Level 1

102 points

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Just started having this problem with my iPhone after "upgrading" to ios 16.

iPhone 13 pro max

ios 16.0.2 (latest)

files are mp3. They are my own original music files. They are not commercial music, downloaded or ripped. I created them from scratch.

Everything plays fine on my computer. After syncing, they are greyed out on the iPhone and generate the "not available in this country or region" error message.

No VPN involved

I do not use "Apple Music" and have turned it off wherever I see an option to do so

I have quit "music" on the phone and restarted the iPhone

I have deleted the music from my phone and computer, and synced it again. Then re-imported the songs to my computer and synced them again. This made the problem worse... now, other (original) songs that were previously playable on the phone also show the "not available" message.

Any ideas how to fix this?

iPhone 13 Pro Max

Posted on Oct 6, 2022 4:28 AM

Top-ranking reply

brenton149

Level 1

8 points

Posted on Dec 29, 2022 5:27 PM

I fixed it. I was trying everything and all fixes but ultimately the problem was all my music (and files) live in a OneDrive folder and the files were not available locally (a setting to conserve diskspace). So syncing the music through Finder wasn't downloading the files and sending but rather trying to contact Apple's servers. Once I downloaded all my music locally and re-synced my library all files were sent across and appeared in the music 'downloads' and now everything works fine.

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30 replies

Joe M21 Author

Level 1

102 points

Oct 7, 2022 1:15 PM in response to AnnieL2

Entire library is synced. Not sure what you mean by sync 10 songs.

Both devices are on the same Apple ID (always have been, no changes made). I just re-confirmed that both devices are set to the same region. Just to be sure, I also re-checked they are on the same ID (they are - mail, keychains, bookmarks, cloud folder, etc. all sync properly)

After writing my original post, I did sign out of my Apple ID on the phone. I deleted the entire "album" of music that generates the error. Then restarted the phone and signed back in. Tried to sync again and same problem - all songs in that "album" have the region error.

FYI - I also have an iPad. The same songs sync to that device without any problem.

This issue started with iOS 16. Never had a problem before that update. Have been adding my own music files for years. I can't say for sure it's an iOS issue, but the timing is suspect.

Joe M21 Author

Level 1

102 points

Oct 7, 2022 2:12 PM in response to AnnieL2

IMacPro MacOS 12.6

All music is in "Music" (Apple app).

Album in question has 19 songs. About 14 were in there already and transferred find (prior to iOS 16). Three more were added last week, and had the same problem. A few tries of deleting and re-adding and they showed up as playable.

This week two more songs were added. Both had the problem, even after deleting/re-adding/restarting/etc. After deleting the entire album (along with all the other troubleshooting tips mentioned) all 19 songs will not play.

All these songs are Mp3 files created as exports from ProTools. Again, I have been doing this for years and never ran into this problem until iOS 16.

Apple Music will let me create the new library, but not use it.

"You cannot change the music library at this time beacue the current libary is in use by a device. Sign in without connected devices to change your music library."

My Iphone and iPad are both unplugged and not connected. There are no devices "connected" that I can see. The "aiplay" item in the music window lists several avialable devices, but none show as connected - only the iMacPro.

BTW - I attempted to change the setting from "sync entire music library" to "sync selected items." Then selected only the album in question. I'm guessing that's what you meant by "sync 10 songs." It doesn't seem to work. When I connect my phone, it immediately starts to backup/sync. Changing the settings does not effect the current operation, and the "sync" button is not available during this operation. Once done, the iPhone disconnects from the Mac (finder window no longer shows Iphone options and Iphone is removed from sidebar). Next time the phone is connected, the new setting is not saved - it goes back to "sync entire library."

This "sync and dissappear" behavior is also new to iOS 16. Previously it worked like my iPad sitll does... item remains in sidebar

Nov 3, 2022 7:38 PM in response to Grantbot21

Thanks for this good information!

It’s more than I got after 1.5 hours on the phone with tech support.

Half the songs on my playlists are now greyed out, and it does appear to be the older ones, many of which were ripped from CD’s. More and more are becoming unplayable, some minutes after listening to the playlist.

I hope that Apple corrects this soon. It takes a long, long time to rebuild hundreds of playlists.

If that’s what I have to do, I may as well start from scratch on Spotify.

Nov 4, 2022 4:58 AM in response to hcsitas

I don’t have any problems with it from the one’s I’ve fixed so far. The problem is that what should have been considered personal/ripped was never tagged as that originally back in 2015 when Apple Music started. So when the Apple Music version became unavailable it never defaulted back to me owning the song.

