iPod music + playlists erased after update

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Level 1

13 points

iPod music + playlists erased after update

So, i've been manually syncing my ipod to my iMac for years, and never had a problem before.

I had created about 8 playlists in my iPod, with about 35gb of music. This music has been on my ipod for the past 5 months.

Yesterday, I installed the new iPod update (iOS 8.2). Everything was fine. Then after the update was done & my ipod restarted, I synced it manually (again: something I do on a weekly basis - removing / adding songs to my ipod, or syncing new photos, etc - basic stuff), and after ejecting it & connecting to via bluetooth to my car's music system, I realised all my musc was gone... playlists and all.

I came home, synced my ipod to my iMac again... at the bottom of iTunes, it showed that my ipod was empty. But all the playlists were visiblewhen viewing my ipod via iTunes - in the "devices" section, and even when I clicked on the iPod icon at the top left of iTunes, which then displays the "Summary," "Music," and "On My Device" sections.

The playlists are there, the songs' names are showing up, and at one point my iPod went from empty to 3/4 full again. Now it's empty again. And when I try to play any of the songs on my ipod via iTunes, an exclamation mark shows up on the left of the song title.

I'm confused. What the **** just happened? Did I do something that cause my music to be wiped out, yet somehow still be visible when viewing my ipod via iTunes?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance!

iMac (27-inch Mid 2011), OS X Yosemite (10.10.2), 60GB iPhone running iOS 8.2

Posted on Mar 17, 2015 3:18 PM

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Answer 1

Mar 17, 2015 3:49 PM in response to defmuse

Important lesson about manual management -- instead of building playlists directly on your device, it is safer to manage what you want on your iPhone within your iTunes library. That means building your playlists in iTunes, then drag and drop them to your iOS device. Why? Because iOS devices can hiccup, thus losing things like playlists (if in manual mode). If you keep the playlists current in iTunes, they're safe (and can be backed up as part of your library backup).

At this point, the iOS update seems to have put your iPhone into a weird state, so unless you can recover by resetting the iPhone you're probably going to have to restore it, then rebuild the playlists and contents. If these were maintained in your library, it would be a simple matter to drag and drop them after restoring, but now you may very well have to start from scratch.

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Answer 2

Kilrain

Level 1

0 points

Mar 26, 2015 9:29 AM in response to defmuse

Exact same thing happened to me. Happened after installing an 'iPod software update', over 6,000 songs are now gone. Went to the Apple Store and 3 separate employees couldn't help me. Did you find a solution? I hear a lot of people say even when they re-added all their music the same error happened; disconnect your iPod and the songs vanish. Maddening!

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Answer 3

defmuse Author

Level 1

13 points

Mar 27, 2015 2:28 AM in response to Kilrain

Nothing so far, Kilrain. The funniest thing is that I have synced my phone manually before and after (haven't restored my phone in hopes that someone had a legit answer to this issue), and every time I sync my phone to my comp, all the original playlists that used to be there are STILL showing up. All the songs are showing up too... but they can't be read. It's the oddest thing.

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Answer 4

Mar 27, 2015 2:39 AM in response to defmuse

I didn't have this problem with my iPhone 5, but I started having it after I got an iPhone 6+ and plugged it into my computer at work. 1000 songs vanished instantly. Now the songs are visible in iTunes, but they cannot be played; they have exclamation marks right beside them. This only affects the songs that I've ripped from CDs. It doesn't happen when I plug my phone into my computer at home.

I have "sync music manually" checked on iTunes, have Genius turned off and I don't have iTunes Match. I can't think of anything else that might interfere with my phone in this way.

Any kind of help is deeply appreciated.

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