A reader recently upgraded her iPhone from iPhone 7 to a new iPhone 11. All her music was missing on the new iPhone. She had all her music stored on her MacBook and it was also on the iPhone 7. Following the upgrade to the new iPhone 11, she found that her music had disappeared from the new iPhone. It didn’t copy over to the new iPhone.
If you ever find yourself in this situation where you need to copy music from your Mac over to your new iPhone or another iDevice, it is an easy and straightforward process.
This is primarily for users who don’t use iCloud to sync their data across devices. You will need a USB cable to copy music. Make sure that you are using the same Apple ID across both your MacBook and your new iPhone.
Contents
Related reading
- How to Manually Manage Music on Your iPhone in macOS Catalina
- Can’t sign in into Music or TV app on macOS Catalina? Here’s why
- Reset the Trust This Computer setting on your iPhone or iPad
- Use Terminal to track the sync or update progress of your iPhone in Finder
- No More iTunes. How to use Finder in macOS Catalina to Sync and Restore iPhone
Steps to copy music from Mac to iPhone, iPad, or iPod
- Open iTunes (macOS Mojave and below) or Finder (macOS Catalina and above) on your MacBook
- Connect your iPhone to your Mac using a USB/USB-C cable or with a previously established device WiFi connection
- Accept ‘Trust Computer’ message and enter iPhone credentials, if prompted
- For folks using Finder, select the device in the Finder sidebar under Locations
- For iTunes users, click the iPhone icon on the left corner
- Select Music from either the top row in Finder or the sidebar in iTunes
- Checkmark Sync music onto (the device’s name) or Sync Music to turn on syncing of your music between your Mac and your device
- Choose if you want to sync the Entire music library to import all the songs. Or choose Selected artists… to sync specific music (check the box for all music you want to sync and deselect any music you don’t want to sync)
- Decide if you want to include videos and if applicable, voice memos, by selecting or deselecting those boxes
- If you see a checkbox for Automatically fill free space with songs, that option will automatically fill your device’s free space with songs during syncing. Checking this option syncs as many songs as possible onto your device
- For most users, we do not recommend this setting as it limits internal storage on your device
- When done selecting your options, click the Apply button on the lower right corner to start copying
- If it doesn’t automatically start copying the music over from your Mac to your iPhone, click on the Sync button to get it started
- Depending upon how much music you have on your MacBook, it may take some time to copy over all the music
- Once complete, make sure you hit the eject button before you disconnect your device from your Mac
Turn on auto-sync between your Mac and iPhone, iPad, or iPod
After you sync your Mac and your device, you may want this process to start automatically moving forward, anytime you connect them.
To turn on automatic syncing, go to Finder’s General tab or iTunes’ Summary and Options section and enable “Automatically sync when this (device’s name) is connected.”
It’s better to sync with a cable than over WiFi
Although there is a way to copy music over from your Mac iTunes to your new iPhone via WiFi instead of a wired connection, that process can have issues especially if you have a large number of titles that you want to copy over.
The cable method is more fail-safe when it comes to copying data over from your MacBook to your iPhone.
You can use this method and steps to copy other media such as your books, photos, ringtones, etc from your Mac to your new iPhone.
Want to remove some synced music from your iPhone or iPad?
It’s easy to remove any synced music that you no longer want on your device using your Mac’s Finder app or iTunes! You can also delete music directly on your iDevice, without needing your Mac.
Follow these steps to remove music from your device but keep it on your Mac
- Connect your device to your Mac
- Open the Finder app or iTunes, choose your device, and then select Music from either the top menu or the sidebar
- In the Music list, uncheck the boxes for any music you no longer want on your device
- When done and ready to sync again, click Apply
- Tap Eject before disconnecting your device from your Mac
Follow these steps to remove music on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch using the Settings app
- Open Settings > General > iPhone (iPad/iPod) Storage
- Scroll down and tap Music
- Swipe on any artist, album, or song
- Tap Delete. This removes the download
- If you don’t want that item as an iCloud streamable option, you need to hide the item using Finder or iTunes on your Mac
Wrap up
We hope you were able to easily copy your music onto your new iPhone.
