How can I get Itunes to sync ONLY the music I selected to my iphone?

You do not have to subscribe to Apple Music to sync music you imported to your PC. See the 'Sync or remove content using iTunes' section in:

Use iTunes to sync your iPhone, iPad, or iPod with your computer - Apple Support

You may have to cancel the Apple Music subscription first and turn-off iCloud Music Library in iTunes on your PC:

Use iCloud Music Library on PC - Apple Support

Try the steps in the 'Download music to your computer' section of:

Add and download music in iTunes on PC - Apple Support

Then try to sync again.

BTW before you subscribed to Apple Music did you make a backup of your music library on your PC? If so, and the above doesn't work, try restoring that backup.

Move your iTunes library to a new computer - Apple Community

First of all, you do not use the phone to tell iTunes what to Sync. Instead you do this from iTunes.

(Do not have Apple Music or iCloud turned on. You don't need either.)

To sync only what you choose, click on the device icon (once it shows up) in your iTunes Library:

This displays the Device/Settings/Summary pane.

• switch to the Device/Settings/Music pane (1.)

• make sure that Sync Music (2.) is selected (i.e. that there's a tick {or check mark} in the box)
• in (3.) choose Selected playlists, artists, albums and genres (3.). It's this step that offers you the choice of what to add to the device and only now will the sections in 4 appear
• select the items in the various section 4 panels that you wish to add to the phone. Scroll down for the other sections
• tap the Sync (or Apply) button in the lower right corner of the iTunes window (not shown in the screenshot)

Your phone should now have only what you selected for synchronisation.

Raithadean wrote:

Well, as I have stated I am trying to copy from itunes to the phone.

I know. What I pointed out is that you said you were trying to use the phone to tell iTunes what to do. This has never ever been how it works.

I have selected lots of music from the library, and tell it to only sync what is selected.

You haven't said how you're making these selections, so I have to assume for now that whatever method you have been using was probably not the best method (and that it will have had other unwanted effects. More on that later).

But I do not make additional selections from the device/music pane. Do we have to do that now also, in addition to selecting it from the library list, or instead of? I used to be able to select songs from the library display and it would sync selected tunes just fine. Does that no longer work? If I have to select from the settings/music screen now, how do I select individual songs from artists or playlists if I do not want the full playlist?

It's not a matter of "do we have to do that now also" at all. My suggestion has always been the most suitable method and I didn't say do in it addition to what you've done. Rather, I suggested that you do it instead of what you have been doing. Please try what I have suggested.

I have to assume, since you've not mentioned how, that your method of selecting what to sync was to untick (uncheck) the tick boxes next to each song title. If that was what you were doing and it's not working now, then you may have the option to Sync only ticked songs and videos turned off, because that's what controls that feature.

But all this is irrelevant. Let's start from scratch.

If you have music in your iTunes Library, that you want to keep there, but do not want on your device (phone), the best method is to use the steps I mentioned in my previous post. No question, that is - and has always been, the method. If you were doing it any other way, it was probably not the most suitable method (and I'll come to that later, in order to hopefully help you see that what I am suggesting will work!)

To get only the songs that you want onto your phone, but keep all your other music in your iTunes Library, use the steps outlined previously. I will go through this now.

Before you sync your phone with iTunes:

If you have individual songs from an artist, from an album or from any Playlist, that you want on your phone, simply add those items to another Playlist. Any song can be in more than one Playlist. The same thing applies to genres; you can select just one song from a genre and add it to your special "one-songs-playlist". In fact, let's (for the sake of this demonstration) call it the One Songs Playlist.

Now refer to the steps 3 and 4 (using the screenshot in my previous post, as well as the ones below):

• • (3.) select Selected playlists, artists, albums and genres. This will now display section 4, which is the Playlists, Artists, Albums and Genres selection area:

Note that you need to scroll down the page to see the Genres and Albums lists.

• • for the next step (4.):
    • to put full albums onto your phone, select the album title from the Albums panel in 4 (it's further down the page)
    • to add all albums by a specific artist, select the artist from the Artists panel in section 4. To select only certain albums by the artist, use the Albums panel lower down
    • to add specific Playlists - including your newly created One Songs Playlist playlist, make sure that you select it (put the tick in the box) in the Playlists panel in section 4
    • repeat if you have specific genres to add
  • click the Sync (or Apply) button to action this selection

The result will be that only the items that you have selected will be on your phone.

