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iPhone songs with dotted circle and greyed out info

Latest iTunes and Mac OS Sierra. (iPhone issue or iTunes issue??

I do NOT have Apple Music or iTunes Match.

So this is really messed up.

Trying to get all songs with dotted grey circles off iPhone. (see pix below).


iTunes Sync Music deselected (do not sync any music) Also deselected all playlists and deleted manually added songs

Then sync iPhone.


Select the iPhone in iTunes and click On My Device - Music. Shows 11 items (including 3 voice memos and 5 songs with kind as Stream).

Put mouse cursor over the Audio in the rainbow bar at bottom, shows 312 songs.

iPhone Setting > General > About. Shows 288 songs

Using PhoneView (by Ecamm), iPhone shows 401 songs. All these songs do play.


Songs shown as Stream do play, even with iPhone set to Airplane mode (cell and wifi off).

( I have not restored the iPhone as new).



User uploaded file

Posted on Oct 14, 2016 6:17 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Aug 9, 2017 12:31 PM

I've had this (fairly consistently) - both with music and movies purchased on the iPhone, not purchased through iTunes.


In some cases, I noticed that this was the result of an interrupted download - be it a network interruption or an inactive screen - and cancelling the current download and starting a new one. Granted this might not be the explanation for all instances of this, but for my most noticeable "Streams", this was the case.


I'm currently experiencing this with Furious 8 - redownloading to completion using the phone will fill that entry in when using iTunes to view the device contents. However, once the file is deleted (either removing the download through TV, removing through Settings, or removing through the same iTunes display) and a sync/backup is performed, the same "Stream" ghost entry reappears.


Outside of an erase and install, the only way I've found to remove these entries is to use something like iExplorer to access available parts of the iOS file system and delete the actual "Purchases" folder from the device. Should you choose this route, make sure you transfer any available purchases first from the iPhone that aren't already in your iTunes library - regardless of the media type (Music, Movies, TV Shows), it appears that iOS stores purchased media (from iTunes) in a different location on the device compared to transferred media. Deleting the Purchased folder will subsequently remove the media from the device, and will have to be added back manually afterwards.


Note: The folder does get recreated in the file system upon the next purchase using the device.


Double Note: Leave the "Downloads" folder on the device alone. I've deleted this one mistakenly, and resulted in no download from any app (iTunes Store, Podcasts, etc.) being able to start. (probably because the expected target folder is missing) A restore is the only cure for this one.


Re-syncing after the Purchased folder is removed *should* get rid of the stale "Stream" entries at that point. It could be some junk data in one of the SQL tables causing this, but haven't been able to prove this for certain.


Steve


(good to see you're still around... you answered some of my questions ages ago - hope I can return the favor finally)

10 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 9, 2017 12:31 PM in response to Chris CA

I've had this (fairly consistently) - both with music and movies purchased on the iPhone, not purchased through iTunes.


In some cases, I noticed that this was the result of an interrupted download - be it a network interruption or an inactive screen - and cancelling the current download and starting a new one. Granted this might not be the explanation for all instances of this, but for my most noticeable "Streams", this was the case.


I'm currently experiencing this with Furious 8 - redownloading to completion using the phone will fill that entry in when using iTunes to view the device contents. However, once the file is deleted (either removing the download through TV, removing through Settings, or removing through the same iTunes display) and a sync/backup is performed, the same "Stream" ghost entry reappears.


Outside of an erase and install, the only way I've found to remove these entries is to use something like iExplorer to access available parts of the iOS file system and delete the actual "Purchases" folder from the device. Should you choose this route, make sure you transfer any available purchases first from the iPhone that aren't already in your iTunes library - regardless of the media type (Music, Movies, TV Shows), it appears that iOS stores purchased media (from iTunes) in a different location on the device compared to transferred media. Deleting the Purchased folder will subsequently remove the media from the device, and will have to be added back manually afterwards.


Note: The folder does get recreated in the file system upon the next purchase using the device.


Double Note: Leave the "Downloads" folder on the device alone. I've deleted this one mistakenly, and resulted in no download from any app (iTunes Store, Podcasts, etc.) being able to start. (probably because the expected target folder is missing) A restore is the only cure for this one.


Re-syncing after the Purchased folder is removed *should* get rid of the stale "Stream" entries at that point. It could be some junk data in one of the SQL tables causing this, but haven't been able to prove this for certain.


Steve


(good to see you're still around... you answered some of my questions ages ago - hope I can return the favor finally)

Oct 14, 2016 6:25 PM in response to Chris CA

So I just now clicked the Edit Playlist (little blue text at top of pix above) and the playlist pops up on the right side. I selected all the songs and pressed Delete..

They all disappear.

When I Sync the iPhone, the 8 songs above pop back up as shown (stream songs are greyed out).

The voice memos do not come back.

Oct 14, 2016 6:58 PM in response to Chris CA

This is pretty hokey. I deleted the Purchased playlist in the Music app on iPhone. Now all my purchases show with the cloud/down arrow.

No Downloaded playlist (since there are no downloaded songs).


Delete music, movies, apps, and other content from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support

I went to Settings > General > Storage and iCloud usage - Manage storage and it showed a bunch of songs. I delete them all.

Now only the greyed out stream show in iTunes.

Oct 15, 2016 5:18 AM in response to Chris CA

Songs downloaded directly onto the iPhone from iCloud have nothing to do with syncing th iPhone thru iTunes.

Can’t delete them off the iPhone by syncing.


They show up in the Music app I can select them, tap the ellipsis (…) then delete them from downloads and from library and they no longer show in the Music app.

I have deleted them from iTunes.

However, I have 5 songs that show as Stream and as also show as downloaded when viewing Music on the iPhone thru iTunes. These will not go away. They do not show up in the Music app at all.
if I try to play the downloaded song thru iTunes on the iPhone, it doesn’t play and gets the exclamation mark.

Sync the iPhone and then both songs show greyed out..


User uploaded file

User uploaded fileUser uploaded file


So 5 songs stuck on the iPhone twice that I cant see or play (sometimes).

iPhone songs with dotted circle and greyed out info

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