Transfer music from iTunes to an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

If you have an iOS device - iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, you probably use iTunes to sync music to the device. And this works fine, except there are times when iTunes doesn't recognize your device, and thinks it's a new one. It then asks if it can delete everything on your iOS device and replace it with what's in your iTunes library.

You may have two separate iTunes libraries; say on a desktop computer and a laptop. And you may want to connect your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to one of those computers to get some music from its library. But if it's not the library that's linked to your device, you can't do this.

With iMazing, you can copy music files from iTunes to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, even if iTunes thinks the device is linked to another library. iMazing does this retaining all the files' metadata: each track's name, artwork, and even ratings and play counts.

Here is how to transfer music from iTunes to an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch:

1. Launch iMazing and connect your device to your Mac or PC.
2. Select your device in the sidebar, then select "Music".
3. Click "Import from iTunes."
4. Select the music you want to import.
5. Import your Music.

Before you begin

Download and install iMazing on your Mac or PC computer

In-Depth Tutorial

1. Launch iMazing on your computer and connect your device.

Download and install iMazing. Launch the app, and connect your device to your Mac or PC.

2. Select your device in the iMazing's sidebar, then select "Music".

iMazing loads your device's music and playlist(s).

3. Click Import from iTunes.

In the toolbar at the bottom of the window, click Import from iTunes. The wizard opens displaying the content of your iTunes library.

4. Select the music you want to import.

Use the column browser to find the music you want to import to your iOS device. You can also use the Search field in the toolbar to find specific artists, albums, or songs.

Check the tracks you want to import. If you want to import, say, all of an artist's music, or an entire album, select that artist or album, then check Select All.

You can also choose to select an entire library, such as Music, Movies, or Podcasts, from the Library column. Or you can select one or more playlists from the Playlists list.

5. Import the music.

Click Copy to Device, and iMazing starts importing the music. The Operations window displays, showing the progress of the import.

Depending on how many files you're copying, this may take a while.

When iMazing has finished, it displays a report telling you how many files it has copied.

Going further

If you check Only Show Transferable Media, just above the toolbar, iMazing only shows those files it can copy. If you uncheck this option, any files that iMazing cannot transfer display greyed out.

There are two reasons why iMazing may not be able to copy files:

• iCloud Music tracks that aren't downloaded cannot be copied, because they are not on your device. If you do want to export music that's in your iCloud Music Library, download it first to your device.
• Apple Music tracks are a special kind of file that cannot be copied to a computer or to another device.