Update: See this article for a possible solution to sync issues with iOS devices.
Syncing isn’t easy; syncing a variety of disparate content from iTunes to iOS devices is complex. There have always been problems with syncing, but lately, these problems have increased.
I get lots of email from readers, both of this website and of my Ask the iTunes Guy column on Macworld, and lately a lot of those emails have been about syncing problems. My friend Rob Griffiths had a problem last month where duplicate tracks in his iTunes library prevented him from syncing his iPhone 6. But he’s still having problems; that wasn’t the only issue preventing him from syncing.
I briefly had an iPhone 6. I returned it because of the size, but I had to restore that iPhone about five times in the week I owned it because of syncing issues.
And I’ve had readers contact me with problems syncing older devices; problems that have increased since the release of iTunes 12 and iOS 8. One reader even broke down and updated from an iPhone 4s to an iPhone 5s, hoping his syncing problems would go away; alas, they didn’t. (This makes me think that many sync problems have something to do with iTunes’ library files.)
Syncing isn’t easy; but Apple really needs to make it work. I know that some of the problems are edge cases, but so many people have problems that Apple needs to seriously pay attention to these issues. If you search Apple’s forums, just in the past 30 days, you’ll find dozens of threads about sync issues. Sometimes, the sync simply doesn’t work; at other times, it blocks at “Waiting for changes to be applied.” It’s impossible for users to resolve these issues, and Apple doesn’t provide much help. The general response from Apple is to restore the iOS device. In some cases, this my work, but in my experience, its effectiveness is limited; sync problems come back a short time afterward.
To be fair, it’s possible that this only happens to a small percentage of iOS users. Many if not most iOS users never sync their devices with iTunes, and many others don’t have much content to sync. But Rob Griffiths, who I mentioned above, doesn’t have a large music library. He’s not an edge case at all.
As for me, I had terrible problems in the last months of iOS 7, having to restore my iPhone 5s several times. I’d want to sync to add a new album to my iPhone, and it would take a half hour, and sometimes those syncs would simply fail. Curiously, since iTunes 12 and iOS 8, I’m having fewer problems.
Syncing is hard; but Apple should do a lot more to make it work.
If you have sync problems, I would appreciate if you could post a comment below. I’m trying to collect as much information as possible to try and get Apple to pay attention to this issue. Please post the device you’re using, and a brief explanation of the problems you’re having. Also, post if these problems are new, since iOS 8, or if you’ve had them for a long time. Thanks!
Also, read my series of articles outlining how I’d fix iTunes.
I have an iTouch 2nd gen and most of my sync issues are artwork-based. The issues seem to differ from the problems you experience (I read your other post mentioning Dylan albums). Most artwork is correct, but often times there will either be individual songs here and there or entire albums here and there that show the wrong artwork. Example:
Artist ABC: album is uploaded with correct artwork
Artist XYZ: album is uploaded but shows artwork from artist ABC even though no issue in iTunes on any tracks.
Re-syncing, deleting everything from iTouch and re-syncing, deleting artwork in iTunes replacing it and re-syncing — everything tried does not fix issue. I don’t want to see a Beatles album with artwork from Elvis.
I have an iTouch 2nd gen and most of my sync issues are artwork-based. The issues seem to differ from the problems you experience (I read your other post mentioning Dylan albums). Most artwork is correct, but often times there will either be individual songs here and there or entire albums here and there that show the wrong artwork. Example:
Artist ABC: album is uploaded with correct artwork
Artist XYZ: album is uploaded but shows artwork from artist ABC even though no issue in iTunes on any tracks.
Re-syncing, deleting everything from iTouch and re-syncing, deleting artwork in iTunes replacing it and re-syncing — everything tried does not fix issue. I don’t want to see a Beatles album with artwork from Elvis.
Have iMac running Yosemite (10.10.5) and iPad mini running 9.2. A couple weeks ago, I decided to take everything off my iPad and fill it with photos to show around at Christmas time. I plugged in my iPad as usual, but it never shows up on my iTunes. It just says it’s waiting for the IMac to be available. I have no idea what to do. I desperately need to use my iPad for these photos and have new music I’d really like to transfer also.
