can not sync photos with ios 11.3 and itunes 12.7.4

Thanks for the additional info. I'm just leaving my iPhone (7 plus) as is for the time being, awaiting Apple updating iTunes. I've got back what I needed for now.

I'll test out on the iPad later and see if that now synchs properly.

I had no problems with ios 11.3, and this photo problem only began with the iTunes change. Let's hope it is not too long before they issue an update of one or the other to fix this problem for Windows users.

I have just synched both iPad and iPhone and the folders are definitely in place, including one I just added to see if it would appear as an album or if just the photos would be there in collections.

Looks like ErgoEdbo may have found a good work round.

I have just loaded iTunes 12.7.3 and I can confirm that this fixed the issue with iTunes hanging at step 5 when doing a photo sync. So definately a 12.7.4 issue! My sync of 8500 photos now runs in 5 minutes. But I still have a remaining issue with no albums showing on the iPad. I should see the windows folders appearing as albums and I don’t. Anyone suggestions welcome?

The current iTunes does synch the photos but fails to add the album folders - I got those back by following ErgoEdbo's method further back in this set of posts. It does involve removing the photos and re-synching them so takes a while depending on how many photos you have on the device. I have 2,700 in albums on mine and it took about 15 minutes.

Turingtest2 posted the following with links to the old iTunes on 5 April so you could try either method to get your photos back into albums.

"Downgrading is relatively straightforward, at least on Windows. You would only lose the changes you made to your library since you installed 12.7.4.76.

To revert to 12.7.3.46 see the iTunes installers section of Troubleshooting issues with iTunes for Windows updates for download links for recent builds direct from Apple, instructions on removing the current build before you reinstall, and advice on rolling back the iTunes database.

tt2"

Just did a search to see if there are other threads under different names that seem to be reporting this same issue. THERE ARE!!! With just a brief search, I came up with 7 other threads. The one with the most "I have this problem too" is entitled "itunes stuck on "Reading photos from pictures". Same symptoms and there are listed an additonal 267 "I have this problem too".

On another thread, one poster notes that most folks sync monthly and expects the issue to climb significantly as more and more folks convert to the latest itunes.

My apple tech got back with me yesterday and noted nothing has been heard from engineering. Sadly, I seem to have a better handle on the problem then apple does.

Does anyone have any idea if it is possible to know what version of itunes the "previous library file" was associated with? The reason that I ask is the date of my most recent library file is 03/31/2018 which is about the time I download the most recent itunes. My windows 10 install gives itunes as 03/31/2018.

You can see the iTunes installers section of Troubleshooting issues with iTunes for Windows updates for the build dates of various versions. The build date might be a day or two ahead of the first appearance on the iTunes download pages, which may again be ahead of any prompt from Apple Software Update. Not every update of iTunes causes the database layout to change, but when it does the old database is copied into the Previous iTunes Libraries folder and marked with the date of the update. Your most recent backup will be associated with the update to 12.7.4.76. The previous library is compatible with iTunes 12.7.0.166 through to 12.7.3.46.

tt2

I worked with a senior advisor a couple of days ago who told me to leave my iPad connected longer. I was giving up after 15 minutes and disconnecting. Last night my Mini iPad 4 finally finished syncing! I had left it for an hour, but happy to see it added a new folder of photos and my music videos. This morning my iPad finally finished syncing. It took 2 hours.

Hope Apple comes up with a fix soon so devices can sync quickly like they use to.

I tried ErgoEdbo's method of deleting the Photo Cache folder. I then tried to sync an iPad mini with 1759 photos from various subfolders. It eventually synced all the photos after many failed/incomplete syncs. One time iTunes crashed during the sync. Other times it would just terminate the sync with some error.

Reading photos during a sync now takes a ridiculously long time (> 15 minutes!) even though there are no new photos to sync.

Maybe it isn't really locked up but is just suddenly very inefficient at processing photos. Either way, these long delays and crashes while syncing are not acceptable.

Until they fix this bug, I'm going to disable photo sync but keep the existing photos on the iPad.

I couldnt sync my photos with 12.7.3 either. I’d get an error message, “internal device error.”

I’ve been working with a Senior Apple Advisor since the fall on that problem which started with iOS 11.

