Apple Music sync to iPhone slow, re-syncs thousands

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Level 1

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Apple Music sync to iPhone slow, re-syncs thousands

I’m having an issue where Apple Music is extremely slow every time I sync my iPhone.

My setup:

MacBook Air M5
iPhone 17 Pro
USB-C/Thunderbolt cable
About 10,000 songs in my Apple Music library

Every time I sync, Apple Music acts like it needs to process or re-sync around 7,000 songs, even though I’ve only added a few new songs, or sometimes none at all. This makes every sync take a very long time.

I’ve already tried using a Thunderbolt cable, but it isn’t any faster than a regular USB-C cable.

My questions are:

Why does Apple Music re-sync thousands of songs every time instead of only syncing new or changed songs?
Is this normal behavior with large libraries?
Is the bottleneck the Music/Finder software rather than the cable?
Has anyone found a way to make incremental syncs work correctly so it doesn’t keep processing 7,000 songs every time?

I’d appreciate any suggestions or if anyone else has experienced the same issue.

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 26.5

Posted on Jul 12, 2026 11:32 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

WheelieNick

Level 9

59,924 points

Sep 5, 2026 12:54 PM in response to behnam777

Apple Music re-syncs thousands of songs because the macOS Finder performs a full database comparison and metadata verification rather than a pure incremental file check.

Why This Happens

Software Bottleneck: The delay is caused by macOS and Finder processing the database, not your cable speed. Even a fast Thunderbolt cable cannot speed up how long the Mac takes to compare 10,000 database entries.
Normal Behavior: This slow, heavy processing is a known issue with large local libraries. Finder often triggers a deep re-evaluation of tracks if it detects minor changes to playlists, play counts, or file tags.
Database Reset Triggers: If a sync is interrupted or a playlist updates automatically, Finder may lose its incremental sync marker and re-verify the entire library.

How to Fix or Bypass It

Use Sync Library (iCloud): Turn on Sync Library in Apple Music on both your Mac and iPhone. This bypasses Finder completely and updates your music over the cloud in the background without manual tethered syncs.

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Answer 2

Sep 5, 2026 1:12 PM in response to WheelieNick

WheelieNick wrote:

Sorry for being a bit off topic, but not sure if you have given up on responding to users follow up questions or simply prefer a single post and move on for other reasons.

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