Q: Music Won't Sync From Itunes Correctly

I expect you'll find that the fix is temporary (my Apple support person tried the same thing).

I'm no longer holding out hope for anything other than a software fix to this issue. No matter what you do to fix it, it eventually recurs within a couple of days (if you sync a lot, as I do).

You are right, Poiks, there is nothing we can do to fix this. Apple has to take care of it. Meanwhile, the best solution available is a workaround.

Once you have your music library on your phone, do NOT let it sync with iTunes on your computer. Like most of us, I have my phone set up to sync with iTunes over wifi every time I recharge the phone. For the time being, do NOT let this happen. Before plugging in your phone to recharge, "quit" iTunes on the computer and you'll be fine. I've been doing this for nearly a week now, and the song library on my phone has stayed intact. Granted, we shouldn't have to do this, but it works, and for the time being, I'm a happy camper.

The gorilla in the room is this: What happens when Apple introduces the new OSX in October? (Yosemite, I think?) This will surely open a new can of iTunes worms — it has done so every time in the past. So sit tight. Do the workaround. And hope for the best.

Yup, I agree. That's actually a major bummer for me because my playlists are driven by things like ratings, play count, and last played date--so syncing is key to making it work the way I want to it. But at least by avoiding syncing, my music will remain on the phone. And these days iTunes is the only info on my phone which doesn't sync via the cloud (which, BTW, is another bizarre thing--especially when all the music is on the phone; why not just sync ratings, play count, and other metadata via the cloud, the overhead would be very small).

I am also a smart playlist junkie. I have not reset numbers of plays or last played since 2008. That's a lot of data that I use to drive my listening choices. Out of desperation, I created a brand new iTunes library on a different computer to see if the problem was solved (it wasnt), but I was completely lost without my dynamic playlists. Any solution that requires us to change how we use the product is not really a solution.

On the iPhone I have an app called InstanTunes. It gives the ability to create playlists based on the iTunes metadata. And unlike some other player apps, it does increment your playcount in iTunes, whenever you are willing to dedicate the several hours you will need to sync, since everything gets blown away. That's the best workaround for me right now.

This. The whole thread. I am so angry at the whole situation!!! I had an original iPod, and every iteration (except the first two iPhones) to my new iPhone 6. Many problems along the way over the years, but this is the first that has CONSISTENTLY left me stranded without functional music.

My symptoms are similar to many outlined above, varying from flat out not syncing to apparent success in syncing the whole library but then the next time, my iPhone flips through the albums and songs like the files aren't there, just the artwork. Today, I even have a couple of songs where there is artwork but the song that plays isn't the titled song (new behavior as far as I know, but I haven't ever sat down and listened to all my music after syncing - I have days of music).

I also am a smart playlist junkie - I have iTunes match but don't use it since it can't deal with playlists that are dependent on another playlist. I'm going to try the above suggestions.

And if anyone from Apple is reading - I believe it is all triggered by the artwork syncing after the original transfer. The ones I can see and test (it speeds through those titles fast) are the songs that are messed up later.

Let me add to the chorus -- I spent almost FIVE HOURS on the phone yesterday with a senior Apple advisor (hi, Nicolas) on this issue, that after at least THREE HOURS just getting to him -- it is inexplicable, random, and INFURIATING. 

Eight hours on the phone with Applecare?  If I hear Prince's KISS or Soul Coughing's CIRCLES on hold one more time, please don't hold me responsible for my actions.

Apple engineers: listen up -- fix this bug, or I'm going to be returning my 128 GB iPhone 6, which I got specifically to sync my large music library with ease. 

I literally had to postpone a vacation because of this.  Advisor Nicolas has been great, but as dumbfounded as I am.

NOT

HAPPY

NOT

ONE

BIT.

I'm with you. The trick I posted above does work at least once, but I did have my old iPhone 5 (which I use for running) have the issue again today, causing me to have to re-do the third party app fix of deleting the music library and files from the phone manually.

While I'm happy that the trick seems to work, I'm not going to be able to re-sync the entire music library every time there is an error. It's simply not acceptable that Apple hasn't fixed this issue.

For that matter, even the login procedure on this website has been messing up for me (I'm on Chrome for Windows while at work, so maybe that's it).

It would help if people complained more loudly to social media or even better any tech bloggers you might know...

I did pass this along to an established tech journalist.  His response was "seems like there are lots of little bugs with iOS 8."

In other words: add it to the list.  To the bottom of a very long list.

Matt I have the 5s. Same issue with some albums having red circle. I have never used Match or Genius, have 1500+ songs. Finally I restarted iPhone, no joy.

Connected to iMac and synced. No joy... third sync after it seemed to solve the problem, all my equipment is original apple. This sync downloaded all my songs from my iMac, something that I have had issues with, and fixed Siri. Siri seemed to have smoked some electrons that weren't good for her... But all appears well now. I hope this helped... iPhone 5s 32Gigs 8.0.2

I just received my iPhone 6 128GB and I'm suffering from the same problem where songs won't sync consistently to the iPhone.  I primarily use my iPhone for listening to recorded music and this may cause we to return the phone.  Pretty frustrating.

I'm having the same issue as everyone else.  I have restored, deleted all songs and re-synced.  When I delete all songs everything syncs on there once, but as soon as I make a change in a playlist or try to sync a new playlist, either the phone won't finish syncing, or it finishes the sync and none of the changes actually happen.  I have iphone 6 128gb.  I tried messing around with my iphone 5 running ios 8.0.2 and was able to make changes and sync successfully.  There is obviously some extra code included in the ios 8 for iphone 6 that isn't playing well and causing these sync issues.  Its very frustrating.  I agree.

Did any fellow iPhone 6 users try swapping it for a new phone at the apple store, set up as a new phone, & sync test successfully?

I truly believe it's iOS 8 however I just got a swap & will try later.  Couldn't hurt.  

When I went to the local Apple store, they had no clue what I was talking about! So I figured it was just time to wait it out. I have not synced my phone with my laptop for over a week and a half now which is making life very challenging when it to comes to all of the calendars that I have. All of my music is still on my phone as per the juryrigged fix that I did posted earlier, it just means I can't ever sync my phone until they fix the bug.  Just grateful I have most of music on again!

This is so frustrating!!

I recently decided to change back from a Samsung to an iPhone because using iTunes and iPhone is so much easier than an Android. Then I'm stuck in this **** situation!! I am having to restore my phone at least once a week because it just decides to stop syncing my music.

I have a huge music library so I have created an iPhone playlist so I can just transfer that over every time I need to restore. It's the only thing I have found that works.

Hopefully this gets fixed soon.

Did anyone try restoring the phone, and try on a different computer by creating a few new playlists with some songs compiled to the new computer as a test?

I haven't.  Just curious. 

BTW... I got my phone swapped.  Same issue.