Music not syncing after iOS 7 update

I updated to iOS7 on my iPhone 4 and less than half of my music is syncing to my phone. Any thoughts? I am already hating this update for more than one reason and this is adding icing to the cake...

iPhone 4, iOS 7

Posted on Sep 18, 2013 9:29 PM

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999 replies

Mar 3, 2014 2:36 PM in response to simplysounds

I have not had any issues with this (or the previous) release of IOS 7.0.6 or itunes 11.1.5 on 4 different IOS devices, Iphone, ipod, ipad mini and ipad. I have added and subtracted from playlists with various combinations of media So this has to be something locally affecting specific people either their particular hardware or computers where itunes resides. Make sure your disks are verified ok and that the permissions have been checked. In particular make sure if you have Sync only checked song and videos that you actually have the songs you want checked.


that setting has been in itunes for ages and i believe is on by default .


My own sucess in syncing began once i cleared my library of corrupted tunes and especially any that are owned by a different apple id than your own.


good luck

Mar 3, 2014 11:02 PM in response to amgrim

So how do you physically identify and remove the corrupted tunes from your library with the wrong ID assuming there are some there?


As far as I am concerned once we started using IOS7 was the day (I repeat 7 months ago now) that this all went belly up, before that a sync just synced without anymore legwork than plugging a connector in!!

Mar 4, 2014 1:24 AM in response to joel777

That's a pretty good account of what I experienced and still see on my phone: iTunes says I have 7188 tracks and my phone shows 7218, but I cannot see any duplicates. Using a 3rd party application to browse my phone seems stupid, though. I cannot understand why a normal sync wouldn't correct it and this is clearly where Apple has gone wrong with iOS 7.


I'm confident that turning off Genius will sort most of my problems, but iTunes clearly has issues beyond that. My iPad for example has no music sync at all: the box isn't ticked in iTunes and the About page in the iPad settings says zero for songs. Despite this when I go to "On my iPad" in the iPad iTunes page when it's connected it shows sixty plus tracks, all of which are greyed out. What the heck is that? Is there a purpose to the "On this iPad/iPhone" tab in iTunes - beyond confusing me, I mean. I've been down with Apple since the first Titanium PowerBook and the quality of their kit still feels right, but iTunes and iOS seem a bit confused to me. I also still don't get why books were separated from other iTunes media - this is very awkward; especially having the sync tell me a book on my phone isn't on my computer when it is. And why can I not remove the stock checker or the compass or other stock applications which I find useless?


I sincerely hope Apple is working on this stuff. The main reason I have an iPhone is because I can use it to play my music instead of carrying around an iPod, but it would be nice to see the old quality come back.

Mar 4, 2014 12:40 PM in response to arkady1

after the latest io7 update sync failed again. tried 3 restores from previous backup but no joy.


tried 2 restores as a new phone and 2nd time it synced some stuff then cancelled sync


then unplugged phone and reconnected but still not syncing


got home from work, connected again and it transferred the rest of my music and video


so far all is good and i can change and sync playlist content


so why the inconsistancy?


to those loyal to apple and those of you who haven't had any issues, can you explain this? or maybe it's an ios bug?


i guess everytime there is an ios update i'll have the same issues.


i have been looking into android and samsung and i can't see a reason for NOT going android. more free apps and more choice of apps.

Mar 4, 2014 8:40 PM in response to yax412

This sync issue is nuts! I just upgraded my iTunes to the most recent version and still no resolve with the sync issues I was having either. From what I can tell, if I buy music from the iTunes store, those songs seem to sync. If I import a CD or copy a song from say Youtube and bring it into my iTunes library, those songs will NOT sync. Prior to updating iTunes or iOS 7 on my phone, I could do what I cannot do for years now. I can clearly see the songs listed in my iTunes library, hook my phone up to the computer via the USB cable and go through the entire sync process and look at my phone when its completed and no changes have been made with songs I manually added to my library.


I wish there was a way you could manually add songs to your phone instead of having to do a sync.


Also to those that say iTunes is telling you, you don't have enough space on your phone. One common thing to keep in mind to free up space is to delete your text messages! I recently deleted text messages for one of my contacts and believe it or not, it freed up about 4.5gb of space on my phone!


I have an old iPod Touch without a camera and its using OSX 5.1.1. I tried to update to the most recent OSX but it keeps saying its up to date. Well anyway, I am going to try and use that and see if that will sync and have my imported music show up on that device.

Mar 5, 2014 12:11 AM in response to S8to

there have been users who say a duff track was the issue.


i used mp3diags (free s/ware) after the 1st ios7. it scanned all my files but there was no difference as it still wouldn't sync.


i know my laptop, itunes, mp3s and library is fine.


why does it take me at least 2 days of constant erasing, restoring, syncing to get it to work every time apple releases an update. it's almost like it needs me to try different ways of restoring and then at some point it decides to work. there is no pattern and no fixed way i can get it to work.


as mentioned in my previous posts, i have tried the supposed work arounds, talked to a senior tech at apple california several times providing all sorts of videos/logs/screenshots but without any resolve.


as soon as i'm able i 'll be switching to samsung/android

Mar 5, 2014 5:58 AM in response to yax412

I have now completely reset my phone for the second time. The first thing that worked was to reset the phone and restore it from backup. It worked fine for about a month, but started not synching music again, even music I had just bought from iTunes. Apple really needs to fix this. I don't want to have to continuously reset my phone over and over again.

