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Songs grayed out with circle in iTunes.

I’ve noticed when my iPhone 7 Plus is connected to iTunes and I’m looking at the music playlists on the iPhone through iTunes that some of the songs are greyed out with a circle next to them. Some of these songs will play on my iPhone but some don’t. To make matters worse if I resync my iPhone it will fix some of the songs but then new songs will be greyed out! I usually have to resync my iPhone several times before the songs will play. Some remain greyed out even though they play. I also noticed all of them in iTunes , are missing the artwork, but only in the iPhone tab not in iTunes itself. My music for the most part is in AIFF format from CD’s and some of those files I had to add the artwork manually. I’m wondering if that’s what’s causing the playback and syncing issue with the iPhone. When the song doesn’t play on the iPhone a window pops up saying the song is not available in my country or region which is nuts because it plays in iTunes fine. Anyone got some answers? Thanks.

Windows, Windows 10

Posted on Oct 13, 2020 2:00 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Oct 18, 2020 2:31 PM

Hey gaerisch,


It sounds like you're having some issues with music not syncing properly on your iPhone. We can understand wanting to get that resolved. We want to help.


First, we'd recommend checking for and installing any updates that may be available for your iPhone: Update your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch


If that doesn't help, let us know if the songs are songs that you purchased from iTunes, songs downloaded from Apple Music, or songs imported from a CD or another source and we'll look into that further.


Thanks!

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5 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Oct 18, 2020 2:31 PM in response to gaerisch

Hey gaerisch,


It sounds like you're having some issues with music not syncing properly on your iPhone. We can understand wanting to get that resolved. We want to help.


First, we'd recommend checking for and installing any updates that may be available for your iPhone: Update your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch


If that doesn't help, let us know if the songs are songs that you purchased from iTunes, songs downloaded from Apple Music, or songs imported from a CD or another source and we'll look into that further.


Thanks!

Oct 18, 2020 3:16 PM in response to CarlAVII

I think I found out why some songs play even though they are greyed out in iTunes in the iPhone view but not on the iPhone itself. The songs are from different sources but one thing they have in common. When you right click on the songs in the iPhone view of iTunes it shows the songs have no artwork. However, those same songs show artwork on the iPhone itself and in iTunes library. I can’t figure out why the songs in the iPhone view in iTunes don’t show artwork but they do on the iPhone itself, and in iTunes library. I believe these are the songs I had to manually add the artwork to the albums in the library. So something is not being transferred properly in the metadata when syncing. I’ve noticed it seems to happen randomly but only with music I manually added artwork.

Oct 19, 2020 11:42 AM in response to gaerisch

Hey gaerisch,


Thanks for those details.


Next, we'd recommend removing the songs from your iPhone and then try syncing from iTunes again to see if that resolves the issue.


If that doesn't help, we'd suggest trying the following creating a new library file on the computer. To create a new library file: 

-Windows: Hold down the Shift key and launch iTunes

-Mac: Hold down the Option key and launch Music or iTunes for Mac


Once in the new library, add some music to the library and try syncing with your iPhone and test to see if the same issue occurs in the new library or if things seem to be working properly.


Let us know how that goes.


Thanks!

Oct 23, 2020 7:45 PM in response to CarlAVII

The songs are from different sources. The artwork on most songs was manually added, but not all. But it doesn’t matter the source. If the artwork was manually added the song may play or may not play. Something in the way the metadata is transferred during syncing is not working. I can’t just rebuild my playlists because it’s over 800 songs! I have over 500 Gigs of music in iTunes. It’s not a simple matter of reconstructing the iTunes library.

Songs grayed out with circle in iTunes.

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