Q: Music not syncing after iOS 7 update

Thank you sooo much! It now works!!!!

Thnk you!!

So hey, just coming back to say that, while I was unable to get the sync feature working, I was able to get all of my music onto the device! I stumbled across, or remembered, a nifty little feature called autofill.

You see, if you turn off music synchronization, and check the box for managing your music manually under the summary tab, you can go to the "on this device" tab within iTunes for the appropriate device, check settings and make sure no space is reserved, and just hit the autofill button. It will start downloading music to fill as much hard drive space as it can (or alternatively how much you allow it to with that settings menu) with songs. It just starts downloading them down the line (iirc its dependant on their order in your library?) from iTunes onto the device. Since I'm a peasant who was just looking to sync a mere 310 songs, this was a very easily method of fixing this issue for me, and will be for a while until my slowly (but surely) expanding music library makes it not so. But I'm just putting this here to let people know that you can at least still get your music onto the device despite the failure of sync, which I was frustrated myself with endlessly until I figured this out.

Guys,

I stupidly did the upgrade today and had the same problem.

The big give away for me was the "download song again from iCloud" symbol next to the few songs I had bought from iTunes using my phone. These were the only songs I could see on my iPhone, the rest were gone after the upgrade.

I deleted my iCloud account on my phone and did another sync on iTunes, all my music copied across to my phone - yay.

I think that iStupid is trying to sync all your music from the cloud. I bought most of my music from iTunes on my computer, not my phone, or I copied it into iTunes from CD, so it was never on the cloud.

Try deleting your iCloud account on your iPhone, sync and if it works, re-create your iCloud account again. Hopefully it won't remove them all again !

Good luck.

What resolved my issues was not having iCloud. Now it syncs flawlessly. I restored and transferred 23000 songs with no problems, obviously it will take some time. It seems like there is an iCloud process which hinders syncing or manual transferring or autofilling. For good measure I disconnect the iPod from the Wi-Fi. I have an iPod touch 5G, 64GB, with iOS 7.0.4, and a brand-new HP ProBook with Windows 7.

And, if you have to transfer audio tracks to the device and iTunes doesn't work, you can also transfer the tracks on an app called File Master, which is a file editor and reader with a folder file system.

David2623 and dmwells, thank you for posting this. I am able to sync my music now that I deleted my iCloud account. However, and maybe this is because I don't know my phone's ins and outs perfectly... I am still able to listen to music that is from my iCloud account. I didn't even know it was there! But, if I try to select a playlist to sync to my phone, it fills up memory. I was hoping that the playlist would access from the iCloud, but maybe that's a different issue.

Anyway, thank you! I hope this issue gets fixed in the long run, because deleting my account every time I want to sync my music is not how this IOS should work. Thank goodness I have my old iPods to use in my dance classes, so I don't have to rely on my phone!

Kristen

I have a fix that works!

So, what I did was pretty simple but it took me a lot of time to figure out. It's one simple step that everyone seems to skip!

1) On your iDevice go to Settings>General>Usage>Music. Hit "Edit" at the top left and click the sign next to "All Music". Your music should be deleted off your iDevice (double check this by going to your "Music" app, iTunes purchased music should have cloud icons next to them, non-iTunes purchased music should have red circles with a stop symbol next to them.

2) Plug your iDevice into your computer

3) Under your iDevice tab (for example, "Bob's iPhone") make sure no music is being transported from your computer to your iDevice. Do this by selecting "Only checked audio" and uncheck everything.

4) Instead of clicking sync, click REVERT (this is VERY IMPORTANT)

5) Once it has been reverted, select the music you wish to transport between the computer and iDevice.

6) Click SYNC. Your music should sync fully

Let me know if this works for anyone!

I got so frustrated by this thread and the ongoing issues that I finally went through the website, got a call scheduled, they called me and put me through to a very nice Apple dude.

I explained the issue and how frustrated we all are with it. He sympathised. He basically said that I seemed to be as well-informed about this issue as he is. We discussed some of the 'solutions' on here and agreed they are all temporary, unreliable workarounds. I have gone as far as setting up as a new phone three times... It only works until the next time I add music and need to sync (although perhaps unsurprisingly, I buy music through iTunes and bang, it's on my phone).

