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I am SOOOO frustrated with Apple Music!!!!

Back when Apple Music app was iTunes, you could just connected your iPhone to the iMac, go into iTunes, click on the iPhone, and then move things around, drag and drop from the iMac, easily create playlists and drag music into it, etc.


I am completely frustrated with the Apple Music app because this simple visual way to manage the music in my iPhone was so easy. Now, I simply can't figure out how to do any of that. I can't even see the music on my iPhone on the iMac screen or able to move it around. Today, I upgraded to iOS 14.4. Later, I decided to move some music I have on my iMac to the iPhone and into some previously created playlists. I hadn't done that in a very long time. WOW!


It appears I need to use AirDrop to move the music from the iMac to the iPhone. I did that by going into the song list on my Mac's Music app, right clicking to find where the file was stored, and then put it into AirDrop. But to accept it I had to either accept it as a file or use one of my non-Apple drone apps to accept it. What??? It doesn't just drop into Music? I accepted is as a file but now have no idea how to move that file into Music so I can put it on a playlist--nevermind that I still have no idea with the current way Music works how to move it onto the playlist if I somehow get it into Music. I have a 2019 27" iMac, and an iPhone X.


I don't want to sync my entire music library onto the iPhone and I do have the options on the iPhone set at manually managing music, movies, etc. But my choices in syncing appear to only be able to move my entire catalog of an artist, rather than a single song from that artist. Some of the tunes I'd like to move from iMac to iPhone were from old CDs. Others I did purchase through iTunes. But I would REALLY like to be able from here on out to just take a single song from my iMac and put it on my iPhone without a plethora of steps to remember and then go through.


Anyone have a "For Dummies" way to do that???

iPhone X

Posted on Jan 26, 2021 1:39 PM

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Posted on Feb 17, 2021 5:36 AM

You manage the content of your iPhone via the Finder now on your Mac.

When you connect your iPhone it should appear in the left hand sources list in the Finder. If you click on the iPhone in the list you should see a similar screen for managing the iPhone content as you did in iTunes.


https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT210611

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Feb 17, 2021 5:36 AM in response to Gr8fulted

You manage the content of your iPhone via the Finder now on your Mac.

When you connect your iPhone it should appear in the left hand sources list in the Finder. If you click on the iPhone in the list you should see a similar screen for managing the iPhone content as you did in iTunes.


https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT210611

Feb 17, 2021 8:05 AM in response to Gr8fulted

In the Music app on the iMac.


  1. Go to File > New > Playlist
  2. This will create a new playlist that will be named Playlist
  3. Select the playlist in the list on the left in Music app and then you should see the empty playlist in the main part of the window
  4. Click on the title of the playlist ‘Playlist’ at the top of the screen and you can then rename it
  5. Now navigate to each track you want in the playlist, if you right click on a track you will see the option Add to Playlist, select the playlist you have just created
  6. You can also just drag tracks onto the playlist in the list on the left

Feb 17, 2021 7:49 AM in response to Ian Parkinson

Thank you, Ian, for being someone who finally responded to my post.


However, your response doesn't quite solve the issue and I apologize for not being able to articulate what I'd like better. As I tried to explain above, I want to create my own playlist on the iPhone--name it myself to help me remember what it is--and then move a few select music files to that playlist from my iMac. Rather than choosing one musical act or another and then syncing the entire catalog I have of that artist, I want to choose a single song from this artist, a song from that artist, and a musical file a musician friend sent me that she recorded herself, and then a song from a particular CD I own, then a song from a different CD by another artist that I own. In the end, I had multiple songs by different artists in a certain playlist, not every song I have by a particular artist on my iPhone. The link you supplied with your response seems to indicate I have to select a particular artist to sync, and then every song that I have by that artist is downloaded to my iPhone. While my iMac (and connected external hard drives) have my entire music library of thousands of songs, I just want a select few on the iPhone so I don't use up its entire memory.


I use to be able to create such lists using my music library on my iMac simply by dragging and dropping them in iTunes. I seem to be too much of a Dummy to be able to figure out how to do that in the new Music app.


Again, thanks for responding.

Feb 17, 2021 7:59 AM in response to Gr8fulted

If you notice the instructions say you can manage playlists as well. You do have to turn off iCloud Music to move to manual management of music. Once you go to manual management of music it will works just as iTunes did. You can create a new playlist and add any tracks you like to it then sync it to the iPhone.


Why don’t you create the playlist on the iMac in the Music app. You can give it any name you like and add any individual tracks you want. Then it will sync to your device as per normal via Apple Music.

I am SOOOO frustrated with Apple Music!!!!

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