deleting cache or anything else), and lo and behold, the whole lot synced in one go, just like ages ago. Maybe it was a one off, or I'm just lucky, but it would seem the problem has gone at last. Fingers crossed!!

Hello Wmalden, when I added a couple new pictures in Photos I also added them to a couple random albums that were sync'd to my iPhone. Those pictures added to albums did sync to my iPhone and I could remove them by removing them from those albums in Photos and then doing another sync.

The only consistent way I can add new photos is to reformat the phone and start as new. My photos library is too big and I don't want to pay $10 a month to lose control of my pictures. I have spent countless hours trying to figure out how to add new photos back into my iPhone X and iPad Pro. This has been almost a year since everything stopped syncing correctly. Some of the old tricks no longer work. They just create new challenges. This really needs to get fixed.

Indeed, I too continue to have the same problems syncing my photos to my iPhone 6. No new photos added to existing albums and new albums which I've added are completely empty of photos.

Oddly, syncing to my iPad Pro (2018) works just fine - I get new photos and new albums with no issues.

The only "oddity" is that even though I've added only 100 or so new photos, the iTunes sync shows that it is syncing over 5000 photos. Not sure what that is all about but at least I get the new photos and new albums.

Both the iPad and the iPhone have the same iOS and are being synced to the same photo library on the same MacBook Pro.

I agree - this really needs to get fixed! "It just works" - not any more!

Maybe your backup problem is unrelated to the photos sync problem? Maybe your current backup is somehow corrupted and can't be updated? You could try to fix it by 0. Restart your device and computer (maybe unnecessary but this is how I do it...). 1. In iTunes choose "Automatically Back Up iCloud" (this is my usual setting so I don't have to wait the backup when syncing photos!!). 2. Do a backup to iCloud in your _device's_ iCloud settings (in case the following steps go wrong). 2. In iTunes > Preferences... > Devices choose your device and delete its backup. 3. In iTunes choose "Back Up Now" so a brand-new backup is generated. 4. Optionally, In iTunes re-choose "Back Up This Computer" if you prefer it.

As I said, I have quite limited experience regarding iOS 12 photos sync but so far I haven't experienced major problems (iPad Pro 9.7", OS X 10.11.6, iTunes 12.8, iPhoto 9.6.1, Mac mini (Late 2009) (major sync problems also with iOS 11.x and Photos 1.5 ).

I just updated my iPads and iPhone 6 to iOS 12.

Also updated MacBook pro to all latest software updates including iTunes.

The iPads (an older "Air" and a newer 12.9 Pro) both synced all the photos from my MacBook Pro using iTunes just fine.

The iPhone 6 is still not syncing new photos.

Last date is July 26, 2018 so no new photos added since then. (That was a new sync after deleting all the photos from the iPhone).

Perhaps I'll try deleting them all from the iPhone again and doing a new sync.

With over 30k photos and videos, that will take a good deal of time....

I did find that doing multiple sync's over a few day period did help populate the phone more. The one I did yesterday (many days from original update) added a few hundred more. I have no idea why this is happening but I won't complain about it as it's working now. We should all chip in and send Apple a one year birthday cake.

UPDATE: User error on my iPad Pro sync - I didn't have "include videos" checked in iTunes sync for that device. After checking it and re-syncing, the videos are now included with my 500+ trip photos.

On the iPad Air, I have restarted it and the MacBook Pro and re-synced and still no videos even though "include videos" was already checked in iTunes sync. The new album and 500+ photos ARE there.

On the iPhone 6, I have restarted it and the MacBook Pro and re-synced and NO new album and NO new photos or videos.

I have all the latest software updates on the MacBook Pro and on the iOS devices.

FRUSTRATING to say the least!