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Level 1

10 points

iPhone 6 won't sync all songs after iOS 8 update

This was in an iPhone 4s post but I'm seeing it with newer devices also so I reposted my comment.

Just got new iPad Air and iPhone 6 trying to sync with my MBP. Playlists won't all transfer properly. It deleted the contents of 2 playlists. Movies won't sync and when I select movies in the tab music becomes unselected and back and forth we go. I spent 5.5 hours (yes 5.5) at the Apple store with a very knowledgeable Genius. We tried everything.

Last night I successfully synced my iPad Mini and my iPhone 5s with the MBP, then restored to my new iPhone 6 and iPad Air. Over and over, only some songs came through and no movies or books. Today I tried again and with movies unchecked, most of my play lists synced, but could not get movies to transfer. Among all other attempts, we installed a clean copy of iTunes and also rebuilt all my preference files. In the store, we also added a "test" playlist with 1 song that transferred, when I got home I added my own and deleted "Test", but when I synced, "Test" was still there on the 6 and Air and my new list was not but still on the MBP. We did hard resets, diagnosis software, trial and error and all error. Just when it seems to work, it doesn't. I emphasize I had 5.5 hours of undivided attention from the best tech at the store. No fixes worked reliably.

I then synced my old nano and all the playlists came through fine. The tech and I are convinced that its a programming glitch between playlists and multimedia (movies.) Nothing else is affected on my MBP or other devices and it only affects syncing to the new units. Since I have all my other stuff, contacts etc and enough music, I guess I'll just wait till Apple gets it right and issues an update. My computer is fine and my devices couldn't both be defective. It was hanging on apps syncing but we manually told the iPad to download fresh copies.

At the Genius Bar, we tried everything possible. We had 4 Geniuses involved and can't solve it. I own or administer about 35 apple computers/devices and have worked on macs and repaired them for years (since my original Macintosh- that still runs). Never an issue like this.

This problem involves: MBP 2.4 Ghz i7- 10.9.5, 16g ram, 500GB SSD, NEW Iphone 6 64GB, NEW Ipad Air iOS 8.2 32GB

iPhone 6, iOS 8, IPad Air, iOS8

Posted on Oct 2, 2014 7:18 PM

Best reply

kcuttsjr81

Level 1

19 points

Posted on Oct 4, 2014 4:34 PM

Here's what worked for me. I've had this issue a few times, between iOS 6-8 and iPhone 5S to 6 (just today with the new phone).

FIRST - BACKUP FIRST

Make sure your iPhone/iPad/iPod is backed up using iTunes. Use the cord (not WIFI).
Be sure to "Transfer Purchases" as well.
Sync and backup the device.

NEXT - FIX MUSIC SYNCING ISSUES

Now, in iTunes, highlight the device, click the "Music" tab, and uncheck (click to uncheck) the "Sync Music" check box.
Sync again.
Then, turn off the device and restart it.
Also close iTunes and restart the computer.
When everything is ready, open iTunes and Sync the device again.
After this time, highlight the device in iTunes, click the "Music" tab, and check (click to check) the "Sync Music" check box.
Uncheck all of the previous music items in the list below the check box. Try only one playlist, artist, or album in the beginning.
Sync again and you'll see it works.

Hope this works for you!

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171 replies

Apr 10, 2016 11:10 AM in response to Mark Bishop1

That worked, thanks!!!

Jun 9, 2016 2:38 AM in response to Mark Bishop1

After months of searching and reading, yesterday I finally solved this issue.

I'll start by saying that the problem is NOT in the iPhone, so resetting it won't solve it in most cases!

Someone here got a strange answer from Apple support about duplicate files, and so I finally decided to do a manual check.

It is a long and tedious process which took me about 3 hours to complete, and I wish Apple would create an automated process for it, but here it is:

In iTunes, go to My Music (general folder with ALL of your music in it).

Order your music by name.

First thing you'll see is that missing files are marked with an exclamation mark surrounded by circle.

Now, move along your music list manually (I know, I have thousands of songs too, if not tens of thousands). Delete all missing files AND all duplicates.

In my case, most duplicates were in fact missing files which for some reason were not marked until I tried to open them.

Once you've deleted all missing and duplicate files, and now have only one instance of a file in your library - try to sync again.

This solved the problem and ALL my songs synced again!

I think this bug has to do with the ghost/missing files. For some reason, if a file has a duplicate which is a missing file, it will try to sync the missing file instead of the regular one (maybe because it was added earlier?).

Once only valid files remain, it manages to sync everything correctly.

I hope this helps everyone, because I've struggled with this for months!

Jun 9, 2016 2:54 AM in response to Mark Bishop1

We are on iOS 9.3.2 now and soon it will be iOS 10 etc.

Maybe update your devices and go from there : )

Jun 9, 2016 2:59 AM in response to Miles Hodge

Sorry didn't see the date on that post....My mistake!

Jun 9, 2016 5:30 AM in response to Miles Hodge

Who r u answering? 🙂
My iPhone 5 is updated to the latest iOS, my iTunes is updated to the latest version, but the problem still existed.

And, as I wrote, the problem doesn't seem to stem from the iPhone at all.

Jul 30, 2016 8:27 AM in response to bushwacker74

i unticked every song in the playlist, but sync still loaded most of them. i never got an empty playlist.

iPhone 6 won't sync all songs after iOS 8 update