You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

📰 Newsroom Update

Billie Eilish is Apple Music’s Artist of the Year for 2024. Learn more >

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

SOLUTION: Some Music Won't Play After Upgrading Your iPhone To iOS7

After upgrading to iOS 7, some of you, including me, started having an issue where some of your songs refuse to play on your iPhones and iPods. There was also a red square inside of a red circle next to the song which I guess, was adding to the problem of the songs not playing. I had no idea what the issue was, so I searched and searched but came out with no solution to this annoying problem. Until last night. I was just messing around in the settings app and discovered that it was neither iTunes 11 nor iOS 7 that was the cause of this problem. It's all a matter of how the settings in your iPhone or iPod are set up. Follow these instructions to get your songs working again!


Step 1: Go to the "Settings" app on your Springboard (iPhone or iPod)


Step 2: Scroll down to the "iTunes & App Store" category.


Step 3: Where it says "Automatic Downloads", turn off the "Music" slider.


Step 4: Sync and enjoy playing ALL of your music!


It took me a while to figure this out, but I'm glad that I can help you guys. Have a great day!


😁

iPhone 5, iOS 7.0.2, Works on every iPhone and iPod!

Posted on Oct 1, 2013 8:11 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Oct 1, 2013 10:26 AM

Thanks for your suggestion but it did not solve the problem for me. It did remove all the songs that wouldn't play that had the red square/red circle symbol but they were all songs that are in my iTunes library that I bought so I don't know what is going on. I have a iPhone 4S and I have the latest iOS7 update and latest iTunes update so I don't know what is to blame or going wrong. I just know everything was fine befgore iOS7. I also tried to remove a playlist (no sucess) and reload a playlist (no success)

178 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Oct 1, 2013 10:26 AM in response to DJPens

Thanks for your suggestion but it did not solve the problem for me. It did remove all the songs that wouldn't play that had the red square/red circle symbol but they were all songs that are in my iTunes library that I bought so I don't know what is going on. I have a iPhone 4S and I have the latest iOS7 update and latest iTunes update so I don't know what is to blame or going wrong. I just know everything was fine befgore iOS7. I also tried to remove a playlist (no sucess) and reload a playlist (no success)

Oct 8, 2013 11:54 AM in response to EljaySL

I encountered the same problem yesterday and found the solution after seeing this same issue posted on Apple support over multiple dates since September. I followed the advice of one commenter and did a restore procedure of the iphone and that solved the issue. The commenter provided a link to a non-apple web site and the instructions differed only slightly from Apple's instructions here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1414. I can't find the original advice or that site right now but here's what I did:

1. ensured that only the usb end of my sync cable was attached to my computer with itunes open.

2. held the home and top buttons down simultaneously on my untethered iPhone to power it off.

3. Keeping my finger on the home phone only, connected the iPhone to the other end of the sync cable that was connectd to my computer (fyi, I use a macbook pro and back up everthng to iCloud)

4. the warning message came up in iTunes about are you sure you want to restore all your media and other data (on the phone) will be erased. You can click cancel or restore; I chose restore. It took a while but all my apps, photos and music returned to my iPhone without the red circles with red squares on some tracks.


Background: I updated to ios 7 back in September with no problems. Yesterday, I imported new digital audio to my itunes library and then went to sync, it appeared that I was way over capacity on my iphone. I tried removing pictures and apps I don't use. That brought memory down, but the sync would not correct the red circle/squre issue of certain tracks in my music on my iPhone. These files played fine in iTunes on the computer. On the Apple thread where I found the advice that I've posted that worked, that person had spoken to an Apple person on the phone who believed that a file must have gotten corrupted on the iPhone and recommended the restore. I think the same happened to me. The new digital audio files which I had imported into iTunes were mp3s which worked fine in iTunes, but must have gotten corrupted during the first sync. I converted to aac and shrunk to 128, but whenever I tried to sync, things looked normal (except for a diagnostic message) but the waiting to copy took way to long and when things finally started to copy, it was so slow that he sync just quit on its own. THEN I noticed that all the music that had the red circle/squares were files that I had originally put into iTunes from CDs - so, music not purchased via iTunes. These were imported quite a while back. Fortunately, they were all backed up to the cloud and restore of the iPhone worked. All that music is back and I don't get the diagnostic message or slow wait and quit problem now.

Oct 10, 2013 6:47 AM in response to EljaySL

I've been having the same problem for almost a month now. I'm close to giving up using ipods entirely.


A sync wont work for me becauseI do not purchase music from iTunes. I buy CD's, download music using codes provided when I buy Vinyl records or download free music online. My itunes library is empty.

Oct 10, 2013 11:17 AM in response to R04CH

So here is my latest hassle with this ********. I tired of trying to solve it directly so I decided to subscribe to iTunes Match and have access to all of my library. I have tried dozens of times to download iTunes Match on both my desktop and my laptop and every time it freezes at the third step where is downloads artwork and other songs not uploaded. I still cannot sync my iPhone with my desktop, but I can with my laptop. I went to the nearest Apple store to try and get some help and they could not solve it and suggested I send a support query via email about my iTunes Match upload problem. Yeah,right!!?? Again, everything was working just fine before iOS7 and now it is not and from the discussion above there is a real problem and I don't see Apple copping to it or helping. Very disappointing. I cannot even restore my iPhone. Every time I try it times out before it is done.


I am starting to get more than frustrated and into the realm of ****** off. Do I have to buy anew iPhone to get out of this mess?

Oct 14, 2013 4:02 AM in response to PDXScully

Hi PDXScully,


Thanks for the post. I have just updated my phone today and all my music has not only gone from my phone but also from my itunes library on my computer. I have accepted the fact they are gone (after almost crying). I have figured out all the ones that were downloaded for free (not through itunes) have gone. The only ones left (very few) are the ones i purchased through itunes however they show the error message mentioned above.


Before I do you steps do you know if theres anyway of getting all my songs back even though they have also gone from the itunes on the comp?


Hope the above makes sense, im very simple when it comes to this stuff.


Thanks

Oct 15, 2013 4:45 PM in response to EljaySL

a simple sync also worked for me on my iphone 4s. yes, it took a while to transfer a couple thousand songs. i also had to resync just now to add a few podcasts. THIS IS BEYOND FRUSTRATING! i'm really beginning to feel ****** off at Apple for screwing up Itunes and Iphone software constantly. this latest b.s. over IOS 7 almost seems designed to make anything less than an iphone 5 obsolete. i have used Macs since 1987, spending tens of thousands of dollars on at least 15 laptops, desktops, ipods, ipads, iphones... and this is how i get rewarded. shame on you, Apple!


remember when Apple products were less buggy than PCs? given the higher price and degraded functionality relative to other OEMs, i can clearly envision a day (maybe tomorrow) when i'll follow a few of my friends who also were dedicated apple users right out the door to Samsung, Google, etc. friends love their Droid phones. i no longer love my iphone. in fact, some days i actually loathe it...


Message was edited by: zorthron


Message was edited by: zorthron

SOLUTION: Some Music Won't Play After Upgrading Your iPhone To iOS7

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.