What if You Can't Add Music to iPhone? [9 Useful Solutions & An Alternative]

As an iPhone user, you may have experienced this situation: Connecting iPhone to computer to sync some beautiful music you download from the Internet to your iPhone but only to find that you can't add music to iPhone... This is very discouraging, especially when you have tried many times to reconnect iPhone and transfer music to it. Well, if you have encountered the similar situation and need some guidance to fix the problem, you can refer to this article, which introduces 9 proven solutions to fix the problem of can't add songs to iPhone.

Part 1. Why Can't I Add Songs to iPhone?
Part 2. Can't Add Music to iPhone, How to Fix?
Part 3. An Alternative Way to Transfer Music to iPhone When iTunes Won't Add Music to iPhone

Part 1. Why Can't I Add Songs to iPhone?

You may wonder why you can't add music to iPhone abruptly. Actually, there are many reasons which may result in this problem. And here are the most common ones:

• You have turned on iCloud music. In this case, iCloud music will conflict with iTunes music on computer and block the data transfer feature.
• You have enabled iTunes Match or Apple Music. If so, you can't add music to iPhone from iTunes.
• The music you have imported to iTunes Library is in a music format that is incompatible with iPhone operating system.
• The music you download from YouTube or other channels violates Apple's strict rule of copyright protection, thus, it is refused by iTunes and iPhone.
• The iTunes on your computer needs updating to the latest version, since the old version of iTunes may have problem in transferring data.
• If the Apple's servers break down, you can't add music to iPhone successfully.
• Other hardware problems.

After you have understood the common reasons for songs not transferring to iPhone, let's see how to accordingly fix the issue of can't add music to iPhone.

Part 2. Can't Add Music to iPhone, How to Fix?

If songs won't sync to iPhone, you can try the following solutions to fix the problem. And before you begin, reboot your iPhone and computer first.

Related: How to Fix the iPod Won't Sync Issue

Solution 1. Check the USB or Wi-Fi Connection

If there is something wrong with the connection between iPhone and iTunes, naturally, you can't add music to iPhone. To check the connection, you can use the USB cable to connect another device or connect iPhone and computer with another working USB cable. Apart from that, if you sync music to iPhone over Wi-Fi, make sure that you have correctly set it and the iPhone and computer are connecting to the same Wi-Fi network.

Well, if iTunes won't transfer music to iPhone on Windows computer, the Apple Drivers may be not working well. You can go to My Computer > Manage > Computer Manager > Apple Mobile Device USB Driver under Universal Serial Bus Controllers > Right-click it > Tap Enable if there is a warning mark on it to fix it.

Learn more: You can recover messages from your old phone so long as they are not overwritten by new data.

Solution 2. Disable the iCloud Music Library

As iCloud music will conflict with iTunes music, you can toggle off iCloud Music Library to solve the problem that you can't add music to iPhone. Just go to Settings on iPhone > Music > Turn off iCloud Music Library.

Solution 3. Disable iTunes Match and Apple Music

If you have enabled iTunes Match or Apple Music on iPhone, you can go to Settings on iPhone > iTunes & App Store > Tap your Apple ID > CLick Subscriptions > Press iTunes Match > Hit Cancel Subscription to switch off iTunes Match.

Or disable Apple Music if you have enabled it by going to Apple Music app > Click For You > Tap Profile > Scroll down to click View Account > Press View Apple ID > Select Subscriptions > Hit Cancel Subscription.

After that, you can check whether you can add music to iPhone or not.

Solution 4. Add Music to iPhone Manually

If the automatic syncing feature of iTunes does not work, try to add music to iPhone manually by following the steps below:

Connect iPhone to computer via USB or Wi-Fi network > Launch iTunes > Click Summary > Check Manually manage music and videos under Options in the right panel > Press Apply option below > Locate to the Library window > Tap Music > Drag and drop a single song from the song list to On My Device section in left panel, or press the Ctrl key on Windows or Cmd key on Mac to select multiple songs and copy them to the On My Device section as well.

Tips: To add multiple music to iPhone manually, you can also use iTunes playlists. Just create an iTunes playlist on your computer, then select all music in the playlist, drag and drop to On My Device section.

Solution 5. Check if There Is Enough Space on iPhone

If there is not enough space on iPhone to store music, you can't add music to iPhone either. To solve this problem, you can check the iPhone storage by going to Settings on iPhone > General > Usage > Manage Storage. If the space on iPhone is inadequate to store music, you can free up some space on iPhone. However, be careful when you clear something from iPhone.

