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

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

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

NEXT - FIX MUSIC SYNCING ISSUES

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

Hope this works for you!

I'm in the same boat. none of the fixes I've seen so far work.

NIce to buy 128 gb of room and not be able to use it.

For anyone experiencing this problem, I may have the fix. I was so frustrated by my iPhone's inability to sync that I wrote directly to Tim Cook last Saturday ... and was somewhat surprised (shocked, even!) when I was contacted by a member of the iTunes/iOS engineering team on a Sunday morning.

What I learned was that if you have duplicates of purchased songs in iTunes, this can cause the sync to quietly fail, resulting in nothing (or only some things) getting synced. This is a bug in iTunes/iOS (not quite sure which, though I suspect iTunes), and it will be fixed in the next update.

In the interim, find and remove any duplicate purchased songs, and the problem may fix itself. Here's my full write-up of the problem and fix.

-rob.

Thank you randomguy_42! Deleting duplicates completely fixed the problem! (Audiobooks and all music not purchased form iTunes would not sync to iPhone 6). I have been working on this problem for a week, been to the Genius Bar twice, etc., to no avail. I checked the message boards last week and there were no posts/answers to this problem yet. As a last resort, I just checked again and and saw your post! BIG shoutout to TIM COOK for his response (and the engineering team)! Of course, being a fellow Auburn graduate, I'm not surprised 🙂 , so a big WAR EAGLE to Tim! Thanks again, for taking the bull by the horn and posting!

Whoops, posted that while logged in on the wrong account -- I'm "randomguy_42," it seems, on that account 🙂.

Anyway, glad it worked for you, and yes, it's an amazingly painful glitch, because it's completely silent. Stuff just doesn't work, but looks like it did. Very annoying. Happy to hear I was able to help.

regards;

-rob.

I have the same issue. Now my iPhone playlists -are updating my iTunes playlists. It doesn't make sense.

Hi Rob,

I have an issue where none of my playlists will sync at all.

(Or if I turn iMatch on, the play counts will not sync.)

Do you know if it matters if the songs are on the same album or different albums?

An example of the duplicates I have would be a song being repeated on: 1. Its original album; 2. the artist's "greatest hits" album; and 3. a "live" album.

I do not have any "exact" duplicates, as I'm usually pretty good about clearing those out when they happen, or preventing them in the first place. Plus, I check regularly.

Thanks In Advance.

Turns out that NONE of my music is syncing correctly!! So I've turned iTunes Match back on for now.

Same issues here with a 6+. I use dynamic playlists to manage my music (items with a play count of 0 are loaded onto the device, for example) and when I was using a 4s, I updated every night to remove the played tracks and add any new ones. I've wiped the 6+ twice already, synced the phone both with and without the music, and manually deleted the playlists on the phone.

At best, I get a day of a normal sync, but the next time everything goes haywire again. Reloading a 128GB device takes hours and having to do it over and over again is frustrating. I've also noticed iTunes re-tagging tracks that I purchased in the iTunes store and then changed the tags to "correct" spellings, years, or other data, either restoring their original values or changing to entirely different ones!

This time, the phone decided to only include tracks that were purchased from the iTunes store in the sync and left everything else off!

I am having the same issue with my 128 gig 6. Synced all my 1950 songs, and many of them didn't sync although it said they did. I will try Rob's suggestion when I get home and delete any duplicated songs and see if that helps later.

This is very frustrating as I have just purchased a audiobook for my commute the day before I purchased the iPhone 6 and I see a shadow copy of it when I hook I my phone to my macbook in iTunes but I can not find the book anywhere on my phone. There is no option to see audio books in Music app. As well as none of my play lists will sync over.

Glad to hear they are working on a fix but this is just an annoyance for such a costly set up.. Between the purchases of iPhone, the music, the computer and having the ability to get them all to work together and then it just won't is AHHHHHHHH

I will say I am thankful that it is happening to me and not my bosses because that would be way to hard to explain to them 🙂

The only semi-reliable solution I've found is to backup the iPhone and then restore the phone from the backup. I've had no problem with the first sync copying everything that it is supposed to. It's in later syncs that things start to go wrong. I've already wiped the phone twice in order to restore all of my music.

Long time listener, first time caller. I think I have a fix.

Spent the day trying to sync 128GB iPhone 6. MBP, latest and greatest of everything. Maddening experience. After arranging all of my apps and settings and trying to move my music over I kept getting "can't write to disk" or "waiting to apply changes" or "waiting to sync" and it would just spin and hang and mock me. Just could not get my songs over. Tried the duplicate songs thing, no dice. I'll walk you through my steps because I'm not super technical and I'm not sure exactly what I did that fixed it, perhaps just the order. First thing's first, don't be all hung-ho and just check everything and expect it to sync in one sitting. It does't seem to like that.

-Made sure all software was up to date on both iPhone and computer.

-Started from scratch, wiped the phone. Take 2. Started from the beginning.

-Turned it on and set it up.

-Restarted computer.

-Opened iTunes.

-Plugged in phone.

-Synced Apps first, just the apps. Success.

-Synced my videos. Success.

-Synced my books. Success.

-Synced JUST the purchased songs from iTunes (not everything) - I figured those should be seamless. Success.

-Synced 1 (read: ONE) easy playlist, with one album, 10 songs. Success.

-Synced ONE playlist at a time. Success

-Synced Photos - ERRORS!! - some videos from previous iPhone's wouldn't copy, even though I OK'd passed the error the iPhone never really picked it back up. It just sat there. Ejected the iPhone. Saw what photos were on there and that's what I have to live with.

-Uncheck Synced photos in iTunes.

...anyway, 8 hours later. I've got all my apps. vids and songs and most of my photos.