Have iMac running Yosemite (10.10.5) and iPad mini running 9.2. A couple weeks ago, I decided to take everything off my iPad and fill it with photos to show around at Christmas time. I plugged in my iPad as usual, but it never shows up on my iTunes. It just says it’s waiting for the IMac to be available. I have no idea what to do. I desperately need to use my iPad for these photos and have new music I’d really like to transfer also.
I dread syncing my iPad2. I’ve had to purge duplicate files numerous times, and syncing is a nightmare. I have way more content than I can keep on my iPad, so I typically take a few movies and books on the road. When I come back I typically only check and uncheck movies and books to replace fresher content. This can take hours, a typical scenario goes like this; I have 3GB free on my iPad, so I uncheck 20GB of movies I just watched and carefully count up the size of movies I want until I get to 20GB. Try and sync and it says I’m 9GB over. Delete everything manually on my iPad, uncheck all movies and re-sync until both my iTunes and iPad say the same free space. Check the movies I want, retry and I get a fail. Close iTunes, reboot my iPad and computer, try again. Instead of syncing 4 movies it says it’s syncing 6, but since it isn’t over the limit continues to sync. During the syncing process it actually sync’s 5 one of which was not checked in iTunes, lord knows what the other one was.
I agree iTunes likely has issues with how it manages the library and tags files for download. Apple should step up and fix this, today I googled iPad 2 syncing issues and it returned over 400,000 results.
I dread syncing my iPad2. I’ve had to purge duplicate files numerous times, and syncing is a nightmare. I have way more content than I can keep on my iPad, so I typically take a few movies and books on the road. When I come back I typically only check and uncheck movies and books to replace fresher content. This can take hours, a typical scenario goes like this; I have 3GB free on my iPad, so I uncheck 20GB of movies I just watched and carefully count up the size of movies I want until I get to 20GB. Try and sync and it says I’m 9GB over. Delete everything manually on my iPad, uncheck all movies and re-sync until both my iTunes and iPad say the same free space. Check the movies I want, retry and I get a fail. Close iTunes, reboot my iPad and computer, try again. Instead of syncing 4 movies it says it’s syncing 6, but since it isn’t over the limit continues to sync. During the syncing process it actually sync’s 5 one of which was not checked in iTunes, lord knows what the other one was.
I agree iTunes likely has issues with how it manages the library and tags files for download. Apple should step up and fix this, today I googled iPad 2 syncing issues and it returned over 400,000 results.
In iTunes 12.3.2.35, my contacts only sync in one direction, from iPod Touch 4th gen to computer. Not the other way around. There is an, Apple support forum post, unanswered of course… It was posted Jul 2015. I tried an Apple Support phone call, failed at level 1, going to level 2 support when I have another hour of my time to waste…
Please update the support forums with your gripes. I’m sure posts with great numbers are read by the sloths at Apple. Seems we need to sit on their heads for them to repair something they broke in the first place. Apple is all about money now. Have all the testers been fired to make even more money?!
I posted in: Contacts will not sync with iPhone in iTunes 12:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7109785
In iTunes 12.3.2.35, my contacts only sync in one direction, from iPod Touch 4th gen to computer. Not the other way around. There is an, Apple support forum post, unanswered of course… It was posted Jul 2015. I tried an Apple Support phone call, failed at level 1, going to level 2 support when I have another hour of my time to waste…
Please update the support forums with your gripes. I’m sure posts with great numbers are read by the sloths at Apple. Seems we need to sit on their heads for them to repair something they broke in the first place. Apple is all about money now. Have all the testers been fired to make even more money?!
I posted in: Contacts will not sync with iPhone in iTunes 12:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7109785
my family owns two ipod nanos for our cars – 3rd and 4th generations. They won’t sync, nor will itunes even recognize them anymore. Very frustrating.
my family owns two ipod nanos for our cars – 3rd and 4th generations. They won’t sync, nor will itunes even recognize them anymore. Very frustrating.
I’ve had sync problems between iTunes on my MacPro and iPads that started a couple o years ago and have only gotten worse over time and over subsequent iOS, MacOS, iTunes and hardware upgrades. My setup should be considered simple, since I never do 2-way syncing and only download from the MacPro to iPads. The same issues persist when testing across different, freshly installed machines, restored iOS devices, new user accounts and new iTunes libraries, in wired and wireless configurations.
