Why can't I select individual songs to sync on Apple Music from iMac to iPhone?

The trick is to sync with selected playlists only rather than the other three options. Using one or more playlists gives you granular control at the song level. You can also use checkboxes and untick songs that you want to exclude and typically wouldn't play, but it is possible to accidentally tick or untick all songs in the library at once so it may be best to avoid that method.

tt2

Music > Settings > General > Show: List View Checkboxes

Cmd-Clicking a checkbox will check or uncheck all checkboxes in the current view. Easy to do accidentally when you're using cmd-click to add or remove songs from a selection for some other task.

You don't need to create multiple sub-playlists if that doesn't appeal. A single regular playlist called say iPhone Tracks will work. Drag into what you consider to be essential. Once you've set it up and copied it to your phone the first time it should then become easy to update the list whenever it occurs to you that you need to add or remove some content, then sync to update the device.

tt2

If you are doing manual synchronization, I believe that you would switch to the song view, and check off the songs that you want to synchronize. The next sync would synchronize all of the checked albums, and all of the checked individual songs.

There might not be a way to stay in the album view, expand the listing for just one album, and then check off songs under it.

You're welcome. 🙂

tt2

👌🏼