The Problem
So I was having an issue with my iPhone 4 where some of my songs wouldn’t play. Those songs would play fine while in iTunes, but when I’d try to play them on my iPhone, one of two things would happen:
- It would quickly skip that song and jump to the next track OR
- It would show the little play icon at the top, and the play button would change to the pause button, as if it were playing, but the time wouldn’t progress – it simply wouldn’t play.
This did not include mp3′s and CD rips… strictly music I’ve purchased in the past from iTunes. Furthermore, it wasn’t ALL my purchased music – only some. It wasn’t a big priority, but was definitely annoying.
My wife and I all have our music and apps on the same machine, even though we each have our own Apple accounts (this is because we’ve each changed laptops a couple of times and so we decided to keep them all on one machine… plus we can authorize each other’s phones to play one another’s music, which is cool). At first I thought perhaps this was the issue, but I ruled that out.
I finally realized what how the problem got started: Because a few of the tracks were older and had been authorized for the 5 maximum devices already (from previous iPhones, iPods and laptops), some songs wouldn’t play in iTunes when I first got my latest laptop, so I deauthorized ALL songs from all previous devices by logging into my Apple account. Then, via iTunes (Store > Authorize This Computer), I authorized my new laptop.
Problem solved, right? WRONG.
Songs that had previously not played still wouldn’t play on my iPhone! So, after checking around, I finally found the solution and thought I’d post it here for others to possibly stumble across…
The Solution
RESYNC! Remove all the songs and then add them back…
- Simply plug your phone up and launch iTunes
- Go to the Music tab and UNCHECK “Sync Music” at the top, then click Sync or Apply at the bottom
- After the phone is synced, CHECK “Sync Music” at the top (it may already be checked, but you’ll notice any music you’d previously selected to be added to your phone is no longer selected)
- Select the music you want added to your phone, then click Sync at the bottom.