Solution 6. Put Songs in a Locatable Location Path

If iTunes cannot find or read the songs outside its default location - iTunes Library, you can't add music to iPhone successfully. In this case, you can move the songs to the locatable iTunes Library on computer.

Solution 7. Make Sure You Have Checked Music in iTunes Interface

Though unchecking music less frequently happens, some people do forget to tick music when transferring music to iPhone. In this case, select iPhone icon in iTunes interface > Tap Music from the left panel > Click Entire music library option and continue other steps to add music to iPhone.

Solution 8. Update iTunes to the Latest Version or Reinstall It

If you do not update iTunes to the latest version, the bugs in old version may cause the problem. You can go to Help on PC > Choose Check for Update or Apple Store on Mac > Tap Update to check whether you are using the latest version of iTunes or not. If not, you can follow the on-screen instructions to update iTunes to the latest version.

Or, if you are using the last version of iTunes but can't add music to iPhone, you can uninstall and reinstall iTunes to check whether this problem exists or not.

Solution 9. Check whether the Audio Format is Supported by Apple

From the previous part, you can see that the unsupported music formats by Apple is one of the reasons for songs not transferring to iPhone. But which music formats does Apple support? Well, Apple supports AIFF, CAF, MP3, MP4, WAV, AAC and Apple Lossless music formats. If the transferred music is in the format of FLAC, APE or WMA, songs won't sync to iPhone automatically. So, check if your music files are compatible by Apple by going to the file extension or right clicking the file and selecting Get info.

iTunes won't let me add music to iPhone even after I tried above solutions, what can I do to add music to iPhone? If so, you can ask Apple company for help or just tend to the iTunes alternative app to transfer music to iPhone.

Guess you like: Want to set an MP3 file as your iPhone ringtone? That's simple. You can click this post to get the tutorial.

Part 3. An Alternative Way to Transfer Music to iPhone When iTunes Won't Add Music to iPhone

Can't add music to iPhone? Here is the once-for-all solution - using iOS Music Transfer, the iTunes alternative app, to sync music to iPhone effortlessly. Let's take a brief look at its features first.

iOS Music Transfer a powerful app to sync and manage photos, music, contacts, messages, videos, notes, calendars, Safari, eBooks and call logs from iPhone/iPad/iPod and you can use it to transfer files among iOS devices, computer and iTunes.

To be specific, you can transfer files from iOS to computer, iOS to iOS, computer to iOS, iTunes to iOS and iTunes to computer via this app. It supports multiple file types, such as photos, music, iTunes U, Podcasts, ringtones, audiobooks, voice memos, playlists, movies, home videos, TV shows, music videos, contacts, text messages, Kik, Line, WhatsApp data, Viber, Messenger, WeChat data, QQ, eBooks, notes, calendars, Safari and call logs. For music transfer, you can add music to iPhone from iPhone, iPad, iPod, computer or iTunes.

Besides, it also acts as an iOS music manager for you to edit the album cover, artist, genre, etc., convert music format to be compatible with iOS, create music playlist for quick listening, delete songs from iPhone directly and play iOS music. Well, iOS Music Transfer is widely compatible with Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7 and iOS 6.0 and higher versions, such as iPhone 14/13/12/11 Pro Max/11 Pro/11/XS/XS Max/XR/X/8/8 Plus/7/SE (1st generation)/6s/6s Plus/6 Plus/6/5s/5c/5/4s/4/3GS.

How to add music to iPhone?

Notes: As iOS 13 has strengthened the data security protection for iDevices, you may need to input the iPhone passcodes on your device twice to confirm your choice. And iOS Music Transfer is highly secure.

1. Download and install iOS Music Transfer on your computer.

2. Connect iPhone to computer via a USB cable.

3. After successful connection, click Music from the left window, tap + button on the top menu of the right window, select music files and click Open to add music to iPhone.

You may also like:

How to transfer music from iPhone to iPhone

How to transfer music from Android to iPhone

The Bottom Line

Can't add music to iPhone? Well, you can try the above 9 useful solutions to fix this problem, or use an alternative app to add music to iPhone effortlessly. To quickly solve the issue and save time, I highly recommend you to try iOS Music Transfer, which is absolutely secure, fast and easy to use. If you encounter any difficulty during use, feel free to leave a comment below.

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