User profile for user: Pictor_Guy
Pictor_Guy Author
User level: Level 1
11 points

Grey Circle on iTunes "iPhone" and "iPod" and duplicate entries

Okay, I've seen a few topics on this but I haven't found a solution yet.


On iTunes (12.7.3.26) I have quite an extensive library of both purchased on iTunes music and older CDs that have been ripped plus a very small amount of songs from Apple Music (current trial). This problem persists across the entire library. I'll focusing on one recent playlist with only 41 Songs (3 Apple Music AAC audio file, and 38 Purchased AAC audio file). On iTunes on my Mac these 41 songs appear and play as expected.


On my iPhone X (iOS 11.2.6 with 188 GB Free) while connected to iTunes I see only the Purchased AAC audio files but the song count is 170 songs. Some are duplicated (with the grey dotted circle) while some are correctly copied over. While some are not copied over and have the grey circle. All of the displayed songs are Purchased AAC audio files. None of the Apple Music files display. So 38 purchased songs replicate to 170 - some duplicate, some not.


However, when I look on the iPhone when not connected to iTunes I'm only seeing 15 songs. Both Purchased AAC audio files and Apple Music AAC audio files. More than half of the songs are missing.


I have an iPod touch that I use in my car and it has the same strange behavior as my iPhone.


I read a post that suggested to manually delete the grey dot songs from iTunes for the iPhone library but that's not working.

Posted on Mar 18, 2018 10:00 AM

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User profile for user: turingtest2
turingtest2
User level: Level 10
278,297 points

Posted on Mar 18, 2018 11:19 AM

You could try the following all-purpose steps for dealing with erratic device or sync behaviour (including the troublesome greyed out tracks and/or dotted circles of stalled transfers). They assume that all of the content you want on the device is in your library ready for restoring. If it isn't see Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device first. I would also recommend you copy everything out of the camera roll if you haven't already.


  1. Backup device.
  2. Restore as a new device.
  3. Restore the backup you made earlier.


Use an encrypted backup (*) if you want to preserve passwords, Wi-Fi settings, web history and health data where appropriate. I also suggest syncing with a selection of playlists (unless you're using iCloud Music Library) rather than manually adding content as, if nothing else, the process above is easier to do if you ever have to go through it again.


(*) The downside with backup encryption is that if you forget the password when you need it again, which could be years later, you may need to invoke a workaround to turn off encryption as shown in Re: disable encrypted backups, which can only help if your device is in a state that can backup to iCloud, or runs iOS 11.



For added security you might also want to make an independent backup to iCloud and/or archive your current backup before you start.



FWIW I successfully used this method some time ago when Siri became unable to call contacts or play my music.



tt2

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User profile for user: turingtest2
turingtest2
User level: Level 10
278,297 points

Mar 18, 2018 11:19 AM in response to Pictor_Guy

You could try the following all-purpose steps for dealing with erratic device or sync behaviour (including the troublesome greyed out tracks and/or dotted circles of stalled transfers). They assume that all of the content you want on the device is in your library ready for restoring. If it isn't see Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device first. I would also recommend you copy everything out of the camera roll if you haven't already.


  1. Backup device.
  2. Restore as a new device.
  3. Restore the backup you made earlier.


Use an encrypted backup (*) if you want to preserve passwords, Wi-Fi settings, web history and health data where appropriate. I also suggest syncing with a selection of playlists (unless you're using iCloud Music Library) rather than manually adding content as, if nothing else, the process above is easier to do if you ever have to go through it again.


(*) The downside with backup encryption is that if you forget the password when you need it again, which could be years later, you may need to invoke a workaround to turn off encryption as shown in Re: disable encrypted backups, which can only help if your device is in a state that can backup to iCloud, or runs iOS 11.



For added security you might also want to make an independent backup to iCloud and/or archive your current backup before you start.



FWIW I successfully used this method some time ago when Siri became unable to call contacts or play my music.



tt2

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User profile for user: Pictor_Guy
Pictor_Guy Author
User level: Level 1
11 points

Mar 18, 2018 1:29 PM in response to turingtest2

Thank you for the reply. I think I have found a fix (work around?). I was looking for an option that would avoid the pain of going through a restore. While I don't mind doing a restore for my iPod, it's only a workaround and not something I want to do as a work around on my iPhone (too many changes to re-establish work security on my phone).


Since both iPod and iPhone experienced the problem I figured that this is not an isolated issue.


What seems to have solved the problem - for now - is to turn off "show apple music" and "iCloud music library" on both my iPod and iPhone. The songs are back. This means I won't have Apple Music but it's a tradeoff I'm willing to make since I'm only in the trial period anyway.

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Grey Circle on iTunes "iPhone" and "iPod" and duplicate entries

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