Playlist problem - songs greyed out

This was happening to me as well and I've finally figured it out. At some point these greyed out songs were in your local library and Apple Music has chosen to add that one to your playlist instead of the one you selected from Apple Music.

For me, the songs were no longer visible in my local library, so they were greyed out. I'm guessing it's some sort of iCloud Music library corruption.

Here are the steps I took:

1. Right click the greyed out song in your playlist and select Add to Library

2. Locate the song in your library (Songs view)

3. Right click the song (probably greyed out there too) and select Delete from Library (this also deletes it from your Playlist)

4. Locate the song on Apple Music again and add it back to your playlist

The song should no longer be greyed out.

I hope this helps someone, cause this was driving me nuts.

I found a quick & easy fix. In your library under (playlist) click on purchased. Your greyed out songs appear. On the right side of the screen it shows how long the song is. Hover over that number and 3 dots will appear. Click on "Check Selection). Your song is restored.

Hey fella, I ran into the same problem. I figured it out!!!

Just need to go to the home screen on ITunes library. Then select songs on the left upper side of list. When the songs show up in the library all should be checked marked. If not, the best way to check them all would be to select the checkmark on the top line, this bring all of the list in order of check marks. Then go to the bottom of the list and start checking the uncheck songs this brings the music back to life!!

Good luck

I have the same issue and NOTHING is helping me access any of my music in iTunes. I have also noticed that purchased music I have had in iTunes for over 7-10 years is slowly disappearing every time I update iTunes -- essentially, it appears that Apple is stealing music from my system.

Hi, szymon90!

Thanks for reaching out via the Apple Support Communities regarding some songs being greyed out in Apple Music. I love being able to listen to a variety of music through the service, and want you to have access to all the music available to you; I'd be happy to help!

There could be a number of reasons that your songs are greyed out, as detailed under the "If your songs appear in light gray text" section of the article listed here: About iCloud Music Library icons and status

Your songs might appear in iTunes in light gray text for a variety of reasons. Those reasons include:

• You're not connected to iCloud Music Library. If you see a Disconnected icon in the upper-right corner of iTunes, you're not connected to iCloud Music Library. Click the icon to reconnect.
• The song isn't in Apple Music or isn't available in your current country. These songs also appear in gray if you search for them in Apple Music.
• Restrictions are turned on for explicit tracks. Learn more about Restrictions.
• An artist or content provider made changes or edits to an album. You might need to remove the album from your library and add it back from the Apple Music catalog.

Have a great day!

Same issue. It's my music that was imported from my iTunes library. I bought the music, I own it, I can listen to it on my iPod, but not through Apple Music. If it's not really my music, then call it something else. I'm just glad that I still have my iPod.

click the 3 dots on the song that is greyed out and click tick selection

I can't believe it was this simple, but thanks for sharing this solution. How all these songs got "Unchecked" in my iTunes library, I don't know, but that's all the problem amounted to. Thanks again for sharing such a simple solution!

None of these is solutions are working for me. I've deleted the playlist over and over, readded the songs from the Library - the playlist on the device always shows as all grayed out. I already had most of these song working previously. Beyond frustrating...

None of these possibilities are true, and none of these fixes work for my files. I had over 42,000 songs in my iTunes library over the last 15 years. That total now says just over 22,000, and now most are greyed out and unable to play.

I think I need a bit more serious evaluation from someone in tech support. Ideas? thank you.

Thank you Vinnie0147! This sorted my problem perfectly 🙂

It's not only frustrating, it's a bit maddening that as time goes by iTunes becomes less and less technologically savvy. I've added 40-50 albums per year, but my total songs have gone from 43,274 to 27,419 total songs. iTuns really has gone downhill for 10+ years, and it's all I (& my music company) use. Not only that, my whole office is in the music industry. iTunes used to be the standard that all industry people use, and it's quickly being replaced by Spotify which does nothing for me. - very little for any of us honestly, other than hearing new releases. But part of our daily duty in our position in the industry is to review dozens of unreleased albums per week, take notes on them, upload them TO iTunes, send their metadata to the databases, and virtually introduce them to the music world.

When an old reliable App for doing this becomes less and less useful it leaves us dumbfounded and searching for a replacement. Sadly there are just no other replacements quite yet. I suppose we will end up building one ourselves if iTunes continues down this never-ending downward spiral.

I'm curious how many others are giving up on -or have given up on- itunes for others and which ones are you using to keep, catalog, and notate your music files.

What are you all using? Who has given up?