Itunes/phone music sunc trouble

October 4, 2009 4:59 PM

Cant easily sync itunes and Iphone. Running latest versions of both software. I can sync everything else but only way to sync music seems to be I had to check all of the songs in my core iTunes music folder as if i was selecting them to be played. When I synched my music from there it worked fine. Bug I think but this seemed to work. Any suggestions? Who writes itunes software anyway: really non-intuitive
posted by dougiedd to technology (7 comments total)

Consider that many people have more than 100GB of music in iTunes, so it would be foolish to sync eveything by default. You can create specific playlists, and tell iTunes to sync just those. I'm sure there are some other ways as well, if you look at their documentation.
posted by mezamashii at 5:16 PM on October 4

Try a restore and then just picking a few playlists to sync. I found my Touch having issues after the last update until I did a restore.
posted by arcticseal at 5:58 PM on October 4

I'll see if I can narrow this down :

- When you plug in your iPhone to sync it, does the initial sync page have either/both the "manually manage my music/videos" and/or "sync only checked songs" selected?

- Under the "music" tab, make sure "sync music" is checked at the top (even though it's part of a large text header, some people don't notice that checkbox)

- Below that, do you have "entire music library" or "selected playlists, artists, and genres"?

- Under "playlists", "artist", or "genres", is anything checked?

Personally, I don't have my whole library loaded onto my iPhone (65GB library, 32GB iPhone) - so I just sync a few playlists. I don't bother checking artists or genres. Just playlists. I DON'T have "manually manage music" checked on the front page - but I DO have "sync only checked songs and videos" checked.

If all of the aforementioned items look fine to you, then you may want to do a full restore, as mentioned earlier. However, this is very important, make sure you sync it FIRST before you restore it, so it backs up everything on your phone. This way, you won't lose any messages, recent call logs, voicemails, contacts, etc.
posted by revmitcz at 6:16 PM on October 4 [1 favorite]

i have tried picking selected albums and lists: nada
if i do i restore: wont i lose all my applications? that seemed to happen on my last update
posted by dougiedd at 6:17 PM on October 4

if i do i restore: wont i lose all my applications? that seemed to happen on my last update

I don't think so, no.

I just had to restore my iPhone the other day after jailbreaking the 3.1 update. Something went funky, but I restored from a backup once the OS update went through. I think there was one app that didn't automatically sync, that I had to re-download. I was worried I'd get charged again, but once I hit "buy now", my iPhone said "you've download this before, you will not be charged again". So, you should be fine.

You also might want to check the Apple support forums for iPhones. I've found their forums to a great tool for troubleshooting problems I've had over the years w/various Apple products.

Sounds to me, however, that you might not have everything checked correctly. If you've got "manually manage" setup, then you need to actually drag songs/playlists/etc from your library to the phone - which you've said works for you. So, that's still my guess.
posted by revmitcz at 6:47 PM on October 4

... only way to sync music seems to be I had to check all of the songs in my core iTunes music folder as if i was selecting them to be played.

Are you talking about the checkbox next to each song's name in your music library? Because that's the weird "play this if it's checked, skip it if it isn't" checkbox. Really I submit that it's only useful for disabling spoken-word intro tracks and things that you wish you could delete but feel obliged to keep for completism's sake. I suggest that you leave everything worth listenting to checked.

There are many ways to get music onto your iPhone, depending on how you like to use it... you can synch artists or playlists or genres or randomly fill your device, etc. Personally, I choose "manually manage music and videos" and just add big batches of stuff I like by dragging it to the phone. Podcasts I auto-synch.

Who writes itunes software anyway: really non-intuitive

Apple, but I grant you, for what started as a music library management app, it's grown into terribly bloaty thing.
posted by mumkin at 7:03 PM on October 4

yes, that little box: i had to check them all then it loaded.
posted by dougiedd at 7:03 PM on October 5