Updating id3 info in iTunes does not update on iPhone?

[rogerh]

I manually manage music on my iPhone 4s.

I noticed some of the tags were wrong so I went into iTunes, changed the info on the Get Info menu in iTunes under my iPhone Device.

It does not get updated on my iPhone but in iTunes it saids the right info.

I never had a problem with this until I got my 4s.

 

[Mos Jeff]

I manually manage music on my iPhone 4s.

I noticed some of the tags were wrong so I went into iTunes, changed the info on the Get Info menu in iTunes under my iPhone Device.

It does not get updated on my iPhone but in iTunes it saids the right info.

I never had a problem with this until I got my 4s.

I have the exact same issue on my iPhone 4. I actually posted a thread about this when ios 5 first was released, but nobody responded to it. Are you also unable to change artwork? Mine always says, "artwork not modifiable." If I want to update any of my music already on my phone, I need to use the cable, otherwise I need to update it in my library and then put it on my phone again.

 

[orpheus1120]

I have the same problem right now with my 4S. Updated lyrics on some songs in iTunes and manually synced to my phone. But the changes ain't showing.

 

[Tones2]

I have this same issue with lyrics. I started another thread here with more detail before I saw this one:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1286048/

So I guess it's a confirmed bug then. Note from the other thread that I actually wrote my own app to see if the metadata change is actually being transmitted to the phone, and my app shows the CORRECT data even though the Music Player does not. Also, my iPOD Classic shows the correct data. So this is an issue with the display in the Apple Music Player itself. I'm not sure why it would retain BOTH old and changed embedded meta-data, but somehow it is and it's displaying the old data even though the new is on the phone. And it even happens after DELETING the song from the iPhone AND from iTunes, redownloading it, putting in the new lyrics and reloading it onto the iPhone, with a hard reboot of both the iPhone and the computer in between!! (try it).

Weird, but at least this is a confirmed bug by others. Hopefully it's fixed in iOS 5.1.

Tony

 

[Tones2]

OK - My wife has an iPhone 4 (NOT S) but and has iOS 5.01 installed, but the lyrics DO change on her phone - we just tried. She however is still on iTunes 10.5.0 not 10.5.1 and she does not have iTunes Match.

So since someone on this thread indicates that this is happening on their iPhone 4, it must be a problem with iTunes 10.5.1 or else something to do with iTunes Match on the computer (not that I only have iTunes Match on my comuter - I do NOT have it on my iPhone 4S - I am hard syncing), or the combination.

So for the people that have the issue here - are you using iTuns 10.5.1 and / or iTunes Match on you computer? BTW - I'm on Windows 7.

Tony

 

[orpheus1120]

I'm using 4S iOS 5.0.1 and iTunes 10.5.1 without iTunes Match.

Yes the problem is with the Music app in the iphone. Apparently all the tags are synced across but the Music app has problem displaying them. You can verify this fact by going to the device section under iTunes, right-click on the particular song under MUSIC, and look under Lyrics. The synced data is there. It seems that although the tags were synced but somehow the old tag database in the phone is "cached" somewhere instead of being deleted and the phone reused it.

I highly doubt it is a case of hardwares (4 or 4S), more likely it's the combination of itunes 10.5.1 and iOS 5.0.1

 

[orpheus1120]

UPDATE

I managed to solve this problem albeit it involves using a third-party software. I bought this sometime ago while I was experimenting with jailbreaking, and just realized I could use this to solve our problem. I updated it to the latest version. FYI, no jailbreak needed.

1) You will need a paid copy of DiskAid 5.0

2) Open the app, and you should see this screen.

3) Connect your phone with the USB 30-pin connector to your computer (where your iTunes library resides.) while DiskAid is running.

4) You should see the screen of DiskAid changes from the top to this:-

5) Now navigate to File System>Media>iTunes_Control>iTunes

6) You should see MediaLibrary.sqlitedb. This is the SQL database for all your media content on your phone. Click and hold it, drag it somewhere to your desktop to make a backup. You shouldn't be using it again if this process works out right. After you have done this, delete MediaLibrary.sqlitedb from your phone. Just right-click and choose "Delete". Another copy of this file will be recreated by iTunes during the following steps. DON'T WORRY!. If you are to open the Music app on your phone at this point, you will notice it shows no music on your phone. Don't worry, your music are still in your phone. Your phone just doesn't know it since it is missing the media database. We will now regenerate an updated media database from iTunes.

7) Now go to iTunes, and under "Devices" section, choose your phone.

