How to Transfer Music from USB to iPhone🏅

When you want to transfer music from USB to iPhone, the most straightforward solution for you is to use an iPhone transfer software tool to transfer music from USB to your iPhone directly. In addition, there are other workable ways for you to transfer music from a flash drive to an iPhone. Read on to check for more details.

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Sofia Albert

Updated on Feb 27, 2024

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Have you stored lots of music you like on your USB and now want to transfer music from the flash drive to your iPhone?

When it comes to transferring music from an external storage device like a USB flash drive or external hard drive to an iPhone, it's actually quite similar to transferring music from computer to iPhone. Thus, the ways to put music on iPhone from computer are also applicable to transferring music from USB to iPhone. Whether you want to use iTunes or not, you will find the solution you need from the methods below.

🔍Method 👍Effectiveness 😄Difficulty
iPhone Data Transfer Tool High - Transfer music from USB to iPhone safely without losing data or reducing its quality. Easy
iTunes Moderate - You will lose existing music, movies, TV shows, books, and tones on your device. Moderate
Dropbox Moderate - It enables you to transfer songs from USB to iPhone wirelessly. However, a computer is also required. Easy

Method 1. How to Transfer Music from USB to iPhone Without iTunes

No matter you are using a PC or Mac, you can use it to transfer music from USB to iPhone with the help of the iPhone transfer software - EaseUS MobiMover. It supports data transfer between an iPhone/iPad/iPod and a computer/external storage device or between two iDevices. Other than music, it also supports photos, videos, contacts, books, ringtones, and more. Thus, you can also transfer photos from USB to iPhone with it.

Whether you want to know how to put music on iPod without iTunes, transfer music from USB to iPhone, or transfer photos from iPhone to external hard drive, it will help.

Besides, unlike iTunes, which will replace the existing media files on your iPhone with the newly synced item, EaseUS MobiMover will transfer songs from the flash drive to your iPhone safely without data loss. Thus, when you want to add music to iPhone without syncing, using this iPhone data transfer tool is highly recommended.

To transfer music from USB to iPhone:

Step 1. Connect your USB and iPhone to the computer and run EaseUS MobiMover.

Allow EaseUS MobiMove to access your phone by clicking the Allow button on the program and tapping "Trust" on your phone.

On the PC to Phone section, click "Select Files" and move to the next step.

how to transfer music from USB/flash drive to iPhone - step 1

Step 2. Select the saved music files on your USB and click "Open" to allow EaseUS MobiMover to transfer them.

how to transfer music from USB/flash drive to iPhone - step 2

Step 3. Click "Transfer" to move USB music files to your iPhone.

If you want to add more files, drag and drop the items to this window and click "Transfer" to start the transferring.

When the process finishes, you can check music files on your iPhone by opening the Music app.

how to transfer music from USB/flash drive to iPhone - step 3

When you need to download MP3 to iPhone directly, you can check the guide - how to download MP3 to iPhone instead.

Other than being an iOS data transfer tool, EaseUS MobiMover also works well as a video downloader that helps to download online video or audio files to a computer, external storage device, iPhone, iPad, or iPod. For example, you can download a YouTube video to a flash drive or save Facebook videos to a computer using this tool.

Also, read how to download music to MP3 player from YouTube.

Method 2. How to Transfer Music from Flash Drive to iPhone Using iTunes

iTunes could also help when you need to transfer files from a USB flash drive to an iPhone, iPad, or iPod. However, as mentioned, if you use iTunes to transfer music from USB to iPhone, you will lose the existing music, movies, TV shows, books, and tones on your device. Thus, if there are media files on your iPhone, data loss is inevitable.

If you don't mind data syncing, using iTunes is also a workable choice to transfer music from USB to iPhone. While if you don't want to lose your precious data, follow the alternative ways to transfer music from USB to iPhone without iTunes.

To sync music from USB to iPhone using iTunes:

Step 1. Connect your USB flash drive and iPhone to your computer and wait for iTunes to launch automatically.

Step 2. Unlock your iPhone and trust the computer.

Step 3. In iTunes, go to "File" > "Add File to Library" to add the music files from your USB to the iTunes library.

Step 4. Click the "Device" tab and choose "Music."

Step 5. Check the "Sync Music" option. In the popup, click "Remove and Sync" to continue.

Step 6. Select to sync the "Entire music library" or "Selected playlists, artists, albums, and genres," and then choose the items.

Step 7. Click the "Apply" > "Sync" to start adding iTunes music to your iPhone.

Step 8. When it has been done, go to "Music" > "Library" > "Songs" on your iOS device to check the music.

How to transfer music from USB to iPhone with iTunes

This is also about how to transfer music from computer to iPhone.

Method 3. How to Transfer Music from USB to iPhone via Dropbox

If you want to copy music from USB to your iPhone wirelessly, using cloud-based services is recommended. Cloud storage services like Dropbox, Amazon Music, Google Play Music, and more are all helpful for putting music on your iPhone from a USB. Here I will take Dropbox as an example.

To copy music from USB to your iPhone:

Step 1. Download and install Dropbox on both of your devices and sign in with the same account.

Step 2. Connect your USB to your computer and launch Dropbox.

Step 3. Upload the music files from the USB to Dropbox.

Step 4. Open Dropbox on your iPhone, and you will see the items you uploaded. You can access and download them to your iPhone according to your needs.

How to transfer music from USB to iPhone without iTunes

The Bottom Line

If you are willing to use a computer to help, it will be quite easy for you to transfer music or other types of content from an external storage device, be it a USB flash drive, SD card, or external hard drive, to your iOS devices.

All three tips above can apply to transfer photos and videos from computer to iPhone, iPad, or iPod. Command these tips and apply them when necessary.

How to Transfer Music from USB to iPhone FAQs

1. How do I transfer files from USB to iPhone without iTunes?

You can use cloud services, such as iCloud, Dropbox, and Google Photos, to sync your files to your iPhone with the help of a computer. Or, you can use the best iTunes alternative - EaseUS MobiMover to get your job done. In this way, you can also transfer CD to iPhone without computer. It is easy to operate:

  • Connect your iPhone and USB flash drive to computer.
  • Click Select Files, choose the saved files from USB, and click Open.
  • Click Transfer to move your files from USB to iPhone without iTunes.

2. Can I transfer music directly to iPhone?

Ensure your iPhone and iPad are signed in with the same Apple ID.

  • Go to Settings > Music > Sync Library.
  • Turn on Sync Library on other devices: Mac, PC, iPhone, iPad.
  • After you enable Sync Library, you can access your music on any device that has installed Apple Music, or the Apple Music website.

3. Why can't I manually add songs to iPhone?

  • Maybe it's a problem with your storage. Go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage to check whether there is enough space to store your added songs.
  • If you enabled iCloud Music Library, the music won't sync to the iPhone from iTunes. Therefore, when you use iTunes to transfer files from iTunes to iPhone, ensure the iCloud Music Library is turned off.

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Updated by Sofia Albert

Sofia has been involved with tech ever since she joined the EaseUS editor team in March 2011 and now she is a senior website editor. She is good at solving various iPhone and Android issues, such as iPhone or Android data transfer & recovery.

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