I am not sure if the following will also help Apple but here goes:

I posted on 5th April: iPod Touch with OS 11.2.5 which has been out of use for a few weeks - just synched photos to it and as with the iPhone, the photos have synched but no albums show. Before synching I checked the iPod photo cache file and the date modified for that had not changed when I synched the iPad Pro, nor had the amount of data stored there so I suspect that for unknown reasons nothing actually happened with the photos when that synched (leaving the few albums on there as they were).

Just had a further go at synching to the device, which had been turned off after that last attempt, and I had removed the photos I previously synched before I turned it off. The albums have synched over. Device is an ipod Touch from 2015 128 Gb with OS 11.2.5.

i have this question too

Now I completely uninstall all itunes app from my PC and erase all apple folders and downloading the last itunes and will try again I already saved my photos organized in folders to sync with i tunes as a albums

after new clan install of itunes i will tell you what hapen

Here is an update of my experiences as of 04/24/2018 at 8:34 AM. Based on my observations in putting photos back on my iPhone from losing them in the origonal troubleshooting, the program is syncing BUT iTunes DOES NOT recognize previous syncs of photos and treats every sync as a brand new one. I have observed increasing sync times up to 3.5 hours as I added more photos back to 7818 which are now on the phone. I had this number synced in yesterday.

Today I did not add any photos (same 7818). I started my backup and sync at 7:37 AM. Backup was completed at 7:40 AM. I am currently on "reading photos" at 8:34 AM. UNFORTUNATELY, I EXPECT ANOTHER 3.5 HOUR SYNC.

Yesterday, my Apple advisor called me back to report that engineering was still working on the matter. The only thing he had to add was that engineering is aware of the problem from other users. I discussed my theory of this possibility with him yesterday. For me this is the worst possible scenario as my normal routine is to backup to my computer every morning. This is going to adversly affect that routine as well as my photos issues.

APPLE PL;EASE FIND A RESOLUTION FOR THIS SOON! It has been 3 weeks!.

At 2 see Empty/corrupt iTunes library after upgrade/crash and restore the version of your database created when 12.7.4.x was installed. You only lose recent additions to the library, which can be added in again.

tt2

Update,,,, and a goofy one...

i tried this this method again of turning on iCloud for photos and wiping them off the phone... did it.. hooked up to iTunes / windows 10... still no good, sync fails. Sooo I thought I would try my Mac ( don’t have my iTunes library on it due to not enough memory in the unit... use it to edit photos and my photography biz).... thought I would try to sync only pics to my phone on this Mac... it worked.. all albums came back... I’m happy..... I thought....

tried to to add a few pics and try it again.... no go.... sync fails on the Mac as well after the initial sync that worked...

for giggles ( well not really... a lot of cussing tbh). I tried to sync it back to windows, to see if it would trigger it to replace the photos on my phone and sync normally .... asked if I wanted to remove the photos in the sync.. I clicked yes.... sync failed and photos remained , but folders gone...

re-sync to Mac... same thing... no folders, sync fails...

turn on icloud ... pics leave device.... turn icloud off... re sync back to Mac again.... photos and folders back...

good old lord what a mess.... am I going to have to sync to two units now.... am I going to have to go thru this to add any new photos... my god....

another question.... since I have about 80gigs of photos... only use the 5 gig free on the cloud.... where do those pics go when I turn on iCloud? Obviously I don’t have the space in the cloud to store them??

Yeah I did that... doesn't always work, it's inconsistent for sure. I used to have an entire folder of subfolders that became albums.. I figured that was the issue, so I switched to doing it that way.. it worked! .. then it stopped working.

The thing I have the most luck with ( on PC ) is...

1. Unplug the phone and restart it, also disable wifi sync.
2. Go to device manager and uninstall the iphone device
3. Reboot the computer
4. When it's all booted up, plug the phone back in
5. SYNC! ... It works most of the time for me..

Something that ALWAYS works is using ifunbox to delete a bunch of stuff on the phone manually, but that's far more involved and not for the faint of heart, I have it down pat now but it requires re-syncing everything from scratch..

I'm *not* going to restore my phone everything itunes decides to be stupid, and from other posts on here.. Apple is aware of the issue and is working on fixing it .. to me it seems to be a bug in iTunes because I not only have the problem on my 8+ but I have it on my 5s running ios9 .. when I downgraded iTunes it worked perfectly, but when a new version came out I thought MAYBE they fixed it! ... but no.. now I am just trying to find my own consistent method .. mine seems to work best .. for me..