One thing I HAVEN’T been able to try – thanks to Apple’s limited signing window for previous iOS versions – is to roll back my devices to, say, 2012 and see if those really were the good old days when everything “just worked”…
Somewhere along the line (last compatible iOS upgrade?) my iPad 1 stopped syncing reliably over WiFi waiting fruitlessly for the host to be “available”, and I spent a lot of time chasing down issues with my network before concluding it had nothing to do with the WiFi connection; it would even fail to sync while simultaneously browsing the Shared Library from that machine! Of course, it usually worked fine once I’d rebooted the iPad, which became a normal morning task along with making coffee.
I have some of the same symptoms and worse on an iPad 2 that is now up to iOS 9.1. This device fails to sync sometimes even when plugged into USB: not all sync’d content is copied across, and even when I can see from iTunes’ progress bar that content like podcasts has been copied across it won’t appear in the associated iOS app without a reboot. Putting the iPad’s USB interface in logging mode yields lots of information on the progress of the non-connection but no clarity.
I DO think iTunes’ functionality is bloated and is probably bogging down on the original core code from MusicMatch – written in straight C – that I’m afraid is still lurking in there. I think Apple made a huge mistake, missing the opportunity for a re-architecting of the iTunes ecosystem, when they shifted the model of iOS devices from being USB-attached Mac/PC peripherals like iPods to being internet-connected peer machines that have the ability to fetch their own content from app stores and servers independent of the Mac/PC mothership. The creaky old iTunes app is still vainly clinging to the task of device management in this new, networked and multi-syncing world.
I’ve had sync problems between iTunes on my MacPro and iPads that started a couple o years ago and have only gotten worse over time and over subsequent iOS, MacOS, iTunes and hardware upgrades. My setup should be considered simple, since I never do 2-way syncing and only download from the MacPro to iPads. The same issues persist when testing across different, freshly installed machines, restored iOS devices, new user accounts and new iTunes libraries, in wired and wireless configurations.
One thing I HAVEN’T been able to try – thanks to Apple’s limited signing window for previous iOS versions – is to roll back my devices to, say, 2012 and see if those really were the good old days when everything “just worked”…
Somewhere along the line (last compatible iOS upgrade?) my iPad 1 stopped syncing reliably over WiFi waiting fruitlessly for the host to be “available”, and I spent a lot of time chasing down issues with my network before concluding it had nothing to do with the WiFi connection; it would even fail to sync while simultaneously browsing the Shared Library from that machine! Of course, it usually worked fine once I’d rebooted the iPad, which became a normal morning task along with making coffee.
I have some of the same symptoms and worse on an iPad 2 that is now up to iOS 9.1. This device fails to sync sometimes even when plugged into USB: not all sync’d content is copied across, and even when I can see from iTunes’ progress bar that content like podcasts has been copied across it won’t appear in the associated iOS app without a reboot. Putting the iPad’s USB interface in logging mode yields lots of information on the progress of the non-connection but no clarity.
I DO think iTunes’ functionality is bloated and is probably bogging down on the original core code from MusicMatch – written in straight C – that I’m afraid is still lurking in there. I think Apple made a huge mistake, missing the opportunity for a re-architecting of the iTunes ecosystem, when they shifted the model of iOS devices from being USB-attached Mac/PC peripherals like iPods to being internet-connected peer machines that have the ability to fetch their own content from app stores and servers independent of the Mac/PC mothership. The creaky old iTunes app is still vainly clinging to the task of device management in this new, networked and multi-syncing world.
I’m using an iphone 6s on iOS 9.2.1 and an ipod classic 160 GB on Version 2.0.5 Mac, with iTunes 12 on a Mac. Both devices are having the same problem. On my ipod I select sync entire music library and I’ve started to notice when I go looking for specific songs that they aren’t there and only half of some albums are syncing across. I unsynced all music and then synced one particular album that I had just imported using my mac a week before and it said it synced all the song but when you opened the ipod still not all the songs had synced. After multiple syncs I got all but 1 of the songs across but have now noticed that it’s other albums that are affected as well. I also found that when I went to play this particular song on my phone it wasn’t there either and the album looks exactly the same as my ipod but the whole album is available to play on iTunes and the whole album was selected in both cases.
