Transferring songs from 'Music' on MBA to iPhone without syncing entire library?

[Apple_Glen_UK]

I'm really hoping someone can help me with this.

I have just moved from a MacBook Pro (2015) to a new MacBook Air (M5). I've gone from iTunes/Mojave to Music/Tahoe. It's all taking a bit of getting used to getting things exactly how I want them.

I have about 3,000 songs and before, I would simply connect my iPhone (15PM) to my old MBP, open iTunes, and transfer across any new songs. It was so simple. But now with the Music app, I have all my songs on it and I am trying to simply transfer a few new songs onto my iPhone. However, twice I've managed to sync and completely wipe all songs from my iPhone. I just can't figure out how to do this.

There must be an easy way, surely. Anyone..?!

 

[FreakinEurekan]

The “easy way” is iTunes Match. I haven’t had to fiddle with music in YEARS with multiple devices.

 

[Soondae]

Realize you use "Finder" now to transfer your songs and albums. Once your device is mounted in "Finder" select the device and remove the checkmark for SYNCH. Then just drag and drop the songs or album to the device in FINDER and only those selected will be copied over. Been using it for years now without issues.

As far as "Music Match" is concerned, I tried it in the early days back when it made sense because our iPhones only had 16Gb of ram. Now that the base iPhone is 256 Gb it doesn't warrant a subscription to Music Match anymore. I have a 75 Gb Music Library that I ripped myself from CDA and fixed all the album art. I have no need for a Music subscription, I just drop all the albums I want on my phone using Finder. By the way the early version of Music Match totally hosed my Music Library back in the iTunes days. I believe the issue was from poor ISP speed "upload" as this was in 2013 while on a foreign assignment.

 

[Apple_Glen_UK]

Realize you use "Finder" now to transfer your songs and albums. Once your device is mounted in "Finder" select the device and remove the checkmark for SYNCH. Then just drag and drop the songs or album to the device in FINDER and only those selected will be copied over. Been using it for years now without issues.

As far as "Music Match" is concerned, I tried it in the early days back when it made sense because our iPhones only had 16Gb of ram. Now that the base iPhone is 256 Gb it doesn't warrant a subscription to Music Match anymore. I have a 75 Gb Music Library that I ripped myself from CDA and fixed all the album art. I have no need for a Music subscription, I just drop all the albums I want on my phone using Finder. By the way the early version of Music Match totally hosed my Music Library back in the iTunes days. I believe the issue was from poor ISP speed "upload" as this was in 2013 while on a foreign assignment.

I appreciate your help, but I am still having no luck. I have the settings below checked. I'm running Tahoe 26.6. I open Music on my MacBook Air, I see my iPhone under Locations in Finder. I select the songs I want to copy across from my MBA to my iPhone... and nothing happens.

I'm really perplexed by this as I'm reasonably tech-savvy and had no problems whatsoever copying music across from my old MacBook Pro (iTunes) to the same iPhone I am using now. Surely it can't be this difficult. Is there another setting somewhere that I need to check (or uncheck)?