The disadvantage of using the individual tick boxes to control what goes onto your device:

The screenshot above shows the Songs view of my main music library.

If you untick the tick boxes shown next to the song title - (and you have the option to sync only ticked songs and videos turned on), although that will stop unticked songs going onto your device, it will also stop the song being played in iTunes unless you specifically select it. In other words, if I untick the song Imagine (shown in the screenshot) then when the song Medley: Brown Baby / Save The Children finishes, the song My Baby will play and Imagine will not. Hence why I think this is not the best method. (I do use it to manage Christmas songs.)

Raithadean wrote:

I guess my frustration is not understanding why what I mark on the main song list doesn't seem to make a difference to what shows marked on the phone-settings-music page, despite me having the button for Selected playlists, etc marked.

Have you checked the Sync only ticked sings and videos option? It's on the Device/Settings/Summary pane, under the Options heading.

I had the songs I wanted on my phone, and if they were part of a playlist or album, I could select those on the phone and it would have just what I wanted.

It doesn't matter whether a song is part of a Playlist, you can still play it.

The other thing you can do is create an "on-the-go playlist" on your phone, from any of the songs on there. It sounds to me as though this is what you should be doing. Think of it like this: whatever you select to play on your phone, becomes an Up Next playlist. You can see the Up Next playlist by dragging the Now Playing screen upwards.

This means that if you have a song playing, you can browse your music on your phone and add any song to the Up Next (yes, it's a "playlist"). To do this, long-tap the song and from the pop-up menu select either:

• • Play Next - which will play that song once the current song finishes
  • Play Later - which will place the song at the end of your Up Next list

In both cases, this does not affect the original playlist that you are using. For example:

• • if you are playing "an album" and you add a song from a different album or playlist, as detailed above, the original album is not altered
  • likewise, if you are playing a playlist such as the One Songs Playlist, using the method above to add another song to the Up Next list does not alter the original One Songs Playlist playlist.

I don't know how you have arrived at the point you are at now (complete with your frustration) and it doesn't really matter. What you need to do now is find a method of achieving the end result that you're after, not trying to make your existing attempts work, even if that method did so in the past. As I see it (and I apologise if I'm wrong), your end goal is to be able to add additional songs to the current list of songs that will be played, but not necessarily to save that revised list as a Playlist. Try my suggestions:

1. 1. use the Sync selected playlists, artist, albums and genres to add only what you want to your phone - or
   2. add all your music to your phone and use the add to Up Next feature to create a list of "play now" music

Here's an additional thing that might be of interest to you:

If you have a capacity issue with your phone; that is, that you don't have enough space on the phone to store all your music, and that's why you are constantly adding and removing songs, you could try my favoured method of managing that: use a Smart Playlist (created in iTunes), that automatically adds songs to its list that I haven't played for a while and removes them once they have been played, adding them back again after my chosen period of exclusion has elapsed. I then use that Playlist (let's call it Favourites Not Played for 10 Months) to add and remove music from the device automatically at each Sync. Hey presto - an ever-changing list of music on my iPod.

But it doesn't end there (as I have music that I want to always be on my iPod):

• • • I also sync any music that I want to always be on my iPod by album, artist or even additional Playlists
    • in addition, I also sync the Recently Played playlist to it. This means that if a recently played song has been removed from my Favourites Not Played for 10 Months playlist, it remains on the iPod for a short while longer in case I want to play it again. Every time I play it again, it remains in the Recently Played playlist. If it isn't played within the recently played timeframe, it is removed from the iPod at the next Sync.

If that idea interests you and you need assistance in setting up a Smart Playlist, or adjusting the capacity of it to a suitable size, let me know. It is simple and will cost you only a little effort to try.

Raithadean wrote:

Unfortunately short of deleting the songs from my library, it seems I can't just select certain songs from those lists which in part is what I wanted to do.

Yes you can.

Despite what anyone may have told you, you do have control over what goes onto your device and the4 steps I have provided should help you achieve that.

If you post a screenshot of the screen you referred to, that shows you one song, perhaps it may throw some light on what you see that I haven't yet figured out.

It sounds as though you're making progress.

If you need any further help, post again. If this thread becomes locked (which they do after a while), simply start a new thread, adding my user name in the subject matter if you think I can help.

the fiend (a friendly one)