I’m using an iphone 6s on iOS 9.2.1 and an ipod classic 160 GB on Version 2.0.5 Mac, with iTunes 12 on a Mac. Both devices are having the same problem. On my ipod I select sync entire music library and I’ve started to notice when I go looking for specific songs that they aren’t there and only half of some albums are syncing across. I unsynced all music and then synced one particular album that I had just imported using my mac a week before and it said it synced all the song but when you opened the ipod still not all the songs had synced. After multiple syncs I got all but 1 of the songs across but have now noticed that it’s other albums that are affected as well. I also found that when I went to play this particular song on my phone it wasn’t there either and the album looks exactly the same as my ipod but the whole album is available to play on iTunes and the whole album was selected in both cases.
When I synced to my acer laptop with a defective (intermittent) usb port it would send corrupted files to my hard drive. Now you can blame acer for this but I think apple should be aware of this problem even though it ‘s not common.
And before I figured it out the sync many times would fail completely after which apple kindly told me I had to reinstall ios on my ipad. Really? A corrupted OS simply because of a defective usb port on my computer and a failed sync??
I’ve had a macbook pro for almost a year now and because of the headaches I knew I would encounter avoided switching to the macbook.
Sure enough when I “transfer purchases from device name” Only a small fraction of my podcast’s showed up in itunes.
That’s what brought me to this website.
When I synced to my acer laptop with a defective (intermittent) usb port it would send corrupted files to my hard drive. Now you can blame acer for this but I think apple should be aware of this problem even though it ‘s not common.
And before I figured it out the sync many times would fail completely after which apple kindly told me I had to reinstall ios on my ipad. Really? A corrupted OS simply because of a defective usb port on my computer and a failed sync??
I’ve had a macbook pro for almost a year now and because of the headaches I knew I would encounter avoided switching to the macbook.
Sure enough when I “transfer purchases from device name” Only a small fraction of my podcast’s showed up in itunes.
That’s what brought me to this website.
I don’t remember if I wrote you about my iTunes12.4 – iBooks syncing issue, but in case I forgot:
Suddenly a month ago, iTunes12.4 refused to recognize NEWLY created pdfs I had added to my iBooks1.5 library. In the days following, I did several things to solve the issue including, re-install OS X from the internet several times, delete all cache files, delete plist files, move all pdfs out of iBooks and re-import, wipe my iPad Air to new device then manually move all data back, etc.
I do not use iCloud to store books or data other than passwords, etc. I do not want to BUY MONTHLY STORAGE. So I figured don’t turn on iCloud syncing in iBooks. Finally, after re-installing OS X the last time, when I started up iBooks I was asked to turn on iCloud syncing.
iTunes12.4 immediately recognized any new pdfs in iBooks1.5.
Glad to hear that’s fixed. You did write me, and I had no ideas to offer.
I don’t remember if I wrote you about my iTunes12.4 – iBooks syncing issue, but in case I forgot:
Suddenly a month ago, iTunes12.4 refused to recognize NEWLY created pdfs I had added to my iBooks1.5 library. In the days following, I did several things to solve the issue including, re-install OS X from the internet several times, delete all cache files, delete plist files, move all pdfs out of iBooks and re-import, wipe my iPad Air to new device then manually move all data back, etc.
I do not use iCloud to store books or data other than passwords, etc. I do not want to BUY MONTHLY STORAGE. So I figured don’t turn on iCloud syncing in iBooks. Finally, after re-installing OS X the last time, when I started up iBooks I was asked to turn on iCloud syncing.
iTunes12.4 immediately recognized any new pdfs in iBooks1.5.
Glad to hear that’s fixed. You did write me, and I had no ideas to offer.
i am not sure if this has beed answered before but a search reveals nothing!
my sync problem is that iTunes will see and sync all my wire-connected LAN devices (Apple TVs) only if my MacBookPro is wire-connected to my home network (ethernet). My wireless devices (iPhones and iPads, do not show unless I connect them with USB! Seems when my Mac is connected wirelessly to my home network, no devices are detected (wired or wireless).
i feel it is a Mac problem rather than iTunes, but all else works well
I am running El Capitan on a 125″ MacBook Pro, iTunes 12.3 (v12.4 is causing a Dock crash problem with no fix for two months now!).
thank you for any advice and help.
It sounds like there’s some sort of firewall active when you’re on wi-fi. Do you have any security software installed on the Mac? What about the Security & Privacy pane of System Preferences; is the Firewall turned on?
