Ever wanted to quickly sync up that new song to your iOS device 2 minutes before you leave for work? I have, and in most cases I have to cancel the sync because… well instead of quickly just syncing my one song, iTunes decides that I should also have my genius results synced for all my 4000 songs. In this guide I’ll go through some tips and methods to speed up the way iTunes syncs.
Well first, I’m hoping you have a general idea of what’s causing the iTunes sync to take so long. Some people have an issue with the backup taking hours, some have issues with iTunes deciding that it needs to sync the entirety of the genius suggestion collection every time it syncs. Even if you aren’t sure what’s causing the issue I’ll try to cover as much as I can in this article, hopefully you’ll find what you are looking for.
Speed Up by – Backing up to iCloud instead of iTunes
I’ll start with the most common culprit. As I’m sure you know, backing up is very important, however backing up to iTunes is not the only way of backing up. To make iTunes sync faster you can have your iOS device backup to iCloud instead. Usually after syncing your new media, iTunes decides that it should also update the backup. This often takes up a bit to much time. I won’t go into detail on how to setup iCloud backup since I’ve already gone through it in another article: 2 ways to backup your iPod, iPhone and iPad
Speed Up by – Syncing Smaller Media Files
Here’s a really cool feature I like about iTunes, that definitely makes iTunes sync faster! Have you ever purchased a movie or TV show from the iTunes Store and noticed that it downloads an HD and an SD version? If you are transferring that video onto your iOS device then there really isn’t that much of a need to have the large HD version transfer over as you’re most likely not even going to really notice any quality difference because of the screen size on the iPad, iPhone or the iPod Touch.
To decrease the sync time, go into your iOS devices summary page in iTunes on your computer and under “Options” check off the box that says, “Prefer standard definition videos. As an added bonus, you’ll also see a large amount of extra available space saved.
I’ve heard people say that setting the option to “Convert higher bit rate songs to” a lower quality song also speeds up the syncing process. I’m not sure how they came to that conclusion as basically what this means, is that each song will have to go through a conversion process (the songs in your iTunes library on your computer remain untouched). If anything this simply makes iTunes take way to long to sync. I canceled it before ever 2 (out of 852) songs finished converting. It does have the benefit of saving a ton of space on your iOS device though.
Speed Up by – Disabling Genius
Genius can be one of the most frustrating syncing steps, mainly because it can take ages to complete especially when you have a large library. I personally never use Genius and actually have it completely turned off and have noticed that iTunes syncs so much faster now. Disabling genius is really easy. Just open iTunes, go to the menu bar -> click “Store” -> Turn off Genius.
But wait, what if that option to turn off Genius isn’t there? Do you have iTunes Match enabled? I hate to be there bearer of bad news, however if you use iTunes Match you can not disable genius. Apple has decided that if you use iTunes Match then you also must want to use Genius and hasn’t given the option to use Match without Genius.
You can disable Genius but you’ll also have to disable Match, here are the instructions:
- Open iTunes on your Mac or PC.
- In the menu bar click “Store”
- Click “Turn Off iTunes Match”
- Once Match has finished turning off, click the store menu again and then click “Turn Off Genius”.
Speed Up by – Not Syncing Wirelessly
Syncing wirelessly is a pretty useful feature, however it does take longer to sync over Wi-Fi than by syncing via USB cable. How much faster is USB? Well actually quite a bit faster. To speed up the syncing process by disabling syncing over Wi-Fi:
- Open iTunes on your computer.
- Go to your iOS device Summary page.
- Under “Options” uncheck “Sync with this iPhone over Wi-Fi”.
Personally I still use Wi-Fi sync just because I much prefer it than syncing over USB cable. However it’s up to you to decide what fits your needs best.
Speed Up by – Not sending Diagnostic Information
I noticed a slight speed increase by disabling the option to send diagnostic and usage information to Apple. When something crashes on your iOS device it creates a log of it; this information is useful to Apple because it tells them what they need to fix when they release a new update to iOS. It also logs some usage information that Apple finds useful because it lets them know how the device is being used. They do have a strict privacy policy so none of your personal information is sent but it can make the iTunes sync take a while longer. To disable it:
- Open Settings on your iOS device.
