How to transfer music from computer to iPhone without iTunes

Apple's iTunes lacks its flexibility in syncing music with iOS device, but don't worry. Here are some other ways to transfer music from computer to iPhone without iTunes.

Alex Griffith Updated on May 13, 2025 9:48 AM

You can transfer your music without iTunes, by either syncing your Apple Music library with your iPhone or use the Apple Devices app to transfer the music files.
The third-party utility iPhone Data Transfer lets you transfer media files smoothly without any data loss, including movies, TV shows, photos, audiobooks, tones, music to and from computer to iPhone without iTunes.
Without iTunes, you can still transfer your music to iPhone from a computer via Dropbox, Google Drive, or using a third-party application like VLC.

Without relying on iTunes, there are a number of ways you can still take to transfer music from PC to an iPhone.

Apple's iTunes offers many helpful features to organize your iPhone media library and allows a setup of sync between your computer and device. This is fine if you want to sync music from computer with your iPhone. But, iTunes has its limitations: it replaces the existing tracks on the phone with the songs you choose locally as part of the necessary syncing process.

This can cause real problems if you have a large music collection on your iPhone. So, is it possible to transfer music from a Windows or Mac computer to iPhone without iTunes? Well, luckily, Apple's Music app, third-party music transfer programs, and cloud-based file-sharing services help you out.

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The tools used for transfer music from computer to iPhone

Apple Music for Windows or Mac
iPhone Data Transfer
Apple Devices app (iTunes alternative from Apple)
Dropbox
E-mail service

How to transfer music from computer to iPhone without iTunes - via Apple Music

If you use Apple Music on your either Mac or Windows and have a subscription to it, your music in library is transferred automatically to your iPhone while the Sync Library option is enabled on the device. Make sure you're logged into the Apple Music app on your iPhone using the same Apple account that's you use with your subscription.

Here's how to turn on Sync Library on your iPhone to transfer music from computer without iTunes:

Turn on Sync Library in the Apple Music app on computer

1. Open the Apple Music app on your Windows or Mac.

2. At the bottom of the sidebar, click your name and ensure that your iPhone is signed in with the same Apple Account that you use with your Apple Music subscription.

For Mac user, select account in the menu bar to check your Apple account.

3. At the top of the sidebar, click the three dot.

4. Click Settings. In Apple Music for Mac, click Music > Settings.

5. Click General, and then toggle on Sync Library. Wait for it sync your music library to iCloud.

How to transfer music from computer to iPhone without iTunes - via iPhone Data Transfer

You can transfer songs from a computer to an iPhone without using iTunes' sync feature. In fact, there are a variety of ways to do it.

iPhone Data Transfer is probably the easiest way of transferring music from computer to your iPhone without iTunes. As an excellent iTunes alternative when it comes to managing and transferring music and other files to and from iPhone, iPad and iPod, it won't touch the existing any files on the device.

The application even includes several useful features that iTunes won't have, including the ability to import music from iPhone to computer, built-in media converter, HEIC converter, phone transfer, iTunes library rebuilder, and ringtone maker.

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How to transfer music to iPhone from Windows or Mac computer without iTunes

iPhone Data Transfer actually sports a minimalist design, making it very easy and straightforward to put music from computer onto iPhone without iTunes. You can make a simple drag-n-drop to import your tracks from computer, or click the traditionally Add feature to do it. Better still, you don't need to worry about the compatibility of your songs — the application detects the file type of track and convert it to a readable file automatically before transferring to your iPhone library.

Relax, the whole process is pretty much simple.

Also see: How to import photos from iPhone to Mac

Step 1: Connect the iPhone to your computer

To transfer music from a computer to an iPhone without iTunes, first of all, connect the device to your computer, and launch iPhone Data Transfer.

Wait a few seconds for the program to detect the connection and initialize the flash memory in your phone. You then should get screen like this.

Step 2: Open music library on the iPhone

Once it's connected, click "Music" tab on the left sidebar of the screen. This will load all types of audio files, including music, podcasts, audiobooks, voice memos, iTunes U from the phone library. Clicking on any file type allows previewing the specific tracks on the right pane.

