Music App gray circle with down arrow since upgrading to Big Sur

Remember when iTunes didn't require google searching and a support group to use.. iTunes used to be fun to play in. :-(

Spot on. iTunes and Apple are complete garbage now. They are losing a long time customer in me at this point because I can’t stand their horrible products and service.

Yes, especially the final sentence - really annoying. Music has changed an efficient music storage and playing platform to something completely confused and confusing.

I just spent four days in Big Sur Upgrade ... well, you know where. I finally decided to upgrade. Had to spend almost $200 to get the upgrade and 600gb of a 1TB backup back on the computer after it got stuck (40% where thousands of people have complained). I like some of the changes; as usual, there are many things that were one step now hidden or multiple steps. And to the point of this thread: I just spent over an hour trying to find my existing music that wasn't purchased through iTunes or Music. My music. Music I have owned for years. Music from a purchased CD that I want to easily get to if I want to listen to it. I went to all the trouble to import. How about letting me hear it? The only music I have EVER had to purchase was music I needed for special events or promotions 15 years ago. Maybe 2 dozen songs. Those are the only ones that show up in the new Music. No Playlists. Nothing. But I can buy music, browse music to buy, read about trending music, see album covers OF MUSIC I WILL NEVER CARE TO HEAR. And now apparently I'm supposed to subscribe to MUSIC so I can access my own playlists. Wow. We've gone from "just simply" to "What the ..." ? Maybe sometime in the next week or so I'll find out how to listen to something I would like to listen to... and in the meantime, I've given up trying to get the music app to not open every time I plug my headphones into the iPhone to make a call.

Hey there, Brian Baker1.

It appears you're wondering what the gray circle with the downwards arrow symbol represents in the Music app on your MacBook Pro. That symbol that you're seeing means that the song (album or playlist as well) is downloaded to your computer. If you'd like, you can read more about Apple Music icons here: Symbols used in Music on Mac

The symbol means the same thing on your iPhone as well.

We hope that helped. Take care!

Loving my Apple products is an increasingly distant and bitter memory. Alas, I don’t know where else to turn to.

I had this same question but I now have a follow up question. I have three MacBooks, all identical and all updated and only one of them is showing this icon. Is there a reason only one of them has this?

Not only do I have this issue, my album covers do not match the song which is playing. The worst bit is, they keep swapping around.

Next to the unneeded arrows I have 3 red dots next to every song, what does that mean? The arrows are also next to songs copied into Music directly from a CD, no download, no cloud. What does the arrow mean for those songs?

Hi Brian,

I have an additional question about this. I understand the gray downward arrow signifies a song is downloaded but I also have songs with NOTHING next to it. Does this too mean it's downloaded because if it weren't, wouldn't it have a cloud next to it? If you know, can you illuminate? There seems to be an additional stage now. Cloud, arrows... and nothing.

Thanks

And curious to know where did the lyrics go? One day I have them the next I don’t. What gives?

The ones with nothing next to them mean that the song is not downloaded, you can click the three dots and it should have an option that says download, click it and it should appear

Same here, i miss the real iTunes very much. Been looking for other options for my music library, but atm yet reluctant to switch to Spotify.

Is there a way to remove those circles on my iPhone? It takes up space and I can't see the titles fully...