can not sync photos with ios 11.3 and itunes 12.7.4

Very strange indeed. I have been doing photo syncing on all my Apple devices since the they first came out. In my experience, ANY sub folder that did not contain an image wasn’t syced at ALL, yet alone being synced as a folder with no content in it. One thing I might suggest is to create a NEW master syncing folder, copy all your photos & sub folders into IT (EXCLUDING the existing “iPod Photo Cache folder”!). Then, redirect iTunes to that newly created target master folder, and process my suggested steps again. As I had said, THIS procedure WORKED successfully for me this time around, as it had for me on at least two other iOS/iTunes conflicted updates in the past. Good luck.

I'm really appreciating some of the clever workarounds. Definitely a testament to quality of the community here. But the sad part is that many of us use certain Apple products for sake of simplicity. The fact that we've had to use workarounds for extended periods of time is ridiculous. Apple used to be much better about releasing quality software updates. iOS 11 updates have been constant big fixes while we're still missing features (like iCloud in iMessage). And the flaws with iTunes are impeding functionality we've had for so long on our iDevices - manual photo sync. Hopefully this thread is making enough noise for Apple to take notice. Again, really appreciative for some of the suggestions here that have been working for some.

I’m having the exact same problem with my iPhone X I’m so glad you have spoken about this on here hopefully it will get an update soon as I can’t synch photos to my iPhone X it gets stuck and you can leave it for as long as you like it won’t get past that stage come on Apple get it fixed updates are supposed to improve your experience. It’s only since I updated my iphone to iOS 11.3 and updates ITunes to the lastest version.

Thanks to the workaround by Philip and tt2 so after almost 24 hours my new iphone 8 plus can finally be sync'ed with my music and photos on my iTunes (on Windows 10).

So, you might consider give it a try as a proper release to fix this showstopper in iTunes might not be imminent.

As others have mentioned, it's just sloppy programming and lack of proper QC that led to so many man hours being wasted on both the end-users and also with Apple support 😟

I usually wait for few months before executing any upgrade on both iTunes or iOS but the new iphone 8 plus requires the iTunes be upgraded to 12.7 in order to proceed.

It's annoying and frustrating that it forces us to upgrade to a version which does not work and remove apps etc from iTunes.

Good luck.

DLi

This is the situation I am in right now. I downgraded to last version of iTunes, and I thought everything was working, but right now, I am mostly getting empty folders showing up, with an occasional full folder showing up. However, at the bottom of the photos app, and in the folders, it will say "syncing", like it is still trying to finish the job. I ended up taking all my photos off and going back to the newest version. Hopefully, they will update iTunes soon with a fix, so I can get my pictures back on.

With the newest version of iTunes, it doesn't seem to be dealing with the iPod Photo Cache folder very well. I deleted it, and it won't recreate anything more than one file inside it. I was able to recreate it with the older iTunes version, but the photos didn't sync.

This was worth a try so I tested it out on my iPad Pro and success, albums re-appeared. So decided to have a go with my iPhone.

Connected, went to photos and probably because I'd removed the iPod photo cache the sync section was now set not to sync. Changed it and selected the folders I usually synch, when I hit apply was told this would remove existing photos. And lo and behold after the synch my albums were back with all the pictures. I didn't, however, re-boot the phone.

I then went back to photos to add another folder and at the moment looks like I am stuck on reading photos from pictures again! But at least the important folders are back. The contents of the folder I was adding are there as the total number of photos has increased, but the folder does not show so this is just a work round.

Just tested the iPad by adding another folder and got the same result, the photos have gone on to the iPad but the folder doesn't show (stuck on reading photos from pictures).

This describes my experience

Sync after a few attempts following the the deletion of cache the hangs on any change in photos after the first sync.

Apple loosing focus on quality and putting pain on their customers

I have this problem , too. it takes house at "reading photos from.." . I have done "reset the setting & contents"data on my iPhone x 4 times in the past 3 days, and on the call with a Apple support person 2-3 hours, could not figure it out.

It got me past the area I was first stuck on with reading photos, but then it just got stuck on adding a certain photo. I think the administration option helped to get past previously not being able to rebuild the iPod photo cache, but I am still having issues.

Don't know if my initial deleting of the iPod photo cache messed me up from the start, or maybe the multiple fixes I have tried, but I will probably have to wait until Apple comes out with something. If that doesn't help, I might have to try a restore from backup, messy as that is.

Running as admin didn't do me any favors. While running as admin, I tried ticking and unticking the Sync Photos option in an attempt to at least remove the synced photos with no success. Now getting this error message every time: "The iPhone "[AirJordan613]'s iPhone" could not be synced because the sync session failed to finish.

A follow-up here to my posted steps in how to eventually get photos synced via the newest version of iTunes:

As I had previously stated, performing all of these tedious steps DID successfully get me back to where I was before the iOS 11.3/iTunes 12.7.4 tragic combo was foisted upon us all. FY, I am syncing with Windows 10 to both an iPhone X and an iPad Pro. After performing my recommended procedure, I eventually resynced approx 1200 of my photos in (25 different sub folders), I did notice that the overall TIME it took to complete a routine sync was somewhat lengthened. Before, “Step 5 of 6 Reading photos....” had taken 10secs or so, before moving on to the next “Analyzing.....” step. but the “Reading...” step now takes me between 1-2 MINUTES before it moves on to completion. That said, ALL my photos WERE synced successfully, and were in their correct folders. And one thing I didn’t mention (which I saw that some others had also encountered, and has occurred with previous versions of iTunes) was that after closing the iTunes software, you weren’t able to START it again, without logging off/back in, or restarting Windows.

For many of you who tediously reverted BACK to iTunes 12.7.3 to attempt to rectify the situation, I’m sorry to hear of your pain. This entire problem is a direct result of an horrific conflict between iTunes 12.7.4 and iOS 11.3...PERIOD! I just now saw on the Web that Apple is besieged with bug error complaints about iOS 11.3 and will likely be pushing out a NEW update to iOS 11.3.1 as early as this week to attempt to address all these complaints of failures! Apple support? NO! They told me they were “looking into the problem”, but as TOO often, they didn’t have so much as ONE clue about how to HELP us (news flash there, eh?!) All of YOU, out there in the Apple Community, are MUCH better advisors in helping to make our devices work as they SHOULD. Considering the big $$ we all pay for them to begin with...a crying shame for sure.

So hang in there everyone. Slim hope here that a new iOS 11.3.1 might help even a little bit. But keep your discovered “fixes” coming, Apple should pay us ALL for proving them to the Community!!

I too am having this issue afer updating to ioS 11.3 and iTunes 12.7.4. I was just speaking to a Sr. Advisor who is taking ownership of my case and will escalate to Engineering. He screen shared my screen to see issue.

11.3 worked well with the previous iTunes though, no problems synching photographs at all.

(touch wood) luckily I don't have the problem of iTunes not re-opening after closing it down other than when I force close it via Task Manager - indeed my iTunes likes to re-open itself several times when I close it down 🙂 .

Unfortunately, the store employees are clueless about this problem. In addition, first line Apple advisors are clueless. Only Apple senior advisors are aware of the issue and are working with Apple engineers.