Near Duplicate Playlist is Created when Syncing with IPhone

I have all of the afformentioned issues with syncing, but I have another two, which are TRULY annoying and really unacceptable as a user to have to deal with, does anyone else have these two issues:

1) EVERYTIME I sync now after iOS9, all of my album art dissappears and has to be re-synced, this happens EVERY time now, and I have 5000 songs on there

2) Sometime the sync fails, although it manages to create duplicate playlists in the process. the worst thing, is the iphone sometimes deletes playlist information in Itunes!!. Its one thing to mess up playlist information on the phone, but to mess up a playlist on your computer, is mind boggling, the sync causes duplicate playlists in both iphone and itunes. I can live with playlists being messed up on the phone, but NOT in my computer!

After it did that a few times, I started having to backup any playlist that was being modified before the sync by exporting the playlist.

It would be good if you had the option to make the sync either a two way sync (as it is) or turn that off and just have a one way sync from iTunes to iphone, that would alleviate a lot of these sync issues as the phone would be forced to just accept the new changes and not try to change itunes.

Same problem here, iPhone 4s just updated to iOS 9.2 and now i constantly get extra playlists when syncing.
Could have happened before the update too, don't really now as i stopped syncing a while ago due to another issue: iTunes keeps on creating duplicate (or tripple or even more) copies of my music files, not just in the library but actual duplicate files on the HDD taking up space.

Edit: Now my iPhone is full with music i didn't even sync there, but a new playlist that i actually wanted to sync onto it, ain't on there, but all the duplicate playlists still made it. Also my iPhone is complaining about a lack of free space, while iTunes shows it having still around 8 GB free space. What the **** is going on?

The only work around I've figured out is to connect your iphone to your computer. In itunes, click on the iphone icon. At the bottom under OPTIONS, click on Manually Manage Music and Videos (so it has the check mark). In the left hand column, you can now delete any playlists on your phone by right clicking the playlist and choosing delete.

Prior to activating the Manage Music, I was adding songs to a current playlist in itunes. When I went to sync, the songs wouldn't be added to the playlist on the phone, and also the songs I added would sometimes get deleted off my computers playlist. Now if I add/subtract songs to a playlist in itunes, I delete that playlist off the phone, and then drag the good playlist from itunes into my phone. It's been working well enough until Apple hopefully fixes the sync issues and all the other Music issues.

EDIT: I should add that after you delete a playlist on the iphone while in itunes, itunes goes through Updating Files on "iphone" (kind of like a sync). When it's done, you can then drag the playlist up from itunes into the iphone. Make sure you drag it high enough so that you see the blue box appear and then drop it in the blue box. Itunes will then again go though the Updating Files on "iphone" for a little bit. When it's done, you're good to go.

If you lose your artwork after all of this, which sometimes happens (why I don't f'n know), then run a sync and the artwork should come back.

Just hopping on to say I've got the same problems as everyone else, same description, same fixes tried. Come on Apple. This is beyond stupid.

iPhone 4S, iOS 9.02

I Think I found the solution. if you ever created a playlist on your phone that is the problem. What I did I removed all my music from my phone and deleted the playlist I created from my phone. Then synced my phone with no music. Then turned off and back on. Then I put all my music back on and it worked

First off... Disregard everything I stated above. It worked for a very short while, then went total FUBAR. Apple has this so f'd up, that Jobs is rolling in his grave. I never made a playlist off my phone until recently, since apple f'd this all up. At this point, the ONLY way I can make a playlist is off my phone. I will not sync ever again until apple fixes this problem.

I am having the same issue, just letting everyone know. I go into full rant mode in another thread, but one of the more helpful people on this forum (turingtest2) responded to the OP in the other thread, so that's why I responded fully to that thread instead of this one. His solution didn't work for me, though. :/ Feel free to chime in here:

ITunes creating duplicate playlists when syncing with iPod

I am appalled at the level of problems I see being described here. I too, am suffering through the duplicated playlist issue and have reached the limit of my tolerance.

APPLE - WHAT THE #@!% IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?

How can you let a problem this annoying continue to exist for so long without even acknowledging the difficulties you have created for your customers?

At least let us know you are aware of the issues and that you are working on it.

I should not have to call support to accomplish a simple task like synching my phone properly.

I have been buying Apple products for over 20 years. I have spent well into 5 figures between personal and professional purchases.

And this is what I get - having to spend over an hour of my day every time I need to synch, getting your lousy software to accomplish the simple task of updating my phone. I don't use iCloud music. I manually select what I want synched, and still I end up with this buggy, bloated abortion of a piece of software that you should be totally ashamed of.

You have become as bad as Microsoft was at the time of my switch - greedy, incompetent, unresponsive and arrogant. Funny how things come full circle with "success."

Well, I guess it's time to vote with my feet. This is the last iPhone for me - my time is simply too valuable to deal with your b*****it customer support.

Adios.

Very well stated Rosebud ltd. They truly have come full circle. This is my 3rd iphone. I'm so glad I spent the cash for a 128 gig phone for my music this time, and now the itunes portion just completely s ucks. Playlists deleting off my phone. Playlists deleting off my computer. Playlists duplicating. Shuffle issues. Songs repeating issues. Album covers not showing up on my phone. The list goes on and on. This was never a problem before.

WHAT THE F IS APPLE'S PROBLEM?

Has anyone come up with a solution to this problem? I have been having the same issues for several months now. I have upgraded to an iPhone 6s from a 5s, have updated ios9 software on it, and now have a new PC with Windows 10 on it (previously was syncing to Windows 7 PC). It is actually worse now with the Windows 10. The workaround (deleted extra playlists off of iTunes as well as the phone) is not even working now. And to make it worse, it is now creating 2 duplicates of every playlist!

Help!!

Fix Duplicate Playlist Solved

April 2016

iTunes 12.3.3

iOS 9.3.1

1) Delete duplicate playlist in iTunes.

2a) Delete duplicate playlist on iPhone/iPod/iPad before sync.

2b) *Warning* Do not delete playlist you want to keep or else during the sync process playlist will disappear from iTunes.

3) Go back to iTunes and sync device.

4) Duplicate playlist should disappear from iTunes and iOS device.

Hope this works for everyone 🙂

I am having the same issue and this is really annoying. I just bought an iPad Pro 9.7 128 Gb with the idea to manage my music from there. I don't like this. Apple really needs to get a grip on these updates and stop introducing annoying services we are not asking for.

Thanks for that fix, but why the hec doesn't the Almighty Apple fix problem?

Based on my tests, if I edit the list on the phone it updates the one on the computer upon syncing. If I edit the list on the compute then sync it creates a duplicate/backup of what was on the phone upon syncing. So, iTunes assumes th you wouldn't want to lose anything that resides on the phone but not the other way around.