why does my songs recheck themselves

I'm not denying that iTunes might have reset your checked/unchecked status for some reason, nor do I think it is acceptable if it did so. But I can't do anything to change that. From experience on these boards I know that sometimes people do accidentally cmd-click a checkbox when they are using cmd-click as a method for adding and removing tracks from a selection of things that they are then going to edit or add to a playlist.

If you backup your library regularly simply restore the most recent version of the database that held the correct checked and unchecked status for all of your tracks. See Empty/corrupt iTunes library after upgrade/crash if you don't. If needs be you could temporarily connect to a recent version of your library, make a smart playlist of your unchecked tracks, copy that to a regular playlist, export as an XML (fewer issues when reading back the list), revert to the current library, import the list, select it, and cmd-click a checkbox to uncheck those things that you want unchecked. You will then be in a position to see exactly what gets checked if it happens again and quickly restore the unchecked status of all those tracks.

tt2

thanks for the suggestion. it really has been irritating me and annoying me that some songs are being selected again when i go out my way to uncheck them. i don't know why this is happening. such an annoyance

i don't have 9000 songs in my library but i have enough for it to be a headache to have to individually add them...but if this proves to be a decent workaround then cool. i was getting that "you don't have enough disk space" error and it was frustrating me

It's not really a "workaround." This is the "as designed" way to select specific songs to load on a device, using the Sync Music setting in iTunes. The checking/unchecking songs method does work, but it becomes progressively more annoying, as your iTunes library grows. Instead, create one or more playlists that sync automatically to your device, and maintain those playlists (add/remove songs) in your iTunes library. iTunes automatically keeps your device "in sync" with those playlists. That's better than scrolling through your entire iTunes library, checking/unchecking songs. 🙂

This is really the first I've heard that the playlist method is the "designed" method for managing a library. I've never thought to use this playlist method since I started using iTunes when I got my first iPod nano a decade or so ago. The checked boxes (at least to me) seemed the most intuitive. Want this song to go to your device? Check it. Want to easily see what songs in an album are checked and would be on the device? Use the check method. Is it possible to make this quick comparison with the playlist method?

You make the playlist method sound so much easier to use than the check mark method. How is that so, exactly? I still have to go through every song in my library and decide whether or not to add it to the playlist, just like I would have to decide if each song should be checked or not.

Why even give us the check boxes then if it will only let us deviate from the intended design and run into issues like these? Obviously a good design would have multiple ways of doing the same thing, as users don't always like to do things the same way. Redundancy can be a good thing. I'm not sure it's right to say one way or the other is the "right" way. They're just two different ways of doing the same thing. But I hope you can understand all of our frustration when a perfectly legitimate way of managing our libraries is malfunctioning, and feel that our struggles are being brushed aside.

Consider how you would manage multiple devices? How do you play the whole of an album that you currently have unchecked for syncing when the mood takes you?

tt2

I have many devices, some with enough capacity to fit my entire music library. And I have others, like an iPod shuffle and nano, that can only fit a small portion. And on my iPhone, I just want a few playlists. An iTunes music library is not there to ONLY sync ONE iPod, even if you only own one iPod. Using playlists allows me to flexibly use and manage my iTunes library for MANY purposes, which is "as designed." Plus, I don't want songs unchecked in my iTunes library, because I use my iTunes library to play songs on my Mac.

Using playlists also allows "automation," so that I don't even need to manually select songs to add. For example, if I like a particular artist, I can create a smart playlist that automatically has songs by that artist. I select that smart playlist as one of the playlists syncing to an iPod. I add new songs by that artist to my iTunes library, and they automatically sync to the iPod, the next time I connect it. Recently, I created a smart playlist based on high play count (more than a set number of Plays), and I sync that playlist to an iPod. High play count typically means songs that I like, so this automatically puts my most often played songs on my iPod, without me going through 7000+ songs in my iTunes library to manually decide what goes on my iPod and what does not.

And I can manually choose songs. One convenient way is to use the song Rating, by giving 4 or 5 stars to songs that I like. I have smart playlists that automatically have songs with 4 stars, 5 stars, and 4 or 5 stars. When listening to songs on my Mac or my "big" iPods, if I hear a song that I like (that I have not previously rated), I give it 4 or 5 stars. I use those "star" smart playlists to sync my iPhone and iPods with more limited storage. A rating made on any computer or device affects songs that get synced using those playlists.

You can use unchecking/checking songs to load your iPod, but if you don't use iTunes "as designed," you are greatly limiting the power of iTunes.

At the risk of being the person who created the back and forth about "as designed" vs "work around." To me it really doesn't matter. If I missed an article or documentation for it being "designed that way", then I'll admit that. And I guess it can make sense. I don't have many devices. I don't find it necessary to carry songs on my ipad. Maybe just my phone.

If it's designed that way (create a playlist) versus checking and unchecking....to me it really doesn't matter. At the end of the day, what bothers me is that songs are being rechecked for some reason. I have no idea why this is happening and it's pretty irritating.

Not everyone wants to or needs to create a playlist. Maybe they don't want to do it that way. Personally, I see it as a workaround because it's not really that clear or something. If it's documented somewhere, recommending to sync music to your device via playlists....then cool.

