Red square in red circle cannot play songs

I had this problem just this morning. iTunes would not import folders or files.

I fixed it by going to: Edit > Preferences > Advanced then ticked the box that says "Copy files to iTunes media folder when adding to library".

I have to say I much preferred iTunes BEFORE this "update"

Been there, done that. Connect to you computer iTunes library with the cable. Make sure you have backup copies of your stuff, music, pictures, etc. I tried to unsync the iPod then resync the library, this seems to work for most, didn't for me but it may for you. I ended up restoring as new iPod and then added back my libraries. so far so good. Good luck.

SOLUTION: circle with red square Some Music Won't Play After...: Apple Support Communities

Red square with circle

REMOVE RED CIRCLES WITH SQUARE IN THE MIDDLE AND PLAY SONGS:

1: Connect your iDevice.

2: Navigate into your device and on to your Music tab. Uncheck Sync Music.

3: Check that all of your songs are being imported by going in to Music in the On This Phone tab.

The gray text songs represent that they have to be manually installed inside your device by pressing the iCloud button where the "red circle of death" used to be 😉.

HAPPY SYNCING!!!

-GlexAomes

I bought a brand new ipod touch 5th generation and had the same problem when I tried to sync on old itunes library with it. I've spent 4 hours restarting/resetting/manually adding songs and albums back in (thanks Apple) but I've found a solution that seems to work without the hassle. The songs with the red circle of death next to them are greyed out in my itunes library as well with a little circle next to them. I went to File - Devices - Transfer Purchases and Itunes "ungreyed" all of the songs. I've just synced it again and all the songs are back. Very quick and simple. Hopefully this saves other people hours of aggrevation and stress.

SO easy!

RED SQUARES on iphone - solution:

itunes

File

Devices

transfer purchases

(Wi Fi or connected)

Thank you Chris. Had started one of the time consuming and messy ways when I found your tip, quick and easy. Thank you.

I have the answer!

So after useless advice from the rest of the people which posted on this forum, I managed to figure it out myself.

- Plug iphone into computer.
- Sync iPhone
- Top right will show your iphone and an eject button. There should be an ℹ there signifying a problem.
- Click on the ℹ which will display the song giving the issue.

- You will notice later that only the songs after the song on your ipod/iphone have given you a problem and no songs before it were affected. This is what led me to understand that the problem occured from this song.

- Go to your music library and delete the album the song is from, including the song.
- Sync your phone again after you have deleted this album.
- Problem Solved

Hope this helps.

Everybody relax , i have the problem solved.The issue i found out is that the iphone can no longer read the song information, so my next thought was too "convert the id3" tags to "Reverse Unicode" so the itunes can read it . Problem Solved.

"right click"

"convert the id3"

"Reverse Unicode"

Hello

Some funny answers are listed here .......

The people that have problems with this issue shouldn't have an I devices, let alone one. Steve jobs be rolling in his grave again.

There are two things going on here for the problem of the dreaded "Red square in red circle cannot play songs"

It's just telling you that you have that song, but it's not on your current device you are on, that's all full stop !

so it's not a bug not a error not an fault etc.

two things you can do is the following on your device that don't have the songs

To hide the songs that are not on your current device but are log with iTunes data base do the following

Settings | music | slide show all music to off

o that wasn't hard was it ......

Or you guessed it sync your entire music to your device ummm with all the songs I have not even my 128 iPad has enough space , that's why play lists comes into affect so well , make a play list up with the selected music you want to listen to and sync the play list of songs over to your desired device Simple 101 stuff.

emailtc

Yaniv007. You are so right. I spent 3 hours on this problem trying all the other solutions. Your solution found the offending song and I deleted the album. Re-sync and problem solved.

Sadly, I wish the answer was that simple. When I try that, all it does is remove songs from my phone. These songs have always been able to play on my phone but as of a couple of months ago, I've started having this problem, and it affects different songs each time. My software is up to date, I have synced on multiple occasions. iTunes on my computer shows a different number of songs than what my phone does, they of course used to be identical. Now each time I play music on my phone it somehow chooses some songs to apply the red circle of death to! I have tried several solutions that people here have said that would correct the problem, none have.

I found a simpler way!!!

When I compressed the songs, out of 700 songs i had in my iphone only 20 would play, rest all had that red circle.

I uncompressed the files and re-synced it and behold... each song plays normally!!!!

Just to reiterate Mara120

The issue is that your iphone/ipod can no longer read the song information, soyou need to "convert the id3" tags to "Reverse Unicode" so the itunes can read it .

So, in itunes, list all songs and then select all songs - right click - select "convert the id3" - select "Reverse Unicode"

Then re-sync your device. That is it. It takes about 5 mins. No more red-dot EVER!!!

There are many stupid "simple" answers on this thread. Most assuming that you have bought all your songs from itunes or that you are an idiot (i.e. your device is full or you didn't "select the song to be on your device in the first place"). Other solutions are hit and miss. This solution is definitive.

Thanks to Mara120 for being so logical and writing the original post (Jul 25, 2014 4:13 AM)

life saver! you are a star. This is the only explanation that makes perfect sense and the solution worked perfectly for me.

I need a specific explanation on where am I completing this procedure??? On my Mac or on my iPhone. I cannot find these buttons.

Thank you.