How do I set MacBook as a master backup for music on my iPhone?

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Level 1

10 points

How do I set MacBook as a master backup for music on my iPhone?

I use my MacBook as a master backup for music on my iPhone. Recently I traded my iPhone 13 for an iPhone 16. I transferred data from the 13 to the 16 using Apple's 'side by side' transfer letting the two phones transfer data over wifi. This worked very well for all data except all the images associated with my music were scrambled. The music and playlists were transferred fine, just the images are all wrong. I tried deleting a playlist on the phone, then performed a sync to see if the playlist would be downloaded to the phone with the correct images. Instead the sync operation deleted the playlist from the MacBook. Apparently the new iPhone 16 is now the backup for music .My question is how do I set the MacBook as the master backup. Once that is done I hope a new sync will correct the scrambled images. I've searched the web for answers but have not found any so far. Thank you all in advance.

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: Set macbook as master backup location for music

iPhone 16, iOS 18

Posted on Aug 8, 2025 01:38 PM

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Answer 1

turingtest2

Level 10

277,723 points

Aug 16, 2025 02:18 AM in response to Stonearches

Unlike media syncing, which is strictly library to device, changes made to synced playlists should work in both directions, which is likely what happened here. To remove a list from the device you would normally change the sync selections and then sync to remove that list from the device while leaving it in your library.

Experience has shown that once a device's artwork cache has become corrupt repeated syncing is unlikely to fix it. See If you have music that won't play on your device - Apple Community for advice on fully removing the music content from the iPhone and then repopulating it. If it comes to it you may need to backup and then restore the device first.

tt2

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