iTunes Sync Issue

Am hoping someone here might be able to solve a long-standing frustration experienced whenever syncing my iPod to iTunes.

Each and every time I plug in my iPod to update it (be it to sync new podcasts, new audio tracks, etc.), alongside copying new files to my iPod, iTunes also resyncs tracks that had already been sycned – and each time it appears to be the same tracks. Several…hundred tracks.

In the attached screenshot, it’s resyncing a track from my Anarchy Online collection. It also resyncs tunes I’ve either copied from CD or downloaded via any number of sites (bandcamp, etc.). What I cannot determine is: why?

Initially, I thought perhaps it was due to the codecs used to encode each individual mp3 file, so I tried converting all the files to AAC format.

That didn’t work.

Perhaps it’s simply updating the status of songs that have recently been placed?

Except that wasn’t the case either.

A friend suggested there might be a DRM-related issue, except I cannot see how that’s possible, as the songs in mention have come from a variety of locations, and don’t share any commonalities aside from, well, being music.

Was hoping that someone might be able to provide some guidance as to why this continually happens and what might be done to fix this issue.

The version of iTunes that I’m using is 12.6.1.25

Screenshot available here (https://mega.nz/#!ofgAFYjK!I0s1K4e2TMN2bwSzGPX6flgYOm0NPlTMNHYY2JskgAQ).

Thank you in advance to any parties that reply to this thread and provide assistance.

Cheers,

-S

Try to use an other software than itune for syncing. It’s supported for instance by mediamonkey. The last time I got an ipod shuffle, I was using a very fast python script for syncing.
Otherwise such hassle doesn’t exist with non-apple products.

Hi Shevchyk,

It’s not a DRM issue, not that I’m aware of. I say this because I’ve experienced the same issue before. In my case it usually appears in one of two scenarios:

I’ve synced songs to my iPhone that appear in my iPhone music storage on iTunes, but NOT in my music list on my iPhone. Hence when I attach my phone again, it starts syncing those songs again. Just let it finish!
The other time this happens is that the initial sync was prematurely aborted. Same solution: just let it finish its sync.

Sometimes when you abort a sync for new songs, your Music on your iPhone/iPod is even known to completely freak out and if you then access your music, it shows nothing at all. Syncing new music does not only store new music on your iPhone, but it also does some kind of checksum where it orders your songs anew alphabetically, including the songs you just synced (something to that effect at least). If you abort the sync all kinds of things can go wrong.

If all else fails, delete ALL of the music on your iPod, remove the iPod, restart it, connect it anew and start syncing from scratch.

Yep, i’m having the same issue.

Of all the ~4500 tracks that i have selected to be sync’d to my iPhone, roughly 2500 will get copied over every time. And no, i didn’t modify them since the previous sync at all, i probably didn’t even listen to them since then (which does not modify the file at all anyways). And of course, i always let the sync finish, so that’s not the problem either. Similarly, i never delete music on my phone as well. And yes, it’s not DRM-related, i can confirm this much, simply because i don’t own a single DRM-protected song. I also don’t use Apple Music or iTunes Match, or any of that sort. All i can say is, it’s probably a bug in iTunes and/or iOS…

We’re not alone though; if you Google for this, you’ll find a few people with the same problem. There are many suggestions you could try, including the one Dave999 mentioned: completely remove every piece of music and then re-sync. I have yet to try this myself, so i don’t know if it works.