add songs without syncing to iTunes

Karissafrey, thank you, thank you, and thank you some more! Let us know how we can return the favor.

I was getting so frustrated with my iPhone (iOS 6.0.2) and iTunes 11.0.1 trying to figure out how to put music from two Macs onto one iPhone with the "Add To..." button, or getting nowhere with the sync options.

Thanks to you, I clicked on "iPhone" and then "On This iPhone." Then I went to the "Autofill From:" at the bottom of the page, and then chose the playlist on the Mac that I wanted. Then I double-checked the "Settings..." button, and then I clicked the "Autofill" button.

there is NO AUTOFILL FROM: at bottom of ANY page. I have scanned carefully word for word through every reply and have spent an emergency hour trying to FORCE a new edited track onto the iPhone 5 so I can run an important music rehearsal and needed an emergency edit on site away from the music library, did the edit to create the emergency file, but am helpless to use the new track. This is utterly unacceptable. There used to be iPod rip and all kinds of emergency 3rd party apps. I have all the updated versions described in these replies, and there is NO AUTOFILL FROM: at bottom of any page, screen or iTunes 11 windows. This is a track of original music I OWN which is just one more frustration, and has nothing to do with protecting music licensing. MY ORIGINAL MUSIC. Of course we all can't keep the same exact synced version of iTunes on 5 different devices to avoid this. It's impossible. Please list any 3rd part apps, any solutions, any carefully worded step by step instructions. Thank you in advance for any assistance or education you can provide to the many of us who depend on music for our careers and we are law abiding, and licensing respecting users who are still PARALYZED by these locks, and procedures.

I hope this helps!

Thank you stevejones1588!

I'm running iTunes 11.0.1(12) with an iPhone 5 (6.1) named "Cologne."

In iTunes, I made a playlist ("new") with one song that I wanted to move to my iPhone:

File/New/Playlist/typed in "new"

Songs/then dragged the song over to the playlist window.

Then I clicked the "iPhone" button. Then I clicked the "On this iPhone" button.

But when I selected the playlist "new" next to the "Autofill From:" dropdown menu, and then clicked on the "Autofill" button, I got the following error:

"iTunes cannot add any songs to the iPhone Cologne because no songs in the playlist new can be copied to this iPhone."

So, I took your advice.

I control-clicked on the problematic song, and selected "Create AAC Version." And then I put that copy of the song into playlist new instead of the old copy (which I had purchased and downloaded back in 2009).

That did the trick!

BTW,

there is another a lot easier way to DO THIS

JUST

Click "manually mangae music and videos" in Option under your iPhone/iPad Summary.

THEN,

drag the music file u want and throw it right into iPhone/iPad's Music.

DONE.

SIMPLE DRAG and ADD.

SEE!!!!!!!!!!!

u can go ahead arranging and placing it under the playlist you want in phone after all.

i am genuinely happy for all of you on this thread to have solved this issue!! I have a new Iphone and have no music on it at all, or anything for that matter and spent WEEEKS reading forum after forum for what should be a click of a button!

But I bet Im not alone in asking this question for others reading this post and 'Desperate' too...

What the heck are you talking about???!!!!!

Where is the info you are all posting???, where are the 'Option' buttons??, where does it say 'manually manage music and video'??? Drag to 'where from where'???

I have my Iphone connected to my MacPro and it just thinks its a battery charger!!

Icloud doesnt seem to excist other than in the form of a silvery pretty icon that apparently stuff gets sent to..

ITunes either on my Mac or my iPhone doesnt have Anything that applies to either at the same time...

Can someone put a full report of what they have done (from which device) from the beggining with a clear/step by step advance through the procedure, so anyone looking for this advice, not just those 'in the loop' understand where to start. That would be fab!!!

Soz.....just begging to realize how isolated in their own soup Macs have become and how, really, useless, this brand spanking iphone really is....there, Ive said it....

The easiest way to have "control" of your purchased music is to ELIMINATE itunes all together. Buy your music at Amazon (cheaper costs anyway) and use Amazon Cloud Player. I can stream from the cloud or download them to my iphone using their app which is not bad at all. Total time.. seconds. Time wasted with Apple itunes garbage... hours. Read the posts and people say the same thing time and time again.

Apple lives in a perfect world, unfortunately life isn't perfect so their apps fail ALL THE TIME.

ok i just had this problem as well with the new itunes and although this may be a little dangerous i got passed the sync and was able to add music and keep my old music too. Ok so i clicked the normal manage songs manually and a pop up box showed up saying that it would erase my music currently on my iphone. I really wanted the music i just downloaded so i clicked apply and accept immediately on my computer it showed i only had the songs which i bought. In a panic i quickly unplugged my phone from the computer i checked my music library on my phone. All the songs were there and working so i plugged my phone back into the computer to see that the manage songs manually boxed was still checked and my songs were still on my phone. I then proceded to add my music to my phone along with keeping the music which i already had.

I know some people in the thread were trying to be helpful. But when I clicked manually manage music in iTunes and I got the warning that my music would be erased, and I clicked OK, well my music was erased.

So yes, I was able to add music from my second computer using autofill, but the other music on my iPhone was gone.

This was a great solution which worked perfectly and I transferred a heap of MP3 files onto my iphone as a test.

