Apple Music - songs greyed out on my playlist

Hello Daniel Eagan,

We have a great support article that might help with this. Please take a look at it here: If you have problems playing music on Mac - Apple Support. Follow this guidance:

"If you can’t play a song

• If you can’t play a song purchased from the iTunes Store: You may have exceeded the number of computers on which you can play your purchases.
• If the song isn’t an iTunes Plus version, you can play it on up to five authorized computers. After you authorize five computers, you can’t play the songs on a sixth computer until you deauthorize one of the five authorized computers. (For instructions on deauthorizing a computer, see Authorize a Mac to play iTunes Store purchases.)
• If the song is available as an iTunes Plus download, you can upgrade the song at the iTunes Store. See Usage rights for iTunes Store purchases.
• If you’re listening to a shared library or playlist: Music skips iTunes Store purchases if your computer hasn’t been authorized to play them. To listen to a purchased song in a shared library or playlist, double-click the song. If your computer isn’t authorized to play songs purchased by the person who is sharing the song, to hear it you’ll need to enter that person’s Apple ID and password. See Share songs from a shared library in Music.
• If you’re trying to play an AAC file that was not created using Music or downloaded from the iTunes Store: Songs you download from the iTunes Store or import into your library using the AAC encoder are encoded using the MPEG-4 AAC format. Songs in this format play in Music and on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod. Other AAC files that you find on the internet or elsewhere won’t play in Music. See Choose import settings.
• If you’re trying to play a song on a CD that you burned using Music: You can’t play DVDs burned using Music on most consumer DVD players. So make sure the playback equipment you’re using is appropriate for the disc’s format. For example, if you burned a CD-RW disc, you can play it only on your computer and some newer CD players. If you burned an MP3 disc, it should work in your computer and on special MP3 CD players but not on standard consumer audio CD players. See Intro to burning CDs and DVDs.
• If you’re listening to a playlist that includes a song preview: The playlist stops after the song preview. Double-click the next song in the playlist to resume playing the rest of the playlist. A song preview in your library or a playlist has a button next to it showing the price.

If songs are missing or dimmed, see the Apple Support article If songs are missing from your music library after you turn on Sync Library."

We hope this helps. Let us know if we can assist with anything else at all. Take care.

I believe I have the same problem as Daniel, with both my iPhone 13 Mini and my iPod Classic (seriously! Still works!). It only began about a year or so ago. I haven’t found a solution except sometimes to sync it a few times unsuccessfully or with partial success and leave it plugged in, and after a few minutes it might or might not start transferring again.

I’m on a PC, though, so I don’t know if there’s an equivalent to Chris’s procedure on that platform.

As I am sure you are already aware- this never happened with I tunes. I really need to find a music source where I can play CD's I have uploaded along with new music that I want. Apple really screwed this up with Apple Music. Should have maintained I tunes- much better program and there was no attempt to force you into a subscription. More greed than convenience toward the customer in that move.

Greetings Daniel Eagan,

To help isolate the behavior, test syncing the music to your iPhone while using a different library with Music on your Mac. To create a new library, simply hold down the Option key while launching the Music app. Check out those steps in the following article: Use multiple libraries in Music on Mac - Apple Support

Create or choose a library

1. In the Music app  on your Mac, choose Music > Quit Music.

2. Hold down the Option key while you reopen Music.

3. In the window that appears, do one of the following:

* Create a new library: Click Create Library.

* Choose a different library: Click Choose Library.

You can name your new library (the folder containing your Music content) whatever you like. For best results, if you create additional music libraries, don’t name the new libraries “Music” or “New Music.” Make sure each library has a unique name so you’ll know which is which.

Let us know if that helps.

Kind regards.