If you have not evaluated iCloud for whatever reason, this might be an opportunity to sign up for iCloud, so that you don’t have to manually copy information between your Apple devices.
Obsessed with tech since the early arrival of A/UX on Apple, Sudz (SK) is responsible for the editorial direction of AppleToolBox. He is based out of Los Angeles, CA.
Sudz specializes in covering all things macOS, having reviewed dozens of OS X and macOS developments over the years.
In a former life, Sudz worked helping Fortune 100 companies with their technology and business transformation aspirations.
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This is so much easier on non-Apple systems. I have a new iPhone and Macbook Pro… I should be able to drag and drop. I will never buy another Apple product in my life. Expensive, convoluted processes and non-intuitive.
When I connect my Iphone 8 with my IMac (version OS X 10.9.5 2012) then on he IMac-screen appears the ‘iPhoto program with under ‘Devices’ iPhone van Frans’. I couldn’t find any ability to synchronize my iPhone!
In iTunes – File – Devices – Sync ‘iPhone van Frans’ (Sync …. is in light grey) is it also impossible for me to synchronize my iPhone!
I want to sync my iPhone in order to copy additional music files on the iMac to my iPhone.
Question: ‘How can I sync my iPhone without upgrading the programs by installing new versions of “iTunes” and “OS”?
Hi Frans,
According to Apple, the iPhone 8 requires iTunes 12.7 and higher and Mac OS X 10.10.5 or later to work.
To use iTunes with your iPhone 8, you, unfortunately, do need to update your Mac and your iTunes version. There is no workaround that we know of other than using iCloud instead of iTunes.
The icons weren’t in the same places. I eventually got to the sync music, but it didn’t sync. It looked like it was, but it didn’t do it.
Hi Phyllis,
If you use macOS Catalina+, things look a little different than iTunes.
After connecting your iPhone/iPad/iPod to your Mac
Find the iDevice in the Finder’s left sidebar–if you don’t see a sidebar, choose the top View menu and Show Sidebar
Once you selected your device, tap on the Music tab
Then you should see your syncing options
I have a 2012 Mac Book Pro and I recently bought an iPhone 11 pro max.
I had everything backed up in the cloud but out of my 4000 + songs, it only transferred 1037 songs.
I have my music on my 2012 Mac Book Pro and I have El Capitan 10.11.6 and iTunes 12.8.2.3 But when I try to sync to my library, I keep getting this message “syncing Jill L’s iPhone with this iTunes library will replace media from another iTunes library on Jill’s MacBook Pro. An iPhone can only sync with one iTunes library at a time.”
I won’t sync because I am afraid it will replace my 4000 songs on my computer with the 1000 songs on my iPhone.
I have tried to highlight all the songs in my library and add to my device but it doesn’t do anything. I also tried to add individual songs to my device thinking maybe I didn’t have enough storage (Phone is 64 Gig) but it won’t even let me add 1 song. Please help.
Hi there,
I want to upload more of my music to my phone but its not finding all the music i have in my MacBook air. my software is up to date on both devices (laptop-catalina 10.15.3 and iPhone 11-iOS 13.3.1) i tried to look for all possible ways why is not reading all my music and i cant figure it out , would you be able to help please ?
Thank you .
Hi Jana,
Are you using the Music app to sync your music between your Mac and iPhone?
If you subscribe to Apple Music (the subscription service) make sure Sync Library is on.
On your iDevice
Go to Settings > Music. And turn on Sync Library
On your Mac
Go to Music > Preferences > General and turn on Sync Library
Next, check your sync settings using the Finder app on your Mac.
Connect your device and open Finder
Choose your device from the sidebar
Tap the Music tab
Look at your sync selection–are you syncing your entire library or just selections
Make any changes as desired by either syncing your entire library or choosing additional artists and content to sync with your device
When done selecting your options, tap the Apply button
If syncing doesn’t start automatically, click the Sync button
Hi Elizabeth,
Thank you for your reply, I don’t want to subscribe for the apple music, anyway thank you for that suggestion.
I was using macOS Catalina’s Finder app to download the music but not the whole library from my mac is showing.
