Its come to my attention that a lot of people are having issues syncing iPads, iPhones and iPods to iTunes. It would seem that even though the device is set up to sync with iTunes correctly, sometimes it just feels like being a jerk and not syncing. I’m a big fan of Apple products, but it’s no secret that syncing with iTunes can be a little buggy. In this article are a bunch of methods that have worked for other people, and hopefully will work for you.
First if you simply need help understanding how to sync with iTunes or how to set it up you can check my other post, Sync your iOS device with iTunes over Wi-Fi.
These fixes are what I have found through hours of reading articles and forums, as well as speaking to people through twitter and other online resources to find out what has the highest chances of working. These instructions may work for you, however nothing is guaranteed as it’s pretty much trial and error. Try each solution, then attempt to sync, if it doesn’t work, go to the next solution and so on. I will put them in order of easiest and quickest methods, down to the more drastic.
- If syncing over Wi-Fi, make sure both your computer and iOS device are connected to the same Wi-Fi network.
- Restart your iOS device, restart computer and restart your wireless router if your device syncs over Wi-Fi.
- Plug in your iPad, iPhone or iPod into iTunes. Uncheck “Sync with this [your device] over Wi-Fi”. Click Apply. Check “Sync with this [your device] over Wi-Fi”. Click Apply. It also may help to disable “Home Sharing” and then re-enable it.
- Uninstalling iTunes and then re-installing it may work. If you take this route make sure to do a backup first.
- If you just want your iOS device to sync and don’t care if it syncs over Wi-Fi or by plugging it in with the cable, then just deselect “Sync with this [your device] over Wi-Fi”.
Devices pane
Remember that with the new iTunes (11) the devices tab has moved from the left side to the top right hand side of iTunes. If none of the above made iTunes recognize or connect to your device you could always restore your device (wipe everything off it then restore it with a backup). I have heard many people fix most syncing issues with this method. However make sure you have made a backup if you take this route, so that you can restore all your settings and apps ect, when you’re done restoring.
Instructions for restoring your device are at the bottom of this article.
If you want to bring back the left side-panel that shows all the devices connected, Music, Movies ect. Then go to the menu bar in iTunes -> View -> Show Sidebar.
- If you have “Manually manage music and videos” checked, try unchecking it and then syncing. After recheck it and try syncing. Also make sure you have the music or video selected when syncing.
- If your apps aren’t syncing properly try to deauthorize and then reauthorize your computer. To do this, open iTunes, go to the menu bar and select -> Store -> “Deauthorize This Computer”. After it’s done, simply select “Authorize This Computer”.
- In your device window under the Summary tab, check to see if “Sync only checked songs and videos” is checked, if it is make sure you have the music or video selected when syncing.
- If your music isn’t syncing, go to the Music tab in your iOS devices window in iTunes and uncheck “Sync Music”. Click Apply. Once done, check “Sync Music”. Try the same thing if it’s something else like your Movies that isn’t syncing.
- The only options that I have selected under the iTunes summary page is “Sync this iPhone over Wi-Fi” and “Prefer standard definition videos”. Syncing working well for me with these options selected, maybe it would also work for you.
- Restoring your device may work. Instructions on how to do this are at the bottom of the page.
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Device Window
Go to the devices window and select the “On this [your device] tab. Make sure the song is checked, once checked it should change from grey to black and then be playable.
- An issue that is surprisingly common when trying to sync with iTunes via the USB cable is simply that the USB cable is faulty. I know it may sound strange, but if nothing here works, then you may need to use a different/new USB cable or even trying syncing over Wi-Fi.
- If when/after you sync you notice that the song is greyed out on your iOS Device then the song may not be in the proper format. Right click on the song in the iTunes and select ”Create AAC version”. This will create a new version of the music file. Delete the original song file and sync the newly created AAC version.
- Check to see if you have “Manually manage music and videos” or “Sync only checked songs and videos” selected in the Summary tab of your devices window, if it is make sure you have the music or video selected when syncing.
- Go to the Settings app on your iOS device and then tap “iTunes & App Stores”, turn off Automatic Downloads for Music, Apps and Books. Connect your device to iTunes, go through the device page and uncheck “Sync Music”, then click Apply. After it’s done check “Sync Music”. Turn Automatic Downloads back on if you like.
- Sign out of all iTunes accounts on your iOS device and iTunes, then sign back in.
- There is a very good chance that restoring your iOS device will also fix this issue.
Restoring your device will wipe everything off of it, so if you want to restore everything make sure you make a backup!
- Disconnect the USB cable from the iPad, iPhone or iPod
- Launch iTunes
- Turn off your iOS device. (Press and hold the Home and Power button until it turns off)
- Press and hold the Home button while you reconnect the USB cable
- Keep holding down the home button until iTunes shows an alert saying that a device in recovery mode has been detected.
