Stuck On Saving Itunes Library

  1. First, click on Start and then Settings. Next, click on Update and Security. In the left-hand column, click on Windows Security. On the following right pane, click the Open Windows Security button. Now click on Virus and Threat protection in the right or left pane. In the right pane, scroll down until you see the Manage Settings link under the.
  2. Enter your passcode if necessary. Consolidate iTunes Library Files. From time to time, files stored in different iTunes Library may cause Apple Music not syncing issue. Under the circumstance, consolidate files will be helpful. Click the 'File' option and choose 'Library' from the drop-down list.

The dreaded exclamation points in your iTunes library! Edited metadata that doesn't show up outside of iTunes! Most of us have had at least some of these issues, and if you're unlucky most or all of your library can end up like this. Maybe you moved your library from one hard disk to another, you had to get your library back from an old backup, or maybe your disk was failing and this is what you got after running recovery software.

iTunes works really hard to try and fix these problems, but if you're reading this it means that you're running into problems that iTunes couldn't automatically work out on its own. No matter how your library became a frustrating mess, there's almost always something you can do to get your library happy again. Below are a number of different suggestions, each with its own upsides and downsides.

Note that if you're on Windows and your iTunes isn't showing its menu (it doesn't by default), turn it on with Ctrl+B now.

Go to /Library and remove any folders that have “Music” or “iTunes” in the name. Go to /Library/Caches and delete any folders with “Music” or “iTunes” in the name. Reboot your Mac. After you have rebooted your Mac, you’ll want to head over to the folder that you created on your desktop. Copy all of the music out of that.

Another important note: There are a couple of features in iTunes that are on by default on Mac but are normally off on Windows. If you're unfamiliar with them, you probably should have them turned on, as they will help keep all of your music tidy going forward. In File > Preferences > Advanced, you should allow iTunes to Keep iTunes Media folder organized and Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library.

Stuck on saving itunes library mac

You don't need to do this, but it will make your life easier and will help prevent problems in the future. That said, if your library is huge and some of it is stored on an external drive (i.e. you don't have room for all of your music files to be stored on a single volume), you are an exception and should not turn on the “Copy files to iTunes Media...” feature.

Solution #1: Reorganize your iTunes library

This is a simple way to tell iTunes to have a look at every single song in your library, try and find it, and move it into a nice folder structure if it isn't already. From the iTunes menu, select File > Library > Organize Library....

Turn on Consolidate files, and if your library is rather old you can also turn on Reorganize files in the folder “iTunes Media”. Click OK and let it do its thing.

There are a number of types of problems that this will not help with, but it's a good first step to take care of some minor issues.

The upside:
  • Works on your entire library all at once
  • Very unlikely to make anything worse
  • Free
The downside:
  • Only fixes minor problems

Solution #2: Rebuild your iTunes library

If reorganizing your library didn't fix all of the issues you have, you can take more extreme measures by completely rebuilding your music library. There's at least a few types of information that will be lost in the process, which may be considered valuable bits of metadata for some folks: star ratings, “Loves”, play counts, and date added. If you can live without that information, this method tries to preserve everything else about your iTunes music library.

The first thing to note is that this method is drastic, and depending on the types of problems you have with your library, it's possible that you can end up worse off than when you began. Thus I very strongly recommend that you back up your existing iTunes folder before going any further, even if it's a mess.

Where is your music library?

You'll need to know where iTunes keeps all of its files. Normally, this is in your (home) > Music > iTunes folder but if you're a bit more advanced you might have set it up to be elsewhere and therefore you likely already know where it is. When you get to it in Finder or File Explorer, you'll recognize it by the .itdb files within. Note that you have either a “iTunes Media” or “iTunes Music” folder in here.

Export your library

Don't worry, you don't need much disk space for this step as you're not exporting your actual entire library, you're only creating a simple databaseof what is in your library and playlists. In iTunes, choose File > Library > Export Library.... Give it a unique name and save it somewhere like your Desktop.

Remove the database

You now need to remove your existing database files so that new ones can be created from scratch. Quit out of iTunes, then delete any of the following files you saw in the first step: “iTunes Library”, “iTunes Library.itl”, “iTunes Library.xml”, “iTunes Music Library.xml”, “iTunes Library Genius.itdb”. Note that you will not have all of these.

Add the media back in

Now we're adding everything back into a fresh clean library. Start up iTunes again, and don't be shocked that your library is completely empty. Select File > Add to Library..., then choose the “iTunes Media” or “iTunes Music” folder that you saw earlier. This will take a while to import everything back into your library. If you know that you had music stored in several different locations, you will want to repeat this step for each.

