I don’t know what’s happened but when I try to sync my iPhone with my Mac system I get errors on the phone that items cannot be synced. It says “see iTunes for more information” but there’s no info in iTunes about what’s going on. Help!
It’s been widely publicized that Apple’s iTunes program is finally getting a reinvention in the next version of MacOS X – OS 13 – and one hopes that part of that will be a smoother sync feature between your iOS device and your Mac-based library. The fact is that there are some files that are buried deep in your iTunes library that for one reason or another cannot be transferred to your iPhone and played correctly, an error condition that is being caught during the sync.
The confusion is that there is an error message that is within iTunes on your Mac, but it’s basically hidden from view and if you don’t notice the tiny error symbol, you’ll never find it. Which means you’d be destined to a lifetime of sync errors every darn time you plug in your iOS device, whether an iPhone or an iPad. Ugh.
Fortunately, I’ve got ya covered! Let’s start with an error I recently had with my own iPhone XS sync:
Quite likely the exact error you’re seeing, right?
Okay, so let’s figure this out! In iTunes, switch over to viewing your iOS device in the program and you’ll see something like this:
Can you see the error warning? It’s that tiny triangle with the exclamation mark just above the battery indicator. SOOOooo subtle!
Click on it and you’ll open up a window that actually gives you more information about the item or items that cannot be synced with your iPhone:
Finally, here’s the problem: The track ‘08 – Hydrosphere‘ can’t be converted. If you have multiple file errors, it’ll show them all in a scrollable window; they’re often all from the same CD or album…
In this case I can now have a look at this particular file to see what’s going on. Most easily done with a quick iTunes search:
Ah, right, this is a track from the Kitaro CD Spiritual Garden. Ok. A click on that search result and I can “get info” to see more about the details of this particular audio file:
Nothing that indicates what the problem is, for sure. I have tons of Mp3 audio files in my iTunes library, so that’s definitely supported and there’s nothing that suggests it’s mis-coded or broken.
At this point you can try to figure out the problem or you can just delete this particular file and replace it. For many people that would mean re-ripping from a source CD or just downloading a new copy of this track you’d previously purchased. Me? I’m just going to delete it since I have so much Kitaro in my library I won’t ever miss this one errant track.
A simple push of the Delete key and…
No point in keeping the file given that it’s in a messed up format so I choose “Move to Trash“.
And that’s it. Try another sync and it should all work smoothly without any error messages because the problem’s fixed.
Pro Tip: I’ve been writing iPhone help and Mac help forever, since before the iPhone 1! Please take a few minutes and check it all out while you’re here. Thanks.
I am very frustrated because I cannot get any help anywhere with this issue. Why can’t I add album artwork to CDs that I add to my iTunes Library? For years I used to be able to add artwork if iTunes did not provide it, but since about a year or so ago, I have not been able to do it. I am using iTunes version 12.5.9.7 on a Dell PC. I have an iPod Touch, newest version. This “problem” is probably laughable to most people, but to me it’s a big deal. Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.
If you’re viewing an individual track in iTunes, can’t you go to File > Get Info and then Artwork to add artwork?