iPhone 4S won't sync APPS or MUSIC

I, too had lost my music on my iPhone 4S after updating to iOS 5.0.1. A call was placed to tech support. Several options were tried before I was passed on to a "senior tech advisor". Several other options were tried before it was decided that in my case a "full restore as a new device" was needed. The key here is to make sure you restore it as a "new device". It worked! Everything is back to as it should be. I also had an iPod Touch that had experienced the same problem after updating to iOS 5.0.1. The same solution was used for it as well. My entire music library is back to normal on both devices!

Be prepared for the time consuming task if you are forced to take this route - especially if you have a large music library. In my case that consisted of over 5,000 songs & videos. You will also have to restore your other items such as contacts, calendars, bookmarks, notes, WiFi settings, etc.

I can't stress this enough - back up your deivce before starting a restore!

For all the needed details, please see this link: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4137?viewlocale=en_US

NO, actually it doesn't always work. I have restored 3 times now with no luck. Any other solutions?????

No, restore is not the only solution. Read further down this thread. The answer is to register your phone as a "NEW DEVICE"...it worked like a charm.

Sweetin77,

Your tricked worked like a charm! Had trouble syncing. Either failed on step 1 with an error or got to step 2 and it just stops and acts like it's finished when in actuality nothing changed. You saved me the hassle of another full wipe and long restore of all my apps from icloud

Edit > Preferences > Devices > Check mark Prevent iPods, iPhones, and iPads from syncing automatically > Hit Resey Sync History > Hit Okay > Try to sync

I've just spent almost half a day to try to get iTunes to transfer new music rather than replace it and delete from my iPhone. I gave up and used CopyTrans Manager. Sooooo much easier! I just created a folder on my desktop, copy and pasted music from iTunes library and dragged the folder to my phone in CopyTrans Manager. Itunes so badly designed - should be simple to add rather than replace. I don't know anyone who would want to replace rather than add data - it's just illogical. Anyway, rant over, Good luck 🙂

okay, this very issue was driving me crazy too! (hence the search and here i am....)

i knew i had all of my music on there (seeing artists, albums, etc) but had no playlists. they even all showed under my iphone in itunes.

what i am currently doing is this:

1. unchecked sync music.

2. sync iphone without music.

3. recheck sync the music as i want

this looks to be working, as instead of a 5 second sync previously, itunes is now syncing the few thousand songs i have on there, and as i look in the playlists under iphone in itunes, the songs in the playlists are pretty much all grey - i assume this is because the black ones are now synced.

this may just be crazy enough to work... 😉 hope it helps.

yep. that worked. 😀

don't restore from an old backup. Set up the phone as new and resync music and contacts and apps. It clears out any garbage sync issues.

won't that remove all the data that was in the apps?

it was not a problem for me. Apps were all intact. Any games I had I reaccessed through Gamecenter. Everything was perfect.