Michael Rubin1

Q: iTunes/iPhone won't allow some songs on new playlist

I just purchased a new album from the iTunes store that contains 21 songs and downloaded all of it successfully. (All of it is downloaded, not in the cloud.)

 

I created a new playlist in iTunes and added only the new album to the playlist. The playlist, in iTunes, shows all 21 songs.

 

I then sync'd with my iPhone, and the playlist now appears on my iPhone.

 

If I select my iPhone from within iTunes and look at the new playlist, it shows all 21 songs. But if I grab my phone and open the Music app and view the playlist from my phone, it only shows 17 songs. Four of the songs will not sync with the playlist. If I just look at the new album itself in the Music app on my phone, all 21 songs are there, and all 21 will play just fine.

 

I deleted the playlist and tried again, and the same four songs will sync with the phone, but will not sync to the new playlist.

 

I deleted the album from iTunes, and re-downloaded it from the iTunes store. Repeat same steps above, same four songs will not be added to the playlist on the iPhone.

 

I deleted the playlist from my iPhone and created a new playlist in the Music app, and added the new album to it. The playlist on the phone shows all 21 songs this time, and all of them play fine. BUT, if I go back to iTunes and make some changes, and then sync again with my iPhone, the same four songs are now removed from the playlist.

 

What gives? As far as I can tell, there is nothing different about these four songs, they are just four of the 21 songs from the album. iTunes still seems to think all 21 songs are on the playlist on the iPhone, but the iPhone thinks differently.

 

Details: iPhone 6, iOS 9.3.4. iTunes 12.4.3.1. Macbook Pro, OSX 10.11.6.

 

Thanks for any help!

iPhone 6, iOS 9.3.4, iTunes 12.4.3.1

Posted on Aug 12, 2016 9:38 AM

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Q: iTunes/iPhone won't allow some songs on new playlist

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  • by MontyBigglesworth,

    MontyBigglesworth MontyBigglesworth Aug 25, 2016 3:41 PM in response to Michael Rubin1
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Aug 25, 2016 3:41 PM in response to Michael Rubin1

    I have this issue, I have an iPod in my car that I was able to copy the complete playlist to but when I syncd my iPhone I only had 2 of the 13 songs show up. I tried re-syncing, removing the playlist then adding it back and this got 5 songs on but that was as far as it got.

     

    I tried to make another playlist with the missing songs called "test" this got a few more of the missing songs onto my iPhone but hardly convenient! I then tried to add the songs from the "test" playlist to the original playlist, iTunes said it had done this but it was lying!

     

    If this sounds like your problem I don't have a fix but I have a work around:

    Rename the songs in iTunes that are not copying over, just adding an underscore to end the name of the song will do.

    Next time you re-sync the songs will appear in your iPhone.

    You can then remove the additional underscores in iTunes and re-sync and they should still be there.

     

    This does seem like a software bug where the iPhone is reporting to iTunes that it has songs but actually the files are missing or it's not showing them in your music. I think renaming the file forces iTunes to copy the song onto the device because it can no longer find it - because you renamed it!

     

    Hope that helps, it's been driving me round the bend! Hopefully Apple will sort this bug out ASAP as I don't want to keep doing this.