Windows Devices and Apple Music fail to sync music to iphone

There's a plethora of problems with both of these apps that I've seen since switching from iTunes. I'm wondering if anyone has workarounds/a place to report them.


Apple music:

  • Lacks the ability to consolidate your media library. It's available on the mac version and iTunes (file->library->organize library->consolidate files) but it's not available on Windows Apple Music.
    • This appears to cause lag when loading playlists
  • Lacks the ability to switch output devices (i.e. when connecting a bluetooth device), iTunes appears to have been able to do this.


Apple Devices:

  • When syncing music, it often disconnects from Apple Music, even when the app is open
    • Reproduce:
      • Open Apple Devices
      • Plug in an iPhone
      • Open the "music" tab (You'll see a prompt saying to "open apple music")
      • Open Apple Music
      • Return to Apple Devices (the prompt hasn't disappeared)
    • Reproduce (alternative):
      • Open Apple Music
      • Open Apple Devices
      • Plug in an iphone
      • Close Apple Devices
      • Open Apple Devices
  • When syncing music, For playlists with folders, it fails to recognize playlist folders, art, or previously checked items
    • Reproduce steps:
      • Open Apple Music (wait for it to load)
      • Create a playlist folder (Named "Bar")
      • Create a playlist inside of that folder (Named "foo")
      • Open Apple Devices
      • Plug in an iPhone
      • Open the "music" tab and select "Sync music into <your phone name>"
      • Select "Playlists" from the sync tab menu
    • Expected results:
      • Playlist folder structure matches Apple music with "Bar" being a folder holding "foo"
    • Actual result:
      • "foo" will be present on the top level with "bar" completely non-existent.
  • When adding playlists, new playlists don't show up in Apple devices while Apple music is open. Keeping both apps open seems to be the intended use-case as Apple Devices doesn't show the music tab without Apple Music being open.
    • Reproduce:
      • Open Apple music (wait for it to load playlists)
      • Open Apple Devices
      • Plug in an iPhone set up with syncing enabled for a playlist
      • Create a playlist on Apple music
      • Return to Apple Devices
      • Go to music->"playlists" for the iphone
    • Expected Result:
      • New playlist is present in Apple Devices as a sync option
    • Actual Result:
      • New playlist is not present in Apple Devices
  • When Syncing music, previously checked off playlists become unchecked
    • Reproduce:
      • Open Apple music (wait for it to load playlists)
      • Create a playlist "foo" and place it in folder "bar"
      • Open Apple Devices (we do this afterwards because it doesn't update)
      • Add "foo" as a playlist to sync by "checking" it
      • Sync with the phone.
      • Unplug the phone after ejecting
      • Close both Apple Music and Apple Devices
      • Open Apple music (wait for it to load playlists)
      • Open Apple Devices
      • Plug in iPhone
      • Navigate to Music->Playlists
    • Expected result:
      • All playlists previously marked for syncing are checked
    • Actual result:
      • All playists that were synced in the past appear to be randomly checked or unchecked
  • When Syncing iphone, selecting "skip backup" doesn't close the keypad on the iphone
    • Reproduce:
      • Open Apple Devices
      • Plug in an iPhone
      • Select "sync"
      • During the backup phase, select "skip backup"
    • Expected result:
      • Backup step is skipped, or user is prompted to close the keypad on their iphone
    • Actual result:
      • Button "clicks" but otherwise does nothing. iPhone keypad's button still says "cancel" implying that the sync is going to be cancelled.




Any help is appreciated, I could understand itunes taking forever to load because at least that eventually worked, being unable to use my playlists is a bit insane though.

iPhone 15 Pro

Posted on Jan 30, 2025 02:46 PM

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Windows Devices and Apple Music fail to sync music to iphone

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