"cannot find songs online" when trying to play/import from cd.

Question

When trying to play/import a cd I get "cannot find songs online" message. Only Track # & time are displayed. When trying to get cd info I get "not registered for online use" message. Never did this before. Thanx in advance for any help.

Answer 1

The "not recognized for on-line use" error is associated with the Gracenote service that iTunes uses to look up and retrieve metadata for CDs.  Some users have reported that this error occurs when trying to import from CD, subsequent to upgrading to version 12 (though the number of reports has reduced significantly since 12.1 was released).  A number of slightly different solutions have been reported (though all of a similar nature).
Try walking through the following steps - before starting you may have to enable hidden files and folders to be viewed - in Windows 7 / Windows Explorer select Organize > Folder and search options, then on the View tab make sure that Show hidden files, folders and drives is selected.  I don't have a Vista system to check whether its different, but you may need to:
Select Start > Control Panel > Appearance and Personalization
Click Folder Options
Select the View tab
Under Advanced Settings, click Show hidden files and folders, then click OK.
Without this you won't see the AppData folder in C:\Users\username\.
Exit iTunes
In Windows Explorer, go to the folder C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\iTunes
Delete the following files:
CD Info.cidb
com.apple.iTunes.Gracenote.plist
Restart iTunes
Insert a CD and see if details are now correctly retrieved from Gracenote
If this doesn't work:   
In iTunes, select Edit > Preferences and make a note (or take a screenshot) of your preferences settings in all relevant tabs
Exit iTunes
In Windows Explorer, go to the folder C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\iTunes
Delete the following file:iTunesPrefs.xml
Restart iTunes
Insert a CD and see if details are now correctly retrieved from Gracenote
If this second procedure does work, you'll need to restore other iTunes preferences settings to those that you noted in step 1.   
If this one didn't work:   
Exit iTunes
Check the following folders:
C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Apple Computer\iTunes
C:\Users\username\AppData\LocalLow\Apple Computer\iTunes
Delete any copies of the following files:
CD Info.cidb
com.apple.iTunes.Gracenote.plist
iTunesPrefs.xml
Restart iTunes
Insert a CD and see if details are now correctly retrieved from Gracenote
Again, if this procedure does work, you'll need to restore other iTunes preferences settings to those that you noted in step 1 of the second procedure.
If you're still not able to retrieve CD info:   
Exit iTunes
In Windows, select Start > Control Panel > Programs and Features.  Find the entry for iTunes, right-click and select Repair.
When this process has finished, restart iTunes
Insert a CD and see if details are now correctly retrieved from Gracenote
If none of these have worked (and almost everything I've seen suggests you should be OK by this point), you may have an issue with the installation and configuration of iTunes itself.  If you have got this far, see turingtest2's notes on Troubleshooting issues with iTunes for Windows updates for advice on how to remove and replace of all components of iTunes.