8) Click on the "Music" section of your phone, and play (double-click) ANY songs on your phone.

9) Something mysterious will happen! Yes you can see iTunes is syncing with your iPhone!!

10) Once the syncing is completed, unplug your phone from the 30-pin connector, and check your music from the Music app of your iPhone. You may have to wait awhile for the phone to process the new database. The lyrics SHOULD be updated, at least mine did.

What this accomplishes is it forces iTunes to update the media database on the phone so that all the tags are synced. If you are to connect your phone to your computer again and navigate via DiskAid to the above-mentioned location, you will see the updated copy of MediaLibrary.sqlitedb.

Tested on an iPhone 4S running iOS 5.0.1 and iTunes 10.5.1. YMMV.

 

[Tones2]

I'm tempted to try the process above, but I assume if the problem is that the Music app is caching old data, than this solution only lasts until the next time you update, then the problem will repeat itself - Correct?

Also, does anyone know if this issue is fixed in iOS 5.1?

Tony

 

[orpheus1120]

I'm tempted to try the process above, but I assume if the problem is that the Music app is caching old data, than this solution only lasts until the next time you update, then the problem will repeat itself - Correct?

Also, does anyone know if this issue is fixed in iOS 5.1?

Tony

Technically yes, the problem will repeat itself. I think only the tag part of the database is broken. I have filed the error with  and I suggest you do the same.

File it under iPhone, or under iTunes.

Interested to know if it's fixed in 5.1

 

[Tones2]

One thing weird about this whole thing is that the Music app database of the iPhone is keeping old meta-data even if the song is completely deleted from BOTH the iPhone and iTunes and resynced. The old data for a song will still appear after a redownload from iTunes. So there must be a whole mess of old data in the Music app database for even deleted songs. And who know how many versions od "changed" tag data is being saved. Nasty bug here.

Tony

 

[ck iphone]

fixing bug by using DiskAid 5.0 not working

I am so happy I found this thread!

I am using an iphone 3gs with IOS 5.0.1. and itunes 10.5.2. and have the same problem after changing info/tags of songs (managing songs and music manually).
I tried fixing the bug by using DiskAid 5.0, doing exactly what orpheus 1120 wrote.
I deleted the MediaLibrary.sqlitedb went to itunes, went to the devices section, went to the music on my iphone and double clicked a few songs to play them.
the iphone was syncing.
So I thought everything was fine.
But: opening the music app on the iphone - i still found my whole music library with all the wrong tags there.

At that time in DiskAid the MediaLibrary.sqlitedb was still missing!
So I moved the backup from my desktop back there and it asked me if i really wanted to move this file, because there was already an existing copy?
(eventhough it was not visible, and I had deleted it).


on 2nd try I checked the
the music app just to make sure nothing was shown there.
BUT: All the songs were still shown there!
Then I opened itunes and proceded as orpheus had said. same result as above.

Do you all think this is a problem because of my iphone 3gs or can you tell me what went wrong there?

ClaudiK

 

[MarceloHenrique]

Thank you orpheus1120

Thank you very much orpheus1120.
My iPhone wasn´t updating the music library anymore.
I was adding and deleting songs on itunes match and my iPhone was stuck.
The iPad showed everything almost in real time, but the iPhone didn´t change at all. All album art was gone as well. It was a mess!
I followed your method and I was able to recreate my library from scratch. Everything started to work again!
The only diference it´s that I didn´t use DiskAid to do it and I´ve deleted the Music folder also.
I recomend this method to anyone who´s having problems with iTunes Match not syncing properly with your iOS device.
Thank you!

 

[guest-macrumors]

after much frustration on trying to find a solution to updating song info on my iphone i tried the delete MediaLibrary.sqlitedb method. I'm using a PC so I found another program which let me delete the MediaLibrary.sqlitedb from my iphone...anyhow it didn't work and so I decided to update my OS from 5.0 to 5.1 and see if it will restore my songs. That didn't work either, the list of songs were still showing up on my itunes but I had no songs showing up on my iphone.

I started fresh and then I stumbled across a way to update ID3 tags! It would be good if someone can verify this as im not sure if this fix was because of the OS 5.1 update or the method I stumbled across.

For example if you wanted to update the song title on your iphone (u made the change to itunes but it's not updating on your iphone)
1. delete the song on your iphone (http://osxdaily.com/2011/11/09/delete-songs-directly-on-iphone-ipad-or-ipod-touch/)
2. then delete the song from your iphone on itunes. (it may still show up on the playlist through itunes but the song won't exist on your iphone).
3. Then copy the song back to your iphone through itunes (with updated song title). Your iphone will now have the song with the updated song title. This method worked for me for any ID3 tags (song title, artist, lyrics, etc).

