Transferring music from iPad Air 2 to other apple devices

Question

Level 1

4 points

Transferring music from iPad Air 2 to other apple devices

I have a friend who has an iPad Air 2 and a 2018 (I think) Macbook. He has a lot of music on the iPad and wants to move it to the Macbook, most if not all of the songs have been imported by him over the years. When we plug the iPad into the laptop and try to transfer the music over, even through third party apps like iMazing and Mac ForeTrans, it can see all ~11,911 songs, but when we move them over everything says “unable to move ~11,911 items”

I am at a loss of what to try next, the iPad is semi synced with a Windows Desktop which has iTunes. (I say semi synced as it gets the new stuff that is imported, but when it comes to older stuff, there are whole albums missing the content, it can be seen on the iPad, but on the PC it won’t let us play the songs.)

I am wanting to make sure he looses none of his music at all, any suggestions?

iPad Air 2

Posted on Jul 22, 2025 01:13 PM

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Answer 1

ed2345

Level 9

63,422 points

Jul 23, 2025 06:04 AM in response to Sviper08

Sviper,

I haven't used those particular third party tools, but in my experience with the Music app, pressing a button and waiting for 11,000 items to process correctly usually ends in frustration. If those tools offer a way to do the transfer in much smaller batches, give it a try.

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Answer 2

ed2345

Level 9

63,422 points

Jul 23, 2025 07:48 AM in response to Sviper08

Sviper08 wrote:

It did let us try sending it playlist by playlist, but that still didn’t work

Does it let you do an album at a time, or a small selection of individual songs? If so, try a few that were not successful on the big run.

(A playlist at a time is not the best, unless they are small and you are sure they are disjoint.)

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Answer 3

Sviper08 Author

Level 1

4 points

Aug 1, 2025 05:16 PM in response to ed2345

Thank you ed2345,

I have seen that link, and have tried all the steps in there. I noticed now when trying to initiate the transfer that the Music Library on the iPad is "Synced with iCloud" which would explain why we are unable to transfer the music

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Answer 4

ed2345

Level 9

63,422 points

Aug 1, 2025 07:12 PM in response to Sviper08

If your friend has a subscription to Apple Music, that may help in the transfer. It will however exclude songs that are considered "ineligible," such as tracks over 200 MB.

See this discussion: 255993834

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Answer 5

turingtest2

Level 10

277,723 points

Aug 2, 2025 03:17 AM in response to Sviper08

Sviper08 wrote:

Thank you ed2345,

I have seen that link, and have tried all the steps in there. I noticed now when trying to initiate the transfer that the Music Library on the iPad is "Synced with iCloud" which would explain why we are unable to transfer the music

If your friend already has an Apple Music (or iTunes Match) subscription then they should see Use Sync Library with your Apple Music subscription - Apple Support to make sure they are signed into the account and have Sync Library AKA iCloud Music Library turned on. Make sure also that View > All Music is selected. All of the matched/uploaded/purchased content on the iPad should show in the library too. The only issue you might have is with content that was still waiting to upload from the original computer that somehow shows up on the iPad, but doesn't actually play. This would need to be resolved from whichever library those original files reside in.

tt2

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