Songs becoming Grayed-Out in iTunes

Try signing out of the iTunes Store on your device, then sync from iTunes. Is there any change to the greyed out tracks? If not try hiding the original purchases for a few of them (see Hide and unhide music, movies, TV shows, audiobooks, and books - Apple Support) then try syncing once more. Any improvement? If neither approach helps then I suspect we're back to my original unacceptable suggestion that you nuke and pave.

tt2

I've found your two threads from a month ago, one of which I responded to. As far as I recall I didn't offer this suggestion then:

Try Edit > Preferences > Devices > Reset Sync History.

Maybe you've tried it already, maybe not. It might also help to sign out of the iTunes Store on the device before starting a sync from iTunes.

tt2

I'm assuming the edits are to purchased, rather than ripped media, which might be relevant.

The iTunes and App Stores are linked together, so if you're signed into one you're likely signed into the other. You can check in iPhone > Settings > iTunes & App Store. There is an option there for automatic downloads which can cause new purchases in iTunes to download to the device. Even if not enabled the device is going to show a cloud link for unhidden store purchases that will let you download them or stream on demand.

Both iTunes and your iPhone want to show your unhidden purchase history, which should be reconciled against what is actually in the library so that all of your local content is shown, and anything that is only in the cloud is listed too. There aren't supposed to be any duplicates, but occasionally this mechanism gets confused. Where you've edited metadata for a purchase your edit should also take precedence. I've seen people report unwanted changes here and even written scripts to retrieve the desired information from backup copies of the library. A workaround is to download such purchases and then hide from your purchase history so that your copy is the only one that gets taken into consideration. I'm particularly keen, for example, on having all of my metadata in Title Case, removing things like (Live) and (Deluxe) from album titles and so on, so this is a workaround I use myself a fair bit.

It is possible that when you have an edited version in your library, but either an existing download on the device or just knowledge that one exists, there might arise a clash when the time comes to sync over the updated track or its metadata. I don't know enough about the exact steps involved in syncing, but it is clear something is going wrong. Signing out of the store on the device might allow a successful sync from iTunes. Hiding the purchases might help if you remain signed in.

Given the iPod classic cannot see your purchase history using Wi-Fi it only has to deal with what can be transferred from your library.

tt2

I'm asking you to perform an experiment in the hopes that it might resolve things for you. If I had the same symptoms as you I could try the experiment myself, but I don't so I can't. Can I be sure it will help? No. Is it what I would do in your situation? Yes.

We covered some of this before, but I'll reiterate. I'm a fellow user trying to help out. I don't have a detailed inside knowledge of the processes involved in the iTunes syncing mechanism. I cannot explain why you have the issue that you do. All I can do is try to help you find a workaround. This is an iOS issue, which is why you've never run into it with your classic. Since it appears to be related to purchased content rather than ripped media it is worth investigating the impact of signing out of the iTunes Store on the device on the subsequent sync behaviour. It may allow tracks that currently show with the grey dotted circles to fully sync to the device and show with your preferred metadata. Or not. The only way to find out is to try it. And if it doesn't help, try the other experiment. Or do that one first. But do something other than asking me to explain a bug I have no control over or predict if this is a procedure you'll need to repeat. You can cross that bridge if you get that far.

tt2

ImSpike wrote:

You don’t know how busy I am….I do not have time “to perform an experiment”.

But you could have tried at least one of the things suggested by now, some of which take virtually no time at all, possibly solved the issue and then saved time spent writing your diatribe here.

Why is it, exactly, that nobody here has been able to give me an actual answer (either)?

Because as tt2 has mentioned, we volunteers do not have inside knowledge of iTunes, or Apple's behind the scenes work to fix problems. What we can do is offer possible solutions and it's not unknown for a suggestion to help one user, but not another, even though they both have - or think they have - the same symptoms. And before you say it, some of our suggestions have been known to fix issues, or simply help the user find an alternative way to achieve what they want.

One of the points that you made in this thread was:

You can’t do the same thing & expect a different result….

Isn't that precisely what you're doing?

Why don't you re-read the various suggestions that have been made to you in the discussions you have started and see whether you can look at them in a new light, one that might offer you some help. You may be busy, but you're not the only one - and it's not even our problem.

Spike,

May I call you Spike? (It seems like we're old friends now, after all.)

One thing about seeking help is that you need to be prepared to consider things that you hadn't thought of, and to try suggestions. Unless you do, there's a danger that you will simply go round in increasingly angry circles and never ever, make any progress.

As tt2 has pointed out, many of the suggestions are in the form of try it, see what happens and let us know. If the answer rules out something, then we can consider something else. Some things we suggest may be based on a theory about the cause, in part due to the enormous complexity of iTunes. But if we fail to rule out a crucial theory, it may possibly lead us down the wrong path instead. Then there's the possibility of more than one cause of the same symptom. That can happen, which means that what might work in one case may not work in another situation.

I've seen all of your posts, in each of your discussions. I even saw this thread on the day you originally posted it. Unfortunately, in my mind it was a forgone conclusion what your reaction would be to any further offer of help from me, which is why I haven't joined in this thread before now. I'm not a genius (far from it), but sadly, I was right.

Given your approach, do you think that anyone else is going to be prepared to offer suggestions, just so you can bite off their head? No one here - and I mean no one, is compelled to offer you help.

I apologise if I've taken time out of your busy schedule, trying to help you, with your problem.

Try Edit > Preferences > Devices > Reset Sync History.

If that doesn't fix it see this post on erratic syncing.

tt2

Fair enough. I can't recall every thread or user I've posted to.

tt2