Tracks / Metadata Synced to an Apple Device are lost

In some cases, MediaMonkey will sync tracks and/or metadata to your device, but they’re subsequently missing from the device. This can occur if iTunes interferes with data that MediaMonkey writes to the device:

  1. Tracks may be lost if iTunes overwrites the content that MediaMonkey has written to the device.
  2. Lyrics and Album Art can be lost if iTunes overwrites metadata synced by MediaMonkey.
  3. Play History can be lost since iTunes resets it when it syncs.

    To prevent all of the above, do not sync music or other content with iTunes. To prevent iTunes from automatically syncing with your iPhone, iPad or iPod when you connect it to your computer, disable automatic syncing in iTunes. You can do so for all devices or for each device individually:
    • Disable automatic syncing for all devices: iTunes > Edit > Preferences > check ‘Prevent iPods, iPhones and iPads from syncing automatically’
    • Disable automatic syncing for a device: iTunes > Device button (displays when the device is connected) > Summary > disable ‘Automatically sync when this device is connected’ (in the Options section).

      Note: if you want to sync contact/calendar data, using a tool such as iMazing won’t overwrite the database
  4. Data loss can also occur if iTunes prevents MediaMonkey from updating the device properly. To solve this, do not run iTunes when syncing with MediaMonkey.

Once iTunes isn’t running and is configured not to sync, try syncing via MediaMonkey again to update content on the device. If that fails to solve the problem, go through the following steps:

  1. Clear all tracks from MediaMonkey’s auto-synch list and enable ‘Delete other files and playlists from the device’.
  2. Initiate auto-sync to delete all content from the device.
  3. Reset the auto-sync list as it was originally and re-sync tracks to the device.

Related

Online Help: Apple device sync 

Applies to: ,

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