Dotted circles next to songs, won't sync, red circle with square?

Fix that worked perfectly for me: Re-Creating (i.e., re-building) my itunes library and then syncing phone. Here's the apple support link: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1451

Note: there are some caveats with re-creating a library.

Awesome! I'm glad my solution worked for you, and thanks for your 'thanks'. Losing your music for a few days really makes you appreciate it more!

I was having the same issue and tried your fix, when I went to import my library I got an error message and now all of my music is gone. Any suggestions?

After trying various solutions for this (iPhone 5 +MBPro) I unchecked music, synced, then re-checked music and synced and it seems to be working now....

So what exactly did you do again...?

I havent read the entire post but I had the same problem and I unchecked "convert higher bit rate songs to" and all my issues were solved.

I just bought Iphone 4S, I have been using 32GB Ipod before so Itunes its not exactly a new thing for me however, problem started to occur 7 hours after I transfered all my music library to my new Iphone, at first everything's fine and all songs played normally. Suddenly, as I was adding few new songs to the Iphone's library, all of them has an exclamation mark in front of it. I've done some research regarding this issue off course, many pointed that the original file might have been removed (accidently or not) to another location, however, I did NOT even touch any files on my computer yet when this happened. I put all the songs during the night and I when sync it the next morning, this thing happened. I've added all the songs once again this morning but this evening, the same thing occurred once again. This aint happening on my IPOD but somehow keep happening to the IPHONE?

What cause the songs keep disappearing from my Iphone without a reason? I mean, is there anything wrong with syncing my Iphone ? Cause I did nothing to my Iphone yet this exclamation point reappearing again and again. Any help would be appreciated thanks.

This problem drove me crazy for a month. I tried many things, but at last realized my problem was that it was not syncing. It would sit a long time on the safari safe browsing data. Finally I started just syncing a few artists at a time. Eventually I found one song which was the problem. As long as that song was selected it would not sync properly. I deleted it and now everything seems back to normal. What a headache!

Please be aware that after few syncs this problem will eventually come back and you'll get the same problem again. I've to put all my songs all over again 4 times this week alone (5500 songs, 2 hours sync time). Now I will not sync my Itunes music again till maybe the next IOS or ITunes come out. I think this most likely cause by IOS 7 rather than Itunes 11 cause my old IPOD seems to be fine and doesnt have this problem.

I was getting a dotted circle next to movies and tv shows and iTunes simply would not sync them. For both Movies and TV Shows, I have my iPad set to sync a single playlist each. Turns out for me it wasn't working because the Smart Playlist I was syncing was within a playlist folder. I simply moved the playlist to the top level, instead of being in a folder, and it immediately synced everything that was missing on the next attempt.

Hi everyone,

Configuration : iPhone 4 (3,1) / iTunes 11.1.5 / OSX 10.9.2 / iOS 7.0.6

I've just found why a "dotted red circle" was showing up next to my songs on my iPhone and how to fix it.

The problem : When I was trying to sync my iPhone with iTunes, the sync would failed in the middle for "apparently" no reason (even if there is alays a reason) showing "Arrêt de la synchronisation" (Stop of synchronisation ?).

Then, I would have a few songs on my iPhone I could play but, most of them would appear with THE "dotted red circle" on the right and there is nothing to do with that. Plus, only focusing on the synchronisation of my music library (no Apps, no Mails, etc) for the test, I have figures out that my "Others" part would grow everytime I was trying to synch (failing everytime of course). To me, this appears to be a certain amount of music that is partially uploaded to the iPhone but failing to complete.

What was wrong : I had "1" ("one" on only) song that was making the synchronisation failed. This song was downloaded legally from soundcloud using the download button. Maybe, the file was corrupt in the first place.

What I did to identify it : First, let me explain the way I do to manage my songs "sharply" and "neatly". In iTunes, my songs are "coché / décoché" (selected / not selected ?) depending on if I want them to appear or not on my iPhone. Then, in the iPhone management space (appears when plugging the iPhone), in "Résumé" (Summary ?), I chose the option "Ne synchroniser que les morceaux et vidéos cochés".

If one day, suddenly, the "dotted red circles" appear, I advice that you check the date of your last synchronisation (where everthing was working perfectly fine), then go to your iTunes library, sort the songs by the "Date de l'ajout" (Adding date ?) and identify the songs you add since your last synch. I would then unticked the songs and try to synchronise my iPhone to see if the synchronisation could complete properly again.

If your problem comes from a corrupt song, the synchronisation should complete. I would repeat the operation til I identify the corrupt song(s) ?

Nota : As I didn't know where the problem come from, I nearly did the same process for me but instead of playing with the ticked/unticked songs, I went to Music (in iPhone management space) and chose the option "Playlist, artists, albums and ...". Then, I have added group of artists by group of artists to identify where my corrupt song was.

Finally, fixing it properly : I removed the corrupt file, check that my synchronisation would complete. As I don't really like thing to get messy, remember that I say that synchronisation failures would generate some "Others" content, I have decided to restore my iPhone. I am not saying that it has to be done since the "Others" content seems not to ba altering the execution of my iPhone but... "neat" and "sharp" ! So I did it.

To restore, I let you go through specific tutorials (easy) but the main thing I would insist on is to "first" save your configuration in order to restore your preferences and settings after the restore (check the time and date at that moment, that might be helpful)

My feeling : Trust me, like most of you on this topic I suppose, this "dotted red circle" has driven me mad for the last 2 days and I have complained a lot about iTunes, iOS looking for solutions everywhere. Well, it appears that my iTunes 11.1.5 is just fine and so is my iOS 7.0.6. The problem was my corrupt files. So check it out !

Big thank to this community that helped me find the solution. I have litterally done everything you guys mentionned without success of course, as the problem was the content and not the software !

Cheers.

I tried rebuilding my library. It didn't work for me. This has been a problem for months now. I'm at a loss.

I've had the same issue... I very much regret "upgrading" to the new OS software. I've spent over two weeks trying to figure out why I get the red circles and can't play songs anymore. It's very frustrating. Who has time for this?? I've even called apple support and no resolution. They basically told me I have to start from ground zero and add each of my 13,000 songs back manually.

Hey Jonnnnn, had the same issue, it's pain but make sure you have a current copy of your iPod on your computer first then delete your music library from your iPod. Then restore your iPod to New and then add back your library. It's pain, but it worked for me. Good luck, Cheers.