How come iTunes erases nearly all the music from my iPhone when I sync?

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Level 1

5 points

How come iTunes erases nearly all the music from my iPhone when I sync?

As soon as I updated my 3GS to iOS 6 last September, I had multiple issues syncing my phone. Often, music I am attempting to add will never transfer over to my phone. However those songs will appear in iTunes when I look at the contents of my phone, but they will be greyed out, and the sync symbol will be next to the entry. No amount of re-syncing will ever transfer these files to my phone, and the only way I've found to get the song to finally transfer is to completely wipe my phone, and reinstall everything, including the system software from scratch.

Additionally, there have been several instances where I have attempted to sync new music to my phone, but iTunes will erase all - or nearly all - the songs which were originally on my phone, and leave only the new songs. Attempting to re-sync often leads to the first issue I've described above, so I inevitably need to wipe my phone and start from scratch.

Many of my music files are lossless in iTunes, and I transcode them to 256 before syncing them to my phone, which means performing a clean install takes several hours. Updating to iOS 6.1 did not solve the issue, nor did updating to iTunes 11. I have been working with Apple technical support on this issue for four months, and the only thing that they've come up with is a possible interaction between my phone and the iTunes Match service, although they haven't been able to solve the problem.

Has anyone else experienced these problems since the upgrade? I have attempted to search the forums, but have found no other examples like mine. Or, for that matter, does anyone have an idea what might be going on? I run a Windows 7 PC, and would be happy to give additional information to anyone who may think they know what's going on.

Thank you very much.

iPhone 3GS, iOS 6.0.2

Posted on Jan 12, 2013 2:40 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Lawrence Finch

Level 10

202,300 points

Jan 12, 2013 2:42 PM in response to Doctor Hoshi

It's likely that you are syncing to more than one computer. The iPhone can only sync to one computer at a time; if you attempt to sync to a different computer it will erase everything from the previous computer and replace it with the new content.

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Answer 2

Doctor Hoshi Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 12, 2013 5:03 PM in response to Lawrence Finch

Thank you for the input, but I have only ever synced my iPhone to one computer, so switching from one library to another is not causing the issues I've experienced. It's good to know that doing so would cause similar issues, in case I ever considered it in the future. Thank you for the info.

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Answer 3

oldfruit

Level 1

9 points

Feb 16, 2013 3:45 AM in response to Doctor Hoshi

I have the same issue when trying to sync from iTunes 11 on my MacBook to my iPhone 4 iOS6.1. I blindly did the iOS upgrade to 6.1 (more fool me) and since then have not been able to use my phone as an iPod.

I have tried restoreing it, I ve tried restoring it to a new phone but it hasn't worked for me.

The sync starts and the capacity bar in iTunes shows capacity including and music or films etc that are to be included in the sync and then iTunes stops the sync and nothing has been transfered. As with your experience the music is shown in iTunes under Music, under Devices as greyed out with the syncing icon (dotted circle) to the left of it.

When I try to include photos in the sync, I also get an error msg stating the connection to the iPhone has been lost. I am trying to do the sync vis USB, so I dont why I get this error.

I can of course download any music I've bought from Apple from my iCloud to my phone but I want to be able to put any music I want on to it like I could before on iOS5.

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Answer 4

oldfruit

Level 1

9 points

Feb 21, 2013 12:23 PM in response to Doctor Hoshi

Everything is Sorted!

The release of iTunes 11.0.2 and iOS 6.1.2 for my iPhone 4, seems to have sorted everything. I can now sync music, films and photos between my MacBook and my phone.

I was dubious about blindly doing the updates but decided they couldn't really mess up any further functionality so I went for it and it's sorted now.

Look in to, and take the gamble, it's up to you.

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Answer 5

Doctor Hoshi Author

Level 1

5 points

Apr 1, 2013 6:43 AM in response to Doctor Hoshi

Just hoping to renew this thread. I'm still experiencing the same issues, and I'm attempting to get back in touch with tech support to see if they've made any progress. The issues arose when I updated my phone to iOS 6.0 back in September, and they have not gotten any better despite multiple software updates to my phone and iTunes. Hope someone out there may have some info. Thanks for anyone who can help.

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