Long story short... He said they are well aware of it, we all just have to be patient and wait for updates.

Thanks for this.

I did similar. Went to the store. Restored iPhone. Worked first time syncing then not at all.

I made them aware that this is a big issue. Syncing iPhone the PC / mac should be bread and butter. Different to call centre they didn't seem aware .....

I have also provided feedback to apple direct. ( on syncing / and on the debacle that is downloading / syncing podcasts ). Surprisingly no response.

I guess in summation a simple acknoeledgement from Apple on any forum / medium to update on fixes / problems would be basic courtesy and dare I say good customer service..........

Oh well. Hope the update to fix is soon.

This just worked for me after trying EVERYTHING, i even nearly restored my phone. Just go to the itunes store on your computer and log out. Then log in again and (if you have your phone connected to our pc/laptop) it starts syncing auomatically. If not, just click on sync and it should work perfectly. Hope it works for you too!

Yes, Apple IS aware of this issue! We can only Guess and Hope when this Issue gets fixed! They are under NDA, and I doubt this is their Top Priority. But it MUST be Fixed!

This NIGHTMARE SLOW SYNC Issue started for me ever since my Update from iOS 6.1.3!!!!

Initially they tried to blame 3rd Party Content  and its Enconding for the Slow Speed of Copying. In my case it is Audio Hijack Pro.

Apple Senior Advisor suggested that I Convert my Audio Hijack Pro MP3s into AACs, so that those Songs are Re-Encoded with iTunes.

After I performed Speed Copying Tests with Apple Senior Advisors watching my Screen in real time, I was able to prove that the Improvement in Speed of Copy was very slight, totally not worth the effort!

A different Test proved that this issue is not caused by my Numerous Smart Playlists, no File Sizes, GBs!

It's just the Number of Songs! Most people don't have Tenth of Thousands of Short Songs/Tracks, Small File Size like I do!

In my Case, it took Days for me to Copy 25,000 Song! I had to break them into 2500-4000 Batches!

As an example, approx. 4000 Songs = 1.5-2GB could take 6-7 Hours in overnight Sync!

The earlier Syncs went faster, approx. 20 Songs Per Minute, The later Syncs, when I got to approx. 15,000 on my iPhone 4S, slowed down to 6 - 5.5 Songs per minute!

I have ENDLESS DETAILED LOGS on this Case!!!!

In short:

Do all your Big Number of Songs Syncs overnight, NOT During the Day! Why? Because you can't alway predict How Long the Sync will take!

In My Case, I eventually got pretty close Estimates of How Long the Sync would take to Finish! Here is the Formula ( / = Divide)

Take a Note of the Sync Music Number ( After your Add New Songs, Playlists etc - Minus What The Number was Before Since Previous Sync)

Divide Sync Music Number by Speed Per Minute Multiplied by 60

2400 Songs Added / 6 Songs Per Minute = Number of Minutes it should take to Finish this Sing!

2400 Songs Added / 360 Songs Per Hour = Number of Hours it should take to Finish this Sing!

2400 / 360 = 6.66 Hours!!!!

Depending How Many THOUSANDS of Songs you have already Synced, it might take 10-30 Minutes before you see UGLY WORDS "Waiting for changes to be applied" go away!

Then you get "The Good News" - Copying XXX of xxxxxxx.

At that point you can go to ABOUT Menu on your iPhone, and you'll see the Number of Songs on iPhone Increasing. It's best to write down that Number before you start the Sync.

During the Sync,  Copying XXX of xxxxxxx, you can toggle the About Menu and use a Timer on iPad, in my case, or some other timer, to see How Many Songs has copied in 1 or 2 or 5 minutes! Then you Multiply those Numbers, so that you know How Many HOURS the Sync could take to Finish!

1 x 60 = 60 min

2 x 30 = 60 min

5 x 12 = 60 min

This also Helps to Improve the Speed of Sync:

Clean Out your Duplicates, but be careful! Not All Duplicates are REALLY Duplicates! You can have the Same Song Name, yet Different Versions of it, with maybe even Different Durations! Unfortunately, the Sync might NOT be very Smart, and thus it'll take Longer for it to Sync!!!