Mar 5, 2014 8:20 AM in response to S8to

In iTunes in the column view when you sort by songs you see a long list of tracks with all their tags. Try different sort options, like kind or size or bit rate etc... to try and iidentify any problems zero size or time files etc... From the top view menu you can add additional View options to sort by. If you see Purchased AAC audio file or Protected file in the kind column do a get info (command+i) for the indvidual file and you will see who it was purchased by, when and the apple ID, when you try and play one of those that wasn't your own it would pop up a warning but for me that didnt happen and especially with the syncing. I think that is a particular issue when you try to backup itunes to the cloud. Uncheck and check your files in the check column, its a pain but you have to make some effort especially if you have a large library, give it a try and see if thats affecting it for you.

I have over 100000 files in my itunes library and syncing hasnt been an issue for me since the big update to 7, but i do have other complaints about itunes its definitly being affected by them trying to cram too many options the controls for which are not intuitively located.

Mar 7, 2014 3:17 AM in response to yax412

Greetings once more everyone.


Sorry but if someone has given up after 7 months and go to Android I can't really blame him.


I've had:


ipod 4G

ipod 5G

Shuffle 1, 2 and 4

Itouch 2G IOS 4.x


My wife has an iphone 3GS IOS6.x


All of these JUST WORK as Steve Jobs intended.


My Iphone 4S 64GB with IOS 7.06 is, however, hacking me off.


I struggled and struggled with it for months and the weekend before last gave up and set it back to factory settings, no backup and restore or anything.


I should add that I synch my ENTIRE Library.


Anyway - everything was back on my phone. I then tested it by adding some of the tracks to a playlist - though they were already on the phone - and the playlist synched. Positive I thought.


I purchased 7 tracks from itunes on my PC and this morning tried to synch again - 3 guesses what is happening an hour after syching? They are still "Waiting for Changes to be Applied". I can see the 7 tracks greyed out on the iphone with the little dotted circle around them, but additionally 2 other tracks that were purchased from itunes months and months ago are now ALSO WAITING TO SYNCH!


Why? Why is this so hard Apple?


I have every sympathy with people who want to jump ship, I have to say. IF 7.1 does not fix this problem I might go the same way. I don't want to but this is UNACCEPTABLE.


Thanks for listening to me moan.

Mar 7, 2014 3:30 AM in response to yax412

I had a problem. until just now. with my playlists not syncing, and my solution may work for some of you. I did not have the "Waiting for changes to be applied" issue (thank goodness). I don't think I had any missing songs, either. Just songs missing from playlists.


How I identified which songs were missing from my playlists: In iTunes (mine is the Windows version) Playlists, sort each troubled Playlist by a column of your choice, like Name. Then right-click on the playlist name on the left and select Copy To Play Order. Sync to your device(s). Now your playlists in both iTunes and on your devices will have the songs in the same order, making it easy to compare. You do lose your original play order, but I always use shuffle anyway.


In this manner I discovered that song names with parentheses in the name seem to be my entire problem -- they were the songs that were missing from my playlists on my devices. It also seems that a song with a parenthesis can affect the next song in your playlist. This is not good, because all or nearly all these songs were purchased from the iTunes Store, and the song names, as purchased, can have parentheses.


To fix, rename the song names, and then re-sync. It is unfortunate to lose your original song names. All the more so that when (I assume) Apple fixes this issue, you shouldn't need your songs renamed any longer. So as to not lose the parenthetical information from your song name, I suggest replacing the first parentheses with a hyphen and a space, and not deleting the words. Word of caution: I don't know if there are any unintended consequences of changing your purchased song names.


One way to find straggler songs that still have parentheses: In iTunes, go to Songs. Upper right, in the Search Library box, type a left parenthesis. The resulting list is broken down by Artists, Albums, etc. Find Songs, and hit the Show (all) text. This will show the songs with parentheses, although I don't think it allows you to rename the songs from here.


I have so many songs with parentheses, that I'm giving up for tonight. So, I still have the problem, but, no longer do I have it with with the songs I've renamed.


Windows iTunes 11.1.5.5 iPad and iPhone 5 with 7.0.6

Mar 7, 2014 8:29 AM in response to simplysounds

I've been due for an upgrade for several months now, but I keep holding off on getting the 5S hoping that they will fix this issue. I am the owner of several Apple products and I've always loved them, but I am seriously contemplating getting a Galaxy instead.


Simplysounds, would you please do us the kindness of letting us know how that all turns out with putting your iTunes music on it? If we can get some confirmation that Samsung's product works well with iTunes, I think a lot of us may decide to jump ship at this point. Seven months is a ridiculous amount of time to be waiting for this issue to be resolved.


simplysounds wrote:


solved the issue for good!


after the last five years of having apple products (and spending over 100 hours resting phones/talking with apple in usa)....


i just bought a samsung galaxy note 3


apple need to face up to the problem. apple are shooting themselves in the foot and getting left behind.


bye bye apple!

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Music not syncing after iOS 7 update

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