ImFrmHawaii

Q: Greyed-out songs problem

First off, I'd like to start by saying that I'm sorry if I there are other threads that already talked about this. I tried googling for solutions, but I could not find any one article that could help my current problem.

 

After downloading my songs onto my iTunes, I tried to sync the songs to my iPhone. That's when the "Greyed-out" songs started showing up. In the Library itself, the songs are normal, playable. But under "Devices" -> Music, the songs appear "greyed-out" with a circle being created with two arrows that do not move. Furtherrmore, the "grey-out" song(s) does not sync to my iPhone. Below is a picture of the problem.

 

Greyout1.jpg

 

Again, the song is plays perfectly fine in the Library. However, it will not play under the Devices -> Music category nor will it appear on my iPhone. Please help me. I am tired of this problem and would like a quick solution. If there was a thread with the exact same problem, please post the link to said thread IF there is a solution. It is much appreciated.

 

I already tried one of the solutions that worked one time but doesn't seem to work now. The solution involved logging out of one's Apple account then logging back in. As I said, this one doesn't seem to work for me anymore. Any help and input is appreciated. Thanks.

Posted on May 26, 2012 1:30 AM

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Q: Greyed-out songs problem

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  • by lapincoya,

    lapincoya lapincoya May 14, 2014 9:35 AM in response to Converted2iMac
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    May 14, 2014 9:35 AM in response to Converted2iMac

    Thank you so much for this.  It really was simple and worked right away.  Nothing else seemed right since the problem was on the desktop and not on a mobile device.

  • by mambacmaba,

    mambacmaba mambacmaba Jul 6, 2014 5:38 PM in response to ImFrmHawaii
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    Jul 6, 2014 5:38 PM in response to ImFrmHawaii

    I never had this problem with my iPod 4 but it is a continuous problem with my iPod 5.  I have determined that the solution is just a lot of patience.  I do only manually synching as I don't trust auto synching.  First I make sure all songs are checked/highlighted.  Then when I highlight and drag songs from iTunes to my device, I watch the status bar at the top of the library screen.  If it processes too quickly chances are iTunes did nothing.  If I don't see the changes I want in the device library, I drag again.  It could take up to 3 or 4 tries.  But once the grey songs appear and the status bar says "Preparing to update", all is good.  It just may take up to half an hour before the songs are finally ready to play.  Hope this helps.

  • by Howard Brazee,

    Howard Brazee Howard Brazee Aug 14, 2014 4:54 PM in response to ImFrmHawaii
    Level 1 (37 points)
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    Aug 14, 2014 4:54 PM in response to ImFrmHawaii

    I have this problem too.   I decided to put the song in a separate smart playlist and sync it.   Now there's one greyed out copy of the song, and one regular copy of that song on my iPhone.    I have a Mac.

  • by Howard Brazee,

    Howard Brazee Howard Brazee Aug 14, 2014 6:24 PM in response to Howard Brazee
    Level 1 (37 points)
    Applications
    Aug 14, 2014 6:24 PM in response to Howard Brazee

    Then I told iTunes to delete all of the songs on my iPhone and reload them.   I'm back to one grayed out copy of that song and the other one is gone.   If I select it on my phone, the next song plays.     That song plays fine on my iPad, it's just broken on my phone.

     

    Hmm, I'm logged in as myself, but this site is saying "User 'asfahan' is banned from posting content.    Let me see what happens when I log on again...

  • by Howard Brazee,

    Howard Brazee Howard Brazee Aug 15, 2014 8:22 AM in response to Howard Brazee
    Level 1 (37 points)
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    Aug 15, 2014 8:22 AM in response to Howard Brazee

    I tried a few things.   First, I changed the song's attributes as described by someone else in this thread.   Then I tried deleting the song from iTunes, unchecking the songs synchronization and synchronizing.    And then I discovered that my phone's iTunes selection was still there - not just the phantom song, but lots of songs.    So I figure what I need to do is find out how to delete all of the songs on my iPhone, or at least the phantom song.    I have no idea how to do that, I assumed that if they weren't synchronized from my iTunes, they would disappear.   I was wrong.

  • by fenner1,

    fenner1 fenner1 Aug 28, 2014 2:51 PM in response to ImFrmHawaii
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    Aug 28, 2014 2:51 PM in response to ImFrmHawaii

    If you look in the top corner of the itunes window you will see an arrow pointing down. Click on it and all you stopped downloads will appear and you can restart the download...

  • by cczuboka,

    cczuboka cczuboka Sep 28, 2014 9:44 AM in response to sstephany1
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    Sep 28, 2014 9:44 AM in response to sstephany1

    Brilliant. This worked for me as well. Thanks!

     

    Come on Apple. Fix this ****!

  • by crkunselman,

    crkunselman crkunselman Oct 1, 2014 11:22 AM in response to jacobkuca
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    Oct 1, 2014 11:22 AM in response to jacobkuca

    that worked. thanks.

     

    Take that back... Nope.  songs no longer greyed out on Mac/iTunes in the playlist, but they WILL NOT sync to the phone... Very frustrating to buy music and not be able to listen to it.

