iPhone Sync Fails to Start in iTunes

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161 points

iPhone Sync Fails to Start in iTunes

iPhone SE running iOS 12.0

iMac running Mac OS 10.13.6 and iTunes 12.6.2.20

When I connect the phone by cable, it shows up in iTunes. When I hit "Sync", it tries to start syncing but the sync never starts - I get the message: "The iPhone could not be synced because the session failed to start"

The iPhone synced fine prior to the iOS 12 update. This is my first attempt at syncing running iOS 12. I have an iPad Air 2 running iOS 12 and it syncs fine on the same Mac / same iTunes

Posted on Oct 6, 2018 10:00 PM

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Answer 1

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pgoodwin Author

Level 2

161 points

Oct 7, 2018 7:51 PM in response to pgoodwin

In case anyone's interested, I fixed this problem by re-starting the iMac in Safe Mode, then re-starting the iMac in normal mode. There must have been some iTunes specific system file corrupted which Safe Mode deleted and it was automatically replace with an uncorrupted file. I don't pretend to know what really happened, but it synced normally after doing that

Prior to doing the above, the iPhone wouldn't sync to the computer in iTunes whether I was using the USB cable or trying to sync over WiFi. A normal restart of the iPhone and iMac alone didn't fix it.

Note - to boot up in Safe Boot Mode: Press Shift during startup -- start up in Safe Boot mode and temporarily disable login items and non-essential kernel extension files (Mac OS X 10.2 and later)

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Answer 2

pgoodwin Author

Level 2

161 points

Oct 6, 2018 10:06 PM in response to pgoodwin

I'm syncing / backing up to the Mac - not to iCloud

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Answer 3

pgoodwin Author

Level 2

161 points

Oct 7, 2018 8:03 AM in response to pgoodwin

Also, I’be rebooted the Mac and the iPhone - no help. Again, the iPad syncs fine, so there’s something in the settings that the iOS 12 update changed the iPhone but not the iPad.

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iPhone Sync Fails to Start in iTunes

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