Stuck On Saving Itunes Library

Restore your playlists

Now choose File > Library > Import Playlist... and select the database file that you created in the “Export your library” step earlier. Note that you will end up with duplicate smart playlists that you'll later want to remove.

That's it! Your entire library is rebuilt with all playlists preserved, and hopefully all problems gone away.

The upside:
  • Thoroughly fixes many problem types
  • Works on your entire library all at once
  • Free
The downside:
  • Might make some problems worse
  • Loses Star Ratings, Loves, Play Count, Last Played
  • Resets Date Added
  • Not for the squeamish

Solution #3: Use Song Sergeant

A much less stressful method is to use an application created specifically to repair damaged iTunes libraries. It's called Song Sergeant, and when it is launched it will automatically find and scan your music library for a variety of problems, some of which it can silently fix immediately while scanning.


The upside:
  • Almost entirely automatic
  • Safe and simple to use
  • Free for some problem fixing
  • Preserves metadata
The downside:
  • Not free to automatically fix some types of problems
  • Fixes other kinds of problems you may not care about

Here are links to download for macOS and Windows.

Final note

Having a broken iTunes library can sometimes make you want to nuke it from orbit and start over. Depending on what is messed up, one of the above methods is almost certainly going to fix it without needing to pull your hair out, and without losing much (or any) music or metadata from your library.

Find iTunes not syncing all music to iPhone, iPad, or iPod? This article will show you some quick solutions to fix the some songs not syncing to iPhone problem easily.

Read in: Read This Article in

Common iTunes Issues

iTunes Sync issue
iTunes Connect Problem
iTunes Backup and Restore
iTunes Music issue
Other iTunes issue

Question 1: I have had the iPhone 11 Pro for some time now, but I am frustrated with the fact that I can’t sync music to my iPhone. It’s almost as if anything I purchased prior to getting the iPhone 6s would not sync. I have tried syncing music, removing everything, restoring, but my iPhone will not show up in iTunes. Why is my music library not syncing?

Question 2: iTunes syncs fine with my iPod with no issue. No matter what I try about 200 of the 500 songs I am trying to sync are actually on my iPhone, yet all of them are on the iPod just fine. To the point, I bought two of them a second time. Why some songs won’t sync to the iPhone?

Although we just list two examples of some songs that won’t sync to iPhone or iPod, it also happened on the iPad and iPod. After all, if you are puzzled by this problem – iTunes won’t sync music to iPhone, iPad, or iPod, you can try to fix it with the following solutions.

Update iTunes and Sync Again

  1. Install the latest version of iTunes on your computer. Sometimes the iTunes issue is just because your iTunes does not update to the latest version.
  2. Open iTunes on your computer.
  3. Connect your iPhone to the computer with a USB cable.
  4. Click on the iDevice icon when it appears.
  5. Choose the “Music” tab, then check the “Sync Music” box.
  6. Make sure that the option “Entire music library” is selected.
  7. Click on the “Apply” button to start syncing songs, playlists, etc. to your iOS device.

Check the Folder Location of Songs in iTunes library

Double-check if the songs on your iTunes library have the same folder location as before. Sometimes iTunes does not indicate which songs it cannot find until you select them. Songs in your library that iTunes can’t locate, won’t be synced to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod.

Fix iTunes Won’t Sync Music Error with Ease

If the above methods didn’t fix iTunes won’t sync with iPhone, then you can try a software named AnyFix – iOS System Recovery. It is designed to fix various iOS/iPadOS/tvOS/iTunes issues in minutes, and bring your Apple devices back to normal without data loss. With AnyFix, you can fix 200+ iTunes errors easily. Also, it supports fixing over 130 system issues (iPhone 12 & iOS 14 are supported). The four main errors are listed below:

  • iTunes sync/CDB errors, including iTunes won’t sync with iPhone, iTunes CDB files damaged, and others.
  • iTunes installation/download/update errors, including Apple mobile device service missing, iPhone won’t update on iTunes, etc.
  • iTunes connection/backup/restore errors, including iTunes won’t recognize iPhone, iPad disabled cannot connect to iTunes, etc.
  • Other 100+ iTunes errors.

Now, you can follow the step-by-step guide to fix songs won’t sync to iPhone/iPad/iPod:

Step 1. Download AnyFix on your computer. Install and then launch it. Tap on iTunes Repair from the homepage.