  • by tpick,

    tpick tpick Oct 12, 2014 1:34 AM in response to jacobkuca
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 12, 2014 1:34 AM in response to jacobkuca

    THANK YOU, Thank you Thank you. I only hope this works for everyone experiencing this problem with Apple products, as there seems to be a solution for windows products . And that everyone tech support person with Apple reads your post so they can be of some use to customers seeking a solution to this problem.

  • by WhoopAss316,

    WhoopAss316 WhoopAss316 Oct 25, 2014 12:50 PM in response to Acid-Etch
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    Oct 25, 2014 12:50 PM in response to Acid-Etch

    I wish I could give you a big effing kiss, you just saved my brand new iphone from getting smashed into little pieces

  • by AT_74,

    AT_74 AT_74 Dec 11, 2014 2:10 PM in response to ImFrmHawaii
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    Dec 11, 2014 2:10 PM in response to ImFrmHawaii

    Solution:

     

    1/ Click on the greyed-out music track within iTunes and press the Delete key.

    2/ When asked, 'Do you want to move the selected song to the Trash, or keep it in the iTunes Media folder?', click on KEEP FILE.

    3/ Locate the original music file (for the song you just deleted from your iTunes library) on your hard drive.

    4/ Drag the music file back into iTunes using the mouse.

     

    And there you have it - the song is no longer greyed-out in iTunes and you can sync it to your device.

  • by Royalle978,

    Royalle978 Royalle978 Jan 16, 2015 10:23 AM in response to ImFrmHawaii
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    Jan 16, 2015 10:23 AM in response to ImFrmHawaii

    Ok, I was also feeling frustrated about this problem for so long already but then was able to solve it finally! Here's what I did to resolve this problem: (I'm using iPad mini 2, so I'm not pretty sure if it will work for other devices but hopefully they will)

     

    Greyed-song problem solution on iOS 7 and latest iTunes:

     

    1. Connect your device to your computer (I'm a Windows user).

    2. Open iTunes.

    3. On the 'Summary' tab under 'Settings' in iTunes of your device, check the box 'Manually manage music and videos'. Click sync.

    4. On the 'Music' tab under 'Settings' in iTunes of your device, make sure that 'Sync Music' is unchecked.

    5. Then go to 'Music' under 'On My Device' in iTunes of your device,

    6. Make sure it is indicated at the bottom 'Autofill from Music'

    7. There is a 'Settings' button on the right of this 'Autofill from Music'. Click it and make sure to uncheck every option there.

    8. Now, right click on any of the grey songs you have from that list. Click 'Delete'.

    9. Now locate that deleted song from your computer. Drag this song back to this list. (IT IS IMPORTANT THAT YOU DO NOT DRAG THIS SONG TO YOUR iTUNES LIBRARY, BUT INSTEAD, DIRECTLY TO YOUR DEVICE'S MUSIC LIBRARY)

    10. Then click 'Sync' at the bottom of the list.

    11. Enjoy your grey-free music!

     

    Hopefully this works to people who still have this problem. It's pretty weird why this happens though, but being able to fix it makes me want to just forget why this error has occurred in the first place. Finally fixed!

     

    Anyway, if it works tell me about it! Also, I think I have read one of the articles (can't remember where) but I think they said that one of the causes of this problem is the habit of not clicking the Eject button on iTunes before ejecting the device, which results into syncing problems... So I guess the next time I do syncing, I must always click the Eject button...

  • by travisfromfraser,

    travisfromfraser travisfromfraser Feb 23, 2015 11:43 PM in response to ImFrmHawaii
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    Feb 23, 2015 11:43 PM in response to ImFrmHawaii

    Had the same issue, so frustrating.  Finally got it; try these steps:

     

    From your phone:

    Settings > Music - toggle "Show All Music" to off.

    Open music app - identify all songs that are on your device.

    Settings > Music - toggle "Show All Music" to on.

    From the music app, download songs from iCloud identified in step 2

    Settings > General > Usage > Manage Storage > Music > Edit > All Songs > Delete

    (Optional) Settings > Cellular - In "Use cellular data for" locate Music App and toggle off.

    Settings > Music - toggle "Show All Music" to off.

    Sync with iTunes

     

    At which point I had about three quarters of them gone.  If there are more remaining:

     

    Download and install iExplorer http://www.macroplant.com/iexplorer/

    Plug in device first, then open iExplorer

    Delete the iPhone\Media\iTunes_Control folder (you may want to copy this, just in case)

    Restart the iPhone / iPad

    Start iTunes. Not restore iPhone from back up, select New iPhone (don't worry, you will not lost apps or data on your iPhone doing this)

    Sync with iTunes

  • by Audriano,

    Audriano Audriano Apr 5, 2015 5:58 AM in response to ImFrmHawaii
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 5, 2015 5:58 AM in response to ImFrmHawaii

    Just do the synch and you're good. Yes, you will have a lot of songs that you wouldn't want to import from your Mac library to your iPhone, but that's the only thing that works for me.

  • by akobet,

    akobet akobet May 18, 2015 4:38 PM in response to ImFrmHawaii
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 18, 2015 4:38 PM in response to ImFrmHawaii

    This fixed my greyed-out problem.  My iPhone was recently restored from backup, totally sync'd to the mac, BUT was missing many songs in play lists.  I scratched my head, re-sync'd, problem persisted.  The FIX:  On the iPhone version 8.3, go to iTunes, Store, More, Purchased, Music, "Not on this iPhone" and download all.

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