Q: Why won't my songs transfer from itunes to my iphone?

I tried it, and then all my music deleted, like it was supposed to. And then I tried syncing my music again, but on my iTunes on my Mac it shows like it worked but when I check my phone it says that I have no Music in iTunes. I waited a few hours but it still says "No Content."

Help please?

(I have 45 songs on iTunes, and I have an iPhone5s with iOS8, if that helps.)

OK.  Thanks to everyone who posted ideas on here.  After a night and a half of lost sleep I'll never get back, here's what eventually worked for me, which is a variation on what Trevormitchell1212 originally suggested..

I've got a 4s iPhone and a Vista laptop -- I'm not exactly your early-adopter type.  Been having trouble ever since several OS updates ago.  But anyway:

1. Removed passcode on the phone (although I'm not sure that mattered)

2. Had iTunes up on my computer (updated to the latest version, though I'm not sure that mattered either)

3. Plugged phone in with a genuine Apple connector cable.   Several third-party charging cables in the house don't deliver a decent sync.

4. Selected the phone when it appeared;  selected the "Music" tab

5. Simply unchecked the "Sync Music" box at uppermost left

6. Selected "REMOVE" when iTunes gave me a popup that says "Are you sure you do not want to sync music? All existing songs and playlists on [the phone] will be removed.   [I don't actually think they were removed -- just at risk of being written over.]

7. Then rechecked the "Sync Music" box when given the opportunity.

8. Then hit "Sync" at lowermost right.

FINALLY I got that satisfying 20 minute wait when the sync routine got to the last step and you could see all the tracks copying over.   Prior to that it would complete the sync without actually copying anything over.

Trouble is I'm not sure this is a 'permanent' solution.   Might have to do that unsync-sync thing everytime you want to update the phone inventory.   Good luck.

Hi All. Ive had this problem it really ***** right! ok ive fixed mine heres how..... Start itunes in safe mode (shift and control held while program start up) click continue to safe mode. ok you should be in itunes, connect your iphone. Go into preferences, click the device tab, then check the box that says "prevent iphone from auto sync". Now go into your iphone library, click the summary tab, scroll down to the bottom of the screen where you should have a box saying "manually manage music" check that. Go back to your comps library, go into the song tabs and manually drag and drop the songs you want into your phone. drag and dropping songs will only work if you are in the songs tab. Voila! should be good to go now! DO NOT USE THE SYNC BUTTON AT ALL!

ajal1 wrote:

 

When I plug in my phone into my computer and try to sync my playlists on iTunes to my iPhone, the sync completes but the songs will not transfer.  I even tried deleting the existing playlists from my iPhone and I couldn't even do that.  I have literally tried everything that I know.  Any suggestions?

Hi. I just had this problem too, where my iTunes would only copy a few things and nothing more. An error message came up saying items can't be copied. I closed the music and video apps from the list of apps running in the background (ios 7 &8 double tap home button and slide up those two apps until they disappear) and when I tried again it worked and my files all transferred.

Hey, everyone!

I just did the latest update to iOS 8.1 on my phone, and guess what? My newly-created playlist APPEARED on my phone, after synching it the normal way. I've spent hours reading this entire thread, trying to decide which one of your brilliantly plausible solutions to attempt, and I'm SO happy for the answer to be "none"! If this is, indeed, an Apple fix, let's just hope it lasts.

I posted this before and it got removed.... probably for "advertising" or some crap.... I'm not trying to sell anything, I'm just trying to help. So I'm posting it again in hopes that it makes someone's day

The first thing you need to do (FOR MAC ONLY) is to go here and download this free program (trust me, I'm usually hesitant on downloading stuff, but this program is a life saver!). The download took a total of maybe 10 seconds... user friendly and extremely simple program, as you'll soon find out.

http://www.headlightsoft.com/detune/downloads.html

Once you've successfully installed Tune, run the program! Once you connect your device, it will automatically show what device is connected. You're ready...

Step One: Connect your iPhone to your laptop (USB) - ignore iTunes if it opens, but CANCEL any sync that may occur (if it doesn't; even better!)

Step Two: In DeTune, it should automatically recognize your device (iPhone) and show all of the data in an iTunes-style display. On the left-hand side, you'll see tabs for Music, Podcasts, etc. (JUST LIKE iTUNES) Step Three: THIS STEP IS NOT NECESSARY, but I highly recommend it to keep all of your stuff organized: Create a new folder on your desktop (title it whatever, I used "iPhone Transfers")

Step Four: In DeTune, select everything you want to transfer. DRAG AND DROP it into the folder you made on your desktop... wait for the copying to complete.

