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How can I sync new music without deleting existing songs?

Hello.


I synced my entire Music library to my iPhone 15 Pro Max and plan on using that as my "iPod" going forward. My library is pretty big ~200GB. To big for the Cloud (and expensive). The problem I am having is every time I go to sync my phone to my mac, the Music library seems to re-load all my music again, which takes a really long time. And this happens every time whether or not I change anything or not. In the sync>Music tab I was going to uncheck sync entire library, but I got a message asking if I wanted to remove all my music from the phone which I don't want. The only two options are Remove and Cancel which stops the sync.


So how do I sync my phone from the Mac and have it leave all my music in place on the phone and even just sync a few newly added CD's. Thank you. Jonathan


[Re-Titled by Moderator]

iPhone 15 Pro Max, iOS 18

Posted on Nov 21, 2024 3:33 PM

Reply
8 replies

Dec 6, 2024 10:13 AM in response to remisi

Silly question, but are the songs already on the phone? Click on your phone in Device and then wait about 10 seconds for music (if any) to populate window.

I tested this yesterday that if you drag songs to the phone that are already on there, it won't copy. This would only duplicate what you already have. Another thing I noticed is if you drag music over to the phone, it takes about 10-15 seconds for the music to be transferred. When it starts you will see a little round progress icon next to Devices>phone. The transfer is usually really fast when you see that.


And make sure "Manually Manage Music...." is checked in your sync options. I can't remember if it is not checked, whether or not would show up on the side bar in Music app under devices. Keep us posted

Nov 21, 2024 7:12 PM in response to picas

Thank you for responding picas! I will try this the next time I add more music to my Mac. Do you know if you have to do a “Sync” after you use this method? I think if after pressing Sync you had the following options: 1) Update music with new music since last Sync. 2) Leave music files in place. 3) Replace entire library using Mac music files. Something like that. With option 1, syncing should take less than a minute to add only new stuff.


One other thing to note, when choosing to sync a selection of artists, there should be a way to add artists to that at next sync without syncing everything. Again, long time for GB of music. Thanks again. I look forward to trying the drag to phone in music app method. Maybe Apple is working on this.



Dec 5, 2024 8:52 PM in response to picas

Help please... Didn't work for me. I highlighted the songs within the Music app and then tried dragging them to the left in the Music app where it says Devices and has my iPhone listed. An icon exists (with a little number representing the number of songs) as I drag toward the iPhone listed under Devices, but nothing happens.


Alternatively, after going to the far left of the Music app to Library>Songs and then clicking the songs I want to add, I went to the top left of the screen and did Song>Add to Device>iPhone. Again, nothing happened.

Dec 6, 2024 12:12 PM in response to Jono2024

Thanks for your reply. Not a silly question. I had wondered if maybe there was a delay and so I walked away for a while and came back to check that very thing. They were not there. That was last night. They still are not there today.


When I am in Songs on the left and then highlight the songs I want to be on my iPhone and drag them to my iPhone on the left, the icon with the little number representing the number of songs just bounces back to the songs and disappears.


I do have the Manually box checked but can't click Apply or else it wants to sync.

How can I sync new music without deleting existing songs?

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