Photos app on iPhone not syncing in iOS 11

I just bought an ipad 9.7 for my elderly mom. It was on special at Costco and the only reason I bought it is because the display model had 10.3 running on it. I thought nice, this will work. Well it was not to be since the one I got home had 11.0.3 running on it but as we all know here and this iPad was no different, I could not sync my 17,667 to the device. I went ahead and installed 11.1.1 and tried to set up as new ipad and started with the photos first. I use usb to sync. Of course it would sync about a thousand pics before it bombed out. At this point the iPad became erratic and apps were crashing Including photos. I killed all apps and booted Photos again. What I noticed was eventhough the sync was not running, the picture count in photos was incrementing upward. Then this stopped, and the iPad was stable again, I tried to sync again (Bypassing the backup part and going straight to reading photo library). As it starting copying pic xx of 16,980 it copyed another 1000 to 1500 before cancelling sync or just stopping altogether. Again the iPad was unstable and photos was incrementing the picture count. I waited until this stopped before trying again. It took me perhaps 20 or so syncs, but I managed to get my entire library on this new iPad with all albums stocked with their proper pics with accurate pic counts and in the proper order too. I did this same long process on my personal iPad last week which I also had success with. I seems that the iPad is getting slammed with data and appears to be over run. For me, the key was to let the iPad settle before going another sync round. This might take a minute or so. I know this way is BS, but at least I was able to fully populate my 2 iPads. After the pics were synced, I proceeded to the videos and then to the music. It seems the sync problems are with photos dealing with pictures only as videos went fine.

I have an open case with apple care and have submitted at least 5 bug reports in the beta program concerning this issue and have also included this thread in my reports. I did not envy my senior apple care advisor trying to help me through all this, for as for her, there is no solution she could come up with that would work to help me since the issue is a bug in iOS 11 Period.

I tried 3 different computers, 4 different picture libraries (one was an aperture library), 3 cables, and three devices. As we all now know, it is squarely iOS 11.x.x with all its flavors.

I have made a great deal of noise about this and do know that engineering has caught focus via this thread and all my b@tching. They know there is a problem.

The question now becomes, how long will it take them to fix this.

I hope this helps some of you. We should not have to spoon feed these devices, but at least in the mean time it is a shody work around that might help someone.

The complaint is not about syncing iPhone photos with Mac or iPad it is about syncing photos from Mac to iPhone and iPad.

photos taken on iPhone continue to sync into iPad and Mac with no issues. This process does not require iTunes or any connection between the devices but works seamlessly via wi fi.

The issue is non syncing when using iTunes and either USB or wi fi to get copies of photos in albums on the Mac to sync on to iPhones or iPads. This is where the whole thing fails...sometimes a few photos will go across and other times there is an error message or simply failure of sync to start.

Prior to the issue arising this happened without any problem and thousands of photos would be synced without any errors.

No magic solution, but some observations as I follow this thread. I posted early in the discussion (1 Oct, 5 Oct, 12 Oct) after installing iOS 11 soon after release, and had the same problems noted through this sorry saga - empty album folders on iOS devices. This continued with iOS 11.0.1 and 11.0.2. However, for reasons I can’t explain my problem was solved by iOS 11.0.3. I assumed that in its secretive way Apple had put a fix into the update. Apparently not, as the thread continues.

My photos were now syncing with two iOS devices, and I saw no reason to chance fate, so I stayed away from the updates between 11.0.3 and 11.2. This week I have installed 11.2 on two devices (although not at the same time) and run through my albums. All the photos - old and new - are there in the right albums, and the devices are syncing photos correctly.

I am using an iMac with a Fusion drive (running MacOS 10.12.6 - no 10.13/High Sierra installation, because of reported incompatibility between 10.13 file management and Fusion drives - another solution awaited for that) and IOS devices now running IOS 11.2 (two in use - iPhone 6S and iPad Air2). iCloud photo sync is not in use. This is a USB cable connection. iTunes has changed up from 12.7.0, and is now running on 12.7.1.14.

There are comments (reportedly from Apple support staff) earlier in the thread suggesting that wireless installations of iOS are less reliable than a download through iTunes. My early installations of iOS 11 were wireless, my 11.0.3 was an iTunes download through the Mac. And it worked. Maybe this is something that Apple engineers (if any are paying attention) might want to look at.

There is something weird going on here, and I am convinced there is a bug in iOS 11. Apple needs to show more interest in the needs of people who rely on iOS devices to display photos. Acknowledge the problem and give some reassurance. Silence is no use at all.

