Music Purchased Via iPhone Disappears!

I've purchased a few songs with my iPhone, and none of these songs have disappeared.

When my iPhone is connected to my Mac after purchasing a song with my iPhone, the song is transferred to the "Purchased on - the name of my iPhone" playlist under Store in the iTunes source list, and to my iTunes library.

I sync my iPhone with a single iTunes library on one computer, and I don't manually manage music and video since I don't see much benefit in doing so.

This has never happened to ME, but it has to my brother, who was also manually managing his music on an XP machine.

Try NOT manually managing and telling iTunes to either sync all songs/playlists or selected ones. That seemed to resolve this problem for my brother, I hope it does the same for you 🙂

I would set the iPhone be manually managed:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1535

Sounds like what is happening is that the auto-sync is removing iTunes Store purchases from the iPhone prior to giving you the opportunity to copy them to the iTunes library. In this situation, after you dock the iPhone, click File > Transfer Purchases from...

Not a solution, but an alternative workaround to not using the iTunes Wi Fi store.

CG

Are you syncing your iPhone with two computers - for contact information, calendar events, and bookmarks?

This, and manually manage music and video may be the cause - which isn't the same as is available with an iPod, since an iPhone can be synced with iTunes content on a single computer only - regardless is manually manage music and video is selected.

I've never used this option, and I sync my iPhone with a single computer only. I have synced or merged contact information and calendar events with another Mac once, but I believe this was before being able to purchase music and manually manage music and video became available.

I also have well over 16GB of movies and tv shows.

I see where removing a movie or tv show from my iPhone would be easier using manually manage music and video, but not adding. When adding, you scroll through the list of movies or tv shows under the Video tab for your iPhone sync preferences, and select the ones you want transferred, followed by a sync. I don't see how this is much different, faster, or efficient from locating the movies or tv shows in your library that you want transferred, and then manually dragging them to your iPhone.

I make use of a primary music Playlist for my iPhone, and I add/remove songs from this Playlist, followed by a sync. I don't see how this is much different from locating songs in my library, and then dragging them to my iPhone.

To each his/her own.

I am having the same problem today. I have purchased about 50 songs so far from iTunes on my iPhone. The last three purchases I've made (about 10 songs) have disappeared from my iTunes library on my home computer and from my iPhone. I only sync with one computer. I have the option set to manually manage music and photos and it's always been that way. The first 40 songs are still there and I requested a re-download of the missing songs. Until I know this is resolved, I'm weary of buying anything else off the iPhone. When I try to uncheck the option to manually manage music and photos, it asks if I am sure I want to do that and it will erase the songs off my iPhone. Problem is I want to manually manage it because I have hundreds of songs in my iTunes library and don't want everything on my iPhone.

I've just experienced exactly the same problem but all the music vanished from my iPhone and is no where to be seen on my computer.
I browse the iTunes store over wireless and when I find a song I like then i tap buy and it appears on my iPhone in a few minutes. This all worked great and I was very impressed until recently. Today, I docked my iPhone to my computer to update my calendar and backup my iPhone. However, for no reason whatsoever, iTunes has decided to wipe all the music from my iPhone. I have not altered any playlist settings or uploaded any music to my iPhone from my computer and its all pretty much set to the default 'auto sync' settings. My iPhone is also in its original state and has NOT been jailbroken or unloaded. I have searched my hard disk and my iPhone but my music is nowhere to be seen. I work as an engineer in a high profile IT environment and I have access to some of the best recovery tools which have failed to locate my purchased music on my Vista laptop. My feeling is that the music has never reached my computer and has been deleted on the iPhone. I'm running the latest version of ITunes so what else can I do? I have lost about 300 tracks, all downloaded 'over the air' using an iPhone and would very much like the music back. I am very dissappointed in iTunes and its rather suprising inability to 're-download' my purchased tracks - afterall, I have paid good money for the music and invested in Apple and the iPhone. (Which isn't cheap itself!)
Unfortunately this whole episode has left doubt in my mind about purchasing tracks using my iPhone and I would recommend iPhone users NEVER to download music using the iPhone 'over the air' via wireless. I hope Apple will let me re-download the tracks but as there are over 300 of them missing I don't hold much hope of Apple doing anything and I think I will go back to buying music via the tried and tested method..... yes you guessed it, simply buy CD's via play.com or from Tesco!

This has happened to me EVERYTIME I have purchased an album directly on my iphone. I have had to go through the "Report a problem" now on about 8 albums. I am manually managing music and videos on my main PC (Vista) and I charge and sync my calendar at work (XP). My work PC is not authorized to play music from my iphone and thus does not sync with it.

I am so fed up with this problem. I will not be purchasing from itunes much anymore, and I will never again be purchasing directly with my iphone.

If anyone finds a solutions or work around please come back and post it here.

Hello!
I have got the same problem!
I bought two songs the other day, then I synched, and they are neither in my iPhone nor in my iTunes library.
Why do we have to uncheck the manually managed songs box? I'd rather manage my own music because I don't want all my music in my iPhone. Well, so far my two songs are missing. I guess I will create an iPhone playlist and synch that.
Thanks to all for adding to this topic. I am also glad I am not the only one with this problem.

Exact same problem here.
Downloaded one song from the iTunes Wifi song and it immediately disappeared the next time I synced. Weak.
Guess I'll have to try syncing to a specific playlist... tho its annoying that I now lose out on Browse view for my iPhone 😟
Oh, and to make matters worse the song was purchased with a promo code so of course I can't even report an issue directly... I have to go though some promo department form

I have had the same problem twice, how do you get your music back to be downloaded from itunes, like who do i contact, itunes?

I just got an iPhone 3G last week. I sync music with my home computer, and contacts and calendar with my work computer. I bought one song on my phone and when I synced at home it transferred. A couple of nights ago I bought two more songs from the phone but had not yet synced on my home computer. Last night I noticed that those two songs had disappeared.

I also note that I never got an email receipt for those two songs (I did for the first and had purchased more via computer after that). Perhaps it does not "commit" iPhone purchases until you sync with your "music" computer? Perhaps syncing even contacts/calendar with a different computer causes the issue?