There same problem as I had before.
Also, I have the entire library button ticked and no change there.
Maybe only 40% of my music on my mac is showing to be downloaded – how can I get the rest of my music show here to download, please ?
I also tried to remove all my music from the phone and that didn’t work.
Thank you again
Hi Jana,
Does your iPhone have enough space to download all your music? It’s possible that lack of storage could be the issue. To check your iPhone’s storage availability, go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage.
Let’s reset your trust settings and see if that helps:
Unplug your phone
On your iPhone go to Settings > General > Reset > Reset Location & Privacy
Re-connect your iPhone to your Mac
Follow the steps to Trust this computer again
On your Mac, “Trust” When the “Trust this iPhone?” prompt appears
Here’s a potential workaround: open the Music app (not Finder) and verify that the music that’s not showing up is downloaded onto your Mac (if it has a cloud icon, it’s not downloaded–so do that first).
Once you confirm that your music is downloaded to your Mac, select that music and right-click or go to the Song Menu and choose to Add to Device > select your iPhone.
If that doesn’t work, try placing all the music (again, must be downloaded to your Mac first) that you want to move to your iPhone into a new playlist on your Mac, then in the sidecar drag that playlist to your iPhone icon that’s also in the sidebar and see if that works.
Let us know if this helps (or not)
Liz
Hi Liz,
thank you again for your directions. I have tried all you’ve said and nothing worked.
Then I went into my actual songs and albums and i have opened (open with) each and every single album in music and that finally did the magic for me. Not sure why i had to do that as i remember i didn’t have to do it with my other music , but I’m happy that i finally got all my (at least 100 albums) music on my phone. 🙂
Thank you
Regards
Jana
Hello I don’t see an icon for my phone. Nor does my phone see my Mac.
Hi MJ,
That sounds like a bad cable or one that’s not Apple MFI (Made for iPhone) certified.
Try another cable and see if it now works. If it continues not to show up, try another port on your computer.
I need to know how to copy SOME of my music to the iPhone, not the many gigs of space ALL my music would consume.
Hi Kevin,
After selecting the Sync music checkbox to turn on syncing of your music to your device, make sure you also check the box under Sync for Selected playlist, artists, albums, and genres.
Then, select the checkbox for the individual items you want to sync and make sure any item you don’t want to sync are not selected.
I have got a MacBook Pro mid 2009, which runs with MacOX Captain. I cannot upgrade to newer versions.
To make matters worse, iTunes does not recognise my new iPhone 11 Pro and I cannot download a software as well.
My music is in both my Mac and my old iPhone but lost in the new one.
I have got iCloud account but has not downloaded my music as well.
Could you please advise?
Hi Pablo,
According to Apple, your iPhone 11 Pro should sync with El Cap!
In the tech specs for the iPhone, it mentions sync support for macOS El Capitan 10.11.6 through macOS Mojave 10.14.6 using iTunes 12.8 or later.
So the first thing is to update your iTunes version to iTunes 12.8 and make sure your Mac runs OS X 10.11.6 (check via Apple Menu > About this Mac)
If you need to update to that version of El Cap, see this support document
Another option is to quit iTunes and re-download it here
I too got my mac in 2009 and I can’t update to iTunes 12.7 as my mac won’t support it. any idea how to get my music to my new iPhone 8S?
Hi Sheila,
Unfortunately, for the iPhone 8/8 Plus running iOS 13, Apple lists the following requirements to sync with a computer:
Syncing to a Mac or a PC requires:
macOS Catalina 10.15 using the Finder
macOS El Capitan 10.11.6 through macOS Mojave 10.14.6 using iTunes 12.8 or later
Windows 7 or later using iTunes 12.9 or later (free download from itunes.com/download)
There are some third-party apps that claim to work, but we don’t have any reliable data on that so we cannot recommend anything.
pls my iPhone was locked and I need to unlock it
pls I need peoples help
#thanks
Hi Ede,
Is your iPhone locked with a device passcode and you can’t remember it or is it locked because of iCloud Activation Lock or problems entering an Apple ID and passcode?