What does this mean? "the sync session failed to finish."

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Level 3

743 points

What does this mean? "the sync session failed to finish."

For those of you who know the system, could you share what exactly this message means? The progression bar stops with about 1/8 inch on applying changes after Reading the Photos library and it hangs there until the message come. What is it trying to apply at this location?

Lately it has been popping up at the end of the syncing process. The playlists I am adding now have some of the songs in them, but not all of them.

I have restarted and reset the iPhone. It still hangs. I have tried the sync with my iPadAir 2 and it synced find so it seems to be an iPhone X problem.

Any information would be appreciated as I try to find a fix for this.

iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11.6), 6GB RAM iMac Early 2007

Posted on Jan 30, 2018 4:24 AM

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Answer 1

JovonaP.

Community Specialist

Jan 30, 2018 5:40 PM in response to James Mol

Hello James Mol,

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities. It's my understanding that when trying to sync your iPhone X with iTunes, you're receiving an error that "the sync session failed to finish". I can see how this would be concerning especially since you're able to sync your iPad Air without issue. I'm happy to help.

Please try the remaining steps in the link below:
Resolve issues between iTunes and third-party security software

Have a great day!

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Answer 2

James Mol Author

Level 3

743 points

Feb 1, 2018 8:00 AM in response to JovonaP.

Thanks for the link. Went through many of the suggestions to no avail.

There is another guy who can sync to his iPhone 8 but not his iPhone X - go figure.

I have given up at home and will bring my iPhone into my office and sync the music from my 2008 MacPro. Will see what happens.

It is happening on applying changes - so if I can figure out what is going on during that process, I might be able to narrow it down to the cause.

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Answer 3

Demo

Level 10

166,627 points

Feb 1, 2018 8:07 AM in response to James Mol

I have received that message in the past with all three of my iOS devices. It can be really difficult to pinpoint exactly what the problem is. You might have a slightly differenent sync setting for the phone that you don’t have for the iPad and that slight difference could be where the hang up occurs. Maybe it’s one song, or one document causing the issue. If the settings for both devices are exactly the same, then it might be a problem with the phone.

I know I haven’t provided a solution for you, but I just wanted to let you know that you aren’t alone in seeing this behavior. The good news that I can share with you us that in every instance when it happened to me, it eventually worked itself out and without any additional troubleshooting from me. It just started working again for reasons that I can’t explain.

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Answer 4

Feb 22, 2018 11:32 PM in response to James Mol

Hi James - I am having the same problem...it deals with (at least in my case) w/photos/permissions/user accounts I think. I am not sure how my photo/user accounts got so whacked but the last time I could sync photos onto my iPhone 8 - "unknown user" came up under "properties" in both the iTune desktop app itself AND under the "my photos" file which is the master file folder where all my photos get synced from. It's some kind of security blockage for file sharing that either came from a windows update or apple I think. I can sync my iPad 4th generation fine, but not my iPhone 8 anymore. I have tried going the administrator route but still nothing. The sync gets to where you would see the number of photos being synced then BOOM "sync session failed to finish". My photos are pulled from an external hard drive. If you transfer your photos to somewhere else where the properties will be adjusted it might help? I am going to try that tomorrow....will let everyone know if it works.... VERY frustrating problem!!!!! - Jericho

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What does this mean? "the sync session failed to finish."

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