Can't sync music anymore with iOS 8. All disappeared.

I installed IOS 8 on my iPad Air. All music was lost except for a bunch of seemingly random selections, all of which I had purchased from the iTunes store. I attempted ShatterStar's solution and am now hung up on "waiting for changes to be applied". Guess I am going to have to go to another thread to figure out how to deal with that.

OK. I switched to WIFI sync and that solved the hang up. Now am able to sync my music. Thanks ShatterStar. Incidentally, I also did the same thing with movies, that is, deselected "sync movies" then hit apply.

Had the same issue, but I just solved mine. I pulled podcasts off and put them back on again. I tried every other remedy listed on this forum before I figured out that this was my issue. Good luck all!

I tried all the recommended fixes here and unfortunately, I couldn't get any of them to work for me. I started trying some of my own possibilities and one of them turned out to be my answer. Since I recently updated my IPhone's OS (to 8) and my version of ITunes also, I repeatedly tried to see why every time I tried to sync it appeared that it wasn't able to copy any data over. My IT help desk experience always taught me to look for the data and I didn't know where to find it within the ITunes app although I tried. I began to right mouse click on all the songs and click on "Get Info" to see if it told me the location of the file and kept getting a message that the song could not be found would I like to locate the file and I said yes. A window appeared for options to which I just clicked OK and then went onto the next song and repeated the process for the whole album. When I got to the end of the album, ITunes presented me with a message box informing me that it found all the missing files (I keep all my music in a folder on an external drive) and asked me if I'd like it to remember the locations for all the files....well YES. It started the sync and put all my music back on me phone and I ran another sync to see what happened and it's all still there. This may not be you problem but I thought I'd add another possible fix to the pot as none of the other ones work in my case.

I've been having the same issue with my iPhone 6 128gb. This issue is pretty well defined now. It's not random songs that disappear from your iPhone - it's any music that you DID NOT purchase from the iTunes store.....CDs uploaded to iTunes, MP3 files imported, etc........what get's left on your phone after you sync is just PURCHASED music through the iTunes store.

I also believe the random "updating artwork" that continues to occur at the end of each sync is correlated to just the music in iTunes that was not purchased from the store. It's also your indicator that your music will begin to vanish off your iPhone when you go to play it.

I thought I fixed this issue by:

1) rebuilding my iTunes...deleting the ".itl" file and letting iTunes rebuild my library.

2) restoring my iPhone

3) syncing

All seemed well for a couple of days....then tried to add more music to iPhone and the issue started again. If you disconnect from iTunes and go back in you can check "Manually manage music" and then immediately uncheck it and do another sync and iTunes will put the music back on your phone.

But do another sync and you'll get the flashing "updating artwork" across the top which will be your indicator that as soon as you unplug and play any music not purchased through iTunes, it will vanish from you iPhone.

I'm glad there are guys like you out there to help guys like me!

I was having the same issue with none of my music syncing. Did your fix...and VOILA!

Thanks

I've tried all of the different solutions mentioned in this thread, with varying levels of success. What I finally discovered, through simple trial and error, is that, for me at least, the problem seems to be tied to the presence of certain apps on my iPhone. I reset my iPhone 6 by erasing all settings from the phone itself and then setting it up as a new phone (so as to not bring in anything from a potentially corrupted backup). I've then been able to sync as much music as I wanted on my 128 GB phone. I then went and started reinstalling my apps. After a few apps, I would then try and sync a small playlist to ensure that music syncing was still functioning properly. Once i saw that, I would continue. At a certain point, I would once again run into the inability to sync new music and the wonderful "Syncing Artwork" last step which goes on for a bit and then nothing else with the sync ending at that point. However, if I removed what appeared to be the offending app and then hit Sync, the phone would sync properly, re-syncing the music and all is good in the world again. The apps tend to be ones which, as you may expect, have not been updated to specifically work with iOS 8. It's a random series of apps with no unifying theme to them in terms of purpose and functionality.

