Music Won't Sync From Itunes Correctly

Quick question for those experiencing this: Are you all using sync Entire Music Library? I think possibly this problem only occurs when you sync the entire library, and that if you sync only a subset it works okay. Not ideal, but a decent workaround (for me, anyway). I have tried this and it seems to be working for now; I'll post a response if it fact the songs start "greying out" again.

Update: Never mind! It all went bad again immediately after I posted this. It does NOT only apply when syncing all music.

I've managed to sync the entire library, only to find it gone the next time I turn on the phone. Then I tried something. Last time I managed to load the entire library, I refrained from plugging in the phone to recharge it, which triggers an automatic sync over wifi. Lo and behold, my entire library has been intact on the phone now for three days, but I'm reaching the point where I must recharge it, which I'm pretty sure will wipe everything.

I want to try turning off the auto-sync in iTunes, but the only way to get there is to have the phone plugged in, which triggers the sync — and wipes the music. When that happens (I haven't done this yet), I'll try to restore the library and then, before unplugging the phone, turn off the auto-sync. I figure that may last me until Apple fixes this — meaning, I can then continue to recharge the phone without syncing and wiping the music each time.

Maybe you could turn off WiFi while charging?

Yes, exactly, I think that's the only way to turn off the auto-sync. But it will wipe the music in the process. So the next charge will be sort of a "sacrificial lamb." I'll lose the library on the phone, then hopefully restore it, and then turn off the auto-sync before disconnecting. If my theory is correct, that should allow me to connect again later to recharge without syncing and without losing the music. Clear as mud, huh?

No, I literally mean turn off your device's WiFi, not turn it off in the iTunes settings. Disable WiFi, charge the phone, and when it's done charging, unplug it and enable WiFi again. Sorry if I'm missing something.

I just found a solution. Apparently, the tracks that were not sinking all have an exclamation mark beside them in the iTunes library. This basically means that the library does not know where to find them!

It may take a little time to work around this, but follow these steps:

1. Select "Songs" on the menu bar.
2. Double click on any track with an exclamation mark beside it.
3. You will get a dialog box informing you that the original track cannot be found and asking if you would like to locate it.
4. Select "locate" and navigate to the artist sub-folder in the iTunes folder.
5. Select the name of the track from the artist sub-folder.
6. Another dialog box will appear asking if you would like the program to match other tracks in that directory.
7. Repeat until the exclamation mark is removed from all tracks.
8. Sync to your phone again and if you followed these directions, you should be fine.

I hope it works for you, but none of my tracks have an exclamation point. Furthermore, after syncing my library, the songs definitely were in my library on the phone. I tried many songs--they all played. A short time later they all disappeared.

It sounds to me like we've all tried many different options and none of them work. Why the heck can't Apple Beta test these bugs out!! I am a fitness instructor and my music vanished right before I was supposed to teach! Luckily IOS 8 works on the iPad and I had a back up. Have tried many of your suggested fixes and am now to the point where my phone won't sync with iTunes at all. Just "Waiting For Sync To Start" for the last hour.

Unbelievable!!!

To some of the suggestions made:

I have 100k songs in my library, so syncing the whole thing isn't an option. So confirmed, the problem exists with individual playlists.

I've enabled/disabled wifi on the phone and done a few syncs. Same problem. I also enable/disable wifi sync on iTunes. No change.

NOne me of my songs have an exclamation mark in iTunes.

I love that I'm paying several hundred dollars for a new phone and am basically a beta tester. This is the sort of thing that is making me tired of Apple and their hubris. Years ago, we'd put up with it because the products were innovative. Now, I'm not sure why I bother.

kstaff1, I'm still just grasping for a common thread-- by any chance are/were you an iTunes Match subscriber? I am--or was until this fiasco started--and I wonder if this may be part of the issue. The behavior is similar to having the tracks in the cloud (except, of course, that I cannot f'in download them)

I have a gigantic library which includes thousands of songs of live music I recorded. I subscribed to Match solely as a backup (though I hit its limit long ago) and for use on Apple TV, but it's turned off on my phone and all my other devices. I have spent hours carefully customizing playlists to sync so that I have the music I want and am under the space limits. I spend max dollar on each device so I have the most storage --- the main purpose of the devices being to hold my music.

I'm in a similar boat. I developed this issue on my iPhone 5 and my iPad mini as well and have not been able to fix it. What infuriates me is that I should not have to. When you charge the most money for your product, it might logically follow that it would work correctly.

This morning I tried syncing my iPhone 6 (128GB) again, with about 90GB worth of music. This time I got most of the way through, but then the phone locked before it was finished (if the phone locks before it's done, that seems to screw this up, not that they tell you that) and I ended up losing several thousand files. Also, now for some reason the phone will not charge via computer or a USB that I had been using fine before (both with an Apple factory cable that works fine).

For what it's worth, I saw this: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1786762&highlight=syncing+issues

A little hesitant to try it, but nothing else has worked and I cannot spend any more time backing up and rebooting the stupid phone. I'm having Apple call me this afternoon. If the company can't get this straight, I am going to buy an Android phone. Seamless music syncing is my number one reason for sticking with these phones and I am extremely disappointed in the last several iterations of this product.

Okay, got it, I understand what you're suggesting. That really isn't practical for me, as there's a lot connected to wifi at my place. But your suggestion got me thinking about an alternate solution, and it was remarkably simple. I just "quit" iTunes on the computer before recharging the phone. Worked like a charm. My entire library is still intact on the iPhone.

Reading these threads, I realize that the problems being encountered have many various "symptoms," so I'm not kidding myself that what worked for me will work for everyone. Just a couple of observations, though: 1. I do find iTunes Match highly suspect in all this. 2. I have never found exclamation points in my lists.

And I thought MY solution was simple; yours is even better.

Man, I can't wait for this to be resolved. I've put a lot of time and effort into developing complex playlists for specific purposes, and they have been decimated on the phone.

Has anyone had better outcomes with syncing now that iOS 8.0.2 is out?

I THINK I figured out how to get all of my songs over! I have spent hours trying to figure this out and even went to the Genius Bar, and they had less of a clue that us here! Bottom line, when I tell it to Sync all music from the Music tab, it flips out when played on the phone. Even better, it shows that it will load all of the songs when syncing but when it's done, the blue music bar flips back to less songs and when played on the phone, they freak out again.

I thought it had to do with songs from cd verses songs from iTunes...nope didn't matter.

So....

For me, it definitely has to do with how you have the sync set in the Summary tab verses the Music tab. Right now on my system, if i select "Manually manage music and videos" on the Summary tab, it deselects the ability to select songs on the Music tab. (seems counter-intuitive but okay). When you select "Sync only checked songs and videos" on the Summary tab, then you can manually select the playlists and songs on the Music tab.

So that being understood, make sure Automatically Sync when attached and over wi-fi is OFF, attach phone. Select "Sync only checked songs and videos" on the Summary tab, select the playlists you want from the Music tab, then switch it to"Manually manage" on the Summary tab and force the sync. It worked this morning!

But what about the hundreds/thousands of songs not in playlists? Hmm, other than checking every artist, I checked every genre instead. I switched to "Sync only checked songs", selected playlists and all genres, switched back to "manually manage" and forced the sync. Voila! I officially have all 3300 songs on the phone and as of now, no flipping out!!