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  • How do I copy music onto my Apple iPhone from iTunes?

How do I copy music onto my Apple iPhone from iTunes?

July 11, 2007 / Dave Taylor / iPhone Help, Mac & MacOS Help, Most Popular / 683 Comments

I’m stumped. With my iPod I simply drag and drop the music I want to take with me from my library onto the iPod on the left side of iTunes, but my Apple iPhone doesn’t allow me to do that. How the heck do I put songs on the iPhone without synchronizing my entire (massive) music library?

As with much to do with the iPhone, there’s a bit of a trick to getting this working smoothly so you can have control over your iPhone music, while keeping it as darn easy to work with as possible.

The answer? Create a custom playlist for your iPhone music library.

Let me show you how to do it – it’s pretty darn easy.

Pop into iTunes and choose File –> New Playlist. Now rename it to something logical: I use “iPhone Sync”:

Apple iTunes in Mac OS X: New Playlist for iPhone
Now you can just drag and drop music from your iTunes library (in iTunes, needless to say) into this new playlist. When you’re ready, you’ll see a bunch of music happily ensconced in the playlist (remember, it’s all just “pointers”: the actual music files are still safely in the main music library, so if you delete something from a playlist , you haven’t deleted the original music file itself):

Apple iTunes in Mac OS X: New Playlist for iPhone
Notice here on the very bottom of the iTunes window it shows you how many songs are in the playlist, along with the size and total playing time. For my current playlist, it’s 140 songs, 10.1 hours, for a total file size of 851MB, no problem for my 4GB Apple iPhone.

At this point, you need to plug in your iPhone if you haven’t already done so. It’ll pop up the usual summary screen:

Apple iPhone: Summary view in iTunes
Cool. Now click on the “Music” tab and you’ll see that you can select “sync playlist”. Do that, then select the new iPhone sync playlist you’ve created, as shown here:

Apple iTunes in Mac OS X: Synchronizing New Playlist with iPhone
Set things up just as I have shown and that’s all there is to it. Now click “Sync” in iTunes and it’ll synchronize your playlist with the iPhone music library and next time you click on that ole’ “iPod” button on the iPhone, your selections from you music library will be present.

Oh, and one really nice feature of creating this playlist is that you can manage it, adding and deleting songs to your heart’s desire, even without your iPhone present. Whatever changes you make are instantly applied to your iPhone music library the very next time you synchronize the device.

Suddenly even 8GB might feel small. 🙂

Still learning about your iPhone? We have lots of iPhone help here on the site! And if you’re interested in finding a useful tool that can help you transfer music from your iPhone to your iTunes library and computer, you might also check out the Windows or Mac version of FonePaw iOS Transfer too.

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Starbucks coffee cup I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you, Dave, for all your helpful information by buying you a cup of coffee!
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683 comments on “How do I copy music onto my Apple iPhone from iTunes?”

  1. Lynzzie says:
    October 9, 2013 at 8:52 am

    Getting ready to try it. I think making the folder is the key. Great site.

    Reply
  2. Macleod says:
    October 2, 2013 at 11:33 am

    When I say that I have a PowerPC G5 … then most folks will already know what my problem is.
    So, how do I get my iTunes (9.2.1(5) ) library on my iPhone 4?
    (Why can’t an iPhone be as simple as an Samsung Galaxy-in-Windows – Steve Jobs, you readin’ this, up there/down there?)

    Reply
    • Dave Taylor says:
      October 2, 2013 at 2:30 pm

      A PowerPC G5. Yeah, had one of those. Eons ago. I am afraid it’s too ancient for modern Mac OS X to run on it, therefore you can’t get the latest version of iTunes (if any?) so you’re kind of out of luck with your iPhone unless you get some more modern hardware. Sorry.

      Reply
      • Macleod says:
        October 5, 2013 at 11:36 am

        Dave Taylor, thanks for the reply: I read online that my iMac is obsolete.
        I have – manually – synced my iPhone with iTunes in Windows XP. Windows rules – wait, did I really type this just now? o_O

        Reply
  3. Fred says:
    October 2, 2013 at 10:22 am

    Is there a manual somewhere that only a few special people know about? Usually I’m pretty good at figuring out software and gadgets, but this iPhone and iTunes have me stumped. I have to Google every little thing I want to do

    Reply
    • Dave Taylor says:
      October 2, 2013 at 10:26 am

      There is indeed a manual. You can find it here at AskDaveTaylor.com 🙂

      Reply
  4. Karen says:
    May 24, 2013 at 7:55 pm

    Thank you heaps mate!!! You solved m dilemma!!! =D

    Reply
  5. kobie says:
    May 15, 2013 at 10:17 pm

    Hi
    I want to thank you so much for your article on downloading music to my iphone
    Making the playlist synced my music to my iphone right away
    I had spent a frustrating day doing many many things…all set and happy 🙂
    thanks so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    Kobie

    Reply
  6. Rick says:
    May 15, 2013 at 11:48 am

    Dave,
    I followed your instructions for transferring music from my iTunes library to my iPhone 5 and it worked beautifully. Thanks a million!
    Rick

    Reply
  7. richbitch89 says:
    May 10, 2013 at 5:45 pm

    thank you so much!! I synced my ipod by accident and lost all of my music. such a bummer; you saved my music life.

