What does the gray dotted circle in iTunes mean?

Hello,

This solution worked for me but it is specific to Mac users. I to had the checkered circle next to newly added songs in my iTunes and could not sync them to my iPhone. I searched the web and read long forums and wasn't about to dedicate that much time to it just to get a few new songs onto my phone. So I tried one last little thing and it worked. Here are the steps, remember I am a Mac user so if you are running iTunes on a windows computer these steps may work, but no guarantees they will work for you as they did for me:

1. Quit iTunes.

2. Wait 30 seconds

3. Re-open iTunes

4. Go to song(s) that had the checkered circle next to them and see if they are still there.

Final Notes:

Mine were there when I opened iTunes but in less than 10 seconds of opening it back up and locating affected songs with the checkered circles, which symbolize a final sync of the song to the intended playlist I believe( *Someone confirm this* ), loaded and went away and I could then sync updated playlist onto my device.

Hope this helps and I hope it isn't too confusing! If you are on a PC I am sorry I do not have solution to getting them to go away but I am looking into it now.

Enjoy!

Corey

I've tried many times deleting a song, disconecting from iTunes, reconnecting to iTunes, getting the grey dotted circle for the previ deleted song, disconnect from iTunes again, wait a bit then reconnect to iTunes. The previously deleted song with the dashed grey circle reappears on my iPhone.

So, your suggestion doesn't work as a solution.

Rob,

Please re-read what I posted. I never mentioned anything about deleting a song and disconnecting from iTunes. I think you misread what I said in my posting. What I did was Quit iTunes and then reopen about a minute later and the songs then synced completely to the playlist I copied them into and I was able to sync them onto my phone.

May I ask are you a Mac user?

If so,

What version of Mac OS are you running?

Clearly what I have posted does work as a solution because it worked for me.

Also I stated there was no guarantees that it would work for anyone else like it did for me. I may be running on a different Mac OS than other people and that may affect another users outcome if they try this solution.

Please do not get frustrated with me as all I was trying to do was help.

Look forward to hearing back!

Corey

I've used Macs for more than 30 years. I'm on 10.10.5 now.

My problem (now repeated several times, patience is growing thin) is that when I connect my iPhone 6+ to iTunes, I have grey circled songs on my iPhone 6+ that I previously deleted. The grey circled entries cannot be deleted. If I restore my phone (takes hours), the grey circled entries disappear, but as soon as I delete another song from my iPhone, I get a new grey-circled entry that I cannot delete.

In months of asking this question, no one has explained why I get these grey-circle entries, or what they mean, or how to permanently delete them short of a full restore.

I have had this problem, but the fix I found was to right-click the track or album and then 'Uncheck Selection', then right click and 'Check Selection'. Then sync your device again. Worked for me.

Holy smokes!! It worked! 🙂 Thank you!!

Nope, does not work. This doesn't remove the ghost songs with the dotted circles on the left end of their lines.

Still hoping someone from Apple will provide an explanation of the dotted circle and a definitive way to delete songs from iOS 9.3.1.

It's been six months since I raised this issue on this community board.

The easiest solution I have found is to go to your main music list at the top of all your playlists labeled, "music." This has all of your music, or it should. Simply find the song with which you have the infamous dotted circle issue. Right click on that song and select "Create MP3 Version." This will instantly create a new file (Should be created right under the original file) that you can drag and will join the rest of your playlist. If you want to keep the original, you might want to rename the new file with "MP3" after the title to know it from the file with the circle. It worked for me, hope it works for you. You might be able to do several at a time by holding the control button while pointing and clicking on several songs. Then right click on the group for the same result...haven't done it, but just thinking it will save time if you have several songs to fix.

Good luck! ➕

what worked for me was to deselect "Sync Music" in iTunes and click apply. It deleted all of the previously synced music from the phone. I then re-selected "Sync Music" clicked apply and it synced everything correctly this time. No more grey circles next to songs and all of my playlists are on the phone.

THIS WORKED! AWESOME!!

Nope

I've got many gigs free on my 6plus so no space is not what that icon means.

I need

Did you ever get a resolution to this problem? I have the exact same issue.

It's 2017 and I had this problem but none of these solutions worked for me so I tried updating my software and it worked immediately. Thanks to everyone who wrote a solution on this question!