- Go to General -> About.
- Scroll to the bottom and tap Diagnostics & Usage.
- Tap “Don’t Send”.
Nothing Works!
“Nothing works, iTunes is taking forever to sync and I’m going bald from ripping my hair out!” I’ve heard of some people having issues where nothing they do makes iTunes sync faster. If you are one of these people who are unfortunately stuck with an iOS device that is taking hours to sync then there may being an issue that can only be resolved by restoring. Make a backup first. Restoring may seem a bit drastic, so before you do that, try simply restarting your device first. Ask any IT guy or gal and the most common solution to tech issues is a simple restart.
Unfortunately not everyone is an IT tech what are you meaning and where do you find
1.Open iTunes on your computer.
2.Go to your iOS device Summary page.
3.Under “Options” uncheck “Sync with this iPhone over Wi-Fi”.
I cant find iOS device anywhere
cheers
anne
It will be located on the upper right hand side of iTunes. If you have an iPhone plugged into your computer it will show up on the upper right hand side, click on it to view it’s summary page.
Yea i got it. This player looks like different. Actually i like to use itunes but i couldn’t setup before in my computer. But now i am success. Thanks for the share.
I’ve found that if you use a lead that will hook up to two usb ports, run into a multi usb port then hook up the i pod to this, syncing is much faster than normal, and should anyone knock up a lead to do this direct I’d like some cash.
wow,i`ve never seen person that likes to use itunes
for me that`s too hard
i prefer just to drag and drop using Waltr for Mac/PC and then in a second i get the song i like on my iphone
Look it up and you`ll see how much easier it is
I’ve found that Country Western music, Broadway show tunes, and songs first released in 1967 can download extremely slowly. Removing these from iTunes fixed my problems.
this was very helpful! thank you
I found that including C&W, songs from 1967, and Broadway show tunes sped up the download incredibly
Also: Make sure you use a good cord to sync. At first I used an older cord and it didn’t work at all, but later I used a newer cord (an Apple cord which might also have something to do with it) and it worked smoothly and quickly!
Turning off Genuis helped immediately – thanks!
Glad it helped.
I also had the same problem previously. Anyone having the problem of backing up taking hours can try this because it worked for me. Now it takes only 5-7 minutes to backup. Go to edit on the top left hand corner of itunes, after pressing edit, you will see preferences, select it. A dialogue box will open up thereafter, select devices tab. You should see multiple iphone or ipad devices backup, select on all devices that were updated previously, right click and select delete, leaving the only device that has the latest backup date. Close the dialogue box after that and start your sync again, it should be alot faster now. Hope this helps.
@DamienZander I think I’m person who reads to the end, and no answer/help. But my notes might be the case to the very last Item u mentioned.
My iTunes sync with iPhone 5s continues very long after I switched from USB to Wi-Fi (cable simply screwed, so I have to use Wi-Fi). For example I added 2 new songs, and clicked Sync and iTunes sync more songs – 180 tracks is added again and again to iPhone (assuming they were there, and synced a few times already). Strange why 180, when I have 1067 tracks (by different albums).
The use case might be here, that I do clean Backups frequently by “CleanMyMac 3” software.
And as result, when sync starts, iTunes does backup first. But still, then it copies files over and over again.
When I used USB cable, I did not have such long sync, even I was cleaning backup files (~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup).
When I did one such heavy/long sync-up, I immediately clicked Sync one more time – assuming, I have already backup, it’s on my hard drive (no place on iCloud for 4.3G backup). This time, only 4 recently modified tracks were synchronized with iPhone.
Btw,
– I have Genius turned off, but I have menu item Genius near to playlists and main page for Genius shows me Button to enable Genius.
– Wi-Fi sync enabled as u suggested (it was my old setting).
– I had “sending Diagnostic Information” enabled, so thankful to u I found that setting and disabled. But it doesn’t affect the sync process much.
MacOS 10.11.6, iOS 10.2, iTunes 12.5.4.42
No. No changes what so ever. I did not clean my backups, I just added a few tracks, modifying existed, and click Sync frequently. iTunes sync ALL FILES over and over again :(
PLEASE HELP (if possible something to do more)