Why does my song sync with my Mac but not with my iPod Shuffle?

Question

Why does my song sync with my Mac but not with my iPod Shuffle?

So I recently went out and bought an iPod Shuffle. I made playlists and everything and synced them all with my iPod Shuffle. I decided to look for a specific song, so I went to my playlist to check it out. Except the playlist seemed to play all the songs in order but skip out on the one song I was looking for.

According to answers, it was because my shuffle mode was on. So I synced the one song by itself. Except when I turn the shuffle on it says, 'Please sync music into iPod Shuffle.'

So I'm not sure if my Shuffle just doesn't like this one song, even though I bought it off iTunes. I know it sounds like a silly question for just one song, but this has been happening for quite a few others too, like holes in my iPod Shuffle library. Help please!!

iPod shuffle, Gen. 4

Posted on May 1, 2016 6:45 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Kenichi Watanabe

Level 8

41,572 points

May 1, 2016 7:08 AM in response to techie_newbie

Not a silly question... 🙂

Are you sure it (the missing song) is synced to the shuffle? It has no screen, so you can use iTunes to confirm it's on the shuffle. Select the shuffle in iTunes (click its device button on horizontal bar) to show its settings screen in iTunes window. Along the left side, under On My Device, click Music. To the right, the shuffle's song list is shown. Can you find that song on the list?

If the song is not on the shuffle's song list, one possibility is that this song is not stored on your computer's drive. You may see it there in your iTunes library, but purchased songs can be accessed (to stream or download) from Apple's iTunes Store servers (also known as "iCloud") IF they are not stored locally on your computer's drive. Song files must be stored locally in order to sync to iPods. I don't think an error message is given if iTunes cannot sync a song for this reason.

To check this possibility, show your music library in iTunes. Set it for Songs view (using the control at right end of horizontal bar), to show a plain song list with columns. If the column for iCloud Download is not visible, make it visible (right-click heading row of song list to show/hide columns). The iCloud Download column is narrow with a cloud symbol in its heading. Find the song that is missing on the shuffle. If it has a cloud with down-arrow symbol in the iCloud Download column, that means it is being accessed from iCloud. Click that cloud to download it, and it should now sync to the shuffle.

If that's not the reason for your problem, please post back with any additional details.

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Answer 2

May 1, 2016 3:22 PM in response to Kenichi Watanabe

That's exactly why I attempted to sync the single song by itself. I scrolled down to where it usually displays the manually added songs, but it wasn't there, obviously assuming there was no music on my iPod.

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Answer 3

May 1, 2016 3:27 PM in response to techie_newbie

I had songs that didn't download completely. Can you play the song in iTunes in your Mac?

Also, is the music in the cloud or on your computer? It may not be downloaded. You can have music in your iTunes library that streams from iCloud but can't be put on an iPod because it isn't downloaded yet.

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Answer 4

May 1, 2016 4:40 PM in response to techie_newbie

Check to see of the song is actually on the iPod, using the method I described. Your screenshot is not an indication that the song is or is not on the iPod. That screen is where you set up syncing for the iPod. It does not show what is actually currently on the iPod.

NOTE: "Select the shuffle in iTunes (click its device button on horizontal bar) to show its settings screen in iTunes window. Along the left side, under On My Device, click Music. To the right, the shuffle's song list is shown."

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Answer 5

May 1, 2016 4:45 PM in response to Kenichi Watanabe

Yup, still says no items. And it's confirmed when I turn on the iPod and it says 'Please sync music to iPod Shuffle with iTunes' or something along those lines. But it still clearly says that the song has synced on the Summary page.

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Answer 6

May 1, 2016 5:54 PM in response to techie_newbie

Since the song is not actually on the shuffle, that explains why it "skips" when using the shuffle. There's no song there to play.

To determine why the song is not on the shuffle, start with what I described in my first reply.

If the song is not on the shuffle's song list, one possibility is that this song is not stored on your computer's drive. You may see it there in your iTunes library, but purchased songs can be accessed (to stream or download) from Apple's iTunes Store servers (also known as "iCloud") IF they are not stored locally on your computer's drive. Song files must be stored locally in order to sync to iPods. I don't think an error message is given if iTunes cannot sync a song for this reason.

To check this possibility, show your music library in iTunes. Set it for Songs view (using the control at right end of horizontal bar), to show a plain song list with columns. If the column for iCloud Download is not visible, make it visible (right-click heading row of song list to show/hide columns). The iCloud Download column is narrow with a cloud symbol in its heading. Find the song that is missing on the shuffle. If it has a cloud with down-arrow symbol in the iCloud Download column, that means it is being accessed from iCloud. Click that cloud to download it, and it should now sync to the shuffle.

Your findings...?

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