Fixes for iTunes syncing issues

[Zanton68]

Same thing happening here, seems at least once a week 3/4 of my songs will just randomly disappear from my phone. Unchecking sync music, syncing and then rechecking seems to work, but sitting there and re-adding 6,000 songs a week is frustrating and not something that should really be happening. Especially so often.

Having said that though, it happened on my 5S and on iOS7 too, so I don't think this is an isolated issue at all.

Yes; I had this with my iPhone 5 and again with the 5S. Many of the suggested solutions seem to work eventually but all seem to involve removing all music and adding it back again. This is great but a few syncs later, in my experience, the problem comes back and I have go through the whole process again. Again, no issues with the same iTunes library with my iPad or two iPods, just iPhone

 

[wacky4alanis]

I've had all sorts of problems syncing music with my iPhone 6. My latest solution was to restore as new, which obviously was a major PITA. For now, all is well. We'll see what happens the next time I sync my phone. iOS 8 has major issues with properly syncing music libraries.

 

[tiadee]

Updated for iOS8.

Firstly there are two separate bugs: The "Waiting for sync to start" bug where you'll get stuck on this step. That one is simple. iTunes can't sync when your passcode is locked. Unlock your phone, and make sure it doesn't lock before you finish the sync. Stupid I know. (I think this has been sorted since iOS7)

The second one was much much harder to nail down. The symptoms include: "ghost songs" on your phone that will stop new syncs, cause your iPhone to skip over them when playing/shuffling. And not having your phone sync new or all of your songs. The common denominator: When looking at your phone in iTunes there will be grey circles in front of a bunch of songs/media.

A million different temporary cures from logging in and out of the iTunes store on your phone and your iTunes; turning off 'Show all songs'; turning off iTunes Match; selecting your iTunes library in your music apps sharing options (obscure); turning on and off sync (the most common temporary cure); resetting your phone settings; restoring from backup or most destructively restoring from fresh, deleting all your data and settings. Yes, the equivalent of the good old nuke your PC and reinstall Windows option we've all derided for so long is now a common troubleshooting technique for your Apple device. Sheesh.

Have you tried all of the above already? Too scared to nuke your phone and start afresh? Grab a copy of iExplorer or PhoneView (the demo version will do) and follow these instructions:

MAKE SURE EVERYTHING IS BACKED UP TO BOTH YOUR LOCAL MACHINE AND ICLOUD.

Connect your iPhone to mac, open PhoneView, go to Settings>Show entire disk. Here I would recommend you back up all the contents of your phone. Or if using iExplore, open the media section.

Deleted the following folders:

• Purchases
• Downloads
• iTunes Control>Sync>Media,
• iTunes Control>Music

Deleted the following files from iTunes Control>iTunes:

• MediaLibrary.sqlitedb
• MediaLibrary.sqlitedb-shm
• MediaLibrary.sqlitedb-wal

You may get away with only deleting purchases, but just to be safe nuke them all.

Restart your phone by holding home and start buttons for five seconds.

Resync with iTunes (make sure you reset all the options for only syncing what you want, deleting these files makes iTunes think you want to sync everything).

This should (most likely) cure your ghost song troubles once and for all.

Credit to this obscure fix goes to an leeg330 on old thread I dug up on the Apple Discussion forums with people having issues with ghost songs on iOS5.

This SHOULD fix your syncing bugs once and for all. I got nailed again with the beta upgrades rendering me unable to sync music at all with the GM. And this saved me once again.

Why can’t I make this a Wiki? Doesn’t save my changes when I check the box.

Hey, I have registered just to thank you for your post. I used the method you have stated and It didnt work, i then unsynced music AND tones ans got a sucessful sync. I must have had a corrupt tone, i would suggest adding this to the folders to be deleted: itunes control/ringtones/sync. Worked a charm for me!

 

[Cougarcat]

Well, now I am having the issue where I can't update apps, and not sure what to do. Haven't noticed music randomly getting deleted, at least not yet.

 

[fat jez]

My solution is to create a playlist with the songs I want to sync in it. I then set only playlists to sync. Has got away from the problems I had with iTunes sync hanging at the final step.

 

[gixxerfool]

Well, now I am having the issue where I can't update apps, and not sure what to do. Haven't noticed music randomly getting deleted, at least not yet.

Try backing up and restoring. That fixed it for me.

 

[Cougarcat]

Try backing up and restoring. That fixed it for me.

Thanks, that worked!

 

[gixxerfool]

Thanks, that worked!

Not a problem. This is a rather large mess.

 

[wacky4alanis]

I did the whole "backup and restore" thing 3 times. My problems (messed up music database on my phone, problems syncing with PC) always came back whenever I tried to buy new songs/albums with my phone. Now I have just restored as a NEW iPhone (i.e. lost all of my text messages, photos, settings, app data, etc...). Things seem more stable for now, but I haven't tried syncing with my PC yet (except for the 1st sync after restoring, which went fine).

 

[Maki Roc]

I have the following problem. Most of my library is ripped in Apple lossless format. I have the following symptoms:

1. When enabling down-converting to 256kbps there are errors saying the file cannot be copied to the iPhone because it can't be converted (iTunes can play the files). After the sync is over I hit the sync again and the problematic files are allegedly converted and copied. This has never happened before upgrading to iOS 8.1.1 and iTunes 12.

