Syncing music creates duplicate "1" Playlist

None of this has helped at all. I think we can all agree iTunes and Apple music have become a complicated s***show! I've got duplicate albums, duplicate songs, duplicate songs within albums, a playlist that's duplicated itself 3 times. What a f***in mess!!! Syncing used to be so easy. Now Apple's totally lost control of it, and it's become a tangled clusterf**k!

I have this exact same issue buying new music via the iTunes Store. After buying new music via the iTunes and simply changing Song Info from the iTunes Genre to my own Genre (for easy library organization) and then sync'ed, iTunes creates new Playlists version 1-2-3-4 etc every time I synch'ed. It's silly as now I have to manually delete these older Playlists (complete less the new songs I bought), on both the iPhone and the Mac to stop the unnecessary proliferation. If Apple's mantra is to make something that "simply works" and it does this behavior, is this not the antithesis of that mantra? I do not understand the value of the replication, therefore why would Apple defend it, let alone not fix this clearly silly behavior that forces it's customers to manually remove the effects of their software's behavior. Apple Developers, Steve Jobs would not have allowed this to occur and your job would be at risk. Why are you forcing customers to perform manual tasks to fix inadequacies in your core software? Please stop this inane behavior. I am a long time Apple buyer who is at serious risk or looking elsewhere. George

It shouldn't be. It used to work like this:

1. Set up playlists on your Macintosh
2. Synch them to your iDevice
3. Modify a playlist on your Macintosh
4. Synch again to your iDevice. The modified playlist overwrites the one on your iDevice

It worked fine until they fixed it.

iTunes has become a nightmare of poor design and implementation. It is getting to the point that I have all but stopped using it on my iPhone. Maybe it is time for someone with good communication skills at Apple to create a how-to, don't point me to some terse support document written by a geek on the iTunes team.

Yeah, I am ticked off.

YOU GOT IT JON!!! This is exactly the solution.....make sure iTunes is closed on your iPhone/iPad/iPod and you will no longer get the duplicate (& inaccurate) playlist. This has been bugging me for a long time, so long that I was no even looking for an answer anymore. I would just delete the dupe, re-sync and carry on. SO HAPPY I found this post though...wow!

Seems this happens when (a) you've made a change to the playlist in iTunes then (b) the iOS device has the playlist open (active) while syncing. Appears the sync process can override the device's lock so the "active" playlist on the device is renamed and the "new" version of the playlist is sent through.

Well done, Jon. You're exactly right. I'd been trying to figure that out for several months. The key is to close iTunes on the device prior to syncing. Thanks.

The issue stems from changes being made on BOTH the computer (iTunes Library) and the device (phone, iPad) after a sync.

1. Sync the playlist from iTunes to Library. No "1" or "2" etc playlists yet.
2. Play songs from playlist on device. This updates the play count and last played time. That's all that seems necessary. You might add a song to the playlist or remove a song from the playlist -- doesn't matter as long as the playlist content is updated.
3. Make a change to the playlist on the computer. Play a song from the playlist, etc. In my case I rebuild these playlists nightly from a script. And sometimes I'll use the same "daily" playlist to pipe tunes around the house.

Next time you sync the computer with this device, iTunes will show "playlist" and "playlist 1" since it doesn't know which changes to keep and which to throw away.

One solution could be a Preference on your computer saying "Updates to playlist on computer have precedence over device changes" (that'd be my choice).

But until then, the workaround I use is to sync then remove "playlist 1" from the computer library and sync again.

I'm glad to hear that this has helped several people, but it hasn't changed anything for me. I never have the Music app open on my iPhone (SE), nor do I have any of the affected playlists open in iTunes on my PC before I choose to sync. Any time I add or delete any songs to/from any playlist, syncing always results in a "_1" playlist being created on both my iPhone and on my PC. The only way I've found to deal with this is to uncheck any playlist (and its "_1" counterpart,) in iTunes, then sync (which removes the playlists & songs from my iPhone,) THEN delete the "_1" playlist from iTunes, THEN sync all over again to get my correct, updated playlist onto my iPhone.

Honestly, I'm really starting to get fed up with all of the "little" problems that have accumulated over the past few years. My service contract's up for renewal in another month, and I think it's time to take a break from Apple.

Of course this works but it does not fix the quirky behavior in the first place. We can only hope that someone @Apple is smart enough to fix that bullsh*t. Essentially the whole asset of Apple is to not have to deal with stuff like that and instead enjoy a thought through product where software and hardware forms one thing. Otherwise I could simply switch to Undroid, accept the quirks and tinkering around and enjoy better tech-specs and lower proces.

Yeap...am having the same nightmare with this syncing issue, I can't believe Apple hasn't resolved this yet, since their main objective other then tech devices is Music. Am afraid to even do updates from now on for ITunes or Iphone....thinking it will screw everything even more, that has been the trend with their updates lately. Since every update that I have done it just gets worse and worse when it come to managing your Music on Mac and Iphone. The worst part of all, is that Apple makes you feel like your the only person in the world who's having this problem. So basically it now takes (2-4 syncs) to get your Music right on your Mac or Iphone...PITA!!!!!!

Aloha all,

I've also been having this problem for a couple years now. It's just a thought and I'm testing my theory now. Have any of you noticed the problem after organizing my library. Under User -> Music ->, I have my Itunes media and a another music folder that contains music that was not purchased, but downloaded from limewire 12+ years ago.

My thought is that, after I "Organized Library," my computer has my old .mp3 in two places. One in Itunes library, and one in my old music folder. Itunes may be pulling music from both locations into the same playlist. For me, I've noticed that the playlist that it occurs in sometimes contains both itunes purchased music, and limewire music. It might not want to overwrite files in the playlist, so it automatically creates a new playlist.

just a thought right now. I changed the folder path for my limewire music so itunes can't find it and I'm currently removing(unsyncing) music from my phone and old phone.

Y'know, I've tried the fix where you simply shut down iTunes on the iPhone before syncing on the computer, and IT DIDN'T WORK!

C'mon, Apple, listen to your users, please. Or, if someone has a better fix, preferable one not too complicated or labor intensive, I'd appreciate it.

Really getting sick of deleting playlists from both iTunes on my computer and iTunes on my iPhone.

Help us, please!

It's definitely not the simple task it used to be. I'm also having this problem and based on the thread dates it's been around for some time without any attention. And I thought I was being overly dramatic about Apple's "glitches". Nope. Can't deny the frustration.

In addition to this problem, I've had two MacBook Pros in a row that have been lemons (due to graphics issues wherein I can't make simple selections in Photoshop without the computer crashing; hello vertical lines and blank screens; feel like restarting?).

This syncing issue is just another problem. A "five-minute" sync that takes multiple attempts and variations to see if I can get it to work? I really wish things were simpler. 😕

I have also the same issue. Drive me nuts! I have created a new playlist ( eg: music rock) and I added some new tracks. Then I sync my iPhone and the new playlist is create on the phone. This is normal. Then when I remove one song or add one song in my new playlist ( drag and drop) or move the file from my laptop to the new existing playlist and sync it update the current playlist And creates a Duplicate playlist also ( music rock1). It does this for every single playlist I have created. No idea what is the issue here but It has been going on for a while. I hope they can fix the issue ASAP.