However, at the end of the day, I have so far been able to live without those apps and continue to be able to add new music or video (knock on wood). If this changes, I'll post again but I suggest people look at the apps and try a strategy such as the one above to try and isolate which app you have which seems to be interfering with the sync.

regards,

Alex

Okay people.... after HOURS and HOURS of trying to figure this out, here is what worked for me.

1. I followed people's advice to go into General > Settings > Usage and found music and deleted all the music
2. Then I also connected phone to iTunes via USB and clicked "sync music" off and then synced so now my phone had no music
3. I synced and backed up phone with no music
4. Then I re-synced music and EVERYTHING WORKED GREAT!!

BUT>>>> then if I came and hooked in my phone again, it would backup, and then it would go through this "Syncing Artwork" step and after that was finished it would start deleting all my music again. If I played it on my iPhone it would just shuffle through until it found a MP3 that I purchased from iTunes and it would not play any ripped CD MP3s or MP3s bought elsewhere but still in iTunes.

So what I did (and wish I had done instead of doing steps #1-4 above) was to find the "Album Artwork" Cache folders and DELETE THEM ALL! For me, they were located in C:\Users\UserName\Music\iTunes\Album Artwork. Delete all folders EXCEPT DO NOT DELETE "Download" folder or "Cloud Purchases" folder. iTunes can repopulate the cache folder from the cover art embedded in your MP3s, but for some reason it cannot do that for the iTunes downloaded MP3s, because those are not embedded into the MP3 file, but are in this folder.

Once I deleted the "Cache" and other folders (except for the two I mentioned above), I just resynced my phone and all the music that was on my phone (but would not let me play because it would spin through the music and then delete it off my phone) just started working again!!!!

OBVIOUSLY this is a temporary fix only, and you may have to delete these folders, sync, and then just pray it works. Worked for me. Not syncing my phone for a while because it is working.

UPDATE: Nope... Stopped working. I don't have Wi-Fi sync enabled. Running Windows 7, iPhone 6 128 GB, iOS 8.0.2.

Looks like the only way to get this to work is to follow ShatterStar's approach. But you can't add new music or resync because if you see the dreaded "Syncing Artwork" step you are going to be screwed. So just deleting off all music, resyncing it and won't be syncing my phone until I hear about an update.

I have found a solution for now, deselect all automatic sync, and click on manual sync, and just drag and drop, and everytime you have new music on your itunes, just drag and drop that into your phone, its not ideal to automatic sync, but worth a try? that worked for me. but by the looks of it, the fix is different for everyone.

unfortunately this did not work for me, but what worked is making it completely manual to sync, which means everytime i get new music i have to manually drag and drop, but at least I have all my music

I had the same problem. I unchecked Sync Music in iTunes and when I checked on my iPhone for some reason all but 2 songs were deleted, and when I selected the music option under Usage it crashed. I reselected Sync Music in iTunes and it seems to be reloading them onto the phone this time. Before it would just count through the songs way faster than it should have if it was actually trying to transfer them.

EDIT: So I got the music back on my iPhone, but tapping on Music under General > Usage still crashes. Also some album artwork preview icons are messed up. If I search for a certain song sometimes the icons next to the songs are the wrong ones, but tapping on them plays the song and shows the correct artwork (or missing artwork if I didn't have any for it in the first place).

I swear iTunes has got to be the most broken thing Apple has made. This isn't the first time this sort of crap has happened. Before this it was iTunes trying to reinstall a whole bunch of apps back onto my phone that I had deleted, completely filling it and rearranging icons. The artwork being messed up has happened years ago on an iPod touch. iTunes still keeps trying to download one episode of a TV show I got for free long ago even though I've deleted it and hidden it in my account settings.

EDIT: Double post.

I guess they can't make a good forum either.

<This is a reply to Timerider4 suggestion to use manual syncing. For some reason replying to his comment is banned on my account>

Thanks very much Timerider4. This worked for me. Multiple sync's, updates, etc and seems to be holding for my iPhone 5.

This solved 3 problems:

- music sync with iPhone 5, iOS 8.02, and no need to mess with music library, resets, etc

- sync playlist too so Music App functions just like on iOS 7

- solved earlier problem posted regarding merged Imagine Dragon and Train albums. Now they're back to normal.

🙂