Windows 10 Fall Creators Update version 1709 Build 16299.64

iTunes 12.7.2 (the version that was released this week)

Sync Type: Selected Photo albums in iTunes vs USB to iPad Air 2

This one follows the same pattern that I had described in previous posts in this forum. I added a new album (with 76 photos) to the list of albums to be sync'd, and 2 other folders have hopefully receive a total of 17 new photos. The new total # of photos after the sync should rise from 5914 to 6007.

The first sync created the new album but it was totally blank (as was with previous sync attempted reported here). The next sync reported that a total of 2110 photos need to be sync'd !!! (where did that number came from? I only have 93 new photos) After that, there were a reported 4318 photos on the iPad Air 2 (I had 5914 before I started the first sync). I had to run and re-run the sync process 8 more times, each time ending up with a photo count on the ipad that was about 200-300 more than the previous sync.

After eight syncs, there were still 164 photos remaining to be transferred. And it was during the 9th sync attempt that the empty folder finally received the 76 photos! And at the end -- and after about 90 minutes (and 9 PC reboots and syncs), I have 6007 photos on the iPad, all in their proper folders.

Not much progress in the last month.

I have iTunes 12.7.2. Ipad Air 2 is updated to iOS 11.2.1. I gave the RESET SYNC HISTORY a try.

The only photos new this time since my last Sync-a-thon are 24 new photos in 3 folders, the total number of photos should go from 6007 to 6031.

Sync #1: iTunes says it is syncing 953 photos (why not 24?), at the end, iPad Photo shows 5477 photos (so the count went down by a count of 530)

Sync #2: Syncing 1084 photos (it actually was trying to sync more!!!), at the end, iPad photo shows 5373.

Sync #3: Syncing 713, at the end, iPad photo shows 5676

Sync #4: Syncing 416, at the end iPad photo didn't show the number

Sync #5: Syncing 65, at the end all the photos are there!

I did one more thing after this....I added one new folder, inside were 70 new photos.

Sync #1: Syncing 632 (why not 70?), at the end, iPad photo shows 5892

Sync #2: Syncing 268, at the end, iPad photo shows 6135

Sync #3: I didn't see the number (it flashes only too briefly), still 6135 at the end

Sync #4: Again didn't see the number, has 6167 at the end (although the photo count is somewhat incorrect for some folders, e.g. one folder has 76 photos, but the screen with all the thumbnails says 62. But there were 76 photos in it, weird!)

I did that iCloud turn on and off thing. When it was on, it DID erase the EXTRA memory that was (as if) used by photos. Like i mentioned before, my memory allocation doubled as if I had twice the photos that I DIDNt have 🙂 however strange that sounds.

Then I went back, did the sync. it did sync folders and photos, but again not fully. some folders and photos didnt show up on the phone at all, almost 4,000 (thousand) photos out of 24,000 did not come back.
And needless to say, my memory is back at almost full, because the iClound on/off didnt get all my memory cleared.

This is extremely frustrating! Why would apple do this, out of nowhere, and just like people here mentioned its not a hard fix for them, since they make the device and the iOS!

Seems to be fixed on my iPads. Updated my iPad Air II to IOS 11.2.1 using iTunes 12.7.2 on my iMac. Syncing via USB. When the update had completed all my photos had synced - some 3500 photos. This iPad had never successfully completed under any IOS 11 variant. I added another folder of about 500 photos and hit apply. After the spinning circle finished spinning, I checked and all these photos had transferred. I compared the numbers in Photos and iTunes on my Mac and the numbers of photos in each album on the iPad and they all agreed.

I repeated the process on my iPad Mini II with equal success! Finally! What a nice Christmas present to get my iPads back to functionality! Cheers.

When I first experienced this sync problem I thought that it was my old iPhoto library that was finally starting to really go unsupported.

But doing a simple test with Photos had the same sync errors. I even had trouble clearing a few hundred old iPhoto images from the iPad Pro 9.7". Only after I created a (non-iPhoto, non-Photos) folder-only simple album did those old ghost images disappear from the tablet's Photos. I have all my images and movies archived in simple folders elsewhere on DVDs and HDs because I don't trust iPhoto/Photos/Lightroom etc for this task so testing this was safe although time consuming.

I have an old OS X 10.11.6 iPhoto library with 40000 images and movies. I tried Photos but still prefer iPhoto for various reasons (I can see the iPhoto import sessions and delete & re-import them as needed. I also want to see the file names in the album so I can check if they need fine-tuning in my "main" archive. With Photos those tasks seem impossible. Please correct me if I'm wrong).

