Download my music library onto my new phone

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Level 1

18 points

Download my music library onto my new phone

Ok, so I got my new iPhone XS Max. I activated it, restored it from my iTunes backup, and looked - blam. No music. Every song had the little download icon. Crap. Hooked it back up to my computer, told iit to sync my entire music library, and went to bed (I have many thousands of songs). Why didn't the "restore from backup" ACTUALLY restore my stuff? Some of my movies aren't there either.

Now I look at the iTunes long list, and SOME songs are there. Many still have the download icon, but some don't, but are greyed out. ***? This is nuts. I bought the biggest capacity iPhone SPECIFICALLY so I could have my entire library on it.

Everything I can find on-line about "downloading your entire music library" either depends on using iTunes on my Mac (which already didn't work), or a not available "all songs" button in the Purchased section of the iTunes store. Anybody got any help? I want:

1) all my purchased songs downloaded onto my phone, without having to do it one-by-one

2) all these greyed out songs (looks mostly like things I have pulled off of CDs) to be available.

Thanks so much for your help, and to you, the iTunes project management team, make this process freaking easier. This is nuts. It's one of the reasons that iPhone users are mocked by Android users.

andy

iPhone XS Max, iOS 12, OS X Sierra, with the latest iTunes

Posted on Sep 28, 2018 9:58 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Lawrence Finch

Level 10

229,462 points

Sep 28, 2018 11:10 AM in response to acmwallace

If it's working right syncing should download all of your music. If it isn't:

Connect the phone to the latest version of iTunes (12.8.0.150 as of today)
Click on the iPhone icon in the top bar
Choose the options you want, most specifically "Only checked songs and videos" if that is a feature you have used
UNCHECK Manually Manage Music and Videos (if it's checked, that's the cause of your problem)
Click on Music in the left menu (just below Summary)
Uncheck Sync Music
Click Sync - this will erase all music on your phone
When that finishes Check Sync Music and select the music you want to sync (or Entire Music Library)
Click Sync

That should restore all music in the iTunes library to your phone.

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Answer 2

javaliga

Level 10

120,179 points

Sep 28, 2018 10:19 AM in response to acmwallace

The iTunes backup doesn't include your iTunes music library per se. However, once you restore your device from an iTunes backup, iTunes should automatically sync your device to your iTunes Library, (See step 7 in Restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch from a backup - Apple Support).

It may be that your iTunes library is corrupt (given that your iTunes purchases were downloaded). you may want to see:

Empty/corrupt iTunes library after upgrade/crash

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Answer 3

anypats

Level 7

21,357 points

Sep 28, 2018 10:57 AM in response to acmwallace

Movies and music are not part of the backup. They require to either download them again from iCloud or to sync them again from iTunes.

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Answer 4

Boat Guy

Level 1

135 points

Oct 8, 2018 10:02 AM in response to acmwallace

That's not quite correct. You can download entire playlists and genres. So make a playlist with the music you want and then download that.

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Answer 5

acmwallace Author

Level 1

18 points

Sep 28, 2018 10:41 AM in response to javaliga

Thanks, I'll take a look... BUT I still want to be able to download all my songs without having to do it one-by-one. I'm at the office, it'll be many hours before I can get home to deal with the possible corruption.

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