iTunes Not Syncing Entire Music Library?.
If you have a huge collection of songs in iTunes, or spend a lot of time downloading music to your computer, it can be frustrating when they all don’t sync to your device.
You probably even selected all the songs and dragged them to your device, but nothing happens. Instead, when you sync your music, you might get messages such as “waiting to apply changes” or “waiting to copy items”, or iTunes might freeze altogether.
No matter how many times you try, you may find that iTunes does not sync your entire music library. If this is your experience, we’re going to show you various methods that you can use when iTunes doesn’t sync all of your songs to your devices.
Why isn’t iTunes syncing music?
There are several issues that can prevent iTunes from syncing your entire music library, for example:
- An outdated version of iTunes on your devices.
- Incorrectly configured iTunes Sync settings
- iPhone is unlocked or doesn’t trust your computer.
- The USB cable is damaged or not properly connected to your devices.
- iTunes may not detect some or all of your music
- Songs may be grouped into an “unknown” category on your device.
- iCloud Music Library is enabled in iPhone settings.
How to Fix iTunes Not Syncing Music Library
- Make sure you have the latest iTunes software installed.
- Make sure the missing songs are real songs and not separate files.
- Check your phone’s storage space.
- Close itunes and restart.
- Connect all devices to the Internet.
- Include the sync library for all devices.
- Turn off iTunes Match.
- Transferring music manually.
- Disable iCloud Music and sync again.
- Reset network settings.
- Sync music from iPhone, iPad, iPod with alternative iTunes tool.
- Set iTunes to sync “your entire music library”:
- Update the file paths for your music in iTunes.
- Get an iTunes alternative.
Quick Checks
Before trying any of the solutions listed below, follow this simple checklist:
- Update iTunes by making sure you have the latest iTunes software installed on your computer.
When you launch iTunes, it automatically checks for version updates, but you can force it to check for updates by clicking Help Check for Updates on a Windows computer, or, if you are using a Mac, click the menu tab in iTunes and select Check for updates.
–
- Close the program when you make sure it is up to date.
- Make sure the missing songs are real songs and not separate files.
- Make sure your phone has enough storage space.
- Close iTunes and restart.
- Make sure all your devices are connected to the Internet.
- Please visit the Apple System Status page to check if there are any service outages in your region or country.
Turn on sync library for all devices
If you have the latest version of macOS, iOS, or iPadOS, library sync is turned on by default. If you’ve turned it off, here’s how to turn it back on:
- On iOS devices, go to Settings Music and then tap the Sync Library switch so it turns on / green. You won’t see this option unless you subscribe to iTunes Match or Apple Music. When library syncing is off or refreshed, a message will appear above the library tab in the Apple Music app.
On your Mac, open Apple Music and go to the menu bar at the top. Select Music Options and go to the General tab. From there select “Sync Library” to enable it and click “OK”.
Note. For large music libraries, the download and sync process across all devices may take some time.
On Windows computers, iCloud Music Library is not enabled by default in iTunes for Windows. To enable it, go to iTunes and click Edit Preferences.
Go to the General tab and click iCloud Music Library to turn it on, then click OK. If you don’t have an iTunes Match or Apple Music subscription, you won’t see an option to turn on iCloud Music Library.
Note. If you are subscribed to Apple Music, you can access your music library on other devices that support the app without activating the sync library.
Turn off iTunes Match on iPhone
ITunes Match lets you access your music library on any Windows PC with iTunes for Windows or any Apple device. If iTunes Match is turned on, iTunes won’t let you sync music, so you need to turn it off first and then try syncing music again normally.
To do this, go to Settings Music.
Click iTunes & App Store. Turn off iTunes Match and try syncing your songs again. You can also re-authorize iTunes and your device to see if your music will sync.
Transfer Music Manually
Transferring music manually can help when you find that iTunes isn’t syncing songs from your entire music library. You can select and drag music to another device after switching from iTunes sync mode to manual transfer method.
To do this, open iTunes and go to the left panel. In the Library section, click Songs and select Albums, Artists, or Genres. Here you can click to find matching songs.
Drag and drop your songs from the main iTunes window to another device under Devices. Hold down the CTRL key (or Command key for Mac) and select songs so you can drag multiple songs in one go.
Alternatively, you can use iTunes playlists and then drag and drop them onto your device icon in the left panel. Creating and using playlists to sync your library will save you tons of sync time.
Turn off iCloud Music and Sync again
To turn off iCloud Music Library, go to Settings Music and turn off iCloud Music Library on your iPhone.
Reset Network Settings
To do this, go to Settings General Reset and then click or tap “Reset Network Settings” on your iPhone.
Connect your iPhone to your computer. If you see a “Trust this computer” pop-up window, select it and go to the “iTunes Summary” tab. Click Manually Manage Music and Videos, and then try syncing your music library again.
Set iTunes to sync the Entire Music Library
To do this, open iTunes, connect your iPhone or iPod to your computer, and select it in the iTunes sidebar. Click the Music tab and check the Sync Music box. Click Entire Music Library and try syncing songs again.
Update file paths for your iTunes music
If iTunes can’t find or identify some or all of your songs, it won’t sync your entire music library. To check this, go to your music library or open iTunes and browse the list of songs.
Scroll through the song list and check if there is an exclamation mark (!) In front of the name. If you see songs like this, iTunes cannot find their real file. iTunes may have known the location of the songs at one time, but for some reason the files were either moved or deleted, so it can’t find them anymore.
If you think these songs can still be found on your hard drive, update the path to their files in iTunes by selecting the song with the! Symbol, and then click Edit Song Information in iTunes. Click Find File in iTunes.
If you know where the song is, hover over iTunes and see if it can be played. If you don’t know the location, try using Windows Explorer, which opens when you click Find. Use the search bar in the upper left corner of the Explorer folder to find your songs.
Go to C: Drive or another drive that is missing songs and find them. You can enter the name of the song as it appears in iTunes, and as soon as you find it, the icon! should disappear and you can play the song in iTunes.
When iTunes detects the songs, it will ask you if you want to link other songs in the same location to your music library. If you click Yes, all skipped tracks will be cataloged in a few minutes and you will see the icon! the mark in front of the songs will disappear.
For songs that are in different locations, repeat this process to find them. When songs are available, you can sync your entire music library to your device.
Sync music to iPhone, iPad, and iPod using iTunes alternative tool
If you find that iTunes won’t sync music even after using the above methods, you can try an alternative iTunes tool to move your entire music library. The tool you choose must be compatible with your device so that it can sync music from iTunes, move songs from your device to your computer, and restore your iTunes library if possible.
Alternatively, you can store your music in the cloud, use the iTunes iOS app, a music streaming service like Spotify or YouTube Red, a local media player like VLC, or an alternative library manager.
–