    Reply
  8. Sue says:
    April 24, 2013 at 12:49 pm

    It was a little different for the iphone 5, but fairly easy. Thank you!

    Reply
  9. Cate says:
    April 23, 2013 at 10:48 pm

    Yours was the one instruction from how to move playlists from iTunes 11.0.2 to iphone 4 that made sense to me. I made the new playlist as instructed (which wasn’t ideal since this is actually 6 playlists – hypnosis tracks etc for different birthing purposes..TMI – i get to music tab, check synch music – then receive this message “Are you sure you want to remove existing music, movies, TV shows, books, and tones from this iPhone and sync with this iTunes library?” and the sub choices – entire music library, selected playlists…, include music videos etc are not selectable. Two hours later I am tearing my hair out.
    My client – giving birth in a few weeks will be very grateful and so will I.
    TIA.
    (MAC 10.8.3 if that matters)

    Reply
  10. Raymond Harrison says:
    April 15, 2013 at 5:48 pm

    Just want to thank you for helping me transfer files from my PC to my iPhone may God bless you and prosper you.

    Reply
  11. Vlad says:
    April 6, 2013 at 11:01 am

    That explanation was so competent and to the point. It leads to a question, though< why does it have to be so difficult that we need a smart expert to explain it to us? Thanks for that explanation!!!!

    Reply
  12. Deborah says:
    April 3, 2013 at 9:52 pm

    My computer reconizes my iphone but not itunes, no summary widow pops up. Any idea what is wrong?

    Reply
  13. Mike says:
    March 9, 2013 at 8:31 pm

    My wife and I just got iPhones – the playlist worked like a charm. Thank you for the great instructions on syncing the playlist to our phones. I will continue to monitor your informative site if I have any more questions or problems. Thanks again.

    Reply
  14. Kimie says:
    February 20, 2013 at 3:49 pm

    Thank you for this post. I was having the hardest time figuring this out. Great directions… it was so easy! Thanks again. 🙂

    Reply
  15. Kylie says:
    February 15, 2013 at 2:16 pm

    Thanks Dave, this is the second time I’m using these helpful instructions. The steps varied a bit for the iPhone 5 but I was able to get the selected songs in a playlist and then on my new phone. Today I wanted to add a couple more tracks and after searching for an hour to make this happen this link popped up again and I was able to figure it out and add two more songs to the playlist. Thank you for this link! Whew.

    Reply
  16. Gary says:
    February 10, 2013 at 7:47 am

    Instructions worked perfectly. Thanks so much for the help.

    Reply
  17. Asker says:
    February 3, 2013 at 5:46 am

    Awesome! Thanks. But it is even more utterly awesome that Apple has implemented this awkward and anti-intuitive interface on iOS devices. apple, time to deliver de DECENT interface, like the Mac interface. I want to be in control, not the other way round. I want to see the iOS device as I see a Mac, with all its files and folders, and I want to move, copy, paste and delete stuff as I do in a Mac. And I want a factory-jailbroken iOS device, of course. Because it is my stuff. Or else competitors will take advantage!

    Reply
  18. Dave Taylor says:
    January 28, 2013 at 10:30 pm

    test 2

    Reply
  19. Dave Taylor says:
    January 28, 2013 at 4:47 pm

    You’ll want to use something like Senuti to get everything off your device before you sync and lose whatever you’ve got on there now. Try this link:
    https://www.askdavetaylor.com/about_senuti.html
    to find my tutorial on the subject!

    Reply
  20. Shivam says:
    January 28, 2013 at 6:33 am

    Awesome bro thanks a lot for the help

    Reply
  21. Te'Nia Davis says:
    January 26, 2013 at 6:56 pm

    this was very helpful but I don’t want to delete my other things… PLEASE HELP!!!
    thnx!

    Reply
  22. Andy says:
    January 24, 2013 at 2:17 pm

    Dave – Many Thanks!! This helped a lot, now I can import as need be.
    Your a power homebre!!!

    Reply
  23. Mary says:
    January 23, 2013 at 5:00 pm

    Thanks for Helpful tips Dave x

    Reply
  24. Roddy Hilton says:
    January 22, 2013 at 8:34 am

    Can you please explain in plain english. As if you were explaining to a grandmother that has never used her iphone before. What EXACTLY do i push on my phone, etc. not slang words.

    Reply
  25. Anh says:
    January 20, 2013 at 3:33 am

    Hi Dave,
    I followed your instructions & the sync process erased all my current songs on iPhone & replaced by the songs in the playlist 🙁 I wanted to add more songs, not to replace hundreds of current songs by just a few new ones!!! Could you please help?
    Thanks!

