iPhone 12 pro not backing up to Mac despite sufficient space on iMac

[JakeKEd]

I have an iPhone 12 Pro 128GB running on IOS16.7.2. It has 42GB free. When syncing with my iMac I receive a message that it "cannot be synced because there is not enough free space to hold all the items on your Mac (an additional 14.0GB is required)". My iMac (running Ventura 13.61) has a 1TB SSD drive and 650GB is free.

In the process the attempted sync has removed all my music playlists as well as some artists from my iPhone and I cannot seem to copy them back. Can anyone suggest how to fix the syncing or at the very least how I can get my music and playlists back?
Many thanks in advance as this is extremely frustrating!

Jake

 

[IWT]

Welcome to our forums. Thank you for your post.

My research says that your iPhone 12 can take iOS 17 and that might be a useful starter. Suggest you Upgrade to iOs 17, latest version.

This might sort out the discrepancy you mentioned in relation to your iMac.

I suggest you do that then see if the situation changes with your iMac. If not, don't hesitate to come back to us. Let us know the outcome.

Ian

 

[Raz0rEdge]

That's a very confusing error for sure. Where is it even trying to save the backup? I've been using iCloud backup for a long time and that works reliably for me.

Since it's asking for a specific amount, that's confusing as well. Why would it need more space on the phone to do a backup? So it must be the Mac, but you have enough space.

You can try doing the upgrade as Ian suggests and see if that helps.

 

[JakeKEd]

Thanks to you both. I did the IOS upgrade to 17. There is still 32GB on the phone but I still get the same error.

Regards,

Jake

 

[Raz0rEdge]

You might want to give Apple a call to see if they have any additional information to share since this is just very confusing.

In the meanwhile, have you tried backing up to iCloud to at least have a backup somewhere?