What If You Can't Add Music to iPhone? [8 Useful Solutions & An Alternative]

As an iPhone user, you may have experienced this situation: Connecting your iPhone to a 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 your iPhone and transfer music to it. Well, if you have encountered a similar situation and need some guidance to fix the problem, you can refer to this article, which introduces 8 proven solutions to fix the problem of not adding music to an iPhone.

Part 1. Why Can't Add Music to iPhone?

Why iTunes won't let me add music to iPhone abruptly? Actually, there are many reasons which may result in this problem. Here are the most common ones:

• You have turned on iCloud music. In this case, iCloud music will conflict with iTunes music on the 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 the 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 a problem in transferring data.
• If Apple's servers break down, you can't add music to the iPhone successfully.
• If your iPhone storage is full, iTunes won't transfer music to iPhone.
• 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. How to Fix Can't Add Songs to iPhone

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

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 an iPhone over Wi-Fi, make sure that you have correctly set it and that the iPhone and computer are connecting to the same Wi-Fi network.

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

If you have enabled iTunes Match on your iPhone, iTunes won't add music to iPhone. You must disable it to solve this issue.

To do this, 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.

Solution 4. Enable Manually Manage Music and Videos

Your songs won't sync to iPhone because the "Manually manage music and videos" option is not enabled. To enable this feature, follow the steps below:

Step 1. Open iTunes on your computer and connect your iPhone.

Step 2. Click the device icon to go to the "Summary" page.

Step 3. Check the "Manually manage music and videos" box, then click "Apply".

Solution 5. Check iPhone Storage Space

If there is not enough space on the iPhone to store music, iTunes won't transfer music to iPhone either. By checking your storage space, you can ensure there is enough room to accommodate new music files.

Here are the steps:

Step 1. Open "Settings" and tap "General".

Step 2. Select "iPhone Storage" to view the available storage capacity.

Step 3. If space is low, delete unnecessary files or apps to free up storage.

Solution 6. Check the Audio Format

The unsupported music formats by Apple are 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 with Apple by going to the file extension or right-clicking the file and selecting Get info.

Solution 7. Make Sure Songs are in iTunes Library

To transfer music files to your iPhone, they must first be added to the iTunes library. If the files are not added to the iTunes library, the transfer process will fail. Follow the steps below to add music to iTunes:

Step 1. Open iTunes, click the "File" menu, and select "Add File to Library".

Step 2. Browse and select the music files you want to transfer, then import them into the iTunes library.

Step 3. Ensure the files have been successfully added to the library, then try syncing them to your iPhone.

Solution 8. Update iTunes to the Latest Version

If you do not update iTunes to the latest version, the bugs in the 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 latest version of iTunes but can't add music to your iPhone, you can uninstall and reinstall iTunes to check whether this problem exists or not. (Can't install iTunes on Windows 10/11?)

Part 3. How to Add Music to iPhone Without iTunes

If you still can't add music to iPhone from iTunes after trying the methods mentioned above, you may try another method to transfer music to your iPhone. Here is the once-for-all solution - using iOS Music Transfer, the iTunes alternative app, to transfer music and more from your computer to your iPhone, and it even supports exporting files from your iPhone to a computer or other iOS devices effortlessly.

Key features of iOS Music Transfer:

• Transfer music from computer to iPhone effortlessly.
• Support to transfer photos, music, ringtones, voice memos, playlists, movies, contacts, and more from computer to iOS.
• Transfer files from iOS to computer, iOS to iOS, computer to iOS, iTunes and iOS, and iTunes to computer.
• Edit ID3 tags to customize album covers, artist names, genres, and more.
• Automatically convert music formats to ensure compatibility with iOS.
• Create personalized music playlists based on your listening preferences.
• Delete songs directly from your iPhone to free up storage space.
• Support iOS 6 to iOS 18, such as iPhone 16/15/14/13/12/11, etc.

Free Download for PC

 

Free Download for Mac

Here is how to add music to iPhone using iOS Music Transfer:

The Bottom Line

Can't add music to iPhone? Well, you can try the above 8 useful solutions to fix this problem or use an alternative app to add music to your iPhone effortlessly. To quickly solve the issue and save time, I highly recommend you 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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