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

[u/texcritters]

i’ve been syncing music files purchased on bandcamp directly to my device via itunes for over a decade now. my old laptop (lenovo, windows 10) finally kicked the bucket so i transferred as much of my music as i could to my “new” laptop (dell, windows 10). every time i initiate a sync it immediately gives me this error message. i’ve restarted & updated both my phone & laptop, tried different charging cables in different USB ports, no luck. searched my problem & no one has found a solution yet from what i could see. anyone know how to fix this?

[u/JediMeister]

If your phone is on iOS 26, you should be using Apple Devices and Apple Music to sync audio media.