I upgraded to Catalina.
Now the Finder, with my iPhone selected, always unchecks any album I select for syncing.
My Photos library has over 10,000 photos. I cannot succeed syncing just one album. Whatever I check gets unchecked after about a minute while the sync process is starting up.
iPhone XS Max with iOS 13.1.2
Mac mini (late 2012) with Catalina
iMac Line (2012 and Later)
Hi juanpitillo,
Thanks for coming to Apple Support Communities for help syncing your photos with your iPhone through Finder.
Have a look at this article for specific instructions: Use the Finder to sync your iPhone, iPad, or iPod with your computer. Be sure to "Select the type of content that you want to sync or remove. To turn syncing on for a content type, select the checkbox next to Sync" and to "Click the Apply button in the lower-right corner of the window. If syncing doesn't start automatically, click the Sync button."
Have you tested Wi-Fi syncing?
If the issue keeps occurring, try loading some pictures in a new user account and syncing them: How to test an issue in another user account on your Mac. This can let you know if the issue is isolated to your user or system-wide.
Let me know how it goes.
Have a fantastic day!
Catalina's Finder won't sync albums if those albums are nested under a folder in Photos. Top-level albums will sync though, however for me, I'm seeing duplicate photos and gray rectangles in iOS Photos after I sync. I upgraded to iOS 13.2.0 today, and there are still duplicate photos and Photos albums nested under a folder still aren't syncing. 😢
Not working. we have two mac's in household and separate iphones & id's for each. One sync via usb cable the other via wifi.
under catalina syncing photos via finder does not function. in the case of one of our phones (my wife's), some older albums sync strangely enough but new ones get unclicked after a sync attempt.
We both don't have enough icloud drive memory to use icloud sync and that has its own set of issues.
Dear Chris_G1
Just for information these suggestions do not work. There is a definite issue syncing via usb cable or wifi using finder on Catalina.
Please check other user streams, plenty of people with the same issue....
I noticed that it does not sync if the Photos are not imported into Photo Library, i.e. if "copy items into Photo Libraray" is unchecked. Which is definitely a big. I do not want to inflate the library by duplicating the files into it :-(
How bad that Apple, considering itself to be the Premium Class is not reacting to this bug !
Still broken with iOS 13.2.3 + macOS 10.15.1
Still does not work!! Horrible
Please fix it as soon as possbile
Photos do not sync via finder on Catalina