Under Mavericks running iTunes 12.3.3 (and for many versions prior) I did not see any difference in the nature of my iTunes/iDevices sync problems based on whether the iTunes host was running across a gigabit ethernet connection or a WiFi connection to my LAN – and I tried many experiments comparing freshly-created user accounts, fresh iTunes libraries and even fresh MacOS installs trying to track down the source of the problem.
What HAS made a difference for me is that, a few weeks back, I turned OFF the Sleep timer on my iTunes host, a MacPro5,1, to do some unrelated system debugging. While the display goes to sleep, the machine never does.
In all that time, I have not had any of my iOS devices fail to recognize my iTunes host across the network and run a Sync cycle. (That’s not to say I have had flawless synchronization, since some apps like recent versions of the iOS Podcast app are just flaky.) So if the MacPro never goes to sleep they will always sync.
My hunch is that this points to mDNSresponder (or its temporary Yosemite replacement ‘discovered’) as the culprit. It is well known that these components were responsible for other networking problems in MacOS.
That’s an interesting theory. There has long been a suspicion of network services causing issues. Can anyone else share whether their Macs sleep or not, and whether that seems to effect syncing?
Thank you guys.
I read somewhere that it could be a router problem and sure enough … IT WAS.
I restored a saved configuration of my router settings and now all works well.
What i had was not related to iTunes, it was the MAC not seeing wired devices while connected via wifi to the same network.
i am not sure if this has beed answered before but a search reveals nothing!
my sync problem is that iTunes will see and sync all my wire-connected LAN devices (Apple TVs) only if my MacBookPro is wire-connected to my home network (ethernet). My wireless devices (iPhones and iPads, do not show unless I connect them with USB! Seems when my Mac is connected wirelessly to my home network, no devices are detected (wired or wireless).
i feel it is a Mac problem rather than iTunes, but all else works well
I am running El Capitan on a 125″ MacBook Pro, iTunes 12.3 (v12.4 is causing a Dock crash problem with no fix for two months now!).
thank you for any advice and help.
It sounds like there’s some sort of firewall active when you’re on wi-fi. Do you have any security software installed on the Mac? What about the Security & Privacy pane of System Preferences; is the Firewall turned on?
Under Mavericks running iTunes 12.3.3 (and for many versions prior) I did not see any difference in the nature of my iTunes/iDevices sync problems based on whether the iTunes host was running across a gigabit ethernet connection or a WiFi connection to my LAN – and I tried many experiments comparing freshly-created user accounts, fresh iTunes libraries and even fresh MacOS installs trying to track down the source of the problem.
What HAS made a difference for me is that, a few weeks back, I turned OFF the Sleep timer on my iTunes host, a MacPro5,1, to do some unrelated system debugging. While the display goes to sleep, the machine never does.
In all that time, I have not had any of my iOS devices fail to recognize my iTunes host across the network and run a Sync cycle. (That’s not to say I have had flawless synchronization, since some apps like recent versions of the iOS Podcast app are just flaky.) So if the MacPro never goes to sleep they will always sync.
My hunch is that this points to mDNSresponder (or its temporary Yosemite replacement ‘discovered’) as the culprit. It is well known that these components were responsible for other networking problems in MacOS.
That’s an interesting theory. There has long been a suspicion of network services causing issues. Can anyone else share whether their Macs sleep or not, and whether that seems to effect syncing?
Thank you guys.
I read somewhere that it could be a router problem and sure enough … IT WAS.
I restored a saved configuration of my router settings and now all works well.
What i had was not related to iTunes, it was the MAC not seeing wired devices while connected via wifi to the same network.
iPhone 6 and was using iTunes 12.4 ,and my issue is that my music no longer syncs (notably after 12.4 update for iTunes was downloaded) as it shows dotted, greyed circles with greyed out song titles, it had no issues prior syncing music, any help will be appreciated
iPhone 6 and was using iTunes 12.4 ,and my issue is that my music no longer syncs (notably after 12.4 update for iTunes was downloaded) as it shows dotted, greyed circles with greyed out song titles, it had no issues prior syncing music, any help will be appreciated
Running iTunes 12.4.1.6 on a MacBook Pro which is telling me two apple apps, Find My Friends and Podcasts have updates pending but when click update apps it tells me they are only available for IOS and and I should search the App Store for them from my IOS device. I have looked for them but cannot find them in the app store which makes sense as they are integral parts of the IOS. If I select the updates for deletion in iTunes it tells me they will be deleted from any IOS device that is synced. This seems odd to me as it is not possible to delete them (at least manually) from the IOS device as there is never an “X” badge to be able to delete them when I try.
