How I Got Play Counts Syncing Again from iPhone

[nortelbert]

Figured I’d post this since I’ve been fighting with this since March 2019 on an iPhone 6 with iOS 12 and MM 4

I finally got play counts and “Last Played” syncing back from my iPhone to MediaMonkey. This is on iOS 26 with MediaMonkey 2024 (Build 3184). The phone is an iPhone 11 Pro

If anyone else is stuck, here’s exactly what I did.

1. Reset the iPhone “Trust” Relationship
This clears out old junk that builds up over time.

On the PC:

In MediaMonkey, delete the old Device Profile for your iPhone.

On the iPhone:

Settings → General → Transfer or Reset → Reset Location & Privacy

Plug it back in and hit Trust again.

2. Turn ON “Use Listening History”
Without this, iOS doesn’t bother writing play counts to the local database.

On the iPhone:
Settings → Music → Use Listening History = ON

3. Turn OFF iCloud Music Library
If this is on, Apple keeps everything in the cloud and MM can’t read anything.

On the iPhone: Settings → Music → Sync Library = OFF

4. Use MediaMonkey 2024 Build 3184
This was the key: older builds didn’t work for me. 3184 seems to handle the newer iOS database properly.

5. Sync Over USB
Didn't try drag/drop or WiFi, not even sure if they work on Apple devices. Anyway, only tested on sync via USB.

Also: let songs play all the way to the end on the phone (iOS only increments play count at the end).

Results after doing all this:

Played track and force closed the Music app before syncing → synced back fine
Played track and left the Music app open before syncing → synced back fine
Left music app running and played a song on the phone was still plugged in and MM was running→ also synced

Both Play Count and Last Played updated correctly in MediaMonkey

This is the first time I’ve had this working since around 2019.