When Apple finally fixes this sync bug, I may still continue to use iPhoto until it finally breaks. Then convert the library to Photos or reimport from scratch.

Hmm back then i synced iphone 6+ on iOS10xx and iPad pro also on iOS10xx with same itunes version and all photos are synced fine except the iPhone x on iOS11 so i conclude that there should be something wrong with the iOS then.....Well since my issue is gone now and the iOS11.2.2 doesn't have anything crucial (to me) i'll just stick with 11.2.1. Thanks for your reply though, hope yours works soon!

I just upgraded to 11.2.2 in my iPhone 8 and it appeared to solve the problem I have been having for weeks like you all have. I had tried everything but it looks like Apple finally fixed it.

This and the iPhone 6 slow down among other things has really left me with the feeling Apple has changed for the worse. I upgraded my 6 because of the slowdown and bought a large 8 for all my photos and for the longest time it was useless for that. Have only synced a portion of my photos. I will see what happens when I try to sync them all.

BTW, some recent photos were duplicates but I was able to delete them because the duplicates showed the trash can whereas the others did not. So far, all is good.

Paul

You are definitely not alone!

I tried to sync again today and have had some weird issues with wrong photos in wrong albums...syncing only 200 odd photos at a time and nothing like adding the new photos I was trying to sync.

This Apple sync system is totally useless....as are the software engineers who were supposed to help resolve this way back last October.

Steve Jobs would be cringing! and surely asking questions why?

Forget the big payout to execs. and think about the users why rely on their hardware/software doing what it is advertised to do....wrt Mac Photos, iPhones and iPads this is a complete and utter disappointment.

If I was still working and had the money, I would be replacing my hardware/software and leaving Apple completely!

when will we ever get a solution????

Ang

No success either with iOS11.2.5 beta 5. Trying to sync over 12.000 pictures. Can't get more than 500 at a time.

Message error "...ipad internal error" keep on showing every 2 sync attempt.

No better luck with Irina6's method : trying to turn on and off iCloud sync on device and rebooting.

Hope Apple will get rid of this annoying situation soon...

iPad Pro 9.7" iOS11.2.5 beta 5; MacBook Pro 13" OS10.13.2, iTunes 12.7.2.60, Photos 3.0

In my case (Windows 10 + iTunes 12.7.2 + iOS 11.2.2+ iPhone 5S + usb cable connection to pc) I am able to sync. all new photos to their folders in the iPhone. But, after a third sync. no photos are synced. So every 3 syncs., I delete all photos by selecting the option to sync. photos to iCloud. In such case, I wait 30 minutes to be sure that all photos and their folders are gone. Then, I select the option not to use iCloud so the next sync. would be against the iPhone instead of iCloud. All folders are recreated and populated with all photos that I have in my pc. I have around 11K photos, only. In this way, I have survived during these last 2 months... It is not so painful but requires some time to do it. I hope this information will be helpful.

Harbisonsrepair

Yes, You are right. When I was tricked into iCloud - four months ago when this regretful iOS 11 update was launched - iCloud Photo Library was also set "on" by default! And after I stopped the unwanted uploading of my photos I had lost all my photos on my iPad. And that was the moment I discovered this bug in iOS 11. No more sync with iTunes. Thank you Apple. No thanks!

Haven't posted to this thread for a while, but still keeping an eye on it, and still totally dismayed at the lack of a fix to this problem. I haven't been able to sync my photo collection (25K + pics) to my iPad mini ever since iOS11 came out, with all the same problems as everyone else here. I got a new iPhone 8+ 256GB, and can confirm that all photos sync perfectly OK to that, so it only seems to affect iPads on iOS11 (an older iPad on 9.3.5 syncs perfectly OK). There is still a minor glitch with the iPhone 8+, in that when I sync some new pics, it always seems to report copying LOADS more pics than are being added (last time I added one new folder with just 30 new pics, and iTunes said it was copying around 2800 pics!) They all copy over OK, but the time taken is in line with the number of pics it says it is copying, so just to add that last new folder of 30 pics probably took getting on for an hour, by the time it had scanned the entire collection, then 'added' 2800 or so pics! Incidentally, why DOES it take so long to scan the picture library before copying any new pics. New music files are copied in seconds, and my music collection on my PC runs to around the same number of files (or songs/tracks) - around 24K. I seem to remember copying new pics was just as quick back around iOS6 or 7, then a new version of iOS suddenly meant waiting for around 20 mins while iTunes was 'reading photos from picture library' or something like that, before it started copying new pics. Perhaps that could be fixed too, up in Apple La La Land!