odd message when I try to move song or album from laptop to iPhone

Question

odd message when I try to move song or album from laptop to iPhone

I am getting this message when I try to move a song or album from laptop to iPhone: "The iPhone “iPhone” cannot be synced because there is not enough free space to hold all of the selected items (additional 5 GB required). "

I have "sync only checked songs" checked in my settings and have tried dragging and dropping with a single song or a single album and get the same message though each is far, far smaller than 5GB. Are other files checked for download without me knowing? How do I find and uncheck them or whatever is needed?

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.13

Posted on Apr 8, 2021 10:41 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

DiZoE

Level 4

3,009 points

Apr 10, 2021 2:25 PM in response to brooksideglassman

Have you tried force restarting your iPhone and trying again?:

https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/force-restart-iphone-iph8903c3ee6/ios

It may be a good idea to just un-sync all the music and re-sync it again.

To reinstall iTunes, you’d have to reinstall the whole OS:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904

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Answer 2

DiZoE

Level 4

3,009 points

Apr 9, 2021 12:19 AM in response to brooksideglassman

Hey there!

Can you say how much free storage your iPhone has?

Settings > General > iPhone Storage.

I know a few songs don’t use 5gb of storage, but know that the phones capacity may be being utilized for other processes as well.

Cheers.

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Answer 3

Apr 9, 2021 5:39 AM in response to brooksideglassman

perhaps I should add that the MacBook pro is running high sierra 10.13.6 and phone is iPhone 7+ running latest software 14.4.2 Also that turingtest 2 just guided me through a process to fix a problem on iTunes on my laptop using a command and the app 'mobile service updater' because my phone was not showing up when plugged into the computer. So I hope someone can help me past the next hurdle and I can move some music so I can listen while I walk , work, cycle.

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Answer 4

Apr 10, 2021 5:40 AM in response to DiZoE

No, this is the newest version compatible with my older mac. I have 219 gb available storage. I wonder about removing and reinstalling iTunes, but I would need to store the music files on an external hd. I don't know how to do this kind of process safely without help.

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Answer 5

turingtest2

Level 10

274,147 points

Apr 10, 2021 2:55 PM in response to brooksideglassman

Hi,

iTunes can sometimes become confused about what is and isn't already synced to a device, and then gets its maths wrong when trying to work out how much space will be taken by the sync selections. You could try unchecking a few playlists that are currently selected, or switch to syncing selected playlists if you currently sync all music. After a successful sync iTunes should make a better estimate next time you change the sync selections.

tt2

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Answer 6

Apr 11, 2021 7:16 PM in response to turingtest2

My iTunes library on the mac is way too big to sync all music. Right now there is not much music on the iPhone. My Mac iTunes is now recognizing the iPhone but very imperfectly. Playlists that were deleted on the phone still show on the mac and if I press the music icon under the phone icon over half the music on the iPhone does not show up and most of what does show up cannot be found using an iPhones music search. Also I cannot delete anything on the iPhone using the mac iTunes and I cannot add anything as described above. It is as though the mac iTunes app is recognizing some fragments of my iPhone and some parts of the another version of that iPhone that has since changed. Is it possible that High Sierra is not compatible with the hardware of my mid 2010 MacBook Pro and this ability to connect properly to my iPhone is the point where the problem shows up? Other aspects of both devices seem to be working properly.

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