The same thing happened to me. You can delete them. You still have older versions of those apps which were once standalone apps, but are now part of iOS.
Running iTunes 12.4.1.6 on a MacBook Pro which is telling me two apple apps, Find My Friends and Podcasts have updates pending but when click update apps it tells me they are only available for IOS and and I should search the App Store for them from my IOS device. I have looked for them but cannot find them in the app store which makes sense as they are integral parts of the IOS. If I select the updates for deletion in iTunes it tells me they will be deleted from any IOS device that is synced. This seems odd to me as it is not possible to delete them (at least manually) from the IOS device as there is never an “X” badge to be able to delete them when I try.
The same thing happened to me. You can delete them. You still have older versions of those apps which were once standalone apps, but are now part of iOS.
Itunes 12.4.1.6
21″ iMac with 32 GB RAM
2 TB HDD
OSX 10.11.5
Synchronization of an iPhone 6s Plus took 18 hours, roughly, for 2,400 songs. An iPod Nano took 36 hours and currently attempting to synch an iPhone 4S at 83 songs after 4 1/2 hours.
It all started with Apple trying to force iCloud down our throats, my five iPod 160 GB classics would synch the whole collection in a couple of hours at most. Been searching for an explanation or reason for about 7 weeks now but have tried everything I’ve come across without success. Turning off the sleep timer as mentioned above is new, will try that, although my problem is simply that neither wireless or wired connections work or synchronize. What ever happened to “it just works”???
One thing I know for sure is this will be my last iPhone. How sweetly ironic the Windows phone I was given at work has been humming along just peachy for two years but all the whiz bang features of the iPhone are next to useless if I cannot get any content onto the device. It’s like the new card for Costco… GREAT benefits. If only it could be activated!
Anyway, just venting at this point. I have plenty of experience in IT but iTunes and Apple’s obstinate and deliberate refusal to fix something so basic makes ActiveSync look like a model of transparency. At least it has logs!
Music synch, broken. Photos, broken….
Itunes 12.4.1.6
21″ iMac with 32 GB RAM
2 TB HDD
OSX 10.11.5
Synchronization of an iPhone 6s Plus took 18 hours, roughly, for 2,400 songs. An iPod Nano took 36 hours and currently attempting to synch an iPhone 4S at 83 songs after 4 1/2 hours.
It all started with Apple trying to force iCloud down our throats, my five iPod 160 GB classics would synch the whole collection in a couple of hours at most. Been searching for an explanation or reason for about 7 weeks now but have tried everything I’ve come across without success. Turning off the sleep timer as mentioned above is new, will try that, although my problem is simply that neither wireless or wired connections work or synchronize. What ever happened to “it just works”???
One thing I know for sure is this will be my last iPhone. How sweetly ironic the Windows phone I was given at work has been humming along just peachy for two years but all the whiz bang features of the iPhone are next to useless if I cannot get any content onto the device. It’s like the new card for Costco… GREAT benefits. If only it could be activated!
Anyway, just venting at this point. I have plenty of experience in IT but iTunes and Apple’s obstinate and deliberate refusal to fix something so basic makes ActiveSync look like a model of transparency. At least it has logs!
Music synch, broken. Photos, broken….
iphone 6s and itunes 12.4 HATE the new ibooks feature of the last several updates and now it wont sinc half my audiobooks. m4b format. only work around i have found is switch them in windows explorer to m4a files, label them as music and sync them. this seems to work, but is a MAJOR hassle and eliminates any possible advantage they thought there was to adding ibooks section.
iphone 6s and itunes 12.4 HATE the new ibooks feature of the last several updates and now it wont sinc half my audiobooks. m4b format. only work around i have found is switch them in windows explorer to m4a files, label them as music and sync them. this seems to work, but is a MAJOR hassle and eliminates any possible advantage they thought there was to adding ibooks section.
