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.

Playlist Folder will not Sync to iPhone

I have OS Catalina and recently purchased a new iPhone. I have organized my music on my mac into playlists and playlist folders. When I synced my phone with my mac the playlists that were not in folders transferred fine, but the playlist folders, and playlists within those folders did not. Does any one know how to have this information transfer? I had gotten this to work on my previous phone, but do not remember what I did.

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Dec 14, 2021 7:37 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Dec 15, 2021 8:35 PM

I figured it out. I had restored my music playlists by importing a .xml that I had backed up. The import created “smart playlists” where I previously had folders. The computer still showed that these smart playlists had sub playlists, but those sub playlists would not sync. I simply recreated the folders, moved the playlists into the folders, and re synced the device.

4 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Dec 15, 2021 8:35 PM in response to turingtest2

I figured it out. I had restored my music playlists by importing a .xml that I had backed up. The import created “smart playlists” where I previously had folders. The computer still showed that these smart playlists had sub playlists, but those sub playlists would not sync. I simply recreated the folders, moved the playlists into the folders, and re synced the device.

Dec 15, 2021 7:37 AM in response to turingtest2

I tried again by changing sync settings to selected playlists. The folders I created showed up as playlists and I selected them. After I synced my phone the folders seem to have transferred to my phone, but as playlists and not as folders. As a result the folders just turned into empty playlists. None of the playlists within the folders transferred over.

Dec 15, 2021 8:05 AM in response to TurnTwo

I use Apple Music these days so I'm not overly familiar with the sync selection screen, particularly the one in Finder, but you should be able to expand each folder in the tree to show any subfolders or playlists. If an item is selected for sync then it should get copied over. I have some nested playlist folders on my iPhone that have come over with Apple Music, and they work as expected.


tt2

Playlist Folder will not Sync to iPhone

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