Solution to iPhone Unknown Error -39
I recently received an “Unknown error -39” when syncing my iPhone. After futzing for a bit, I noticed that the error occurred when it got to updating the photos. So I unchecked the sync option for photos, told it to remove all the photos from the phone, and pressed, “Apply.” After going in with a fresh photo sync by re-enabling the checkbox, everything seems to be working fine. I thought I would post since nothing came up when searching for the esoteric error number.
Tags: apple, iphone, iTunes, photo, sync



I also am having this problem…please help.
Thank you so much, it worked perfectly and that was my problem…sync photos that caused the error.
My phone is jail broken so I didn’t want to restore and loose all of that so this saves me a ton of work.
Thanks! Glad it helped. I wasn’t able to find much info about it.
Michael, can you provide more details about your problem?
Thank u so much for the post! We searched at lots of websites in the web for the solution for this problem and yours was the only one that helped us!! =)
Thanks this worked for me! I so dread restores
I wanted to note as well that in my case I hadn’t actually told iTunes to delete any photos off of my iPhone before I got the error..! It just decided some stuff had to go, even though I’ve never given it permission to remove photos to make space for video, etc. Also, my iPhone isn’t (currently) Jailbroken either.
Thanks a bundle Andy…
I was having the same problem and it is solved when i did as you described
Thanks a lot.
I’m not experiencing that error, but have you ever had trouble syncing photos from your desktop to your iPhone, even if you clearly have more than enough room on your phone? I was trying to sync a folder with a ’single’ tiny photo to my phone that had many times as much free space, but it constantly says no room. I’ve even unloaded all of my music, synced the photo, then reloaded the music, and the pic still won’t load. I’ve also unchecked “sync photos,” synced, then re-checked it, and synced, and it still doesn’t work. Seems to be an unsolved problem according to the Apple support forums…
Sorry you’re having issues Chris. I haven’t experienced that one personally but I’ll keep my eye out.
Andy, you’re a ripper. Even I managed to follow your advice and it fixed the problem on my phone.
Great!
Thank you so much after worrying about it for 3 hours this really helped thank oyu
Thank you. It worked for me as well.
Awesome fix. I had error -39 and this resolved it in no time.
Great work. Although I was hoping it was broken so I could go get a 3GS for multitasking…
Yahoo…that was the problem, needed to check off which folder i using to sync with itunes, once i did that i have no more (-39) error..thanks everyone!!
Thank you so much! I’ve spent two days trying to figure it out. I was running out of memory to add more pictures, so I’ve been messing with it and finally googled the problem. So glad you blogged this problem!
Thanks! Also works with the same error on an iPod Touch.
worked fine with me! Thank you!!
Thank you very much, it worked for me.
I’m glad this is working for everyone!
Thanks so much. It totally worked.
Glad to hear it!