Photos app on iPhone not syncing in iOS 11

Has nothing to do with APFS since this problem also occurs on my imac running Sierra and my mbpro when it ran Sierra. This issue is strictly an iOS 11 problem and it has been there since the first beta of iOS 11. I’ve used 3 different Mac computers, for different photo libraries, used both photos and aperture, different sync methods (usb cables and WiFi), spent countless hours on the phone with senior apple care techs and submitted a dozen logs or so, used 4 different iPads, submitted 7 iOS 11 beta bug reports. The results were identical with everything I’ve tried with the iPads. I have been told that Apple is working on it and that a fix is forth coming. How long that will take is anybody’s guess since I first reported this well before the iOS 11 release date back in September 2017.

The sync with iPhone seems to be less problematic than iPad. Although Logging out of my iCloud account and logging back in to fix a handoff issue had the nasty habit of turning on the sync entire library using iCloud (which was off before I logged out) which deletes all my albums but with photos still present on the device with no way to recover the albums unless you delete all photos as well while the sync entire library to iCloud is still on. With all photos wiped from the phone and having turned off sync entire library using iCloud, I was able to bring back all pics and albums. I can sync my entire library in one attempt to my iPhones although a partial sync has its own issues.

My biggest gripe is that the iPad required at least 20 syncs to get my 18,000 pics library on the device with all albums populated. I found for me the key was that as the sync cancelled or crashed, that it was best to wait till the iPad stabilized again and that the syncing photos count in the iPad photos app quit incrementing before another sync was attempted. Let it process the pics from the last sync as it were before trying again.

I am amazed that Apple, the media people, have let this go on as long as it has.

I have the same issue, I have around 18000 photos on my MacBook running Sierra 10.12.6, I have had trouble syncing the photos from my mac to my IPAD running os 11. syncing used to work before os11 just fine but now it doesnt. I use iTunes through usb to the IPAD. My photos are not in the 'photos' app they are held in separate folders in finder. I have found the only way to sync is to select syncing by adding each folder at a time, but folders that contain more than about 300 photos always fail and it takes a few attempts with a few more being added each time, i.e. a folder with 1000 photos usually takes 4 sync attempts. Sometimes the sync would just 'cancel' sometimes it would give an error message 'device error'. If I get the device error message I have to restart my MacBook before restarting the sync again. Its slow and painful but I have managed to now get all my photos back onto the IPAD after 6 and a half hours. The tech guy on the phone was helpful but seemed unaware that this is a wider issue hitting lots of users.

This is an issue that I have been battling since the very first beta came out on iOS 11 back in September of 2017. I have filed more bug reports than I can remember and spent countless hours on the phone with more people than I can remember and via other means to communicate this problem to Apple.

It appears that they have finally heard us. Just downloaded iOS 11.4 beta 2 and to my absolute astonishment and joy, I was able to fully sync my 248 albums and 18k pics without a crash, without the “cancelling sync”, without the iPad becoming totally unstable, without empty albums and with all my albums with the correct picture count in each. I had made many changes to my photo library on my Mac since my last sync and all changes were correctly reflected.

I spent over 18 hours waiting for a sync yesterday. Let it sit all. night and then some. Didn't mow the lawn or anything exciting like that, but did some LightRoom work and plugged away. Here are the steps I took and some questions at the end for those still on this topic.

1) turned on iCloud Photo Library - had iCloud Photo Sharing on already

2) Allowed the prompt to delete files from sync through iTunes

3) Turned off both iCloud Photo Library and iCloud Photo Sharing

4) Deleted cache folder on computer and em pried trash

5) rebooted phone and computer

6) let the full library of photos sync - did not add any videos or select specific albums

7) waited 18 hours for 69k photos to sync

ongoing questions for those trying to sort this out

a- can you sync again without all these extra steps?

b- has anyone selected albums rather than syncing all?

c- has anyone turned sharing of iCloud back on for shared albums, streaming or library?

Welcome any input as I currently have a million extra albums based on all the old photo events. It is nice to have pictures again for mobility, but I am hesitate to want to wait 18 hours for sync again since it has been since October 2017 since anything worked right.

That was the key step for me.

I do not know it if was itunes, but the 11.2.2 release fixed it for me. See my other post.

An IOS 11 bug. IOS 11.0.1 isn’t synchronising pictures between Photos on an iMac (running MacOS 10.12.6) and IOS devices running IOS 11.0.1 (two in use - iPhone 6S and iPad Air2). iCloud photo sync is not in use, this is cable connection. iTunes is running on 12.7.0.

