syncing MM to iPhone

[cwthornton]

Bear with me, I'm a novice. I made the switch from iTunes to Apple Music/Device Manager on my PC running Windows 11. It quit functioning, so I turned to MM, and was able to import all my music collection (about 78 gb into MM, though none of the playlists or ratings survived.
I meticulously went through MM and set up the playlists and ratings. I've made the latest update to MM. Now I want to sync the MM collection to my iPhone 16 (running iOS 26.2). I've hit a brick wall.
I uninstalled Apple Music and installed the pc version of iTunes. At first, when I connected my phone to my PC, MM gave me an error message advising to have iTunes (not Apple Music) installed on my PC. But after that, MM simply doesn't detect my phone when I hook it up, and most of the music files are no longer showing on either my phone's Music app, or on the PC's iTunes. (All of my music files are still intact on my PC, and I made a backup of my phone, so that's not a catastrophe).
I haven't yet tried the instructions on how to do something with the drivers to accomplish the sync. Frankly, I don't know if I should approach this like I never had iTunes on my PC to begin with.
I've tried finding some how-to videos on this, but I haven't had any luck... most all of them are dated 10 years or older.
Any help would be appreciated. I've tried the step-by-step instructions for syncing in the MM support site, but the above problems don't seem to be addressed there. Thanks.

[Lowlander]

Did you install the Windows Store version (won't work) or the desktop version? Does iTunes itself recognize the device when it's connected to your PC?

[cwthornton]

I thought I downloaded the desktop version of iTunes. But maybe I just loaded a PC version from the MS store. Where do I find a download link to the desktop version outside of the MS store? I used an Apple support website.
I'm wondering if I should start from ground zero: uninstall both iTunes and MM; reinstall iTunes (desktop), make sure it populates correctly from my iTunes Media folder; then uninstall and reinstall MM and see if it will import the iTunes media folder correctly... then try the iPhone sync.

[Lowlander]

Please see: https://www.mediamonkey.com/wiki/WebHel ... ronization

[cwthornton]

Thanks, but I originally tried the instructions on that link with no luck, probably because my iTunes had switched back and forth between Apple Music and the original iTunes, and the library files were apparently causing problems.
This is kind of a nightmare now. I still have all my original music files on my PC, so I haven't lost the thousands of songs I have there.
I have an Apple Music folder that was generated when I first switched from iTunes to Apple Music. I've removed the Apple Musc App, but I can't delete the Apple Music folder because (even though I'm the only user and the administrator on my PC) it's saying I need administrator permission to delete it. But it's a separate folder from my iTunes folder.
Is there a way I can start from square one? What would happen if I uninstalled iTunes and Media Monkey, reinstalled non-MS store version of iTunes, repopulated it from scratch with my original music files, then reinstalled MM and let it do its thing to detect and populate from iTunes? Is that feasible, or am I not anticipating a problem with that approach?
Sorry, I know this is a mess, but if anyone has some ideas, I'm open.

[Lowlander]

MediaMonkey doesn't need file to be in the iTunes Library, it's just using components from iTunes to communicate with Apple iOS devices.
You may want to uninstall iTunes and reinstall the dekstop version, there should be no need to do this for MediaMonkey.

[cwthornton]

It's taken some time, but using some of the guidance above, I've finally gotten all of my song files on MediaMonkey, eliminated all duplicates, and set up new ratings and playlists.
I made the first attempt to sync the MediaMonkey application on my PC to my iPhone. MediaMonkey seemed to operate as expected. However, the playlists that I set up in Media Monkey didn't sync to the iPhone.
I've seen some guidance suggesting that I go into my iPhone music settings and opt out of syncing the iPhone Music app to iCloud. So I've done that.
Should I just try to resync the iPhone to MediaMonkey now, or does someone know another step involved that I'm not unaware of?
Thanks, as usual.

[Lowlander]

A resync should do the trick.

[cwthornton]

I tried the sync to my iPhone (with "All Playlists" indicated in the device settings) but got a message asking me to look for a codex... when I pressed that button, it took me to a website to download MediaMonkey codec pack 3.0.12. Does that sound normal?
Chuck

[Lowlander]

Yes, it depends on what formats you're Syncing and if Auto-Convert is happening. For certain formats it requires the MediaMonkey Codec Pack.