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Tap on iTunes Repair from Homepage

Step 2. Choose iTunes Sync/CDB Errors and continue.

Step 3. Connect your iPhone to the computer.

Connect your iPhone via USB Cable

Step 4. The repairing process will begin. Wait a moment and you will see Repair Completed page.

Make Sure Entire Music Library Is Selected

When syncing music to iPhone, iPad, iPod with iTunes, go to the Music tab – is the “Entire music library” selected? If not, go to Music (in your iTunes library), click on the checkmark next to the “Name” column header (to sort by checked music), and scroll to the bottom, or any unchecked music won’t sync.

Turn Off iCloud Music Library on iPhone

If iTunes says “iCloud Music Library is On”, just go to Settings on your iPhone > Settings > Music > turn off the “iCloud Music Library” off. To do so, from the iPhone screen, navigate to and place the switch to the Off position, next reconnect the iPhone with iTunes.

Turn off “iCloud Music Library” on iPhone

Sync iTunes Music to iPhone with an iTunes Alternative

Apart from syncing devices, iTunes is also overhauled with iTunes Store, Media Player functions. That’s why iTunes get everything well-organized. However, iTunes might not be the only choice when users want to sync media files (like Music, Apps, iBooks, etc.), as users may meet many kinds of iTunes problems, such as:

  • iTunes synced songs are greyed out, and can’t be played.
  • When syncing iTunes music, it will remind you “Are you sure you want to remove existing music, movies, TV shows, books, and tones from this iPhone/iPad/iPod and sync with this iTunes library?”. iTunes will replace the existing files on your device while syncing music to iPhone.
  • iTunes fails to recognize your device when you connect your iPhone to your computer. And it pops up a message saying “iTunes could not connect to this iPhone. You do have permission”.
  • Or just like the problem mentioned in this article, songs on iTunes won’t manually sync to iPhone, iPad, iPod.

No matter which situation above you have stuck on, you can transfer music from iTunes to iPhone by using iTunes alternative – AnyTrans. It offers you a smart way to transfer iTunes music to iPhone, iPad, iPod. Now follow the steps to find out how to transfer iTunes music to iOS devices with a few clicks.

Step 1. Get AnyTrans installed on the computer, run it, and connect your iPhone or iPad to the computer > Click on the left-side menu, choose iTunes Library.

Step 2. All the music in your iTunes will be listed on the panel> Select the songs that can’t sync to iPhone/iPad/iPod > Click To Device button to transfer music from iTunes Library to iPhone/iPad/iPod again.

Stuck On Saving Itunes Library Dialog Won T Close

To Device

Step 3. After the process completes, you can check whether your iTunes library music has all synced on your iPhone.

Bonus Tip. How to Transfer Music from iPhone, iPad, iPod to iTunes

As iPhone 12 is coming soon, to sync music from your new iPhone, iPad or iPod to iTunes, you have two options to do the job: Using iTunes and iPhone music transfer tool. But iTunes only supports transferring the purchased music from your iPhone. Here’s how you can sync music from your iPhone to iTunes:

  1. Update iTunes to its latest version on your computer.
  2. Connect your iPhone to your computer via USB cable.
  3. Choose “File” at the upper-left corner of iTunes screen > “Devices”.
  4. Click on the “Transfer Purchases From [your iPhone name]”.

Stuck On Saving Itunes Library To Flash Drive

After the process completes, your purchased music should be saved in iTunes. If you would prefer to transfer your non-purchased songs, refer to this guide to get more details: How to Transfer Music from an iPhone to iTunes >

The Bottom Line

As you can see, it is not hard to fix the “iTunes not syncing all songs to iPhone/iPad/iPod” issue with the assistance of AnyFix. We have helped millions of iTunes users to get it back. It can repair more than 200 iTunes errors with a few clicks. It is worth trying AnyFix.

Whats’ more, as an iTunes alternative, not only does AnyTrans does well in syncing your iTunes library to your iPhone but also does well in managing iOS contents, such as music, photos, videos, contacts, messages, and other iPhone data on your computer. If you are tired of iTunes, this is the best time to manage your iOS content with AnyTrans!

AnyTrans – iTunes Music to iPhone

  • Unlike iTunes, it syncs both purchased and non-purchased songs.
  • Sync music to iPhone without replacing any existed data on iPhone.
  • Support transferring music from iPhone to iTunes or computer as well.
  • Selectively sync files from computer to iPhone, like photos, videos, etc.

Free Download100% Clean & Safe

Free Download100% Clean & Safe

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