Step 3: Add music to iPhone from computer

Now you're able to import music files from your computer to the iPhone. You have two options to accomplish it.

Click the "+" icon on the top center of the screen, the Select File(s) dialog box appears. Select the desired songs from local folder on the computer, then click "Add" to import them to your iPhone.

Alternatively, open the folder where stores your music, drag the files that you want to transfer to iPhone and drop them to the program window.

That's it! Once your songs have been transferred successfully, you can have your tunes organized and ready to play in the default Apple Music app directly.

Apart from using this tool to put music to iPhone from computer without iTunes, you can take advantage of some other nice features in it to organize your library, like the ability to create playlist, move songs between playlists, move back to your computer, delete tracks, make ringtone, remove duplicated ones, edit ID3 info, and export files back to computer.

How to transfer music to iPhone from computer without iTunes - via Apple Devices app

As part of Apple's move to separate iTunes into individual apps for music, TV, and device management, the Apple Devices app for Windows was created to help users sync music, movies, and TV shows between desktop and Apple devices. If you're looking for a way to transfer songs from a Windows computer to iPhone without using iTunes, you may use Apple Devices app.

You'll need to have the Apple Music app installed on your computer to sync music to your iPhone with the Apple Devices app, though.

Follow these steps to sync music to your iPhone from computer without iTunes.

Please turn off the Sync Library option in Apple Music settings If you're a subscriber.

1. Open Apple Devices app on your computer that's running Windows, and connect your iPhone.

2. Select your device in the sidebar.

3. Select Music.

4. Tick the Sync music onto [device name] checkbox.

5. Select Entire Music Library in Sync section if you want to sync all your songs to iPhone from computer; or opt for Selected artists, albums, genres, and playlists to sync a selection of your tracks.

You can also tick the Include videos checkbox to include videos when syncing.

6. Select Apply, and wait for Apple Devices to sync music from the computer to your iPhone.

One major drawback of music transfer with Apple Devices, just as iTunes, is that the next time you sync your iPhone, any synced songs you've deleted from your computer will also be removed from your phone.

How to transfer music from PC to iPhone without iTunes - via Dropbox

If you have Dropbox installed on your iPhone, you can just upload what music you want to transfer from computer to Dropbox's cloud server and download it to your iPhone later, no iTunes required.

Here's how to import computer music to iPhone without iTunes through Dropbox:

1. Navigate to the Dropbox website in your preferred web browser on the computer.

2. Sign in with the same account you use on iPhone.

3. Once you're in your account's homepage, go to the folder you wish to upload the file to. Here we select Music folder.

4. Click the blue Upload > Files (or Folder if you want to transfer all your songs in that folder).

5. Locate the music files you want to upload on your computer hard drive.

6. Click Open. Your selected songs will be transferred to Dropbox storage.

7. Open Dropbox app on your iPhone, you should see yours songs added from computer.

8. Choose the music and download it to your iPhone for offline listening.

Note that any music you upload to Dropbox won't show up in your iPhone's default Music app, you'll need to use another compatible music app that can import songs from Dropbox.

In addition to the Dropbox method, you can also get other cloud-based services in the market to help you move music to iPhone from computer without iTunes, such as Google Drive, OneDrive. The whole process should basically be the same: add your songs to cloud from computer, then save onto your iPhone library.

Also see: How to fix iPhone stuck on "support.apple.com/iphone/restore" screen

How to transfer music from PC to iPhone without iTunes - via E-mail service

Sending music from a Windows or Mac computer to iPhone through Email is hardly the most efficient way of music transfer without iTunes, especially if you have a long list of songs to be moved, but it at least works.

1. Log in to any of your email accounts on your PC or Mac. Here we take Gmail for example.

2. Reply to an email that you've received or create a new one.

3. Click the paper clip icon, and add one or multiple songs as attachment(s) to your email.

4. Click Send to send it to your own account.