Should anybody read this, I’ve a peculiar problem. I’ve got a partial album stuck on my phone 13/16 songs. If I download the rest, I get 29/16 songs, duplicates of all but 3. This is unbelievably irritating as they are not listed as deprecate albums, just piled into 1. I cleared all music from my iPhone and it was still there, playable and everything. iTunes doesn’t recognize it as a duplicate so it won’t let me delete it. I like the album too, it’s just the only options are 13/16 or 29/16
Should anybody read this, I’ve a peculiar problem. I’ve got a partial album stuck on my phone 13/16 songs. If I download the rest, I get 29/16 songs, duplicates of all but 3. This is unbelievably irritating as they are not listed as deprecate albums, just piled into 1. I cleared all music from my iPhone and it was still there, playable and everything. iTunes doesn’t recognize it as a duplicate so it won’t let me delete it. I like the album too, it’s just the only options are 13/16 or 29/16
I synced all of my photos and videos from my laptop to my iphone but none of the videos synced to the phone. I have “include videos” checked so I really don’t know why the videos won’t sync. I have room for them, too.
Hi Jaymee
I have exactly the same problem and I believe it started after this iOS 10.2 update for me. I had around 15-20 videos synced to my iPhone, but now none of those videos are syncing. I have tried to re-sync entire library, I removed entire library and synced again and I also tried to manually copy those videos to iPhone and it just doesn’t copy. I am really frustrated with this. None of the videos I had earlier are on my iPhone now.
Strange thing is I also posted this issue in their discussion forums and it has been 5 days but no one has replied as of now.
Please fix it Apple.
—–
iPhone 6 (iOS 10.2)
iTunes 12
I synced all of my photos and videos from my laptop to my iphone but none of the videos synced to the phone. I have “include videos” checked so I really don’t know why the videos won’t sync. I have room for them, too.
Hi Jaymee
I have exactly the same problem and I believe it started after this iOS 10.2 update for me. I had around 15-20 videos synced to my iPhone, but now none of those videos are syncing. I have tried to re-sync entire library, I removed entire library and synced again and I also tried to manually copy those videos to iPhone and it just doesn’t copy. I am really frustrated with this. None of the videos I had earlier are on my iPhone now.
Strange thing is I also posted this issue in their discussion forums and it has been 5 days but no one has replied as of now.
Please fix it Apple.
—–
iPhone 6 (iOS 10.2)
iTunes 12
Last week I tried to sync my iPhone 7+ with my iTunes over WiFi. Something I’ve been doing daily. When I clicked on the icon for the 7+ it disappeared and hasn’t been seen since. My iPad Air and iPhone 4s have their icons displayed and sync over WiFi with no problem.
My wife had the same problem when she attempted to sync her iPhone 6s+.
Both phones have been syncing without these issues since we purchased them in January.
ITunes is 12.6.1.25 and all iDevices are up to date according to query.
Both the 6+ and 7+ will sync using a cord. We do not sync anything via the cloud as we don’t allow our contacts or calendar to put data there.
Apple seems to have problems in vetting updates and making sure they will actually work as that is the only thing that can possibly have changed since some devices work and others, the latest and greatest, don’t.
Last week I tried to sync my iPhone 7+ with my iTunes over WiFi. Something I’ve been doing daily. When I clicked on the icon for the 7+ it disappeared and hasn’t been seen since. My iPad Air and iPhone 4s have their icons displayed and sync over WiFi with no problem.
My wife had the same problem when she attempted to sync her iPhone 6s+.
Both phones have been syncing without these issues since we purchased them in January.
ITunes is 12.6.1.25 and all iDevices are up to date according to query.
Both the 6+ and 7+ will sync using a cord. We do not sync anything via the cloud as we don’t allow our contacts or calendar to put data there.
Apple seems to have problems in vetting updates and making sure they will actually work as that is the only thing that can possibly have changed since some devices work and others, the latest and greatest, don’t.
I cannot figure out how to export contacts in my iPhone 7 to a CSV (or text doc with contacts in list form) on my MacBookAir with OS X 10.10.5 and iTunes 12.6.2.20. All of the online tutorials get me as far as the iTunes sync page so that I can choose what to sync, however there is NO option to select Contacts on that page (if I recall, only Calendars could be selected). I don’t know if there is some magic button I need to push to get Contacts syncing to show up or whether there is something that needs to be turned off or on with iCloud (how?). We did follow another procedure to select all contacts on the MacBookAir and export those as a VCard but found no way to export or convert that into a list or CSV file (and these were not the iphone contacts). ANY HINTS? From my readings about CopyTrans it sounds like that app is having issues with the latest iTunes and OS X versions.
