changed lyrics not syncing

For me the problem is fixed with iOS 6 and iTunes 10.7.

Based on robs89's comment from just this past Oct., I thought I'd give it another try, now that I'm on iOS 6.1.2 (and iTunes 11.0.2 and OS X 10.8.2), but no dice. Broken just as it was before.

Seriously, Apple - as has been mentioned, how hard could this be? Eddy Cue, if you really are 'da man' - show it, please. Fix this messed up situation.

Me, I suspect it's not a technical thing at all - but rather, some arcane archaic RIAA bu11sh1t licensing / publishing thing, about those 'special, special, special' lyrics - like, it's OK to sync them via USB cable, or your own WiFi network, but god help us if you sync them via Apple's servers! To your iOS device, we mean. Macs & PCs are fine. (and this makes technical/legal/common sense... how?)

( I mean, the RIAA forced LyricWiki to remove their API, and HTML-escape obfuscate the lyrics they have. It's a really silly stance in this day and age. Find some use-based revenue sharing cooperative thing, and help promote lyrics APIs, not demote them. geez. )

In which case: yeah, Eddy - still your bailiwick, even more so. Master negotiator? Please demonstrate! We're waiting... we've been waiting... for many months.

(( and we know it isn't a limitation of iTunes Match's database architecture, because: your added embedded lyrics download just fine, along w/ the music, for Uploaded *or Matched* tracks, when you're on a Mac or PC. It's just iOS devices that are being shut out. What a ridiculous limitation this is. ))

I think this is what's going on, because Apple has quietly removed references to 'including lyrics', when talking about capabiities of iTunes match, on its page. Perhaps before launch time, they thought they'd have the agreements in place, but negotiations have since stalled.

If Spotify & Shazam can handle lyrics just fine, what's the friggin holdup?

Again, this is embarassing. It makes Apple look pathetic, to everyone who knows how simple & easy this should be - which is, all of us, your more, um, active and engaged clients/customers.

Hey guys maybe this is to old but I finally solved it, the problem is that iTunes is failing to rewrite the ID3 tags of the file.

The only way I could find to edit this tags was to use an external software. I used ID3 editor its free, it was a slow process but I finally finished!

hope this helps someone

Hey Susiezz - it sounds like you were having a different problem. Great you solved that, but... that's not the problem we're talking about in this thread.

The problem we're talking about here is:

- Lyrics successfully entered in the ID3 Tags, in iTunes

- Song successfully uploaded to iTunes Match

- Lyrics visible on Mac that downloads via iTunes Match

- Lyrics *not visible* on iOS device that downloads via iTunes Match <======= This is the bug.

I emailed Tim Cook about this.

But I'm sure it's low on their priority list -- which is one of the systemic problems Apple is facing.

Failing to fix "geeks love this" problems, means - geeks love your stuff a bit less, and evangelize with a bit less enthusiasm. Too much of this is death by a thousand paper cuts.

The thing is: Geeks (in this case, Music Geeks) loving something that's *insanely great* - you can't _buy_ that kind of loyalty.

So, Tim - empower & demand from the iTunes team that - they make it *insanely great*. Endless fit & finish, spit & polish.

Fix this.

It's pathetic and embarassing that -- nada. Crickets. Radio silence...

What solved my problem:

1) Right click the song from your iTunes music library, click on "Convert ID3 Tags..",

2) Check the first box which says "ID3 tag version:" and on the drop down, select v1.0 (I've no idea what it means, I just randomly clicked on one and it happened to work)
3) Click "Ok".

4) Update whatever you want, lyrics, album artwork, whatever..

5) Delete the song from your iPod/iPhone/iPad

6) Sync it with your iTunes library.

That should do the trick. Hope it works for y'all.

As described here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ID3 the ID3v1 format is extremely limited, as compared to ID3v2 formats... from reading the article, it seems as if ID3v1 doesn't even contain a lyrics field (or an artwork field).

hollyfolly, I'm curious whether iTunes 'kept' the ID3v1 version you applied (step 3), or whether the tracks silently reverted to ID3v2 -- in order to accommodate the lyrics, artwork, etc., that you applied (step 4)... As a theoretical step 7, what happens when you Get Info on one of these tracks, and click Summary in the Get Info window - what version of ID3 tag does the Info window say it now has? 1? or 2.<something>?