Nathan is right. I apologize for getting off topic. And I'll admit that the playlist method is better if you are managing multiple devices, which I had not previously considered. So besides going to a different method (playlist, or just deleting the unchecked files from the library [but not the file itself]) we are still curious as to what is causing this issue of auto-re-checking. For everyone who is having this issue, is it a specific set of songs/albums, or is it seemingly random? I have a couple of recurring culprits, which were purchased on the iTunes store. But this doesn't happen for all of the music I've purchased from the iTunes store and then unchecked. So I'm not sure if it's something inherent with those particular files (maybe they are corrupt) or if it does have something to do with iTunes store purchases.

I am encountering this same problem - it has happened to me a couple times before and this time it is taking place 3 days after updating El Capitan.

It is for a random subset of songs/albums that were purchased via the iTunes store - I just did a quick scan and I would estimate that it is close to 30% of my purchased songs.

The songs that have been rechecked automatically were purchased over the last few months as well as 4 or 5 years ago so I can't detect any real pattern apart from the fact that they are all iTunes store purchases.

I am not an iTunes Music/Match subscriber.

I don't know if this helps, but I've been having this problem too, and I realized that the songs always recheck themselves after I buy a track from itunes.

Came here looking for answers to this problem and realized this same phenomenon as well. I started making a playlist called "These Should Be Unchecked" and everything was fine until I bought a new song a few minutes ago. I checked the playlist again and lo and behold, half the playlist is checked. Every one of those songs is from an iTunes purchase - songs that I got from other sources (Bandcamp downloads, Amazon MP3, old CD imports, etc.) are never checked off.

This just started happening somewhat recently, I've used the checkmarks to sync my iPod (the largest of my devices) for years and then use playlists to sync songs to my iPhone and iPad. But I always used the checks to sync to my iPod, especially once I ran out of space.

So I don't have an answer, but this is definitely consistent and is a new "feature" (bug) in a more recent update of iTunes.

This is an absolute nuisance. The check method was designed to sync only checked songs and videos to your devices. Hence the box in the options titled "Sync only checked songs and videos." That method has been working flawlessly for me for over a decade. The question isn't who's method is better or "as designed," it's WHY ARE THESE SONGS MAGICALLY RECHECKING THEMSELVES???

Here's what I've found. First, don't call apple support. My apple "genius" told me that there wasn't a method to select individual songs to sync to a device. No lie, that's what she told me. Moving on. I've spent some time trying to wrap my head around what's going on, and so far I've noticed, if you uncheck songs that are already on your device, then sync it, it will recheck them(apparently one of the updates went through and rechecked all of these songs in the first place so they got dumped on your device before you noticed it). If you delete the songs from your device and then sync it, will add the songs back to your device. So, while your device is plugged in, delete the songs from the device and then uncheck them on your computer, then sync. So far, this appears to be working. Again, an absolute nuisance. A bug. A failure in user interface design.

I also have this problem. I use checks to keep music on my computer (MacBook Pro) that I don't want on my phone. It's extremely annoying because it fills up my phone with songs I have already chosen to keep off my phone.

I have never subscribes to iTunes Match or Apple Music--does anyone know if that's part of the problem?

Also, has anyone been able to figure out when the checking happens? Is it just before syncing? Or is it unrelated to syncing? My computer is often asleep or without an internet connection, so maybe that also plays a role?

I have a hack to undo it manually. All my unchecked songs are also rated 1 star. So for whenever iTunes decides to check my unchecked music, I have a smart playlist that looks for one starred songs on my computer (if they're iCloud-only I don't care whether or not they're checked). I select all songs in that smart playlist and control-click to get the contextual menu, and then Uncheck Selection.

Argh!

I spent hours and hours unchecking songs so I could sync my Ipod Nano, which has always been set to sync checked songs only, and when I tried to sync, itunes stated I did not have enough memory left, and to my shock all the songs which were unchecked were re-checked (hundreds and hundreds)!

I tackled the issue again and once again spent hours and hours and hours unchecking songs, I finally just synced my Ipod Nano (5th Gen) and this time it worked, but the next time I pulled up I tunes, every freaking purchased song was automatically re-checked for no reason!!!!! I can no longer sync unless I spend hours unchecking. I understand the creating a playlist suggestion, but when I want to limit to around 2000 songs that is not a great option either. The Itunes program was designed so that you could check songs and a devise could be synced only to checked songs, why does this option no longer work? I have no idea what to do now. Unbelievably frustrated with Itunes.

As given earlier in the thread I don't believe that the check function is intended for use as the main method for controlling what does and does not go onto a device. It is completely useless if you have more than one device to manage. You can easily uncheck all of your purchased items by going into the purchased playlist in the songs view and then cmd-clicking any filled checkbox. You can accidentally check all songs in the library in a similar fashion when using cmd-click to select multiple items for editing, for example. Since you now have ample evidence that the checkbox feature is no longer working the way you want or expect it to now is the time to make a playlist of the content you want on the device. You can uncheck the purchases as suggested, make a smart playlist that matches checked tracks only, copy the items in that list to a new regular playlist, then drag in any purchases that you also want. Change your sync selections to sync with the new playlist, and you're good to go. Add things when you want, remove something when the list gets too big. And everything in your library will play through properly when you want it to instead of one track at a time.

tt2