I don’t have a way to test his but I’d assume if it says matched, if the song went away it would convert to uploaded. Now if it doesn’t do that, we’re back in the same ridiculous place we are now.

Nov 4, 2022 6:15 AM in response to hcsitas

You’re not actually understanding the problem. The songs may have been personal songs but they aren’t stored as personal songs, within iTunes. They were stored as Apple Music songs.

No one lost “their personal songs” they lost Apple Music songs. If you don’t think losing three to four thousand sounds as playable on Apple Music, but only if you’re on iOS16 not 15 I don’t know what to tell you.

Nov 5, 2022 7:24 AM in response to Joe M21

This is definitely iOS 16 released; and resync and rebuild is only a temporary fix; i spent an hour with apple support this week trying to fix this, and like you i deleted and re-added. However, some songs are greyed out on the original album, so re-adding was pointless. After many, many hours rebuilding my playlists, this morning, many of the songs are grayed out again.

hardly any of the greyed out songs were “bought” on the old iTunes, and none were imported, this is all plain Apple Music data.

I've deleted and re-added, stopped music sync and resync’d, and i get similar result across my ipad and my iphone. This is clearly an issue with apple music, but the help desk seem to think not, and each time i call them i go through the same long winded checklist.

This morning, in the UK region, i lost songs by the cure, calvin harris, bruce Springsteen, Moby, Leonard Cohen, Daft Punk, Pet Shop Boys….. all were fine yesterday, and unsync/resync puts *some* of them back.

oh and the ones that are greyed out are different on my iPad and my iPhone, so and I’m clearly in the same region - with the same Apple ID!

i see spotify or tidal in my future at this rate….

Nov 30, 2022 2:35 AM in response to LeoraKitty78

I used a migration app to move my playlists to Tidal, and so far, I've been using that. Works well, has a CarPlay app, my DACs handle MQA, so the sound is easily as good as hi-res lossless, but there's many, many more hi-res tracks.

Obviously there's a cost, but I might drop Apple Music and recoup.

Dec 30, 2022 12:49 AM in response to brenton149

Thats good news - unfortunately for me zero of my files are offline, they’re all Apple Music files. I deleted my library on the phone and re-sync’d and got more back, but now I still have about 10% unavailable.

it seems to improve with each iOS release.

Shaun

jmon71

Level 1

14 points

Jan 3, 2023 5:36 PM in response to Shaun Conn

Anyone have the Support case number? I would like to refer to it when open mine.

Latest IOS 16.2, Itunes on Windows 12.12.7.1. 31K songs, about 50 playlists, very few songs bought from Apple Music. Any bought song I converted to MP3 and deleted the AAC file. Possible I bought some songs while on a VPN to Canada (live New England USA).

Was not having issues, UNTIL I did an Apple Music trial subscription (and was using Shazam to sync to Itunes playlist).

Now I have same issue. Removed my Apple Music subscription renewal, ends 1/18/22, so still active I guess till then.

Attempts:Disabled Library Sync to iCloud, deleted Music app iphone, re synced 31K songs manually from Windows laptop. ALL songs are MP3 and local files to windows laptop and Itunes app. Same issue.

Unacceptable.

Nov 2, 2022 11:48 AM in response to Joe M21

That was my last resort if I couldn't find a solution online. Dreading the long download time to fully restore all of my apps, photos, etc.

Will see how it goes, thanks for the info!

Nov 4, 2022 12:16 PM in response to hcsitas

Lol yes it does. But it’s irrelevant, because interestingly enough I did figure out a fix so there is one that isn’t just go rebuild everything on a different program.

Nov 29, 2022 5:42 PM in response to michaelfromatco

Have you been able to get this fixed? I had this exact same issue happen after recently upgrading to an iPhone 14 Pro. Most of my songs now have this same error. I'm so sad about it!

Dec 6, 2022 7:42 AM in response to hcsitas

Most of my greyed out, non playable songs were purchased through itunes. Not ridiculous to expect apple products to work with apple products. Also considering there is no itunes for ios 16

Jan 3, 2023 6:25 PM in response to jmon71

case: 101847004475

hcsitas

Level 6

13,976 points

Nov 4, 2022 5:16 AM in response to Grantbot21

It’s not ridiculous - Apple Music isn’t geared towards personal collections and non-subscription music, it’s primarily designed for paid subscribers wanting access to their library. Use a 3rd party app, be happy.

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