Hey edmechem, I think you're right! After updating my lyrics and artwork, and applying your suggested step 7, the ID3 Tag says V2.2.

Hmmm... These days iTunes uses ID3 v2.2 when you rip a new track from a CD... but a while back it was using v2.3 and v2.4. Many of the thousands of tracks I have, I ripped from CD years ago, and they live in my iTunes library as MP3s with ID3 tags in v2.4 format... I wonder if a workaround to this bug on Apple's part, could be something as simple and stupid as... first change the ID3 version, of all tracks you're submitting thru iTunes Match, to v2.2? Pretty easy to just select a bunch of tracks, and change their ID3 version, en masse... I'm tempted to try a new subscription to iTunes Match, and just try a few dozen tracks at first, and see what happens.

It appears that on a pc with iTunes 11 and aac files you can not update the id3 tags.

Hey. I got the same problem too.

This one worked on me:

1) Go to iTunes, right click song and "Get info"

2) On the lyrics tab, delete the existing lyrics and then a leave a single space. Click OK.

3) Sync your phone. (When you check on your phone, there should be a blank lyrics.)

4) Now go back to the song, add the "CORRECT" lyrics. Click OK.

5) Re-sync your phone.

Then TA-DAH!! You have now your correct updated lyrics.

Please tell me if it worked on you! 🙂

Nope. Didn't work. After syncing my phone, when I brought up the song again it still showed the old lyrics. Then I went back and entered a single "x" and synced again, but the old lyrics remain.

It's really, really anoying that Apple can't fix this. My next phone is going to be non-Apple based.

This problem has been plaguing me for a long time and I finally got fed up with it that I scoured for solutions. Nothing worked (resetting and restoring from backup, erasing all content, manually managing music, etc) until I stumbled across this post from GeekDad3: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3909940

His solution is the only thing that finally resolved this issue for me -- lyrics updated in iTunes 11.1.3 are finally syncing again to my iPhone / iOS 7.0.4 (though the problem started way back in iOS 6).

holyFolly's suggestion worked for me, I updated back to v2.4 afterwards but I don't think that is necessary.

syncing issues in the last few years have been rediculous. where is the qa? Ive spent more time wiping, restoring, deleteing, and syncing in the last few months than I ever have, and Im not alone.

The deleting, re-adding, and syncing worked, but really?!

I too have this problem. It seems to have gotten much worse in the process of going from iTunes 10 to iTunes 11, and also after updating my iPod Touch from iOS 6 to iOS 7. Much worse.

I tried deleting the song, syncing, then putting back into library and resyncing, and no good effect whatsoever.

I tried deleting all lyrics from the song in question, syncing. The song on my portable device still has the wrong lyrics.

In my case, I have NO problems with mp3s or on AAC songs that I have ripped from my own CDs. With those songs, if I change even an apostrophe, it works - just as it did with ALL of my music 2 years ago. It only occurs for me with material purchased from the iTunes Store.

I have found 2 things that work with my iTunes Store purchases.

a) Use mp4box to extract the audio as a raw aac file, then use mp4box to add it to a new .m4a container. Almost all metadata is gone, but if I put it back, I can edit and sync lyrics w/o any issues, just like my rips from CDs.

b) I have also "fixed" this by going into to Boot Camp and using the Windows utility mp3tag. If I open the file in mp3tag, ask it to show extended tags, and delete 2 tags - ITUNMOVI and ITUNESCATALOGID, then delete the original song from my library and import the one with 2 deleted tags, I can edit lyrics and have them sync OK repeatedly.

It all seems so incredibly difficult; if I get the lyrics entered correctly the first time there is no issue, but correcting them is brutal. I am going to try a previous post that mentioned changing some other piece of information, like the date. Hope it works!