IOS 8 won't sync music with itunes

Read carefully what worked. BklynPlayboy clicked Manually Manage. That isn't a true sync. That's what I've been doing for weeks as well, and it is not right. In fact, technically, the way the Manually Manage syncs to the phone is bass ackwards. It syncs playlists when it should actually do nothing.

I updated to 8.1 today on the iPhone 6 and no joy. In fact, unbelievable frustration now. Same **** different day.

Now I have to go call Apple and spend some time talking with a tech, without venting.

I don't have time for this. This is my fourth iPhone, other I-devices including two iPads and the first one that fails.

ARE YOU LISTENING APPLE?

#syncgate

My latest update - I spoke at length with the assigned AppleCare Senior Advisor on my case. They've been able to replicate my specific issues across multiple devices now and continue to work towards a solution, but they've got nothing right now.

To recap, if I do a full sync of my iPhone 6 or iPad2, both running iOS 8.X, syncing to iTunes 12.0.1.26 on a dual core PIII Windows desktop, at some point in the future, any and all songs out of roughly 6400 that I personally purchased or ripped from CD or otherwise procured from a source other than iTunes, will simply disappear. Greyed out song info, red circles with red squares in the middle, we all know the issue now. Of course my purchased iTunes music is always intact, either as a quick download from some iCloud space that I barely remember authorizing except for photos and Find My Phone, or it's just there, no download required, but only music purchased on iTunes. Then to correct all of this, assuming that there isn't some gargantuan "other" category that has suddenly appeared (a big problem requiring a full restore and a LOT more work), the workaround is to unsync music, let iTunes take hours to delete each and every song less the iTunes purchased ones of course which don't delete unless you do a full restore, THEN you go back and sync the music all over again. In my case, slow desktop + 6400 songs = roughly 12 hours start to finish. Add a full restore to the mix and having to remember every icon, group, setting, etc. we're talking days and I've spent several of them on several devices already. Way too much time trying to help Apple or myself or both.

I harbor no resentment towards Apple on any of this, with the exception of the early on denial that there was any such problem, compounded by the idiot trolls who insisted that there is/was a fix. THERE IS NO FIX. Not yet at least. Anything and everything that you are reading throughout these boards are TEMPORARY WORKAROUNDS. I haven't TOUCHED manually manage music, although I HAVE toggled on the convert to lower bit rate option, and toggled off the automatically sync when connected option. That's about it. Apple will be the first ones to tell you, we've got a problem, there is no fix. Ask them, definitely ask them before you elect to do something really stupid to further complicate their issue and make it your own. That would be some more unsolicited advice but then again, I've been working with these issues for FOUR WEEKS, what do I know?

So, my daily routine has changed. It used to be, grab a cup of coffee, plug in my iPhone, let it do a full sync, unplug the iPhone, go about my merry day. Now I never sync the iPhone. NEVER. What I do is, once a week, I look for updates to apps under the App Store app and apply accordingly using WiFi, not iTunes. I use Google and a related app to scrape calendar info from my Outlook Calendar onto Google Calendar and then onto my iPhone. Most all of my other key apps sync automatically with some Web site or the like, so no worries there. And I perform an iTunes Backup at least once per week, peace of mind really, I have no idea what that would actually buy me if and when but it feels good to at least try and backup something. My big challenge in NOT SYNCING TO ITUNES is if and when I finally decide to add a lot of new contacts, or music, or some other media, and I want to get it onto the iPhone. That will require syncing, at which point I will take my lumps, attempt a sync, and budget 12+ hours to fix the music mess that will surely follow.

Right now, as we speak, I am installing 8.1 on my iPhone 6, for no other reason than to keep current, I have ZERO confidence in this point release fixing these specific issues and Apple will tell you the same. THERE IS NO FIX. NOT YET.

Love Apple. Love my new iPhone. Love the fact that you can get actual support from Apple and this great community. Hate the fact that this issue has been outstanding for a month. Wondering if it will ever get fixed, and what hoops we'll all have to jump through in the end game to get them fixed.

Good luck and happy hunting all.

Well, there are fixes. I was one who posted here with the same issue, and posted the steps I took. Others have as well.

While they may not work for you (or you haven't tried all the steps), there have been a number of people, myself included, who have worked thought the problem and sync continues to work fine through 8.1.

Apple still should figure out what is happening, but the size of this thread indicates it is an infinitesimally small issue - very real for those who cannot work around it - but statistically non-existent.

To All,

I've seen many things posted and it does certainly seem like there is a bug with the cloud enablement. After hitting brick walls for a few weeks with no playlists showing and strange songs playing and not playing, tonight I made two setting changes and all sync problem seem fixed. Didn't have to do anything unusual in iTunes.

On your iPhone,

1. settings -> iTunes & App Store -> iTunes Match - turn off

2. settings -> iTunes & App Store -> Show All Music... turn off

3. general -> Usage -> Manage Storage -> Music -> Edit ... delete all songs

4. Resync and now both my iPhone6 work as they should (selected lists, changes syncing both ways, etc.).

Not sure what's going on with the cloud and purchased music, but step 2 was the main one that caused my on phone playlists to show again and music to start syncing right.

Hope this helps!

You're flat wrong. There are threads on Reddit, Twitter and most Apple centric forums i regularly visit. Just because an issue has a work around doesn't mean it has a fix. There is no fix until Apple changes the software.

