Photos app on iPhone not syncing in iOS 11

I too have had the no photo sync with iTunes issue since October. With the latest iOS update, I believe the issue is finally fixed.

To make it work, do the following;

1-On the iOS device, turn iCloud photo sync ON.

2-Say “okay” to erasing all photos on iOS device.

3-Turn iCloud photo sync OFF.

4-Give iOS device a few hours to erase all photos.

5-Sync with iTunes and be sure “photos” sync is on and select all or selected albums. I have found that “all” will create MANY albums with dates and roll numbers so I choose only to sync my named albums.

So far, I am getting all albums selected and all photos in those albums.

I was finally able to get all 35,000 of my photos onto my iPad by syncing several times. I pretty much ran the syncs back to back, and it added more photos each time. Before I even started, I reset the iPad to factory settings and restored from a backup. I haven’t attempted my iPhone yet, but I will soon.

The Apple advisor that I’ve been working with believes the problem is with iOS 11. According to Doctorcube earlier in this post, the correction is in an iOS update.

On page 19 of this thread there is a post by trietsch followed by ones from me that outline the work around procedure when using an iPad that does not run iOS 11.x. It has to do with turning off iCloud photos in iPhone settings. Make sure your iPad didn't get sneakily updated to iOS 11.x. If it did not, go to page 19 and 20 and see the work around.

In another forum, I reported the same syncing problem with Windows 10 and iTunes, which previously worked. The iPad Air 2 sync stops approximately half-way through a Photos sync (music is fine), and indicates an "internal device error". I did an iPad backup and system restore, but same problem reoccurred. Interestingly, it works perfectly fine on an iPhone 8 Plus. This is an Apple iOS 11.xx upgrade problem which needs to be acknowledged and fixed.

I’ve previously posted (1, 5, 12 Oct, 6 Dec) about my experience of my IOS devices (iPhone 6s and iPad Air2) not syncing and showing the same faults documented in this chain, and then magically syncing for no obvious reason after the release of iOS 11.0.3. My last post was about the devices syncing correctly with iOS 11.2. Well, the bug is back with 11.2.1. Between IOS versions 11.0.3 and 11.2 both devices were syncing photos and albums without a problem using only a USB connection and with iCloud photo sync disabled. Since (stupidly) moving to IOS 11.2.1 the problem has returned, but only on the iPad. The iPhone still copies photos and albums correctly. The iPad won’t display any copied albums on the iOS Photos summary screen, but search shows they are there, but incompletely copied. I believe about 2/3 of the photos have been copied. This may not be the most serious flaw in iOS 11, but it does affect every user to some degree, and needs to be acknowledged and fixed. Apple pays its top staff huge performance bonuses, while admitting that it has been secretly slowing iOS devices. It looks like the users are now low on the priority list. Google used to have the tagline “don’t be evil”, perhaps Apple should get something similar, how about “rake it in”?

I'm very happy too. I can even keep the iPad Photos app opened while syncing and see how the photos and videos appear in the screen with no lags or app hangs. Only 2 days between beta 4 and 5, and with beta 4 photo syncing didn't work, so probably this new beta has been released specifically to remove this annoying bug.

RE: Apple Advisers saying that its iTunes’s fault

I posted back in November saying that I have two iPads on iOS 10 & 11, the iPad on iOS 10 syncs perfectly, the iPad on 11 doesn’t.

At the moment I’m on macOS 10.13.2, iTunes 12.7.2.58, iPad Pro iOS 11.2.2, iPad 10.3.3

This is still the problem.

I don’t think its an iTunes or a macOS problem since my iPad 10.3.3 syncs every photo, whereas the iPad Pro with iOS 11.2.2 doesn’t.

The problem lies with iOS 11

From what I’ve read and studied about how photo sync works I suspect there are bugs in iOS, iTunes and Sierra (both). There are probably bug workarounds that can be implemented in either iOS or iTunes or both.

This is an old and neglected code base.

I have a 5S of 64G ios 11.2.2. Every 3 sync. iTunes 12.7.2. stops to transfer photos from the pc to the iPhone, via usb connection. As I mentioned before, the workaround is to delete all photos by selecting iCloud sync. Then, deselecting this option will re-create the folders and re-transfer all photos to the iPhone. So, still the problem is there.

The issue with this workaround procedure is that the "People" folder is lost every time the photos are deleted. But it is re-created in around 3 nights (when I leave the phone connected to power and do not use it). So, if "People" folder does not matter to much to you, the workaround would not impact so much.

Guys,

I tried sync in several situation:

• MacBook Pro with new OS and no other personal file and
• Virtual machine with Windows OS
• MacMini with last OS
• MacBook Air with last OS

Every time, the same problem.

I tried to change library (Iphoto, Aperture, Photo)... nothing!!!

I believe that problem could be in logs of sync that don't read right after first syncronization (this problem is referred to iTunes) or in memory of device (it is as if at the end of the synchronization the memory of the device is locked).

:-(

Apple engineers are well aware of the issue.

For 4 months I have had a case unresolved, been worked on by two senior consultants, loads of logs etc. etc.

The latest comment from my consultant was that the engineers are working on a fix.

It was suggested I try a small number of photos to sync with my iPad and that there was a certain number of photos that caused the sync to fail.

My comment was I do not want to do this as it will remove the photos I already have synced to my iPad and only put the small number on the iPad.

Bottom line, still unresolved and still in touch with the consultant BUT nothing has changed for the better and NO solution to date.

angie

Poorfisherman, I’m only familiar with Windows, but in that iTunes version, when syncing, if you go to Photos, and under the Sync photos option, uncheck all of the albums, it deletes everything, but may leave the Camera Roll and Photo Stream (I can‘t check right now). They‘re certainly back if you re-sync all Photos. Perhaps that helps your request?

All the comments in this thread are intriguing, including future Apple plans. But the basic issue is straightforward - the iTunes photo sync worked fine until iOS 11, apparently on both W10 and Macs. What changed?

Just spent over an hour on a chat with tech support. They are "most definitely trying to escalate this and get a workaround as I do understand that this can be a bit frustrating." ... Yes. Frustrating, indeed. Tried to sync 8 times last night without success. This morning, iTunes synced 561 photos (I had 20 new ones) and it finally synced the new ones. Hopefully, someone will hear our cries and fix this issue.

PLEASE KEEP REPORTING THESE PROBLEMS TO APPLE on both the Photos and iTunes feedback pages

It will help to raise Apple's awareness of the extent of this problem and how strongly people feel about it if everyone will spend a few minutes to report the problem on the feed back pages for both applications. The more we do this, the sooner the problems may get fixed.

Photos for iOS - Feedback - Apple

and

Feedback - iTunes - Apple