Worse Case, in the Next Sync, the Sync might Change its INTERPRETATION of its Previous Sync, and will try to Re-Sync A Big Number of Songs that It Already Synced!!!! That is another Reason to Sync ONLY Before Going to bed, because you never know when you will get such an Ugly Surprise!!!

Missing Files is another Suspect that could Confuse the Sync!!!

I've offered to a lot of Details to Apple on this Sad Case, but after MANY PHONE CALLS and Screensharing, with their Top Advisors, they didn't seem interested! Maybe that means that they already know what is wrong and will eventually fix this!!! We can only hope so!

Restoring as New, then from Backup, then Breaking into Smaller Batches to Rebuild Our "House Of Cards" Music Content on our iOS Devices - that is what we'll have to do till this Issue is Fixed!

With 54 Pages in this Discussion alone, which is one of several that I've seen on other sites - Apple can't pretend that this Problem doesn't exist!

Next time you speak to them, mention this particular Thread, so that they don't forget about us:)!

Clarification Regarding:

arkady1 wrote:

 

During the Sync,  Copying XXX of xxxxxxx, you can toggle the About Menu and use a Timer on iPad, in my case, or some other timer, to see How Many Songs has copied in 1 or 2 or 5 minutes! Then you Multiply those Numbers, so that you know How Many HOURS the Sync could take to Finish!

 

1 x 60 = 60 min

2 x 30 = 60 min

5 x 12 = 60 min

iPhone Settings:

Settings > General > About > Songs 

The Number of Songs might say "Loading", or and it will Toggle quickly every few Seconds between "Loading" and the Number of Songs... If it doesn't Toggle, and just shows word "Loading", then you can Refresh that Number of Songs by Tapping on General, then on About!

Beware, when you are back on the About screen, the Number of Songs might dispappear Quickly, and you'll see "Loading" instead. So try to remember and or write that Number of Songs quickly, before it disappears

Then it's like Taking Pulse, Blood Pressure, you come back in 1 or 2 or 5 or 10 minutes, do the multiplication and figure out your Copying Speed Per Hour, before you go to bed! That way you wake up to a "Good News", instead of "Waiting for the Changes to be applied", or "Waiting for items to copy"!!!! 

Having these Time Estimates really helped me to deal with the Frustration caused by this collossal waste of time!!!

Other than this Sad Issue - I LOVE Apple, and I can't wait for them to Fix this finally!!!

arkady1 wrote:

 

Clarification Regarding:

arkady1 wrote:

 

Having these Time Estimates really helped me to deal with the Frustration caused by this collossal waste of time!!!

 

Again, at least in my Case, the Issue is not with 3rd Party LAME Encoding http://lame.sourceforge.net  used by Audio Hijack Pro being the Cause of this Slow Music Sync! It's the Large Number of Short Songs that is being Synced - each one being anywhere between 10 sec to 3 or 4 minutes -- THAT is the Problem!

The File Sizes of each Song is Small = 700K and Up. Compared to the usual Commercial Songs that are 2-3-4 MB each! Thus it take this iOS Sync a Long Time to Create a "Directory" of each of those Songs, and then eventually Copy them!!!

Comparing the Speed of Copy during this Sync to a Speed of Copy in Finder, via USB or FireWire doesn't help, because, as I found out, iOS Sync goes through a Different Protocol - TCP/IP, and thus it's a Smaller "Pipeline". Apple must have their Reasons why they use that "Conduit", "Pipeline". But, even then, it's probably just a a matter of them Optimizing the Code behind that iOS Sync, so it's More Efficient in Processing such Large  Number of Songs being Synced! Finding Bugs in the Code must be a Huge Task, so we can only wish them luck!

I am on iPhone 4S, and I am not sure how much Faster this Sync would be if I had iPhone 5S, which has a Faster Processor. The Lightning Plug is still the same USB 2.0. Hopefully the next iPhone will have USB 3.0 Lightning, and, with a Faster Processor, all my THOUSANDS of Songs will FLY through Syncs! Such is my Dream!!!!

Other than this Sad Issue - I LOVE Apple, and I can't wait for them to Fix this finally!!!

I did not try iOS 7.0.6 Update that came out today! The True Test to see if that latest Update fixed this Issue would be:

Update my iPhone 4S to iOS 7.0.6

Back it Up

Restore as New Device

Restore from Backup

But then if this Update did not improve this Slow Sync, then I'll be stuck with yet another 5-6-7 Overnight Syncs, trying to bring back my 25,000 + Songs onto my iPhone 4S!

