iPhone X Sync session couldn't start

[sultanoflondon]

Hi all,

My Mac displays the fatal warning below before terminating an attempt to sync my iPhone via lightning cable. Any ideas on how to fix it?

"The iPhone could not be synced because the sync session failed to start."

So far, I've done a soft reset on my iPhone and checked for updates on my Mac, and there are no relevant ones (just GarageBand and iMovie). The USB lightning cable isn't faulty at all. I haven't updated my iOS software yet, out of choice & I'd rather not tbh.

Thanks in advance, folks.

Cheers!

 

[NoBoMac]

The USB lightning cable isn't faulty at all. I haven't updated my iOS software yet, out of choice & I'd rather not tbh.

These could well be the issue(s).

Seen bad cables where they charge OK, but when doing any sync-like activity, problems.

And with the last iOS update, one of the phones I was trying to update via a Catalina Mac kept going into a cycle of "need to update software" loop (the message you see when you first plug in the phone, the small 1-2 minute update; phone kept giving the "I'm plugged in" chime). Was able to get it to update on Big Sur, plugged back into Catalina, asked to update software again, but worked this time.

 

[sultanoflondon]

These could well be the issue(s).

Seen bad cables where they charge OK, but when doing any sync-like activity, problems.

And with the last iOS update, one of the phones I was trying to update via a Catalina Mac kept going into a cycle of "need to update software" loop (the message you see when you first plug in the phone, the small 1-2 minute update; phone kept giving the "I'm plugged in" chime). Was able to get it to update on Big Sur, plugged back into Catalina, asked to update software again, but worked this time.

Cheers mate.

The cable itself is the original cable out of the Apple box, so I think it's unlikely to be the issue.

Will update the Mac to Big Sur to see if that changes anything. Else, I guess I'll have to update the iOS...

 

[NoBoMac]

The cable itself is the original cable out of the Apple box, so I think it's unlikely to be the issue.

These are the worst offenders, imo. Sister's family was having issues updating, backing up with the stock Apple cables. When I pulled out one of my Anker cables, everything worked fine.

Add in that cables might not be treated with care (eg. crumpled up in pockets, car consoles, unplugged by grabbing cable vs connector head), they do eventually start to fray.

 

[sultanoflondon]

These are the worst offenders, imo. Sister's family was having issues updating, backing up with the stock Apple cables. When I pulled out one of my Anker cables, everything worked fine.

Add in that cables might not be treated with care (eg. crumpled up in pockets, car consoles, unplugged by grabbing cable vs connector head), they do eventually start to fray.

Should be in decent condition as it's fairly new. Another reason I don't think it is the cable is because I've tried syncing the iPhone over Wi-Fi and it ends up with the same error message.

 

[Apple_Robert]

A lot of times problems of syncing or the Mac not recognizing the phone etc. are often caused by the respective devices not being up to date on the OS.