Q: What are these red circle symbols that suddenly appear in my iTunes library on my iPhone?

Sorry - this is absolutely nothing for my music synch'ing issues.  All it did was transfer what ever apps I downloaded from my iPad into my iPhone

Did you follow my instructions? That will fix your issues. Unlike any other temporary measure offered.

Yes, I followed them to a "t".  I even had to borrow my wife's MBA to use the PhoneView because the iExplorer on my Windows box wouldn't work.

It still did not work.  Out of the 1721 songs I was trying to sync without converting them to a higher bit rate, only 586 came across.

So I decided to take your instructions one step further and totally nuke (as you put it) my iTunes (after I made copies of my libraries), I deleted everything and uninstalled iTunes.  I then reset my phone back to factory settings.  (Can't get more "clean slate" than that.)

After I restored my libraries from the m3u exported files, I still was only able to sync 586 songs (when not using the "convert to higher bit rate").  All of the songs sync'd fine once I checked that box.

This all leads credence to the guys at the Apple store stating that some devices can not handle the larger (very large) M4A (lossless) files. 

I guess I am stuck with converting to the higher bit rate which I really didnt want to do.

i found the easiest way to fix this issue, (after an hour chatting with an itunes rep.) is to scroll down on your summary page when your iphone/ipod is connected to your computer. When you scroll you will see "Options" check the last box stating "manually manage music and videos." Then resync your phone. This fixed my problem. Hope it helps!

This fixed the issue. Even though I'm still experiencing a separate issue where a few songs fail to sync "due to an unknown error".

The other method, desynching all my music and resyncing did not work for me. Like someone else mentioned previously, it actually caused more problems; more of my songs came up unplayable with the red stop button. This whole thing is very frustrating.

Hey everyone, I have also been having this problem and have finally found a solution that is not quite what anyone else has posted yet.

I actually haven't seen the "Syncing Music to iphone" since the new ios update so im quite happy..

Here are the steps that I took to solve:

1. Turned off auto lock and password on iphone 

2. After connecting iphone on the summary page the only three boxes I have checked are Automatically sync when iphone is connected, sync only checked songs and videos, manually manage music and videos

3. Now, click the On this iPhone tab. In the bottom right there are "setting" and "Autofill". Under "Settings" select replace all items when Autofilling. I also arbitrarily selected "reserve 1.12GB for disk use".

5. Then I clicked "Autofill" and selected Replace Songs.

6. Lastly I pressed "Sync" while I was still on the "On This iPhone" page.

7. I was actually about to leave the computer and then I saw something magical..."Syncing Music".....Holy Sh...!!!

Notes:On the iPhone: WiFi, Bluetooth, Cellular, personal Hotspot and VPN are all disabled. I use PC. I have about 5000 songs. I do not use Match.

Before today I was also having a disc space issue with a large block of "other". I deleted the music data from my iphone and that fixed that problem, however, the phone was still not syncing the majority (4800 of 5000) songs.

I do not pay for icloud storage

*I also do not have the "Sync Music" box checked under the Music tab, however, simply doing this did not solve the problem

I had this problem and what I did was plug my phone into my computer, and then I opened iTunes > File > Devices > Transfer Purchases from iPhone. After doing this it automatically started syncing my hundreds of songs with the red square and circle. Hope this helps

Hello. I've been reading all your posts to try to get all my music to play (I have had the red circles issue and my phone will only play selected songs these days - it's maddening). I solved it (I think) by deleting all my playlists, then going to the Summary page in iTunes and clicking the "Sync only checked songs and videos" tick box. I then went back to the Music tab and re-ticked all my favourite playlists, and they now seem to be loading. Hope this works for you.

Hello. I've been reading all your posts to try to get all my music to play (I have had the red circles issue and my phone will only play selected songs these days - it's maddening). I solved it (I think) by deleting all my playlists, then going to the Summary page in iTunes and clicking the "Sync only checked songs and videos" tick box. I then went back to the Music tab and re-ticked all my favourite playlists, and they now seem to be loading. Hope this works for you.

Trebek08 ... IT WORKED !!! Thanks a lot

NDJerry - thank you.  Your fix worked like a charm.  Took a few extra minutes to resync all my music, but it looks like everything is working.  I will have to monitor to see if the problem happens again since this is a new iPhone and I had already synced all my music to the new phone a week ago.  AND I had imported music from a couple of CDs since the original sync.  But for now, everything is fine.

Thanks!

Thank you i think i solved it and saved my sanity Natalie in NZ

I reset my phone, turned off icloud, only selected certain playlists and still I have the dreaded cloud icon with the arrow in the middle. I've just done what Swraith01 suggested and that's fine for me. I just can't stand to see them. Much appreciated.

OMG! This literally just happened to me a few seconds ago. And to the same album posted by the OP... how weird is that! I've discovered half the music on my iPhone 5 playlist have stopped playing... with the red circle + square next to the song. And this is really really frustrating because just yesterday they were playing! I haven't dont ANYTHING with my phone since yesterday... not plugged it into my laptop, didnt perform a backup to the cloud NOTHING. I've read somewhere that the music files probably got currupted mid-sync but in my case, how does that happen? It was fine yesterday and today it isn't. And my custom ringtones have also gone and today I'm stuck with crappy standard iphone ringtones that irk me to no end. The ringtone thing has happened twice since updgrading to this awful iOS7, I go home connect my phone to the laptop, drag and drop the ringtones i want and it's there again. But now it's dissappeared...along with half my music... what is going on?

Follow my instructions here and you'll be right as rain again.