I've tried all of this. No go for me unfortunately.

New update. So after getting my music back on my iPad2, I decided to test it on my apple TV. I turned on airplay and tried playing songs. The first 3 worked fine. On the fourth song I selected, it just played the 3rd song again. I tried 5 songs from different artists and still had the same problem. I had to force quit the music app to get it to play a song correctly. Unfortunately it just keeps happening.

When I turned airplay off, and just used the iPad internal speakers, it seems to work fine.

One more thing to add to the table. I also currently have Bluetooth off. I'll turn that on next and try that with my jambox.

I, for one, appreciate the time you are spending on this mlb32704. It is good to hear that Apple has replicated the problems. I use a year old Dell with an i7 processor, so my transfers to the phone may go faster, only 30 minutes or so. 12 hours. ouch.

I started getting a personal laptop updated to set up iTunes, intending to wipe the iPhone 6 and start there, but I think I will continue my delusional wait for a fix. Someday. In the mean time my iPhone 5S works fine, but it sure does look small...

Update - I think....success?

I updated my 2013 Macbook Pro Retina 15" to Yosemite, ran all updates, including iTunes.

iPhone 6 Plus, 128Gb, iOS v8.1.

I restored the phone, then restored from backup to put all apps and folder back on.

Once that was complete, I set the following on the iPhone:

1. settings -> iTunes & App Store -> iTunes Match - turn off

2. settings -> iTunes & App Store -> Show All Music... turn off

3. general -> Usage -> Manage Storage -> Music -> Edit ... delete all songs

Set iTunes to automatically sync, checked "Sync Music" on the music pane of my iPhone in iTunes. Set it to transcode to 256 AAC on the phone so all of the music would fit.

Started sync of 12,244 songs at 1:03pm yesterday, finished at 9:10pm yesterday. Yes, I had to stay at work to verify that it finished. Sigh.

After it finished completely, I ejected the iPhone, and verified that ALL songs played properly on the phone. They did.

This morning, I just finished my 10th sync. I haven't tried to add music to the library or make any changes to the library yet, but the sync seems to be working properly now. I did add iBooks to sync, and that worked, and music continues to play properly.

The only problem I now have is that some of the artwork did not copy over to the iPhone. It's just a few albums missing album art, so I suppose I can live with that.

But for now, I can report that upgrading to iOS 8.1 and Yosemite seems to be working as far as the music sync issues I had before are concerned. I did have a problem with Bluetooth in our Honda Pilot vehicle at work, so I haven't tested that yet. Hopefully that is now functioning.

So....a tentative hooray! I finally have my entire music library, both purchased and ripped songs, on my new iPhone 6 Plus, and it all plays properly!

Hope that helps someone.

Cheers.

I've since tried several more syncs, including adding and removing music from my library (including new music purchased this morning), and both ripped, purchased, and removed music synced properly!

I think as fas as my issues are concerned, a factory restore of my iPhone to iOS 8.1, upgrade to Yosemite on my laptop, and a clean sync fixed the issues. My artwork did eventually update on my phone, so not only do I FINALLY have all of my iTunes library on my phone (yippee!), it now syncs the way it's supposed to. I think the key is to turn off iTunes Match on both iTunes and on the phone, and do NOT "Show All Music" on the phone.

Transcoding worked properly, so all of my music (either ripped into Apple Lossless or 256k AAC purchased tracks from iTunes) now syncs correctly.

Hope that helps, and gives hope to those of you who have not yet updated Yosemite, iTunes, and iOS to the latest versions. That seems to work for me as of this morning, and about 25 syncs so far.

Cheers,

Joe

I didn't find it normal when deleting my music on my iPhone it also deleted all my playlists in iTunes.

That was one extremely frustrating experience, anyone who has made several playlists can surely relate...

What should have worked right away did not, plus yesterday I had to restore my phone in order for the synch to finally work. I shouldn't have to restore a phone to factory specs to add one playlist - should be plug and play!

Most of the artwork did not synch, at least the one play list which took all day to remake - has been successfully imported.

I have iCloud for Windows installed. I logged out of iCloud on my PC. Uinstalled iCloud in Remove Programs in the Control Panel. I restartet PC. I then readded my music to the iTunes Music Library and made a sync. Now I can sync my music without problems:)

So if you have iCloud for PC installed. Try and uninstall it.

This sounds like a good sound game plan that might actually work. My only caveat would be Yosemite as I am running Windows 7 Professional but in theory this should work in my environment as well. I particularly like the fact that a.) I get to restore from a backup instead of a full on restore that would take hours worth of redoing app groupings and other settings, and b.) I've never used iTunes Match, so I might be ahead of the game already. Right now I am busy resyncing all of my music (AGAIN!) because silly me thought that the most recent iOS and iTunes upgrades might have somehow fixed my issues. They did not. Once I get done with that hurdle and I can spare another day's worth of tinkering, I might give your suggestions a shot. Thanks Biffnixx.

To your specific case - of your 12K songs, what's the breakdown on purchased/ripped outside of iTunes versus purchased on iTunes? And do you notice any behavioral changes in your "own" tracks versus those purchased on iTunes? Just curious, thanks.

Thanks for the info. Apple has to be the most un-customer focused company in the world. They are like the phone company. "We are BIG and you will buy our product". I was about to do an IPHONE 6. I may swap to samsung. At least it will be different problems. Thanks again