    Reply
  26. tim says:
    January 13, 2013 at 5:44 pm

    Good lookin out Dave!

    Reply
  27. alona says:
    January 13, 2013 at 2:38 am

    sorry …
    but yor idea had not work ….
    but again thanks …

    Reply
  28. norene says:
    January 7, 2013 at 5:34 pm

    very hepfull. Thanks a lot.

    Reply
  29. Yashaswini says:
    January 4, 2013 at 9:58 pm

    I have created playlist to transfer songs from laptop to my iPhone ..
    After this step I m getting any further procedure.
    Plz help Me through this

    Reply
  30. Heather says:
    January 3, 2013 at 1:34 pm

    My daughter downloaded itunes onto our computer when she got her ipod. At that time we had internet. We no longer have internet, but the itunes account/library is still on our computer. I recently got an iphone4 and want to put some music on it. Can I do that using her itunes account/her library of songs and if so can I do it with no internet connection?

    Reply
  31. Barb says:
    December 31, 2012 at 8:16 am

    Thanks Dave – your instructions were spot on and I am loving life even more – music truly is medicine for the soul!

    Reply
  32. Carol says:
    December 30, 2012 at 7:05 pm

    I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. You are the best!!!!!! I tried doing it myself and got some music, but then started having trouble since I didn’t want everything from my computer. You have been so helpful. I tried other sites and one gave a really nasty comment about reading the manual which I don’t have. I tried downloading the manual, but couldn’t find the information. I am a retired teacher and you showed me how to do what I needed just like a teacher. You are my iHero.

    Reply
  33. candice says:
    December 30, 2012 at 2:37 pm

    Brilliant! Made so easy – thank you so much!!! Have a Happy New Year! Candice 🙂

    Reply
  34. Chris says:
    December 30, 2012 at 12:45 am

    Hi,
    This worked for me perfectly. Thank you so much.

    Reply
  35. laura says:
    December 28, 2012 at 4:16 am

    omg thanks so much!!!!!!!!!!

    Reply
  36. Jaycee says:
    December 24, 2012 at 2:33 pm

    Amazing..simple and it works!
    I’ve been struggling with this for ages..creating a synch playlist worked for me.
    Many thanks Dave!
    happy Christmas.
    JC

    Reply
  37. claire innes says:
    December 23, 2012 at 2:35 pm

    Thanks SO MUCH!! have been trying to work it out for a long time!! really well laid out and easy to follow, thanks again so much!!
    Claire

    Reply
  38. aahliah says:
    December 21, 2012 at 12:20 am

    yes after 10yrs lol i finally got it..thank you dave!

    Reply
  39. C Isaia says:
    December 20, 2012 at 2:25 am

    Thank you Dave, your advice re uploading itunes onto iphone worked a treat – you’ve ended 2012 for me on a high note! Merry Christmas to you & yours

    Reply
  40. Kevin says:
    December 18, 2012 at 9:32 pm

    Hi Dave
    Thanks for that but I still had problems until I realised (English spelling)that every song needs to be ticked to be copied.
    Thank you though. It did sort my problem.
    Kevin

    Reply
  41. Ash says:
    December 16, 2012 at 9:45 pm

    Thank you so much! the only website which helped me get all my music back. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

    Reply
  42. Sandi says:
    December 15, 2012 at 6:59 pm

    Thanks, someone who understands the importance of clear concise instructions for those over 40 trying to learn new tricks! I have music!

    Reply
  43. Gabriel says:
    December 12, 2012 at 5:51 pm

    I did what you said and i still can not get new music on mi I-phone. the play list apears in it but no songs

    Reply
  44. boticles says:
    December 11, 2012 at 9:34 am

    i dunno, i hate itunes.
    being used to the simple pc drag and drop option i just use this program called Phonestick.
    it lets you mount your iphone or any idevice and use it like a simple usb device.
    TRUST ME it’s better then this.
    check it http://download.cnet.com/Phone-Stick/3000-18546_4-75742384.html

    Reply
  45. Magryan says:
    December 6, 2012 at 12:44 pm

    It really help.
    Thanks Dave:)

    Reply
  46. Brandon says:
    December 2, 2012 at 2:26 pm

    Have music bought on music app can’t download to make ringtone plz help

    Reply
  47. Thomas Griggs says:
    December 1, 2012 at 6:55 am

    Put me on your list as yet another fan. Very helpful.

    Reply
  48. Ashlei says:
    November 24, 2012 at 1:11 pm

    Thank you it worked!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Reply
  49. William Hutchful says:
    November 22, 2012 at 9:36 am

    thanks man

    Reply
  50. monique johnson says:
    November 19, 2012 at 5:42 pm

    followed instructions but it says either i phone cannot be located or i phone has stopped responding after it copies the files, then I have to use task master to get rid of the message

    Reply

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