Duplicate songs on iPhone 12 mini, no dupes on Mac

Question

Duplicate songs on iPhone 12 mini, no dupes on Mac

Macbook Air M2, 2022

Ventura 13.2.1

iPhone 12 mini iOs 16.1.2

I've ended up with duplicate songs on my iPhone, but not on my Macbook Air.

Music is taking up 56.79 GB on phone and only 29.91 GB on Macbook. Albums themselves do not appear to be duplicated. Instead, each album has two copies of every song. 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3...

This appears to be happening on albums that I own on CD and have put on to my Mac and then synced with my phone. Albums that I purchased and downloaded through iTunes/Music do not seem to have duplicate songs.

So, how to de-dupe phone when the dupes don't appear on my Macbook Air?

Thanks for any advice.

iPhone 12 mini

Posted on Mar 18, 2023 11:28 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

destiny241

Community Specialist

Mar 20, 2023 6:14 PM in response to Linked_Not_Ranked

Hello Linked_Not_Ranked,

If you have issues syncing your iPhone to the Mac, due to duplicates, then we'd recommend disabling music, then syncing, then enabling music again to re-sync the content. Here's how you could do that:

Connect the iPhone to the Mac.
In the Finder, locate the iPhone and select it.
Under the Music option, deselect Music altogether.
Sync the iPhone (without music).
Then select Music again to enable it.
Sync the iPhone (with music): Sync your iPhone, iPad, or iPod using your computer - Apple Support

This should remove the duplicates and all music from the iPhone. Then it should sync only the selected music content back.

Let us know if this solves the issue or not.

Take care.

Reply

Answer 2

1ssmith

Community Specialist

May 3, 2023 11:28 AM in response to Linked_Not_Ranked

Hi Linked_Not_Ranked,

Based on the troubleshooting that has been completed up to this point, your best bet will be to Get Support directly from Apple from here on out. You can use the link here to get started.

Take care.

Reply

Answer 3

May 3, 2023 10:48 AM in response to destiny241

Thank you for the suggestion. I did what you wrote, but it didn't quite work.

With Music deselected, I synced my phone (without music). Result after sync: no duplicates.

But

When I then selected Music again and synced (with music), the duplicates are back.

Please let me know if you have an alternative idea.

Thanks

Reply

Answer 4

May 3, 2023 10:50 AM in response to Linked_Not_Ranked

Interesting note: I did check storage on iPhone and Music is taking up only 28.02 GB now. Even though songs are duplicated within albums 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3...

Reply

Duplicate songs on iPhone 12 mini, no dupes on Mac

Similar questions