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music will not sync to iphone 4

I recently updated my phone and lost almost all of my 3200 songs. They still are available in my itunes on my mac, but not on my phone. When updating my music the other night, i believe i had my phone synced with iCloud, and all of the music downloaded prior to that is not available on my phone, with the exception of a few Christmas songs, which are useless right now. The songs I have downloaded since appear on my phone, but I cannot figure out how to add the previous songs to the phone. I made an apple ID months ago, and was wondering if having two separate ID's has something to do with it. I do not think that is the case. Anyone have any ideas what I may have done?

iPhone 4, iOS 5.1.1

Posted on May 12, 2012 3:12 PM

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16 replies

May 12, 2012 3:32 PM in response to dl9487

Your computer does need to be authorized for all Apple IDs used to purchase music from the iTunes store or it will not transfer to your phone. To do this, in iTunes go to Store>Authorize this Computer and sign in with each ID. Assuming you are not an iTunes Match user and you are not manually managing your music, verify the following:

- On the summary tab of your iTunes sync settings you have checked "Sync only checked songs and videos"

- In your music library you have checked all the songs you want to sync to your phone

- There are no exclamation points next to any of the songs you want to sync to your phone

- You have authorized your computer for all Apple IDs for purchased music you want to sync to your phone (in Store>Authorize this computer)

- You have checked "Sync Music" on the Music tab of your iTunes sync settings

When everything looks correct, sync your phone.

May 13, 2012 6:31 PM in response to dl9487

I'm not sure what's going on here as exclamation points indicate that iTunes can no longer locate the song on your computer (and they would also be unplayable). I'm not sure why they would be suddenly missing when you connect your phone. I suggest you post your question over in the iTunes forum as they may have a better idea about why this would happen and how to correct it.

May 22, 2012 12:41 PM in response to randers4

I have exactly the same problem.


All of my songs are in iTunes thet are all authorised I can play them on my mac no problem.


Thing is suddenly my iPhone has no music on it. In fact it has two very recent purchases but nothing else. I have all my photos and podcasts etc. Just no music.


When I check in the iPhone / music settings I can see all the usual stuff checked - I haven't changed the settings. But the stuff that is ticked is not then being uploaded to my phone when the iPhone syncs.


Very weird - very annoying.


Help!

Aug 6, 2012 5:43 AM in response to dl9487

I'm having exactly the same problem. All the content plays and shows perfectly on iTunes, but when I try and sync my music to my iPhone 4, nothing transfers. However, some music that was bought on the iPhone has stayed on there, but nothing else will sync to it. When I go into 'iPhone' in the devices section, it shows me I only have 0.20GB of music on the iPhone, but when I sync it it goes up to 5.2GB and stays like that until the sync finishes, when it goes back down to 0.20GB. The same happens for videos, but nothing stays on my phone to start with. iTunes doesn't even attempt to sync tracks to my phone. I've tried all the solutions suggested here but nothing is working. Help please.

Nov 27, 2012 2:02 AM in response to VitoCappadando

Hello, I have the same music syncing problem and it's really annoying !

iPhone 4 version 5.0.1 - itunes 10.7 (just upgraded thinking it could work better - Mac user


When you check the Sync Music Box, the IPhone space bar moves to 4Gb music, I sync and then it goes back to 0,10mb... I tried it all so if someone has a great idea on how to solve it please let me know.


Thank you in advance.

Jan 21, 2013 10:25 PM in response to Buckeyes4

I tried all the suggestions in this thread without any success. Then I tried this, and at least got my music back (no album art yet):


  1. Go to music page
  2. Uncheck "Sync Music"
  3. Click "Apply." Then sync. iTunes will tell you that it will remove songs currently on your iPhone (which was fine by me, since I had none)
  4. After sync, check "Sync Music" box.
  5. Apply & sync.


I can at least see my songs again.

Feb 25, 2013 12:52 PM in response to dl9487

Same exact issue. Even if this were simple to solve it should be an issue to Apple. They make things like this far too difficult and mysterious and also never answer any of the issues to resolve them, spending all their time instead trying to come up with new gadgets that don't work so we can be confused about those too.

music will not sync to iphone 4

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