I cannot figure out how to export contacts in my iPhone 7 to a CSV (or text doc with contacts in list form) on my MacBookAir with OS X 10.10.5 and iTunes 12.6.2.20. All of the online tutorials get me as far as the iTunes sync page so that I can choose what to sync, however there is NO option to select Contacts on that page (if I recall, only Calendars could be selected). I don’t know if there is some magic button I need to push to get Contacts syncing to show up or whether there is something that needs to be turned off or on with iCloud (how?). We did follow another procedure to select all contacts on the MacBookAir and export those as a VCard but found no way to export or convert that into a list or CSV file (and these were not the iphone contacts). ANY HINTS? From my readings about CopyTrans it sounds like that app is having issues with the latest iTunes and OS X versions.
Running IOS 12.1.2 and I tunes 12.9.25. As soon as I downloaded IOS12.1.2 my Outlook calendar and contacts would no longer sync to my I phone 8 plus thru I tunes. Even though I tunes states the phone has synced, I do not have calendar & contact updates . I had two chats with Apple Support and now need to talk again. So far all of their options to fix it have not worked. The last was to sync to I Cloud which also did not work. Very frustrating.
Running IOS 12.1.2 and I tunes 12.9.25. As soon as I downloaded IOS12.1.2 my Outlook calendar and contacts would no longer sync to my I phone 8 plus thru I tunes. Even though I tunes states the phone has synced, I do not have calendar & contact updates . I had two chats with Apple Support and now need to talk again. So far all of their options to fix it have not worked. The last was to sync to I Cloud which also did not work. Very frustrating.
I bought a new ipod touch 128 GB in December 2018, and itunes is refusing to sync with the newly created itunes library created just for this device! it shows nasty “sync session failed to start” i followed each adn every advice from apple support, from people, nothing worked, even downloaded tunes care didnt do anything. all Itunes and ipid software is up to date.
how am I supposed to use this new device? So frustrated with the itunes!
Guli.
P.S. I used ipod classic 160 GB for 10 years, it worked and synced with no problem..
Did you call Apple? It could be a hardware issue.
I bought a new ipod touch 128 GB in December 2018, and itunes is refusing to sync with the newly created itunes library created just for this device! it shows nasty “sync session failed to start” i followed each adn every advice from apple support, from people, nothing worked, even downloaded tunes care didnt do anything. all Itunes and ipid software is up to date.
how am I supposed to use this new device? So frustrated with the itunes!
Guli.
P.S. I used ipod classic 160 GB for 10 years, it worked and synced with no problem..
Did you call Apple? It could be a hardware issue.
I had this problem, though I seem to have much older devices and programs. Many times ago, the syncing of Contacts just stopped, because of no apparent reason.
Many seem to blame some upgrade of iTunes.
My equipment:
iMac Retina 5k 27″ – Mac-OS 10.10.5 – iTunes 12.4.3.1
iPhone 5S – iOS 7.1
I sync Contacts and Calendar using the USB-cable. (Nothing else is synced.) The Calendar syncs fine, but not the Contacts.
I found the following recommendation from @IGotThis on internet [https://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/133493/Why+are+my+contacts+not+syncing+correctly+between+iPhones+and+iMac#answer508853]:
On the iPhone set “settings>contacts>import SIM contacts>From My Mac or I guess ICloud what ever suits you… you are welcome!”
I did, and now Contacts are synced in both directions. However I have no idea what the command really means, and if there is any collateral effects.
I had this problem, though I seem to have much older devices and programs. Many times ago, the syncing of Contacts just stopped, because of no apparent reason.
Many seem to blame some upgrade of iTunes.
My equipment:
iMac Retina 5k 27″ – Mac-OS 10.10.5 – iTunes 12.4.3.1
iPhone 5S – iOS 7.1
I sync Contacts and Calendar using the USB-cable. (Nothing else is synced.) The Calendar syncs fine, but not the Contacts.
I found the following recommendation from @IGotThis on internet [https://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/133493/Why+are+my+contacts+not+syncing+correctly+between+iPhones+and+iMac#answer508853]:
On the iPhone set “settings>contacts>import SIM contacts>From My Mac or I guess ICloud what ever suits you… you are welcome!”
I did, and now Contacts are synced in both directions. However I have no idea what the command really means, and if there is any collateral effects.