being the retentive type, i sync my phone to the computer (m2pro minimac) to update playlists on both. since the updates to 17.2/14.2, sync often hangs. restarting the phone or the music app or both sometimes fixed it. today however, the gawds are particularly ornery and i’ve been unable to get the phone to sync its playlists.
is this unique to this one grump or are others seeing this?
plus that i still have to enter my passcode after some random wait every single time i connect my phone to my computer has me wanting to execute as painfully as possible whomever designed this particular “security” feature.
I also sync my iPhone 13 mini (17.2) to my Mac (Ventura, 13.6.3) with a USB cable. I connect my phone, open a Finder window and click on my phone’s name in the left sidebar. If I only want to update the playlists (and songs) on my phone, and not perform a backup, I move to the ‘Music’ tab in the Finder window, click on ‘Playlists’, check the appropriate playlists I want loaded to my phone and tap ‘Sync’. This does process will NOT prompt me to enter the passcode on my phone, which only happens when a backup of the phone to the Mac is initiated. Backups often happen when you’re on the ‘General’ page and you click ‘Sync’ or (‘Apply’ if you’ve changed something). If you only want to sync playlists and not back up your phone, use the Sync button on the ‘Music’ page of the Finder window. This music sync is working fine for me.
I’m not bothered by entering my phone’s passcode (even though it’s 12 digits long) before a backup because I know without this step, if my phone were stolen, the thieves would be able to access the info on my phone by backing it up to their computer. Security, whether it’s on your phone or the lock on your front door, is always a trade-off with additional steps (some might say increased hassle) for the user. It’s the price we pay for keeping things we value safe.
On Sonoma here, I have a separate backup and sync button. Passcode entry — as annoying and unnecessary as it is — is only required if I choose backup.
apple pushed 17.2.1/14.2.1 updates at me this morning. after updating, sorry to report that sync still doesn’t just work. it requires either apps restarted or devices. apple support was typically unhelpful.
as to the required sync passcode, i get the security implications. i want that to be my choice, not decided by some product manager at apple. it can be the default, just give me the option. i want to be able to turn it off.
how’d you set that up?
i could live with manual backups. the only data on my phone that i really care about is the state of tunes (consider my phone an ipod that can make phonecalls).
Never did anything special to get that.
The “Back Up Now” button is in the middle part of the window (where it belongs since this is the backup section) and the “Sync” button is at the very bottom right.
I have it set up for iCloud Backups (although I also do local encrypted backups to Mac over USB at times), to show phone when on wifi, and automatically sync when connected. Those are the only options I have checked.
Under Monterey at least (I think Sonoma too) when using the Finder to sync via USB, the “Back Up Now” button is on the “General” tab, while the “Sync” button is on the “Info” tab. By default Sync also backs up, but presents a “skip backup” button, when you start sync.
Not here (Sonoma). Both Sync and Back Up Now buttons are on the General tab where I described them above. I never even go to the Info tab because it offers nothing for me (since, as it says there, my Contacts and Calendars sync through iCloud).
Sorry, you are correct, I just always use the Info pane because I do selectively sync some things. Info does not show the Back Up Now button (here… :-)
Since 17.2, trying to back up my iPhone (3rd gen SE) to my 2013 (Intel) MacBook Pro only gets as far as “Syncing (Step 3 of 5) - Preparing to sync” – where it seems to stall indefinitely.
I’ve left it trying to complete that step for several hours. Force Quitting Finder seems to get finder forget that the iPhone is connected (at least via Lightning → USB-C) so I can disconnect the iPhone from my Mac by physical disconnecting.
I rather hoped that updating to 17.2.1 iPhone OS and Sonoma 14.2.1 would fix this issue, but it hasn’t.
Not sure, but I think backing up may happen, but syncing sure doesn’t. I do have quite a few Books and a fair amount of Music that I’d like to sync between iCloud, Mac, and iPhone. I’m going to try selecting various options for Books and Music to see if that helps the syncing process…
Bob
No joy after fiddling with different sync options (in the Mac Finder). Looks like it’s time to try Apple Support … though I might just try to start a discussion on discussions.apple.com first.
Tomorrow, in any case.
Bob
I would certainly recommend going to Apple Support first, as the Apple Community Support Forum is likely to give you canned answers from users who’s only goal is to raise their point total and comments from others that simply say they are seeing the same problem.
second that. apple community support seems to be the ignorant “informing” the permanently baffled. annoying that its misinformation is the first thing surfaced by the search engines. much better off with the brain trust at tidbits.
btw: @bob32 you can just unplug iphones and ipods with no dire effects when sync hangs. other devices may or mayn’t react badly to such abrupt disconnects but it doesn’t appear to bother ios devices.
okay, i get what you’re doing but how do you prevent the automatic backup attempt? admittedly it’s been years since i originally set this up (inherited through a number of machines) but when i plug in my ios devices, they immediately attempt to sync with the computer and thus nasty things happen should i miss the passcode prompt.
I’m pretty sure that goes away if you back up primarily to iCloud. As I started doing once ADP was launched.
Wow. I haven’t been able to get sync between phone and mac to work consistently for about 5 years… mostly that it most often garbles all my playlist names and content on one or both devices, seemingly randomly. I’ve taken to moving songs (purchased from wherever) from mac to phone using a non icloud cloud storage and then adding them to phone playlists manually.
I wouldn’t let my music get anywhere near my actual icloud for fear of apple replacing versions of songs or album artwork, as they’ve done in the past. I don’t know how I’ll sort this when one day I get a new phone with the new process using icloud to get things from old to new phone… I dread the day. That will probably be the day I ditch the music app on both phone and mac.
So well done all of you that still use this, and may the spirit of Christmas fix your syncing. :-)
Just another observation and data point…
I just recently updated an iPad Mini 5 from 16.7.2 to 17.2. Last night I did a backup and sync without issue using my MacPro running Mojave and iTunes 12.9.5 and a USB cable. I was able to see Contacts and Calendar events updating. Then I transferred a PDF from the Mac to the iPad. It all worked.
When the passcode screen comes up on the iDevice I hit Cancel. That skips the backup and moves on to the Sync.
I’m on with Apple Support now, having decided to skip discussions.apple.com for now. But if/when I have a solution, I’ll probably post it there (as well as here). Meanwhile, Apple Support has me trying various and sundry things – which usually means that they don’t have a solution on hand, yet.
Bob
ah! i refuse to use icloud for anything substantial given the paltry 5gb apple doles out to all and sundry.
think the [cancel] suggested by @david_blanchard is the answer i seek. cheers all.
