Itunes won't copy files from imported old playlist

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Level 1

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Itunes won't copy files from imported old playlist

Phone: New iPhone 4S

PC: Windows 7

Problem: Imported a playlist from old PC (opened .ilt file on another PC, exported playlist to .txt file. Imported .txt file into new iTunes on new PC. iTunes recognized new playlist and allows songs to play on PC). New PC's iTunes is authorized for same user.

Problem: Have tried to import songs from playlist to new phone. Files show up in iTunes as greyed out (on the phone) but play in iTunes library.

Is the phone set to manually manage music in iTunes? Yes. I have set that, unset that, reset that, disconnected the phone, reconnected the phone etc. I have deleted the greyed out songs from the phone and tried to resync or manually move them, but they still end up gray.

The sync is too fast, it's only copying the list and not the song files.

I can dray ANY other song from iTunes to iPhone and they will play and show as black on the phone. It is ONLY those songs, whether done manually or automatically, that were in that playlist that DO NOT sync to the phone. Even if I drag them manually to the phone as individual songs and not as a group of file, they will end up grey.

Essentially, it's almost as though by bringing over that old playlist file, I have somehow "tainted" or "marked" those .mp3 files and they will NOT sync.

When they are greyed out on the phone, and viewed in iTunes, they show a little "recycle" or "refresh" symbol next to them that I cannot click on or do anything with.

As I stated, the files exist and will play in iTunes.

Help????

iPhone 4, Windows 7

Posted on Oct 19, 2011 9:21 AM

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Answer 1

Aug 12, 2012 4:47 PM in response to GSmithFL

You can fix this problem by converting the music files that the playlist. If you select them in iTunes and right click then select "Create AAC version" they will make a .m4a file which will sync across fine.

(I had the same problem as you and now it works. Some of my old MP3 files sync'd okay but some did not even though they were all the same file format. Anyway with Apple's format it always works.)

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Answer 2

turingtest2

Level 10

272,881 points

Aug 12, 2012 5:18 PM in response to GSmithFL

Creating new versions of files shouldn't be necessary.

Every song inside iTunes is represented by a unique ID. Playlists (when stored internally) are an ordered list of those IDs. If you export the playlist into a list of file locations at one computer, then import the list & files into another the IDs for each track will be different. On your new computer your iPhones list of IDs isn't matching the local library which, I suspect, is causing problems.

Delete the tracks by hand on the phone, then drag in the playlist again from iTunes.

tt2

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Answer 3

Aug 12, 2012 7:26 PM in response to turingtest2

The songs are not appearing on my iPhone so I can't delete them. (It is a new phone).

Based on what you said ad what worked for me I took another case of a file in a playlist not syncing and found that any change to the info of the file updates the file so that it then syncs correctly. Change anything from Artist, albulm, genre or number of track, doesn't matter, any change does the trick.

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Answer 4

Aug 12, 2012 7:30 PM in response to turingtest2

I have since found that changing the file format (although works) is not necessary. All you need to do is change any info of the file so that the song ID in Itunes gets recreated and it recognises it to sync it.

Change the artist name, or albulm name or anything on the info tab on the "Get info" option for each song.

Select all the songs you need to update and change a field, even if it is to put in a comment called "updated"

Much simpler than my first suggestion.

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