Step Five: Stare at the screen in complete awe and amazement as all of your music is now comfortably sitting on your desktop waiting to be imported into your iTunes music library!

My files were in m4a format, so you may not be able to simply drag and drop. Import them into iTunes via FILE ---> ADD TO LIBRARY, then select the files.... Don't know why you can't just drag and drop, but that works just the same.

I hope this helped! I know I was in the same boat for quite a while, and am VERY pleased with this program. I bet my post disappears within a week

Good luck!!!

Actually I just found the solution!!

Plug your phone into your iMac (I have iPhone 5 with IOS 8). Go to iTunes and click on the upper left corner on your iPhone icon. Then scroll down to OPTIONS where you can select  MANUALLY MANAGE MUSIC & VIDEOS. Check that box and then you can drag the songs you want to your iPhone.  Now in my case I had only 10 songs or so manually drag to my iPhone.  Hope this help.  Apple Support helped me with this:)

Here I want to share how I transfer music from iPhone to itunes or back:

1. On the summary tab of your iTunes sync settings check "Sync only checked songs and videos"
2. In your music library check all the songs you want to sync to your phone
3. Make sure there are no exclamation points next to any of the songs you want to sync to your phone
4. Make sure you have authorized your computer for all Apple IDs for purchased music you want to sync to your phone (in Store>Authorize This Computer)
5. Check "Sync Music" on the Music tab of your iTunes sync settings
6. Sync your phone

This worked for me too! Tx ..easy fix

I had the same issue with my iPhone 5s (iOS 8.1) and by the computer side Windows 7 64 bit and iTunes 12. I just uninstalled iTunes then reinstalled and from the iPhone's section go to Summary section and uncheck the automatic sync then go to music tab and uncheck the synch musics. then synch with iphone and your corrupted musics will be deleted from your iphone then go back to music section and re-check the synch musics part. then sync with iphone again and u will see from the music app your musics will get synched.

How i got it to work was delete the songs from your original library but keep the files.  Then find the music and and copy it into itunes again.  This is because once you move the music files they cant be located anymore. So delete them from library but keep files, then go to where you moved them to and copy them from there and dont move them again.

I was having this same problem and read through this entire board and then happened to see someone mentioning a corrupt update. I uninstalled itunes on my actual computer (I have  PC) .. and then I went and reinstalled it from the apple website and now everything is working just fine. I selected playlists and no issues all music is now showing on my iphone. There must of been an issue with the original itunes update.

Guys i wrote on this post before for solution but i found this on the internet and really it worked for me. problem is that u have too many musics and artworks of those. So here is the solution(I have copied the solution because link may die later:

Glitch: Syncing music takes a long time or won’t work      

A few people have run into an issue after the iOS 8 update where they’ve installed iOS 8 and had to restore the device, and the process takes a very long time to sync (24 hours or more), or appears to hang indefinitely.

Workaround:

• If you have a large number of tracks with artwork then it could be the culprit. Try deleting the artwork from your library and sync again.

Potential solutions:

• Load up iTunes and find your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch in the left column. Choose it then look under Summary at the Options section to find Manually manage music and videos. If it’s already check then try unchecking and re-checking it. You may need multiple syncs to get it to work. You may also have to toggle iTunes Match off under Settings > Music on your iPhone.
• You can also try connecting the device to your computer and firing up iTunes. On the device go to Settings > General > Usage > Manage and delete all the music. In iTunes go to the Music tab and uncheck Sync Music then apply. Now check the Sync Music box again and it should sync up correctly.

For removing artworks of songs:

Select all the tracks in the library, right click > get info > then click the tick box next to 'artwork' (so it shows a tick)

Press OK.

iTunes should now change every track to include no artwork.

The alternative of this method (the only method I can find on the web) only works if you have specifically told iTunes to download the artwork. This can be done by selecting all tracks > right clicking > clear downloaded artwork.

@Msorli Thanks to all those who suggested the solution to manually manage and drag/drop onto the iPod/iPhone icon. Was frustrated for the last few hours thinking my old trusty iPod classic had finally died. I was continuously getting the 'can't read device...please restore' error. The above solution fixed it.  BTW you can drag and drop all the files in one shot. Thanks!

Had the same issue, just fixed it by realizing I had "Manually Manage Music" checked on my sync page. I unchecked it and hit sync, then all my missing songs and playlists were magically added. Hope that helps!