iPhone 5 won't sync music from my iTunes library

Man, you're a life saver. After months of not being able to sort this out, upgrading iTunes and iOS, and even a fresh install of OSX for other reasons, nothing seemed to work. I was desperate. I'd done everything in every possible combination 50 times over. And I still don't know what fixed it, but following your instructions exactly has led to my iPhone finally syncing all my music as I type. I could cry, I'm so happy!

I hope someone finds a simple, straightforward solution for this, as I'm sure this won't resolve it for everyone. But right now, I'm one very happy person! 🙂

You must be a very patient person. None of the suggestions on this forum have worked for me and this is the final straw for me with 'Apple' products. Next phone WILL NOT BE AN APPLE.

I think you just solved my problem! Was driving my crazy - thanks!

I found this from another post: iOS: How to transfer or sync content to your computer

If it doesn't work, I think you can sync iPhone to new computer to solve your problem.

My problem is that it fails to sync any *purchased* items (iPhone 5S, iOS8, iTunes 11.4, Mavericks)

Imported or matched items are fine, it is just materials purchased from the iTunes store.

If I chose 'show all music' I can see the tracks in the play lists but cannot click to download and it fails to play them ( no matter if on 3G, 4G or WiFi).

Have restored several times and it only works if I do it as a new Phone ... and then only the first time. If I make any changes to the playlists, or add new playlists to sync then it removes the purchased tracks and I am back to square one.

I have iTunes watch turned off on my iPhone *and* my iTunes library as it mucks up how I deal with audiobooks that are not purchased via the iTunes Store (and that was 2 hors of my life wasted truing to deal with a 'senior' engineer on the audiobooks issue, where you cannot change the media type meta data on an item if you have iTunes Match turned on ... who basically said it was my fault for importing tracks from 3rd parties and not buying via the iTunes Store ... and then rudely turned off the online chat we were having).

I am resigned to not being able to sync purchased tracks ... so I am now burring them to CDs and re-importing them ... meaning that I then get to turn on iTunes Match, get them as matched tracks and it will work.

It means no more purchases via the iTunes Store until it is fixed though.

This did it!! Thankyou.

Kermanpa, thanks, that was absolutely brilliant. I spent way too much time on this today and was starting to depair.

i have the same problem, i tried but it didn't working on my iPhone 5s, any other suggestions? Thanks

Your iPhone is not a storage device. So the sync is one way - computer to iPhone

But you can transfer music from iPhone to iTunes by transferring iTunes purchases: File>Devices>Transfer Purchases

This is the only thing that worked for me Thanks!!

Awesome! Thank you! worked for me!

This is a huge THANK YOU to " webbbbbbbb" helpful post this worked for me I was on the tend of my tether.

However selecting the SETTINGS, GENERAL, ITUNES, SYNC NOW

This synced music from my iTunes library/icloud to my phone.

Thanks

🙂

Looks like the problem I'm having is a real bummer: you sync, go out and want to listen to this great music you just sync'd. No dice, it's not on the iPhone. REAL bummer, this is the major reason I have this iPhone with gigs of storage, and not an Android with a couple of bits of storage.

I have an Apple Mac running Mac OsX 10.11.1, an iPhone model MG4A2B/A whatever that is, 128 gig storage, running iOS 9.0.2. In iTunes, the music sync is set to sync music, sync entire music library.

After syncing, on my mac iTunes music, artists (on my mac) shows a CD I have imported, and it lists 3 albums for the artist. I have tried many times to sync my iPhone, and the same artist only has one album listed. I really don't want to have my laptop in the bath thank you very much. Any answers more than welcome, so long as my 3 CD's are playable on my friggin iPhone in the friggin bath damnit!

I subscribed to iTunes match and now I am able to get my songs on ALL of my devices - MAC, PC, iPhone, iPAD - you might want to check into it.

Library browse, note Leftfield only shows 1 album.

WHen searching for leftfield, it shows 3 albums.

When browsing my music, Leftfield only shows up one album. When searching for Leftfield I get 3. So the music is there on the device, but is not always visible.