HT202778 My iPod and iPad will not sync with iTunes

Question

Help! What has changed that all of a sudden, (within the past 3 days) I no longer can sync my iPod and iPad with iTunes on my Mac. What has changed? Everything is up-to-date on all of my machines/devices/software

Answer 1

I had difficulties syncing my iPad Air last week that I have since resolved by changing back a few of my settings to what I had been using in the past. I have now synced my iPhone 5S multiple times (via USB cable) to the latest iTunes version on my Mac Pro with no issues.   In my situation, I don't know if the problems I had originally experienced in syncing the iPad Air was partly because I was making an initial attempt at syncing with a new Mac Pro and a copy of iTunes (whereby the iTunes sync options defaulted to Apple's original settings) or if it was because my previous settings were just overridden.  In either case, my issues were resolved as follows:
     1) on the MacPro, I left iTunes Match "on" and selected "Sync only checked songs and videos" within the iTunes Summary Options section.  For my music sync settings, I selected  "Sync Music" & "Entire music library", and
     2) for the iPad Air and iPhone 5S, I turned iTunes Match off as well as the Show All Music and Genius options (i.e., Settings, Music, "Show All Music", "Genius", and "iTunes Match" are all disabled [off]----I always adjust my playlist on the Mac Pro anyway, so I only care about the iTunes Match feature when updating iTunes on the Mac (as a backup measure in addition to the Time Capsule) and I prefer to access music that is directly stored on the iPad & iPhone rather than use the iCloud. Last week, when I initially did the sync with the iPad Air and had to reset, erase all content, and restore the device, Apple defaulted a few of these settings to on.  I did not experience any troubles with my iPhone 5S sync with the new Mac Pro as I was more careful to make certain that these settings were deactivated (because I did not run into further difficulties, I also did not have to reset, erase, & restore my iPhone as was the case with the iPad).  I can't say what combination of the "Show All Music", "Genius", and "iTunes Match" settings are a contributing factor to any sync issues, but I recalled having them all off on the iPads and iPhones when successfully syncing over the past several years.  So when it worked the first time a few days ago with the iPhone 5S sync, I didn't go looking for trouble to further isolate the cause (of my previous iPad Air difficulties last week) by setting the "Show All Music" and/or "Genius" options to on (i.e., I just made sure they were all off and was happy to see the iPhone 5S sync successfully).  There are multiple iTunes sync options, so I realize there are other settings that may work fine for many, but I have had relatively few issues in the past when syncing as described.
I have continued to edit playlists/add songs and have synced successfully several times.  After having had quite a few sync issues with the iPad Air last week, I am going to be more careful to examine the iTunes sync options on both the Mac Pro and iPhone 5s & iPad Air (to make certain that they have not changed) when I update any IOS software on either device in the future.