So, I'l just probably run this iOS 7.0.6 Update and keep an eye on my Future Syncs! Then, hopefully iOS Update 7.1 will be even better, and then, but only IF I HAVE TO, I'll do this:

Back it Up

Restore as New Device

Restore from Backup

But, I hope that long before then there were enough really tech savvy people who read my Comments as of today. Then maybe they can "go first":)! and report the Good News to the Rest of Us!!!!

Meanwhile, I just wanted to share my experience here, so that maybe it'll help others deal with their FRUSTRATION, while Apple's Best Guns are On This Case!

It simply shouldn't have to take a WEEK worth of Overnight Sync to Transfer 25K Songs =  19.54 GB from iTunes to iPhone 4S!!!

If I chose to buy a New iPhone every week, I would have to do this Every Week, break it my 25K Songs in batches to bring All My Music? That would be Crazy!!!!

A Permanent Real Fix Should be found!

P.S. The Speed of your Computer probably effect the Speed of Syncing Music too.

Here is my Mac & iOS Set Up:

MacBook Pro 17', Late 2011, AntiGlare Screen

2.5 GHz Intel Core i7, 8 GB RAM, 500 GB SSD HD

Mac OS 10.8.5 Supplemental

iPhone 4S

64 GB - iOS 7.0.4

To play it safe, I am plugging my iPhone 4S directly into my MacBook Pro, unlike in the past, under iOS 6.1.3, where I used to plug it into Thunderbolt Display and never worry about it.

I have Re-Installed my iTunes, Version 11.1.4, and that didn't help!

To say that it's only iOS 7 that is causing this Slow Sync might not be totally fair. It's how iOS is "co-operating" with iTunes, and maybe with Mac OS itself! 

I wish I had another iPhone 4S, just like mine, 64 GB, but running the Previous iOS 6.1.3. Then it would be possible to Isolate this Slow Sync Problem to just iOS 7.

Another "Suspect" could have been this:

I had a Particular Podcast in my iTunes on Mac, and it was Syncing to 2 Occurrences of that very Podcast on both my iPhone 4S (running iOS 7.0.4) and iPad 3 ( running iOS 6.1.3). It is possible that there was a  "Confusion" somewhere in the iCloud Sync part of my Entire iOS Sync, where as the iCloud could decided which of the 2 Occurrences of the same Podcast on my iOS Devices to Sync with? 

So I Deleted that Podcast from my iTunes and on iOS Devices, and then Re-Subscribed to it again! That seems to have helped! But only Time will tell if THAT alone was The Cause of my Sync "House Of Cards" Falling Apart, or if it was one of several other reasons for my Sync Instability! What I can say for sure is this:

After I Deleted every instance of that Podcast and Re-Subscribed to it, I did not see any Improvement in the Sync Speed! That Speed became Slower as the Number of Songs already Synced to my iPhone 4S Increased! The Greater Number of Songs on my iPhone 4S, the Slower the Sync!

So, with all those Time Estimates Formulas, at least you will have Some Predictability before you start your Sync and go to bed! 

When Apple finally fixes this Slow Sync Issue, I'd be able to add Songs, or Text To Speech Articles ANYTIME to my iPhone! After 1-4 Minutes Sync I'd be able to Go Out and  Have a Life, instead of starring at iTunes, and not even know when it will say:

• Waiting for changes to be applied

• Waiting for items to copy

And iTunes is NOT Telling me How Long it will take BEFORE for the Entire Sync to Finishe before I Click on Sync or Apply Button!!! Seeing such Estimate would have been very helpful!!!!

It would also be great if Apple allowed us to Pause in the Middle of the Sync and Resume it Later, when we have more Time!!!! But right now, one can either Eject iPhone, or Disconnect it, or Cancel the Sync!

Disconnect is NOT a Pause! It creates a Corruption, where the Other Space Size in iTunes Status Bar can icrease several times, or Disappeare completely! Eventually, after Re-Syncing, that Other Space might get corrrected or not! If not, the only other way to fix it is to do Yet Another Restore As New, then Restore from Backup! That means another bunch of Overnight Syncs, basincally starting from the begnning!

