iOS 7 music sync problems on iPhone 4

This didn't work for me and neither did any other option on here and the other threads about this however I did find a solution, although time consuming but it worked. I had to manually add songs to my iPhone, 20 at a time, by selecting 20, right click, then click on 'add to playlist' then on your device name - it should be at the top of your list of playlists.

This! I did restore my phone, it wiped important conversations and data off my phone, and because sync hadn't worked, none of the information within apps had been saved, and despite all this - the music still won't sync. This is outrageous.

Adding a few songs at a time has finally worked. Which is still a pain when you have 5000 songs.
After having reset the phone, reinstalled iTunes, lost ALL conversations and info saved in apps because iTunes hadn't saved the apps from my phone, hours of going insane..
Apple; seriously. This is an issue. And it's making me consider something other than iPhone as soon as this dies. It's as if they're forcing people with older iPhones to get the new ones.. Geez.

After 5 hours of fruitless efforts I found the issue! AUTOLOCK!!! When it comes on it kills the sync and no or few songs get copied. Need to be OFF. Settings - General - Passcode - Turn Off. What a bug!!!

This is still an issue, BTW. It is by far the most frustrating, poorly handled issue I have ever had to deal with regarding Apple products. It is unacceptable and makes me seriously think about other options regarding a smart phone.

Thanks. Just tried this and it works! Was annoying as I only wanted to sync a few new songs that I had downloaded. Hopefully this means I won't have this issue again 🙂

I've figured it out! Please read the entire post BEFORE trying this...

There was one step missing from everyone's process...you have to go to your music selection (as if you were going to play a song) and hit play. The iPhone will cycle through all of the songs it "thinks" are on there. Once that's finished, you will notice that all of the songs are gray in the playlist or selection pane. I recommend doing this with the iPhone disconnected from the computer. Once finished, connect to computer and sync.

In summary, these are the steps I took:

Make your selection from iTunes for the songs you want on your phone, organize playlist, etc.

On the iPhone, disable your iCloud account (delete account under settings>iCloud>delete account **don't worry, just sign back into iCloud once complete**)

Go to settings>usage and select music. Delete all songs

Ensure WiFi is off

Go to Music and hit play. Music will cycle through all selections phone "thinks" are there. **I did have one song play (weird), so no worries if that happens**

Connect iPhone to PC/MAC and sync (Should work either manually or automatically)

Go to On this iPhone, make sure you select -Entire Library-

If iTunes asks to "remove songs from iPhone", select yes

Apply then SYNC!

Viola! Only your selected songs are in your music library!!!

Now, I reactivated iCloud (settings>iCloud and then sign-in with Apple ID and PW) and we shall see what happens overnight when I sync with iCloud, but for now, all settings on phone are back to "normal" and I have all of the songs I wanted.

Hope this helps! It was awesome to see all of the suggestions that worked for others, and I used a hybrid of them to do this, so thanks to all for their insight. Remember, the most important step is to cycle through your music once you remove all music from the iPhone so that the phone "knows" there is no longer music on the phone. IF you skip this step, or do not deactivate iCloud, the phone will simply revert once you reactivate iCloud or try to sync.

***IF YOU SEE ANY SELECTED SONG IN YOUR LIST THAT YOU WISH TO TRANSFER WITH AN EXCLAMATION MARK IN A CIRCLE (to the left of the title), REMOVE IT! iTunes does not properly sync even if it can't fins ONE song. If you get an error (dialogue box indicating songs were not transferred because they were not found, etc.), this WILL NOT WORK. Carefully check your selections and repeat.

I did the opposite as I have 35000 songs.

Under Summary->Options, I UNticked all but sync only ticked songs & videos and FINALLY got the music I wanted onto my IPhone. I noticed that when I installed the latest up date of iOS that suddenly my contacts are duplicated and triplicated. What a pain in the bum!

The answer may be more complicated than that. Spend hours and hours on the phone with an Apple supervisor to sort out my issues with syncing iTunes on my Mac with my iPhone 6.

Follow these steps sequentially to potential Nirvana: 🙂

1. Go into iTunes on your computer and and click on "View" in the top bar

i. Select "Show duplicate items"

ii. Delete one of every duplicate version (not both!)

2. Exit iTunes

3. Connect your iPhone to your computer, and wait for iTunes to open

4. Click on the iPhone icon (left top with IOS 8)

5. Click on "Summary" under the Setting choices

i. Under "Options" select only "Sync only checked songs and videos" (DEselect all other choices under "Options")

ii. Under "Backups" select "This computer" under "Automatically Back Up"

iii. Under "Backups" click "Back Up Now" under "Manually Back Up and Restore"

iv. Wait for backup to complete.

6. Click on the "Music" icon (below "Summary" and "Apps") and DEselect "Sync Music"

7. Click on "Movies" icon (below "Music") and DEselect "Sync Movies"

8. Click on "TV Shows" (below "Movies") and DEselect "Sync TV Shows"

9. Click on "Podcasts" (below "TV Shows") and DEselect "Sync Podcasts"

10. Click on "Books" (below "Podcasts) and DEselect "Sync Books"

11. Click on "Photos" (below "Books") and DEselect "Sync Photos"

12. Back up iPhone photos to computer

i. Minimize iTunes

ii. Click on Finder on Mac computer

iii. Click on Applications (in Favorites section)

iv. Select Image Capture

v. Cancel scanning software and select iPhone under "Devices"

vi. Select "Import All" photos

vii. Exit Finder when completed

13. Take iPhone and click on Settings" icon (on the iPhone itself, not in iTunes)

i. Select "iCloud"

ii. Turn off "Find My iPhone"

14. Back to iTunes on the Mac

i. Click "Summary" under iPhone "Settings"

ii. Select "Restore iPhone..." under iPhone 6 under iOS 8.1, and wait for restore to complete

iii. Select Restore "iPhone from backup" (NOT as new iPhone!)

iv. Wait for "restore from backup" to complete

15. Select "Music" under iPhone settings in iTunes

i. Select "Sync Music"

ii. Select "selected playlists, artists, albums , and genres"

iii. Select "Include music videos"

iv. Select all "Playlists"

v. Select all "Genres"

16. Now select "Sync" to the right of the coloured and grey bar at the bottom

17. Watch iTunes seamlessly sync with your iPhone after a few minutes.

Why so complicated? Ask Apple! 😉

I notice the syncing issues always happen on my iPhone 4S every time Apple puts out new software and it's getting annoying as ****. Every year this sh*t happens and I don't even want the software upgrades.

Then don't upgrade the device. You are not required to upgrade....

GB