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I can transfer a playlist from iTunes to my iPhone for some of my discs in a collection, but not others. Why not?

I have connected my iPhone SE to my Macbook Pro and have created playlists for 10 discs that make up a collection of lectures. Seven of the 10 discs I was able to transfer (dragged them) up to my iPhone in iTunes, but for some reason, discs 8-10 will not transfer properly. Instead, they look greyed out and are unplayable on my iPhone.


I have made sure that they are all in the same format and as far as I can tell, all of the info on each disc is the same. What am I missing?


Thanks for your help!

MacBook Pro 15", macOS 10.12

Posted on Mar 18, 2019 1:14 PM

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Posted on Mar 18, 2019 1:35 PM

You could try the following all-purpose steps for dealing with erratic device or sync behaviour (including the troublesome greyed out tracks and/or dotted circles of stalled transfers). They assume that all of the content you want on the device is in your library ready for restoring. If it isn't see Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device first. I would also recommend you copy everything out of the camera roll if you haven't already.


  1. Backup device.
  2. Restore as a new device.
  3. Restore the backup you made earlier.


Use an encrypted backup (*) if you want to preserve passwords, Wi-Fi settings, web history and health data where appropriate. I also suggest syncing with a selection of playlists (unless you're using iCloud Music Library) rather than manually adding content as, if nothing else, the process above is easier to do if you ever have to go through it again.


(*) The downside with backup encryption is that if you forget the password when you need it again, which could be years later, you may need to invoke a workaround to turn off encryption as shown in Disable iOS backup encryption, which can only help if your device is in a state that can backup to iCloud, or runs iOS 11 or better.



For added security you might also want to make an independent backup to iCloud and/or archive your current backup before you start.



FWIW I successfully used this method some time ago when Siri became unable to call contacts or play my music.



tt2

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Mar 18, 2019 1:35 PM in response to zumaji

You could try the following all-purpose steps for dealing with erratic device or sync behaviour (including the troublesome greyed out tracks and/or dotted circles of stalled transfers). They assume that all of the content you want on the device is in your library ready for restoring. If it isn't see Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device first. I would also recommend you copy everything out of the camera roll if you haven't already.


  1. Backup device.
  2. Restore as a new device.
  3. Restore the backup you made earlier.


Use an encrypted backup (*) if you want to preserve passwords, Wi-Fi settings, web history and health data where appropriate. I also suggest syncing with a selection of playlists (unless you're using iCloud Music Library) rather than manually adding content as, if nothing else, the process above is easier to do if you ever have to go through it again.


(*) The downside with backup encryption is that if you forget the password when you need it again, which could be years later, you may need to invoke a workaround to turn off encryption as shown in Disable iOS backup encryption, which can only help if your device is in a state that can backup to iCloud, or runs iOS 11 or better.



For added security you might also want to make an independent backup to iCloud and/or archive your current backup before you start.



FWIW I successfully used this method some time ago when Siri became unable to call contacts or play my music.



tt2

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I can transfer a playlist from iTunes to my iPhone for some of my discs in a collection, but not others. Why not?

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