Apple Music syncs thousands of the same songs every time I connect to my iPhone, why?

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Apple Music syncs thousands of the same songs every time I connect to my iPhone, why?

My Apple Music library sits at over 75,000 songs, most of which are in Apple Lossless Format ALAC, ripped CD's from my own personal library over 15 years. This issue never existed with iTunes prior to apple introducing the Apple Music app to OSX in 2019. Currently I have almost 25,000 songs in various playlists that sync to my iPhone however, every time I plug in to sync, it re-imports the same 6000-7000 songs every single time. Over the past 5 years, I've read on several blogs and forums that many, possibly thousands of users are experiencing the same issue. I do not use iCloud sync for my library however I do let apple music keep music & media folders organized for best performance. I consider myself an expert level user when it comes to Apple's native apps, especially iTunes and the Music app. At this point I have to assume this is something only apple can fix at their level. I have found no resolution to this issue on any other website & Apple Support doesn't have the level of experience and comprehension to understand the issue.

iPhone 15 Pro Max, iOS 17

Posted on Sep 26, 2023 12:52 PM

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Answer 1

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DarienEndy Author

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8 points

Oct 29, 2023 3:56 PM in response to turingtest2

I tried the smart playlist suggestion and it was the same issue. I eventually realized that there is something wrong with the Apple Music application or Finder, because neither will let me cancel or eject the iPhone. Not wanting to factory reset my iPhone or setup as a brand new phone from scratch, I decided to start from zero with no music. I went to my iPhone settings and storage, and deleted all the music files. I then deleted the music app completely, performed a hard reboot on the phone, then re-installed the music application.

I connected my iPhone to my Mac, it appears in Finder as a brand new empty device with no playlists selected. I started with a few playlists around 15 - 20 GB and it synced with zero issues. I then disconnected and reconnected my phone and let finder sync again. This time no new music files were added and the Mac did not attempt to transfer every songs again. I started adding larger playlists and afterwards performed the same cycle of disconnecting and reconnecting the iPhone. The Mac did not delete and transfer all my songs again, so it's safe to say this was definitely the solution. I don't know if deleting the Music app entirely and rebooting the phone was necessary, but it work for my situation. I'm now back up to almost 500 GB worth of music since almost 99% of my library is in Lossless. Thanks for you assistant and I hope this method works for somebody else having similar issues.

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Answer 2

turingtest2

Level 10

278,319 points

Sep 27, 2023 5:58 AM in response to DarienEndy

The usual reason for this issue is that the tracks have data in the Work field when you're not actively using the Work and Movement option for those tracks. This data may have previously existed in the Grouping field, which was repurposed by Apple at some point for Work. If you clear out the unwanted data in Work and then sync, you should find those tracks won't need to sync again unless they are actively edited.

tt2

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Answer 3

turingtest2

Level 10

278,319 points

Sep 28, 2023 6:46 AM in response to DarienEndy

You might try holding down option+cmd as your launch Music, which should launch it in safe mode, and may potentially clean up any internal indices, which in turn could potentially help with this issue. Failing that we're back to the advice I gave in the other thread to rebuild the sync selection from scratch and/or use the break up large transfers method to gradually increase the amount of data synced in each session in the hope either that you don't get any repeat syncing, or that you can identify which tracks are repeatedly synced and look for common properties that might indicate a cause.

tt2

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Answer 4

turingtest2

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278,319 points

Oct 22, 2023 3:24 PM in response to DarienEndy

If you're not confident about the health of you library/computer you might not want to wipe the device and start over right now, but this is the method I'm suggesting. From my user tip Corrupt iPod Classic - Apple Community:

Break up large transfers

Once you've restored your iPod (or iPhone) don't rush to dump all the data back exactly as it was before. I have found that lots of large or complex smart playlists can sometimes trigger constant reboots or dumping of the iPod's library. In addition, larger transfers can fail leaving data in an inconsistent state. Try this technique for populating the iPod (or iPhone) in stages.

In iTunes select the menu item File... New Smart Playlist. Change the first drop-down box to Playlist, the next to is and the next to Music or whatever playlist holds the bulk of the content you want on your device. Tick against Limit to, type in say 10, then change the drop-down to GB, and set the last drop-down to artist. When you click OK you can enter a name for the playlist, e.g. Transfer.

Now sync this playlist to your iPod rather than your entire library. When the sync is complete modify the rule (File... Edit playlist) to increase the size by your chosen amount, then sync and repeat. You can experiment with different size increments, if it doesn't work just choose something a bit smaller until it works each time. Before long you should have all the music that you want synced added to your device. Once that's done you can move on to other media such as podcasts, videos, photos, additional playlists, etc.

tt2

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Answer 5

DarienEndy Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 27, 2023 2:45 PM in response to turingtest2

Hello,

I thoroughly read the same suggestion you posted two years ago in the following thread that did not have a resolution: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253197998

In a nutshell that is not the solution to the issue with my library. I have verified this with several other apple users who are experiencing the same syncing issues for years. We believe the problem is rooter much deeper than just metadata, so let's move on. Do you have any other tested and proven genuine solutions to this syncing issue?

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Answer 6

DarienEndy Author

Level 1

8 points

Oct 20, 2023 11:29 AM in response to turingtest2

I tried running the Music app in safe mode with no success. I also went through certain playlists to double check there is no tagged information in the Work and Movement fields. I also toggled off the work and movement fields for all tracks as none of my tracks have that information. Now my library is re-syncing everything, over 22,000 songs that takes over 4-5 hours to sync. I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "rebuild the sync" or "break up large transfers" but I assume you mean gradually adding playlists & albums per sync session, disconnecting the phone, then attempting to re-connect to the computer to see if it copies the files again only after being disconnected for a few seconds. I'm willing to give it a try, but I'm worried my entire music library may have a bigger issue happening. I don't want to remove files and re-add them. I have over 75,000 and they are all organized into smart playlists with ratings, genres, groupings, comments over the past 20 years. I'm just hoping it's something I can fix right in music so it will work properly. Otherwise I may just have to settle for syncing my phone once a month only overnight for 4-5 hours.

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Answer 7

turingtest2

Level 10

278,319 points

Oct 31, 2023 9:53 AM in response to DarienEndy

Great, glad to hear that worked out for you.

tt2

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Apple Music syncs thousands of the same songs every time I connect to my iPhone, why?

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