I would now like to delete some of them but, unfortunately, I can't seem to do so.

Any ideas ?

Listen up everybody. I've read through the entire post and I can tell you that the ONLY solution that will work is Jake.fromstatefarm's solution at the bottom of page 2. Yes the "autofill from" solution works ONLY IF you have "Manually manage music and videos" enabled. However, this will NOT be the case for most people and ticking this box will erase all your prior music. I tried his somewhat dangerous solution and it does indeed work without any problems.

OK, enough suffering of reading all the comments of you guys. Read the below steps very carefully and think before you start screaming "it doesn't work", well guess what.. it does!

I have iTunes 11.1.3.8.

1. Open up iTunes and stay in the iTunes Library.

2. Select "Music" and go to the "Playlists" tab. (Screenshot: http://imageshack.com/a/img28/6189/glfo.jpg)

3. In the bottom left corner there is a "+". Click on it and select "New Playlist". (Screenshot: http://imageshack.com/a/img202/5175/uoqw.jpg)

4. Name your playlist however you'd like and click "Done". (Screenshot: http://imageshack.com/a/img13/1294/1dm0.jpg)

5. Drag and drop the songs you want on your iPhone into this playlist. (Screenshot: http://imageshack.com/a/img30/2729/thls.jpg)

6. Go to your iPhone, and select the tab "On This iPhone". You do not have to check "Manually manage music and videos" (see screenshot). However, I do have this checked on my main computer to which my iPhone is synced. (Screenshots: http://imageshack.com/a/img12/3931/f9ul.jpg, http://imageshack.com/a/img6/3020/ynvc.jpg)

7. On the bottom of the list you have "Autofill From: (dropdown)". Select the playlist where you added all the music you want to have on your iPhone. (Screenshot: http://imageshack.com/a/img703/4499/7jzr.jpg)

8. Click on "Settings" and uncheck all the boxes (especially the top one!). Then click "OK".(Screenshot: http://imageshack.com/a/img716/5706/s6tu.jpg).

9. Now click "Autofill" and iTunes should add the songs to your iPhone without deleting anything.

Once again, read carefully before you start asking questions!

I followed Jake.fromstatefarm's solution. IT WORKS....

and guess what? After I followed his solution, I can now see the AUTOFILL FROM: ....

It's easy.... (though dangerous). I clicked on Manually Manage, Agreed to erase all my music, and within 1 second, unplugged my phone from the cable... You do have to make sure it's not syncing via wifi, though... (LOL)

Wonderful! Thanks Jake!

While I have not read through all the comments I have found an answer. This works under iOS 7 on and iOS device and iTunes 11.1.3 on OSX.

Once the device is plugged in click on your device on the tab bar (i.e. Bob's iPad) and then the Summary tab. Scroll down until you see the Options section. Check the 'Manually manage music and videos' box and clickApply.

Now you can drag songs onto you device in the sidebar (in case it's hidden Option-Command-S).

I can confirm that it works.

In addition, switching to 'manually manage' does not try to erase the existing music if the 'sync' is UNchecked in the music tab.

Also for those people who cannot find the 'autofill' - you need to click the small black triangle next to the device (ipod iphone, whatever)in the left hand column. It turns downwards revealling the devices contents - do not get confused and look for it under the music tab in the itunes main window.

One other quick tip from the beginning when you are selecting the music to transfer - shift-click to highlight all the songs you want and 'make smart playlist from selection'. Saves lots of dragging and dropping

OK, enough suffering of reading all the comments of you guys. Read the below steps very carefully and think before you start screaming "it doesn't work", well guess what.. it does!

I have iTunes 11.1.3.8.

1. Open up iTunes and stay in the iTunes Library.

2. Select "Music" and go to the "Playlists" tab. (Screenshot: http://imageshack.com/a/img28/6189/glfo.jpg)

3. In the bottom left corner there is a "+". Click on it and select "New Playlist". (Screenshot: http://imageshack.com/a/img202/5175/uoqw.jpg)

4. Name your playlist however you'd like and click "Done". (Screenshot: http://imageshack.com/a/img13/1294/1dm0.jpg)

5. Drag and drop the songs you want on your iPhone into this playlist. (Screenshot: http://imageshack.com/a/img30/2729/thls.jpg)

6. Go to your iPhone, and select the tab "On This iPhone". You do not have to check "Manually manage music and videos" (see screenshot). However, I do have this checked on my main computer to which my iPhone is synced. (Screenshots: http://imageshack.com/a/img12/3931/f9ul.jpg, http://imageshack.com/a/img6/3020/ynvc.jpg)

7. On the bottom of the list you have "Autofill From: (dropdown)". Select the playlist where you added all the music you want to have on your iPhone. (Screenshot: http://imageshack.com/a/img703/4499/7jzr.jpg)

8. Click on "Settings" and uncheck all the boxes (especially the top one!). Then click "OK".(Screenshot: http://imageshack.com/a/img716/5706/s6tu.jpg).

9. Now click "Autofill" and iTunes should add the songs to your iPhone without deleting anything.

Once again, read carefully before you start asking questions!

(thanks man u really help me a lot...now i can manage my songs w/out erasing all my songs... this is the best way! so read carefully)