I hope this helps someone cause I've been trying for months to update song info on my iphone and nothing worked!

I also had problems with updating album art but this happened to be a problem with the m4a file itself and I had to update the album art through a id3 editor then add the song to itunes.

 

[mmhardky]

So - this bug is STILL present even in 5.1.1 ...

Apple just doesn't care about this.

The only workaround is to change the ID3 tags on your PC/MAC and then import the song with the edited tags. No way to edit the tags on the iPhone/iPad - apart from song title. That one updates almost in real time, even over wifi!

 

[kiwiboi87]

iv had this issue on my mac and iphone4.
since iOS 5,

one work around is unlocking the songs in iTunes, removing the songs from the phones and re importing them to the phone, its pain. but a work around

its a massive issue, that apple really does need to work on.

 

[r3dm4lcz]

Just ran into this horrible bug. Tremendously annoying.

 

[VideoBeagle]

HAve spent some hours messing with this...about to post when a forum search came up with this. Guess Apple's too busy not making a new iMac and screwing up the OS to actually fix something.

edit: Orpheus' trick worked for me...though I had to unhook and replug in the ipod before it gave me the no music screen and then recreated the db.

Edit 2: I've entered a Bug Report (#11708454) into Apple's Bug Reporting system as well as through the feedback system (http://www.apple.com/feedback)

I'd recommend others do the same.

 

[NewAnger]

HAve spent some hours messing with this...about to post when a forum search came up with this. Guess Apple's too busy not making a new iMac and screwing up the OS to actually fix something.

edit: Orpheus' trick worked for me...though I had to unhook and replug in the ipod before it gave me the no music screen and then recreated the db.

Edit 2: I've entered a Bug Report (#11708454) into Apple's Bug Reporting system as well as through the feedback system (http://www.apple.com/feedback)

I'd recommend others do the same.

This bug is affecting all iPods from Classic to iPhones to iPads. Anything from changing one letter in a song title to changing genres don't sync over. I have to remove the music and resync to get the changes to sync.

 

[Tupring]

This bug is affecting all iPods from Classic to iPhones to iPads. Anything from changing one letter in a song title to changing genres don't sync over. I have to remove the music and resync to get the changes to sync.

Yep, having the same problem here with my iPod Classic. An annoying problem for the last year or so.

 

[VideoBeagle]

The Mac Bug techs are asking me if the problem is being seen in ios 6.0 beta 2.

Anyone tried that?

 

[VideoBeagle]

The Mac Bug techs are asking me if the problem is being seen in ios 6.0 beta 2.

Anyone tried that?

anyone?

 

[Gjwilly]

Are any of you using tag editing software other than iTunes to change the tags? And are the tags ID3v1 or ID3v2?

I wonder if this is playing a part in your problems?

For MP3 files, iTunes writes tags in ID3v2.2 using UCS-2 encoding by default, but converting them to ID3v2.3 (UCS-2 encoding) and ID3v2.4 (which uses UTF-8 encoding) is possible via its "Advanced" > "Convert ID3 Tags" toolbar menu. If both ID3v2.x and ID3v1.x tags are in a file, iTunes ignores the ID3v1.x tags

.

 

[Shellbo6901]

my iphone 5 is doing this, has a fix been found since this thread was last updated?

 

[Sassan Sanei]

Updating song tags in iTunes does not propagate changes to iPhone 5

I am having the same problem described in this thread.

I edit the tags in iTunes and then sync my iPhone. The existing songs on the iPhone are not updated with the changes.

For example I had over 100 different genres which was messy. I cleaned them all up so that I could more easily find songs on my iPhone. But my iPhone is still showing all the old genres.

I have also had some album artwork not show up. In this case I manually added a cover to every song in the album, removed the song from my iPhone, resynced the iPhone with iTunes, and the album artwork for that specific album still doesn't show up.

The songs are all (or mostly) MP3. I have the option set for converting higher bit rate songs to 128 kbps AAC. But I had this problem even before I turned this option on.

I have also tried converting all the ID3 tags to v2.4 in iTunes and then sync my iPhone again but this did not help.

I don't have a solution yet, but adding my voice here so that it is known this is not an isolated situation.

I am running iTunes 10.7.0.21 and using an iPhone 5 v6.0 (10A405).

 

[rogerbarrett]

You just need proper iTunes setting. I'm sure that this will help you in this matter.