You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Im trying to add music through iTunes but it won’t add to my iphone

How can I transfer music to my iTunes on the computer to my iPhone because I use to just be able to hit add to device but I can’t do that anymore.

iPhone XR, iOS 13

Posted on May 22, 2020 9:00 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jun 19, 2020 2:42 PM

What happened to drag and drop???????????????????????????????????????

5 replies

May 23, 2020 3:39 AM in response to finn179

I'm not sure what you mean by "hit add to device". I don't recall an "add to device" button. Do you mean Sync?


If you use Sync to manage your iPhone, simply connecting it to your iTunes library should do everything automatically, there is no "add to device" or any other button for you to tap, hit, thump, or touch, in any way.


But if this is the first time this phone has been connected to this iTunes library, or it has been restored (using the iTunes Restore procedure), you will need to set Sync options.


  • Connect the phone to iTunes
  • click on the Device icon that appears at the top of the iTunes Window



  • This switches to the Device/Settings/Summary pane
  • Click on Device/Settings/Music option (1.)




  • Section (3.):
    • If you have chosen Entire music library (3.), the new songs that you've added to your library should be put onto the phone. (There is a caveat, unfortunately). Recently there has been an issue with incomplete or erratic Syncing, whereby some songs fail to be added to the device at Sync, even though they should have been. In this event, try a further Sync to see if that sorts out the issue. Note that if you use this option, section (4.) will not be displayed
    • If you have chosen Sync selected playlists, artists, albums and genres, it will mean that for specific songs to be added to your phone, those songs must be selected in section (4.), which is now displayed. Explore the various parts of section (4.) to find the music you want
  • If you made any changes to these settings, you will now need to tap the Apply (or possibly the Sync button) button in the lower right corner of the iTunes window (not shown in screenshot). You only need to do this if you make changes to the settings. At every subsequent connection between the phone and this Library, iTunes does it all for you, adding anything new that is already in the Library and any changes you have already made*.


* If you do things in the wrong order, such as connect the phone to iTunes and then add music to your library, the Sync will have already finished or gone past the point where it decides what to add. In this situation, you will need to tap (or hit if you must) the Apply button. It makes more sense therefore, to add new music to iTunes and to make Playlist changes, before connecting the phone to it.


One more thing; there is an option to Sync only ticked songs and videos (on the Device/Settings/Summary pane). If you have that selected - and you untick songs in your Library, they will not be added to your phone when it Syncs with iTunes.

Im trying to add music through iTunes but it won’t add to my iphone

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.