The devices receive some (but not all) of the “selected for sync” photo folders but all are without photos. No photos are moving to the IOS 11 devices. Existing photos on the devices - from pre-IOS 11 installation - remain in place, and photos do move in the other direction; exporting from IOS to iTunes/Photos.

A test sync using an IOS device running IOS 10.3.3 synchronises folders and photos without a problem.

dlaynmore's description also matches my current experience with iPad Air2.

I have 30+ folders and about 6000 photos that needs to be sync'd up. Syncing photos with iOS 11, 11.0.1 was a big mess, and an exercise in futility. I held off syncing in 11.0.2 because various posts suggested this wasn't fixed.

I gave it a try in 11.0.3. It took 3 syncs and 2 reboots for me to transfer about 30 photos and get everything sync'd up. First time it says transferring 885, second time 517, third time about 250, and then every folder was in sync -- but boy, this does NOT need to be sooooooo frustrating, Apple. Keep squashing this bug until it works like before iOS 11 !!!

I have this same exact problem that I posted over in the iPad forums (iMac iTunes to iPad air cable sync failure, over 41K photos, only partial transfer of photos into albums on the iPad and iPad internal error message. No problems with iOS 10.3.3).

Just so you all know, Apple support contacted me back on October 2nd to say they are well aware of the problem but needed diagnostic files to determine where the problem lies. He had me set up a screen share session with my iMac where he visually verified the problem. Then he had me set up diagnostic data gathering on both my iMac and iPad air and performed another sync where it failed as usual. He provided a link where I could upload the two diagnostic files for their software engineers to evaluate. I know of one other user over on the iPad forums who had the same interaction with Apple support. So I believe a fix is coming but not sure when. This could just be an issue of priorities as to which iOS bugs get fixed first as it seems there are a lot of them. And I'm sure the new features in iOS 11.1 probably take priority.

Chris

My photo library was not set up as the "Use as System Photo Library". I simple clicked that button (which is now grayed out)

The problem was fixed in seconds. My photos from the past few weeks showed up

TS

No,

Synching via iCloud Photo Library

Something got broken to the Synch process when I both updated to IOS 11 on the Iphone, and iPad, while restoring a hard drive backup for my iPhoto library on my Imac. I don't remember the exact sequence of this, but this morning I noticed that I did not have any photos from the last two week show up on my Imac

When I had updated the Library Location on the Imac, to use my Photos Library is the "System Photo Library" the problem was fixed within minutes

TS

This approach seemed to have worked for me but failed on subsequent syncs. I did a full recover as a new iPad ignoring any backups as Chris suggested. When that completed I enabled Photos sync and selected half a dozen albums from the Photos library on my iMac and keyed apply. An iTunes/USB sync proceeded and when complete I verified that the albums on my iPad each held the same number of pictures as the source albums in Photos on my iMac. So far so good.

Next I redownloaded the app MyPics from the cloud using the app store on my iPad. When MyPics appeared in the apps list under File Sharing in iTunes, I selected it then dragged several hundred pictures to the Documents area from a finder window. MyPics responded saying there were available files and these downloaded successfully. Again good. Like Photos, this would only partially transfer on previous attempts.

However, I went back to the photos section of iTunes and after having to turn off iCloud which had somehow been enabled, tried to add a few more albums to the list to be synced. After syncing, these folders did not contain the correct count of images. So the bug is back. Also, photos crashed several times trying to open it on my iPad.

Likewise when I tried to use File Sharing to add several hundred more pictures to MyPics, all but one picture transferred. I guess this is an improvement.

So it looks like you can do this tedious full restore to get your historical photo collection to your iPad but can't expect it to update correctly after that. Now I'll go see if my music and books will still sync correctly.

iTunes wouldn't synch my iPhone SE to my computer after I upgraded the iOS to 11. Additionally, the Mac's Photos app truncated the Photos library, omitting all pictures taken after August 2015. Eventually, I restored the Photos library from another computer, and discovered that Photos on the Mac was "pointing" to another, older Photos library. Launching Photos while holding Option allows the user to select the correct library. I did that, and synching immediately became correct and complete, and Photos displayed the entire Library.

Has everyone who are having problems and commenting on this thread been in contact with an "Apple Technical Support Adviser" and opened a "Case Number" ??

The more people who contact Apple and set up a Case Number the better. Theres no point just posting here without letting Apple know this problem.