"Deleted" music album on my iPhone can't be restored

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Level 1

4 points

"Deleted" music album on my iPhone can't be restored

I was trying to load a few albums from CDs onto my iPhone. I ripped them to iTunes as usual, then dragged the album to my iPhone icon. Everything went fine, and the songs were available on my phone. However, I noticed that iTunes had not automatically loaded the album artwork. I selected (via right-click) "download album artwork" and got it into iTunes. However, dragging the album onto my iPhone icon again did NOT bring the artwork to the phone. (In hindsight, I think it might have worked if I had waited a few minutes, but that's moot now.) I thought the only way to get this to work was to DELETE the album via my phone's iTunes' menu, which I did. Now I do not have the album on the phone anymore, but iTunes on my PC still shows that it's there. If I try to drag the album to the phone icon, the box around the icon flickers a couple of seconds but nothing else happens. If I look at "Music" on the phone via iTunes on the PC, the songs still show up, but I can't delete them from there and I can't (via right-click) "transfer onto device" either. How do I get iTunes and/or the iPhone to accept that the songs are not on the phone, so that I can re-load them onto it?

iPhone 5s, iOS 12

Posted on Oct 17, 2022 11:59 AM

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Answer 1

RonTwit Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 17, 2022 12:22 PM in response to turingtest2

Thanks for the swift reply!

I tried Reset Sync History and it didn't seem to do anything. I clicked the button a few times for good measure.

Your description of how to correct erratic syncing seems to involve a lot of effort and risk; not sure I'm up to it. For example, it describes backing up all of my photos onto my PC, before doing a reset and restore. Do I have to do that? I'm only concerned about the music on my phone.

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Answer 2

RonTwit Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 18, 2022 10:03 AM in response to turingtest2

That did not completely solve my problem. When I Deleted All Songs from the Settings/.../Music on the phone, it removed a few albums from my phone, but there were still about a dozen on there. (I originally had 20 - 30 albums total). After that, there was no more option to Delete anything from the Music app from within Settings, so I couldn't try it again.

On my own then, I removed the iTunes app from the phone. This took the icon off the phone. It also removed almost all of the albums from the phone's Music list in iTunes on my PC. However, the list of Music on Ron's iPhone doesn't have any albums EXCEPT the problem one (all 16 songs), along with (weirdly) one phone voicemail, which does NOT show up on the phone itself. So, the voicemail is a new problem that I can't get rid of. I guess my next step is going to be deleting iTunes from my PC, and hope that fixes things. Of course, then I have to reload all of my albums back onto the computer, which will take a few hours. Do you have any other suggestions?

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Answer 3

turingtest2

Level 10

277,729 points

Oct 18, 2022 10:49 AM in response to RonTwit

Don't delete the library from your computer, that isn't going to help. The iTunes app on an iPhone lets you access the iTunes Store. The other items you were seeing were probably your purchases. Signing out of the iTunes Store for music and podcasts would help there. When you are signed into your Apple ID the Music app will show your unhidden purchased music from the iTunes Store in the cloud. These items shouldn't show when reviewing content from iTunes. Removing the Music app should, in theory, remove any other related data that wasn't already removed. You should then restore both iTunes and Music apps via the app store to see where you stand. Visual voicemail is handled by your mobile provider and should be manged via the Phone > Voicemail tab. It won't be visible in iTunes.

tt2

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Answer 4

RonTwit Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 18, 2022 12:22 PM in response to turingtest2

Well, I've uninstalled and reinstalled Apple Music from my iPhone (multiple times, actually), and just finished uninstalling and reinstalling iTunes on my PC. EVERYTHING is back exactly as it was before, namely that this phantom album is still showing up in the phone's Music list on the PC but it's not on the phone, and the 18 albums that had remained on the phone are still there. All of my other albums (about 80) still show up in iTunes on the PC. It seems that uninstalling and reinstalling removed the apps but left all of the settings stored somewhere, to come right back to haunt me.

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Answer 5

turingtest2

Level 10

277,729 points

Oct 17, 2022 12:03 PM in response to RonTwit

Try iTunes > Preferences > Devices > Reset Sync History and then try again.

Otherwise see this post on erratic syncing.

tt2

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Answer 6

turingtest2

Level 10

277,729 points

Oct 17, 2022 12:39 PM in response to RonTwit

You can try Settings > General > iPhone Storage > Music > Edit > All Songs > Delete, then sync from the computer to restore everything.

tt2

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Answer 7

turingtest2

Level 10

277,729 points

Oct 18, 2022 12:35 PM in response to RonTwit

In which case you may have to go the full nuke and pave route. I'd recommend backing up to both iCloud and your computer in case one doesn't want to work when you try.

tt2

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"Deleted" music album on my iPhone can't be restored

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