Help S3 not syncing with Mac

[adeleander]

Hi, just switched from a 4s to a S3, I knew the downside would be to lose the easy syncing and that I would have to do it all drag and drop from my mac, but Im not able to connect my S3 via USB to the mac.

If i use googles Android Transfer app then it just says no phone is connected and Kies also never recognises the phone.

I have tried switching the connection settings from storage to photos but that doesnt help.

I have read some advice on internet that says this is a bug in ICS but can anyone confirm this is actually correct?

PS I can connect wirelessly with Kies but it is very slow and clunky so want to do it via USB really.

PPS Anyone got any tips to sync with iPhoto and iTunes? Am a android newbie so could do with advice!

 

[dfran1]

Open kies first. Plug your phone into the computer.
And switch byour phone sync method from camera to media giving at least 30seconds in each switch . Mine usually works far after a few and it belongs in media . With kies open on the mac.

 

[adeleander]

Hi, tried switching multiple times like you said, still just says connecting all the time and doesnt connect.

 

[Warren705]

Hi,
I had the same issue, I upgraded from 4S to S3, on the same day I upgraded my Macbook Air to Mountain Lion.

OSx will not mount the S3 because of the file system on the phone is different, so you cant sync this way.

But samsung have made an app to solve this. Its called Easy Phone Sync. Its in the Google play store. You also need to download the app for mac from the easyphonesync website (google it)
Run it on your phone, then on the Mac, and it mounts the phone, and syncs Itunes. It will even copy pics & contacts from your Iphone back up storted on the mac.

Only limitation, it will not copy DRM protected tracks & video to your phone. But itunes songs are now DRM free.

I did all this last night, worked a treat. Hope it helps.

Warren.

 

[Warren705]

p.s, If you add / remove songs from your itunes library, the app will re-sync and update your phone, just as if you were syncing with an Iphone.
Actually easier than dragging and dropping...

 

[adeleander]

Thanks for that, syncing music now, do you have a way to get iPhoto syncing?

 

[Warren705]

Sadly not... Sorry

 

[Toosploos]

Any idea if Easy Phone Sync mounts the telephone to a mac - in other words: can you use it to root the s3?

 

[Warren705]

No it didn't mount it on my mac. The two programs, 1 on the phone the other on mac make a connection between them

 

[Warren705]

Sorry, I my earlier post I say it mounts, but this is not the case

 

[Toosploos]

Bummer. I've been ready to root this baby since I got the phone a month ago, but there's just no way I can attach it to my mac. Gonna have to wait for an update or borrow somebody's pc.

 

[dfran1]

OK people
I had osx 10.7.4 (whatever was the lastest) and now 10.8 brand new osx and both
I repeat both work for me with kies and the siii

1. Load kies from website (uninstall all other versions of kies first like kies wifi from phone) Transfer, Sync & Manage Music, Movies, Photos, Contacts and Calendars with Kies

2. reboot computer

3. open up kies

4. Make sure phone is on and not locked.

5. Plug phone in to an empty USB port on the computer, not hub. (try one on the rear or a different one on the computer and even disconnect all unused hubs ect..)

6. now pull down on the phone the notification and touch the "connected as a camera or media..." this will bring up a choice

7. Whatever is the given chosen one at the moment choose the opposite then choose media device MTP as your last choice

so if media is listed then choose camera then choose media again and my computer after about 30 seconds to 60 seconds in kies shows up every time.

For the life of me I can not get my phone to work with windows (but not important since it works for me on my mac)

If if is still not working then you could have something loaded that is conflicting (like some other program, what it is I dont know, you will have to search) or ??

Best of luck to all, I don't know why these phones are soooooo picky, I am on verizon are you, it may be verizon locking them down so no root???? Just a thought.

EDIT: I had kies working on 10.7 then upgraded to 10.8, so kies continued to work
BUT on my macbook pro I tired to load kies on 10.8 and it does not connect to it, it just sits there saying connecting and never does. android file transfer does work fine on both, but that does not help the itunes transfer for you.

 

[SAL8116]

Good tips here. Thanks!

 

[Metfanant]

if you want a real easy way to manage files on your phone then download "air droid" from the market...

find it here

it works great...it doesn't "sync" but for dragging and dropping and file management from your computer its outstanding...you can even send and receive SMS messages while the phone is connected...i really like it

 

[Warren705]

Thanks for the mounting tip, I will try later. The air sync is good, thanks!

 

[Alex Taylor]

Hi, just switched from a 4s to a S3, I knew the downside would be to lose the easy syncing and that I would have to do it all drag and drop from my mac, but Im not able to connect my S3 via USB to the mac.

If i use googles Android Transfer app then it just says no phone is connected and Kies also never recognises the phone.

I have tried switching the connection settings from storage to photos but that doesnt help.

I have read some advice on internet that says this is a bug in ICS but can anyone confirm this is actually correct?

PS I can connect wirelessly with Kies but it is very slow and clunky so want to do it via USB really.

PPS Anyone got any tips to sync with iPhoto and iTunes? Am a android newbie so could do with advice!

If you are still looking for a sync tool for Mac and your Galaxy - take a look at SyncMate, it syncs data on Mac with Android wirelessly. Hope this helps.

 

[jakenavyseal]

I Just bought my Galaxy S3 4G and tried to sync the songs via USB cord that are on my Macbook Pro to the phone, but when I connected it after downloading the "Android File Transfer" app, it responds with, "No Android Device Found. Please connect your Android device with a USB cable to get started". Any suggestions?

 

[d0gballs]

My wife just made the switch from Apple, love the phone but every sync process (minus google tools and dropbox) do not work. Seems MACs do not care for MTP mode any longer. Anyone found run into this problem as well (hope not user error) and any solutions? Thanks in advance tom

 

[McBuzz]

Could you be a bit more specifc?

 

[Metfanant]

My wife just made the switch from Apple, love the phone but every sync process (minus google tools and dropbox) do not work. Seems MACs do not care for MTP mode any longer. Anyone found run into this problem as well (hope not user error) and any solutions? Thanks in advance tom

Android File Transfer

AirDroid

Download from Play Store
​

 

[seeafish]

I have a mac as my primary PC, but find the android file transfer to be quite crappy. I have quite a few gripes with it, but the dumbest oversight they've made is not letting you switch the folder view. If you copy lots of things into one folder and your list fills up the window, you essentially can't move more thing into that window by dragging and dropping...

Anyway, I was just wondering if there was an alternative way of copying stuff across? I wanted to use Kies, but apparently that doesn't work on Mountain Lion.

 

[RandomVarX]

My wife just made the switch from Apple, love the phone but every sync process (minus google tools and dropbox) do not work. Seems MACs do not care for MTP mode any longer. Anyone found run into this problem as well (hope not user error) and any solutions? Thanks in advance tom

Using Samsung official sync software "Kies." You will be able to sync music and everything, but the software seems outdated and will not recognize your S3 but another random phone. It does the job though! It's a free software, google it.

 

[SUroot]

Depends if you're happy to use your WiFi or not.

Personally (on Linux) I make my computer and FTP server (Can be done on mac too) and then I use Estrongs File Explorer to pull files to my handset.

 

[seeafish]

I don't mind using wifi, but since it's generally much slower than USB it isn't preferable.
So you use Estrongs, but why do you specifically need to use FTP on the server side? Is it not possible to just do a folder connection (smb or cifs)?

 

[SUroot]

I can mount my NTFS NAS as Cifs/Samba but my Linux machine obviously is not samba or cifs so no...

Plus I can do this from anywhere in the world. I don't have to be in the same room.