Near Duplicate Playlist is Created when Syncing with IPhone

I have the same issue, it just started for me and I don't know why...

I've had this iPhone for over 6 months......

It doesn't happen for all of my playlists ... only a few...

Fully patched current version of Windows 10

itunes 12.5.1.21

current iOS V10.2.1

for me at least it can't be a free space issue on the phone ... I have 70Gb+ of free space

Sigh... I had this same issue 5 years ago with an iPhone 3Gs :-/

I also have the same issue.

I don't know if it has been mentioned before, but the duplicated playlist seems to be created not only when you add a new song to one of your iPhone's playlist, but also when the slightest change has happened to your iPhone playlist, even regarding the plays # of the songs.

So even if I do not add any more song(s) to my playlist on the iPhone (or iTunes on the PC), If I actually listen to one of my playlists on the phone, then when I connect the phone to iTunes on the Windows PC (Windows 10) and try to sync, the said playlist is duplicated.

I can only guess that iTunes should actually merge everything (every change, every new detail) from the iPhone's playlist with the one it has on the Windows iTunes database. It seems that instead of merging the two playlists it also creates a backup of the old playlist, so we end up with two of them.

Same thing happens when I sync my iPod Classic.

I can't believe that Apple has not fixed this yet !

I can confirm what IoannisGR points out on the Mac as well with the latest versions of iTunes and iOS, meaning it is a design flaw or something on the phone side, and not limited to just iTunes on Windows.

I am having this problem with my brand-new (6 gen) ipod touch. My problem is even more frustrating because the duplicate playlists are invisible! When I got into itunes, I don't see them, but when I disconnect and then just go under the "Music" of my ipod, suddenly, the duplicates are there! 😠

Also, I have my playlists neatly organized into playlists folders. In itunes, everything looks fine. Disconnected and under Music, some of the playlists are playlists folders, and some are NOT. What is going on? It's very frustrating!!! I do already have itunes set NOT to sync, as I use it from several different computers.

Here is a fix that so far seems to work in my case.

1. Take a backup of your library / iTunes folder (this step is optional)

2. Uninstall the following from Control Panel - at this exact order (you may not find "Apple Application Support", but it's ok, just proceed with the next one).

Apple Application Support

Apple Mobile Device Support

Apple Software Update

Bonjour

iTunes

3. Reboot Windows.

4. You might get some error prompts / messages regarding iCloud or Airport Utility or something else. Ignore / close them.

5. Download and install iTunes again.

6. Reboot Windows.

7. Run Apple Software Update and update anything that might show up (optional).

After I did the above steps. a few days ago, I have synced my iPhone 4-5 times and I had no duplicate playlists created so far.

I don't know if and how long this solution / fix will last, but for the time being it seems to work.

I am having this issue with iTunes on my Mac. I use the library to update iCloud and iTunes Match. I get a duplicate set of playlists when I sync with the iCloud. I only use Apple TV 3rd gen for the iCloud music library.

Hi. I get the same corruption of my playlists, some deleted and replaced with several clones with 1, 2 or 3 added (depending on no. of clones). I have given up connecting my iphone to iTunes, other updates achieved by bluetooth connection. I have fallen back on my ipod 160gb classic for all my music, use a bluetooth adapter with it to play on an Echo and avoid getting really frustrated. Maybe the way forward is for apple to create a modern bluetooth ipod (with 512gb - Ha). Any ideas?

This worked for me. I was having the same issues with multiple duplication's of playlists. I had three different playlists that duplicated 3 and 4 times. I deleted them from my phone as well as the music in them, deleted duplicates from my computer and only kept the one playlist that had the most songs. Synced again and it was fine UNTIL I did a sync a couple of days later. It started all over again.

I created new playlists for each, selected all from the old list and dragged the songs onto the new playlist with a slightly different name. Deleted the old playlists from the computer and phone. Went into music settings in itunes under my phone menu and ensured that the duplicate old and newly created play lists were not checked. Did a sync. At this time all of the problem playlists and the new play lists were not sent to my phone. I wanted a clean removal before adding the new corrected list. Went back and selected the new playlists and did another sync. Seems to have worked. We will see what happens in a couple of days.

Hey so I don't know if you have this problem still, but I found a simple way to stop it from messing up everything. Before you sync your playlist to your phone, change the name a bit. For example, my playlist is called "My Jam." Whenever I go to sync, I change it to "My Jams." I found that this prevents everything bad from happening like losing a random number of songs or having duplicate playlists. When I go to sync again, I'll change it from "My Jams" to my "My Jam."

If this helps, spread the word 🙂

I am having this problem as well and it is driving me crazy....at first i thought syncing two devices at the same time creates this problem but i tried syncing one at a time and i am still having the same problem.

I have had this issue for quite some time now. I just recently decided to look into finding a fix. Like other users have said, after syncing I will get a duplicate playlist with MAYBE a few songs being different. The playlist will have a new number beside it also. Example:

Playlist (real one)

Playlist 1 (duplicate after 1 sync)

Playlist 1 2 (duplicate after 2nd sync)

This will just keep adding up until I delete them. After I delete them it justs starts the numbering over and keeps duplicating. This is very annoying as I pay apple for my music and for their service and would like to have the ability to properly manage my music without bugs like this from cluttering up my library and confusing me while looking for the correct playlist. APPLE PLEASE PROVIDE A RESOLVE TO YOUR PAYING CUSTOMERS!!!

I have this one too for some time, and it hasn't gone away even with OS X 10.10.3, iTunes 12.1.2 and iOS 8.3 on an iPhone 6. I've also noticed that it seems to be tied to smart albums/playlists/folders/whatever they're called this week.

I have wondered whether it's something to do with the "Live Updating" option on a smart playlist. EG: You configure the (smart) playlist for live updating. You synchronise it onto the iPhone. You play a track or two from that playlist on the iPhone, which updates the actual set of songs in the playlist. You synchronise again, and because the 2 playlists (one on the iPhone, one on the Mac) are different, iTunes thinks that you've created a new playlist on the 'phone so it creates it too. Then repeat.

I haven't had time to investigate this, but I did notice this problem some time after Apple broke and then fixed "Live Updating" of playlists some time ago, perhaps when the original iPod app on the iPhone was replaced with the new "Music" app.

Does anyone else only see this with smart playlists?

Regards,

Chris

Never was an issue before the latest update in July 2015... But I am also having this issue. I'm sure there's a setting somewhere... It's like my phone wants to keep the original playlist then creates a new one when i add new music. I thought Synching would over-ride the original playlist.

Come on Apple, step your game up!

I've had the same exact problem ever since upgrading to iOS 8.4!

Having this same issue...has anyone figured it out?