Sometimes restoring your device and setting up as a new device instead of restoring from a backup works as well, however this should be only used if nothing else works.
If you need help backing up and restoring check out my other article: 2 ways to backup your iPod, iPhone and iPad
If you had a problem syncing and have found a different method that works, please post it in the comments section below.
Thank you. Deauthorize/Authorize worked for my iPad.
Awesome, thanks for the feedback.
I was going nuts trying to reconcile the issue of my iPhone 4S not syncing with iTunes. Songs always came up gray on the phone even when changed to AAC format. My partner with the same type of phone was having no problems. Eventually I used her USB cable & found the problem was solved. Seemed I’d been using an older iPhone/Ipod cable.
Thanks for taking to time to post the solution that work you. I’ve heard of this being the cause off syncing issues from a few people now. I’ll update the article with this information.
The cable that came with my iPhone 3GS would not sync my 4S, I never thought the cable would be the issue, but it seems that it was. I changed over to the cable that came with it and it synced right away, thanks.
I am having a really odd problem. My device seems to sync, and I can transfer music onto it, but when I open the iPhone tab on iTunes, it acts like I’ve never synced. I can click on the different “tabs”, like “music”, “apps”, etc, but nothing changes, and then the “done” tab is greyed out like it doesn’t recognize it? I just don’t understand what’s going on and it’s very frustrating to not be able to manage my device on my computer! By the way it’s an iPhone 4S, and I’m on Windows XP running iTunes 11.0.2.26. Thank you so much for any help!!!
Oh my goodness, I just figured it out. I have a netbook, and apparently lower on that screen there was a “get started” button that I had to press (this is a new phone for me) but I couldn’t see it because my screen was too small and there was no scroll bar. But when I opened the lefthand column to manage my device and iTunes and etc, and clicked on the music tab under my iPhone, there WAS a scroll bar and I could scroll down and see the “get started” button. And that’s all it took. Good grief!
Haha, wow good thing you figured it out. I would have never guessed that that was the solution. Anyways thanks for coming back and letting us know how you got it working.
Thanks so much for this – I have been having problems with all my music disappearing off my iPhone 4s, then time-outs when trying to copy files across, and greyed out files even when they DID copy & sync. Spent hours looking through articles. FINALLY read this and saw the comment about the cable being the issue – and voila! Changed the cable, problem solved. Thanks!
Thanks for the feedback Tracey. I’m actually surprised at how often the issue seems to be that the cable is simply faulty.
Hi Damien,
I am having trouble just connecting my devices with i-tunes and wondering if you can help. I have just downloaded the most recent version of i-tunes but now neither of my devices seem to connect, where they did so before. I have an iphone and an ipod nano but when I now plug either in, the device does not appear within i-tunes, not does it show as connected on the device screen itself. Do you have any ideas?
So I tried everything you said about the ipod not syncing properly with itunes. I have over 4000 songs on my itunes library which used to sync with my ipod, then yesterday my ipod came back with only 1500 of those songs. After trying what you suggested, I ended up with 40. I don’t know what happened, but I tried everything on that list.
im having somewhat of the same problem. i recently downloaded a bunch of new music and when i tried to sync it to my ipod (4th gen touch), it said i didnt have enough space. so i deleted a ton of apps but it kept telling me that i still didnt have enough space, even though i know i did. i tried unchecking and checking the “sync music” button in itunes, but that didnt delete or change anything. i eventually read on an apple forum that going on the actually ipod and general and just deleting all of the music from there and re-syncing would work, but i cant get it to re-sync. i go to itunes and go to the “on my ipod” tab, and all of the songs are greyed out and have little grey dotted circles next to them. ive tried almost everything…all of the songs are checked in the music tab and will play fine from there, ive tried resetting my ipod (not to factory settings but holding the home and power button), restarting my computer, reinstalling itunes…nothing has worked. thank you so much!
Hello Meghan, it sounds like you’ve attempted pretty much everything to get your iPod to sync again. The specific problem you are having with the greyed out music sounds like it could be an issue with your USB cord. I’m not 100% positive, however in the past with the greyed out music it is sometimes related to the USB cord being faulty. If you have an extra cable laying around give it a try.
Alternatively you could try to sync it over Wi-Fi? iPod summary page -> Sync with this iPod over Wi-Fi.
I’ve tried 2 seperate cables, they both did the same thing. I’ve been able to wifi sync before, but now when i go to the tab on my ipod the “sync now” button is greyed out, even though my computer is on and my itunes is up.
There is only two things that I can think of that may be considered a solution.
1. In the music window of iTunes (not your devices summary page) are you able to drag a song directly onto your iPod (drag to the right, drop on iPod icon that slide in)?
2. I’m not exactly sure what happened, or why, but you may have to restore you device in order to fix this. (backup first if you do).