Cancel Sync = Undo that Entire Sync, and possibly More! Then it's like doingYet Another Restore As New, then Restore from Backup! That means another bunch of Overnight Syncs, basincally starting from the begnning!

Another Suggestion - it'd be great if the iOS Sync is having a Problem with iTunes Library, it would be great if there was a Log, so that we could See The Errors, with Suggested Fixes!

I have already provided some of this Feedback via http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html 

Adding to the FRUSTRATION on that Feedback Page is the fact that I had to Split this Previous Feedback into 6 Parts, because there is a Number Of Characters Limits on the Comments Field at http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html

According to http://www.lettercount.com it's 782 Characters, which is not as bad as 140 Characters Limit in Twitter…

It would be GREAT, if Apple Feedback had a LIVE UPDATE CHARACTER COUNTER, so that a Person Posting would know how close to the Character Limit they are!!!! Hey, if Twitter knows how to do Count Characters, then we should expect no less from Apple, right:)?!

Other than this Sad Issue with this Slow Music Sync to iOS Devices - I LOVE Apple, and I can't wait for them to Fix this finally!!!

Jon Sutton wrote:

 

I got so frustrated by this thread and the ongoing issues that I finally went through the website, got a call scheduled, they called me and put me through to a very nice Apple dude.

 

snip

 

Long story short... He said they are well aware of it, we all just have to be patient and wait for updates.

Yes, Apple Top Advisors told me that Apple Engineers are aware of this Issue! It's been Escalated to the Top!

I spent Dozens of Hours with AppleCare Senior Advisors on the Phone, Screen Sharing, so that they saw exactly what was happening on my end!

I also understand that this might not be a Number One Priority for Apple! 25000 Songs Divided by, let's say, 10 Songs per Album, would be an equivalent of 2,500 Albums, which would be a Unusual for the Average User! Thus, Cases like mine might be a Tiny Minority in terms of percentage, because most people like do not Sync that many Songs!!!

Apple's Questioning my 3rd Party Content, LAME Encoding http://lame.sourceforge.net  used by Audio Hijack Pro being the Cause of this Slow Music Sync - that sounded like an Excuse to me, a way to avoid blame! But hopefully Apple realize that by now, and will really try to Improve their iOS Sync Software Code, when dealing with Large Libraries, at least in my Case!

As far as the Conspiracy Theories - Apple wants us to Buy from iTunes, and thus is making it difficult to Sync 3rd Party Content!

That is NOT TRUE!!! Apple just wants us to buy as many DEVICES as Possible! They already know that we can get Songs from Amazon, Spotify, Pandora, and not just from iTunes Store!

The Bottom Line is:

iOS 7 Sync doesn't work as smoothly as the Previous Versions of iOS!

If the 3rd Party Content Songs work FLAWLESSLY in my iTunes on Mac, then those very same Songs should be just as Welcome on my iOS Devices as they were under iOS 6.1.3. and Sync Flawlessly!!!

If I can Copy my entire iTunes Folder, 118 GB, with 55,523 Items in it, to another HD (7200 PM) in about 28-30 Minutes via Firewire, connected to my MacBook Pro 17', with SSD HD, then:

WHY does it take 4 hrs : 51 min : 10.8 sec to Sync / Add 1.09 GB = 1542 Songs ????!!!!

Yes, I understand that TCP/IP is a "THINNER PIPELINE" than FireWire 800, but still:

4 hrs : 51 min : 10.8 sec to Sync / Add 1.09 GB = 1542 Songs  

vs

entire iTunes Folder, 118 GB, with 55,523 Items to another HD (7200 PM) in about 28-30 Minutes???!

That Speed of Copy Difference is beyond Night and Day!!!!

Hopefully, Apple will FIX this Issue, and in general VASTLY IMPROVE the Speed of Syncing of All our iOS Devices!!!! That way we'll go back to saying Steve Jobs' Legendary words:

It Just Works!!!!!

Meanwhile, Thank You to All those people who read my Previous 5 Comments as of today, Friday, February 21, 2014.

IF IOS 7.0.6 UPDATE HELPED YOU FIX OR IMPROVE THIS ISSUE, PLEASE LET US ALL KNOW!!!!

Good Luck, Apple!!!!