2. When playing files in the iOS Music app some songs are skipped (cannot be played) even though iTunes show that the files are transferred. Album art is displayed properly.

3. To test the problematic files that allegedly can't be converted by iTunes I manually created different versions in iTunes using the right click menu option and their conversion was successful. I believe that the files are not corrupted since the play properly and are able to be converted.

4. If I try to directly sync the Apple lossless files without transcoding everything seems to be working fine. I have not run into a file that doesn't play on the iPhone.

I reported this bug to Apple and hope they fix it before I lose my nerves and smash my iPhone.

 

[GermanSuplex]

*An update...

After a couple of days of again having syncing issues, I tried something I read elsewhere. I plugged my iPhone in to sync, and when it got to the usual last step where it usually hangs, I just cancelled the sync. I then went to File>Devices>Transfer Purchases. The phone transferred a few iBooks and then the syncing began immediately.

 

[kimhill]

iTunes sync is a total nightmare, and apparently Apple just doesn't care. It's been well over a year at this point. Countless threads of suffering. All for nothing.

Perhaps they're trying to move people to streaming by destroying the user experience for traditional iTunes.

 

[ErikGrim]

iTunes sync is a total nightmare, and apparently Apple just doesn't care. It's been well over a year at this point. Countless threads of suffering. All for nothing.

Perhaps they're trying to move people to streaming by destroying the user experience for traditional iTunes.

Well over two years my friend. Well over two years.

 

[kimhill]

I DLed iTunes 12.1. So far I see no difference, although sync improvements are supposedly part of this release.

 

[uhaas]

I DLed iTunes 12.1. So far I see no difference, although sync improvements are supposedly part of this release.

I was able to wirelessly sync for the first time in 2 years.

 

[Zanton68]

Just lost nearly all my music. Again

Fortunately backed up to my Mac before the last sync so will try restore from backup.

64gb iPhone says there is only 1.4gb of space on it despite all the music now missing.

Fed up.

Is there another music player for iOS I can use?

 

[Zanton68]

Sick of this £1000 for a laptop and £700 for the phone and no support or fix from Apple. The store "geniuses" just scratch their head and say "never come across this before. Liars

 

[Zanton68]

Showing 47gb of "other" after restoring from backup. Doing a restore now then try again

Sick of this.

 

[Zanton68]

Did a restore which "worked". Finished syncing, or seemed to. Next time I plugged the iPhone in 916 songs synced and finished. Plugged the phone in again and a further 222 synced then finished. Plugged it again, no more songs synced; completely finished.

So my "fix" for this problem is, restore iPhone from backup 1.5 hours+ The sync, unplug, sync unplug until all the music eventually syncs

'It just works'

Except it doesn't.

 

[prowlmedia]

I had this issue and had tried everything. Even a complete OS X and iOS restore but eventually tracked it down to USB devices screwing things up. Unplugged Everything - all hubs etc. Just the wired keyboard

And immediately started working - over USB and WiFi. Did some rejigging of USB ports and got a better Hub and all seems to be good.

Now I have Mac pro 2008 setup and I suspect a lot of you are on MacBooks so won't have this same issue... but worth a try if you do have a lot of devices hooked in.

 

[Zanton68]

I had this issue and had tried everything. Even a complete OS X and iOS restore but eventually tracked it down to USB devices screwing things up. Unplugged Everything - all hubs etc. Just the wired keyboard

And immediately started working - over USB and WiFi. Did some rejigging of USB ports and got a better Hub and all seems to be good.

Now I have Mac pro 2008 setup and I suspect a lot of you are on MacBooks so won't have this same issue... but worth a try if you do have a lot of devices hooked in.

Restarting, unplugging, restoring all seem to be a common theme. My experience is that it is a problem exclusive to my iPhone. Two old iPod classics & my iPad sync quickly and flawlessly with my itunes music library; only my iPhone fails and needs time, hard work & patience to sync.

 

[prowlmedia]

Restarting, unplugging, restoring all seem to be a common theme. My experience is that it is a problem exclusive to my iPhone. Two old iPod classics & my iPad sync quickly and flawlessly with my itunes music library; only my iPhone fails and needs time, hard work & patience to sync.

Like I have said it was OTHER usb devices that seemed to cause an issue and they are plugged in again now and all is working fine. They are pugged into different USB ports in the mac of the mac... which says to me there was a conflict between something and the iPhone and by shifting them around forced the OS to reallocate USB Addresses.

 

[Zanton68]

Like I have said it was OTHER usb devices that seemed to cause an issue and they are plugged in again now and all is working fine. They are pugged into different USB ports in the mac of the mac... which says to me there was a conflict between something and the iPhone and by shifting them around forced the OS to reallocate USB Addresses.

Interesting. I have nothing else plugged in or connected, just Wifi and my iPhone

 

[prowlmedia]

Interesting. I have nothing else plugged in or connected, just Wifi and my iPhone

Cool - like I say might not be a fix for everyone. But something to eliminate.

 

[thomamon]

Its really ridiculous that they can't get this fixed yet.

I thought Apple was a competent company but they are proving to be no better then Microsoft or anybody else.

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Well, now I am having the issue where I can't update apps, and not sure what to do. Haven't noticed music randomly getting deleted, at least not yet.

Easy fix, go in and change the language and change it back to English. I had the same exact problem.