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Syncing Stuck on Step 2 On Mac (MERGED)
- Thread starter papbot
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Are you also running betas on the Mac and Apple Watch?
None of my bug reports have been updated and show no similar reports.
Still with your Apple Watch turned off or is syncing totally fixed in the 17.2 and 14.2 betas and don't need to turn off the watch anymore?
Also, did it remove all the logs from the phone or are they still there but just copied over to the Mac?
You still have to turn the watch off first. Then a sync either by cable or WiFi works. And it does not appear to remove any logs, just copies them. The software does appear to delete them automatically after a week. None remain older than 7 days but syncing no longer removes them.
Thanks for checking. iOS does delete most of the logs after some time but I also have app specific logs that are stuck on my device since beginning of September and won't delete. Weird thing is they also don't show up in iMazing or 3uTools either.
I don't think there's anything that can be done more except wait for Apple to release a fix.
It’s been puzzling to me why there hasn’t been more attention addressed to the change in the syncing process. From posts here and on other forums, when people have checked, they report seeing that diagnostics remain on their devices after syncing to their computer, which is a change from all previous iOSes. I got into a habit of doing such a sync specifically to remove those files from my phone and ipad just to restore storage space. If you participate in beta testing and file reports creating syncdiagnosis files, which are huge, you can take up a lot of your available storage. And often in the past those files remained on my devices for an extended time; they were not removed automatically at some point as most are now.
I’m guessing that not many sync their devices to a computer or are not on ios 17; of those that do they don’t look at their analytics data nor notice how much storage is being occupied by them. Although I always see multiple posts complaining about storage space. And I can only assume of those that do sync to their computers and are on ios 17, not that many have Apple Watches so don’t see the same issue we do. But the change in the removal and copying over of files during a sync is a distinct ios 17 change. Bug or intended is unknown since I see no discussion of it outside a couple threads like this.
This. Guessing a very large number of iPhone users might not even have a computer, and if they do, have no idea about syncing. Appliance users vs "nerds".
iPhone 13PM syncing to iTunes hangs on step 2 of 4 again for me with Apple Watch connected or Apple Watch off. Granted I use it to clear logs. This is on Windows and 17.2RC. Worked flawlessly on 17.2 beta 3 & 4.
With the Apple Watch turned off, it's not hanging for me (iPhone 15Pro, MacOS 14.2 RC) but it's not copying the logs to the Mac nor is it clearing out the logs from the device.
Still hangs on step 2 when the Apple Watch is connected. Apple Watch on 10.2 RC also.
So this was fixed in beta 3 but “un-fixed” in the RC?🤷♂️🤷♂️ I’ve yet to attempt a sync with my mac since yesterday’s RC release. The issue of not clearing logs from an ios device during a sync seems to be deliberate at this stage.
I didn't do any of the betas, but I just upgraded to the public releases of 17.2 and watchOS 10.2, and this bug started happening to me.
Insanely frustrating. Hung on Step 2 or 4: Preparing to sync.
Insanely frustrating. Hung on Step 2 or 4: Preparing to sync.
Yeah. Same happened to my iphone se3 after the 17.2 update.
There have been several workarounds suggested like turning apple watch/bluetooth/wifi off and turning on airplane mode which I tried but the only thing that forced it to go past preparing to sync was to open activity monitor find the process MDCrashReportTool and kill it. Immediately after killing it the sync proceeds to completion.
It seems that 17.2 makes the MDCrashReportTool to hang preventing the sync from proceeding.
You can kill MDCrashReportTool even with apple watch on and wifi and bluetooth on and without turning on airplane mode.
I’m trying to sync my music to my iPhone and with 17.2 it’s stuck on preparing to sync.
I looked at this link but still not sure how to “kill” the Mac helper thing.
discussions.apple.com
Anyone can help?
I looked at this link but still not sure how to “kill” the Mac helper thing.
iPhone - Stuck "Preparing to sync" when… - Apple Community
Anyone can help?
Open the Activity Monitor App in the Utilities folder, search for MDCrashReportTool and Force-quit it. This process only runs when the iPhone is syncing with the Mac. It won't show otherwise.I’m trying to sync my music to my iPhone and with 17.2 it’s stuck on preparing to sync.
I looked at this link but still not sure how to “kill” the Mac helper thing.
iPhone - Stuck "Preparing to sync" when… - Apple Community
Anyone can help?
Also, you can just try unplugging your iPhone when it's stuck syncing and plug it back in. Usually it will do the sync the second time it's connected.
Brilliant! Quitting the MDCrashReportTool enabled the sync to complete for me.
Thank you for your help. Much appreciated!
Thank you for your help. Much appreciated!
I have the same problem: Now with the latest updates Preparing to sync (step 3 of 5) hangs forever on my iPhone 15 Pro Max (iOS 17.2), Apple Watch Series 8 (watchOS 10.2) and MacBook Pro (macOS Sonoma 14.2). Killing the MDCrashReportTool process at least finishes the Sync. This did never happen before.
I can’t thank you enough. Before 17.2 I’d have to wait at least 20 minutes for adding a song or two. Omg. Thanks!
There is another way to kill MDCrashReportTool in terminal without using activity monitor.
After the sync starts, run this in terminal:
Code:
ps aux|grep CrashIt lists a few processes with various associated pids. Note MDCrashReportTool won't be there unless a sync has started.
Copy the Process ID associated with MDCrashReportTool and run this:
Code:
sudo kill -9 <pid>being careful to copy the associated Process ID correctly. It may prompt for a password and if so, enter it.
You will then notice the sync resumes and runs to completion.
It does look a bit longer than the activity monitor method, but once you get the hang of it it is actually quicker.
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