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Greyed out songs on iphone after iOS 5 update

So I updated my iPhone 4 for the iOS 5 update. Before doing mine I did my husbands iPhone 4. My update seems to have been successful but all my songs are greyed out, however they're fine on his phone. It did prompt me to change our applie ID when we set up his phone so we did that. We're both signed into the same apple ID (just like we were before the update), and I just can't figure out whats going on. HELP!!

Windows Vista

Posted on Oct 12, 2011 9:32 PM

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196 replies

Jan 4, 2013 5:23 AM in response to jmommy06

I bought an iPhone 5 and could not add music to it. Same problem: grey songs. After hours searching forums and blogs I found this solution. Work for me! Now I manually add songs using iTunes and no problem. Hope it helps.

1. Download and install iExplorer http://www.macroplant.com/iexplorer/

2. Plug in device first, then open iExplorer

3. Delete the iPhone\Media\iTunes_Control folder (you may want to copy this, just in case)

4. Restart the iPhone / iPad

5. Start iTunes. Not restore iPhone from back up, select New iPhone (don't worry, you will not lost apps or data on your iPhone doing this)

6. Add music manually with iTunes

Jan 24, 2013 2:42 PM in response to Jets R Back

This works!


THE ONLY THING that works was SB7523's suggestion. Woked like a charm. Thanks SB7523!


1. Plugged in my iPhone 4S into my computer to sync.

2. On the music tab, I kept the "sync music" button selected, but unchecked every playlist, artist, album, and genre that was previously selected.

3. This time when I hit sync it erased all remaining music from my phone.

4. I then reselected a playlist to test it out and it worked! I then selected some more...and they synced as well.



I had to check and check again to see if all the mysterious grey circles had disappeared and had uncheck and recheck the odd playlist but it certainly works!


Thanks guys

Mar 8, 2013 12:46 PM in response to birdieputt13

I'm almost positive that the majority of 'greyed out' music occurs due to a poor network (WIFI) connection during a download. That's usually the cause for a lot of issues actually.


If the song doesn't appear to be in the middle of downloading.. or you don't see itunes match turned on in settings > itunes store app store - then id say the easiest fix is to unsyc / resyns the music in itunes as people have stated above.

Mar 30, 2013 3:30 AM in response to jmommy06

My problem with greyed out songs om my iphone5 was quite simple and was to do with itunes match.


I was attempting to sync my phone(iphone 5) the way I used to do before I signed up to match. I had put another bunch of my Cds onto my laptop and was trying to get them onto my phone. Album data appeared grey on my phone but there was no music. I tried syncing again over a few days and with messing about with my sync settings, to no avail. I then read the online help manual (should have done this first you say?) and found this was because the music was on my lap top ONLY and not on icloud, and when match is on your phone will only sync with icloud. I would have to wait for itunes match to upload all of my new laptop music onto icloud (which I haven't done yet as i know it will take a long time and itunes match will have to in the right mood to do it) then slowly download them from icloud to my phone. Considering I had to go and poke my eyes out with a sharp stick I didn't do this. I just turned off match on my phone (in settings) and also on my laptop (in the store menu) and did a normal oldfashioned sync and all 185 grey songs on my phone appeared in black with the songs in less than 5 minutes. I now feel smug and stupid at the same time!! I still at some stage have to upload all of these new songs onto icloud and for the last few days it has seemed to be going really slow and not wanting to even get past the first song.

Good luck . hope this helps some of you

Apr 20, 2013 1:47 PM in response to mjsbeaton

  • Delete /var/mobile/Media/Purchases (rm -r -f)
  • Delete /var/mobile/Media/iTunes_Control/Artwork (rm -r -f)
  • Delete /var/mobile/Media/iTunes_Control/Music (rm -r -f)
  • Delete /var/mobile/Media/iTunes_Control/iTunes/Artwork (rm -r -f)
  • Delete /var/mobile/Media/iTunes_Control/iTunes/MediaLibrary.sqlitedb* (rm)


Tried this several times to no avail. Then tried again after killing the app on the phone first and also deleating the contents of the "purchases" folder. and it worked!

Greyed out songs on iphone after iOS 5 update

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