Music from laptop to iPhone 11

That's not how it's done.

You need to add the song(s) to iTunes, to create and add to, your iTunes Library and then use Sync to copy them from your library to your phone. This will involves setting up some Sync options, which I'll come to after we've added music to your library.

It sounds as though you have iTunes installed on your computer. So let's go through the steps required. First, adding music to your iTunes Library:

• use iTunes' top bar menu, as follows:
  • to add a folder full of songs (for example, an album), click on File/Add Folder to Library and using the panel that opens up, navigate to (but don't go into) the folder containing the songs. Select the folder and then click on the Select Folder button
  • to add a single song - click on File/Add File to Library and using the panel that opens up, navigate into the folder with the song. Click on the file (for that song) and then click on the Open button. That song should now be in your Library
  • in both the above methods, the song (all the songs) that you added will now be listed under the various headings available in your Library and shown in the Sidebar: that is, Artists, Albums, Genres and the Songs views:

• • if the Sidebar is not displayed, on the top bar menu click on View/Show Sidebar

Now that you have songs in your iTunes Library, we can move on to adding them (by copying, not transferring) to your iPhone. Note my use of the word "copy". Your iTunes Library is a backup for your phone, so music is not moved from the computer to the phone. Instead, it is copied. This also means that you have to retain the copy that is on your computer. Make sure that you back up your computer because it is not a simple process to get music from the phone back to your computer or back to your iTunes Library.

Setting up Sync options:

• Connect your phone to your computer and when the iPhone icon appears, click on it:

• that will display the Device/Settings/Summary pane. Switch to the Device/Settings/Music pane (1.) as shown in the screenshot below:

• using the screenshot above as your guide:
  • click on the Sync Music button (2.) so that the tick (check mark) appears in the box. Until you do this, no music will be added to your phone
  • In step 3, select either:
    • Entire music library - which will add al the music in your iTunes Library. Note that if you have music on your computer that is not in your Library, it will not be added to your phone by this procedure. Note also that all the sections numbered 4 (in the screenshot) will not be displayed. This is expected behaviour
    • Selected playlists, artists, albums and genres - which will then display the sections numbered 4. Choose the items that you want on your phone from the lists numbered 4. Only songs that are in one of the lists you select will be added to your phone
  • click on the Sync (or Apply) button in the lower right corner of the iTunes window (not shown in the screenshot). Wait for the process to complete. You can follow the progress in the Now Playing window at the top-centre of iTunes
• once the Sync has completed, use the Eject button to safely eject the phone from iTunes and then unplug the phone from the computer. The Eject button will replace the spinning arrows that you see above the battery icon in the second screenshot

To add additional music to your phone, add the music to iTunes Library and then connect the iPhone up for a Sync. It should be automatic. Note that if you used Sync/Selected playlists, artists, albums and genres as your preferred option, any new songs must be in one if the items (playlists, artists, albums or genres) that you selected for Sync.

Why? What steps are you taking to copy (not transfer) music to your phone and what happens when you try?