Greyed out Music

Why does music on my mac not play on iTunes instead just show as being grey or faded lettering and why is it that they work sometime and not others?

This is the Pages forum, not the iTunes forum:
iTunes for Mac
Is the music from a PC?, because there are formats like .wma that iTunes does not open.
Peter

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FIX - for greyed out music

I only ever leech from these sites so this time I thought I'd give a little back.
Symptoms:
Greyed out music in iphone music library. Nothing would play, apart from the music I discovered I could download wirelessly from itunes store purchases (music I already owned).
I have read every reply to every thread for the last 2 years since this problem occured. I tried them all: uninstalling itunes on my pc, changing the language of my iphone; cloning my office itunes identity (very complicated); synced, unchecked everything and re-synced, hard reset of phone etc
Fix:
I unchecked all of the music from my sync list on itunes and synced in the normal way. There shouldn't be any music left on the iphone, but there still was!?
I deleted all the music from my iphone music library manually and synced again. The audio was now empty.
I now checked the playlists and songs I wanted and synced again. Fixed!
There were obviously some corrupt audio files on my iphone preventing a succesful sync, probably caused by a bad sync or premature termination of sync etc.
Anyway this worked for me.

YOU ARE A LIFE SAVER !!! This has been driving me mad THANK YOU THANK YOU THANKYOU !!!

I can't delete songs on my the greyed out music on my iPhone

I can't delete songs on my the greyed out music on my iPhone. I've tried deleting it all by going on settings > general > usage > music and deleting it there but it just stays there despite saying 'music: no data'. I've tried unticking the songs when i plug my phone into itunes but it just comes up with a grey exclamation mark and i've also tryed just syncing my muisc and that doesn't work either
I don't want to restore my phone though because i don't want to lose my texts or notes, helppppp

I wouldn't - uncheck Sync in Music tab of iTunes then re-sync and see if your music disappears from your phone.

Greyed out duplicates of music in my itunes

Every time i plug my iphone into itunes, the library will show up with duplicate songs that will be greyed out with a synchronize symbol next to it.ive tryed almost every thing there is to try, ive updated my itunes ive restored my phone ive looked in preffrences and done every thing i can think of but the greyed out music comes back every time i plug my iphone in my new mac book air. i just swiched from an old pc and i cant figure out what the problem is. please help.

Hey! Issue is caused by one of the following!
A: You have only downloaded part of an album and the other songs from the album are greyed out because apple want you to buy the rest
B: You purchased an album and only half downloaded on the phone and you have automatic downloads enabled in iTunes and it has synced from iTunes but your phone doesn't realise this
C: The phone has been disconnect mid sync
Hope this helps

ITunes 11 has moved most of my audiobooks to music, and greyed out the "audiobook" option in the info pane. WHY?!?!?

Now I have a music library filled with audiobook content and music content all mixed up, playing EVERYTHING when I'm on shuffle because iTuness 11 has now also reset the previously-audiobook-now-music content not to be skipped in shuffle, and I can't fix it because the option is greyed out. Can anybody help me?

Just an update, following last nights USB sync all music shows as In the library on my iPhone, however only the same 500 or so songs are playable, the rest go from appearing to be in the library to going into the cloud and starting to download when manually selected. If on shuffle the music skips over them. The iPhone memory usage shows only about 10gb used most of which is for the iOS/apps, so once again my music library is not on my iPhone. Apple have managed to take a great product and turn it into a steaming pile of turd.

I tried to sync music from iTunes to my iPhone and when I click on "on this phone" the songs are there, but they are greyed out and have a circle in front of them. I can not click on those songs and when I eject the phone they are not on the phone.

I tried to sync music from iTunes to my iPhone and when I click on "on this phone" the songs are there, but they are greyed out and have a circle in front of them. I can not click on those songs, delete or anything and when I eject the phone they are not on the phone. I tried to re-add the songs and it says it can't add songs because they've already been added. So HOW can I get the songs to actually ADD to my phone to where I can listen to them? It's like they're stuck in Sync limbo or something! Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I am having the same problem. I have just tried this. Unplug iphone > open itunes > delete all music from itunes library > close itunes > re-open itunes > add music from original folder > plug in iphone > select songs > press sync > unplug iphone using eject button onscreen > checked phone .... still nothing in music folder on phone. On itunes the "On this iphone" tab the songs remain there but greyed out.

I can't delete my audio books from my music in my ipod. have deleted them fromi tunes library. they are grey out in my ipod music folder and can do nothing with them. can't accerss options under summary of my ipod either to operate manually. thanks den

I. can't delete my audio books from 'my'music' in my ipod. (have not had this problem for the 18mths I have had ipod) they are delEeted in itunes library but not in my ipod. they show up in my music in i tunes but are greyed out and I can't do anythbng with them. also can not acess options in my summary of my i pod to operate manuanly. nothing comes up in options.
Thanks Denise

Use Shift+Delete to remove items from a playlist and the library at the same time.
tt2

Hi, have a iphone/macbook itunes prob. i connected my phone to mac to add songs, and it wiped 99% of music from my phone. on the mac it still lists the songs on my phone but they are greyed out. can anyone help? very frustrated and want my music back.

hi, have a iphone/macbook itunes prob. i connected my phone to mac to add songs, and it wiped 99% of music from my phone. on the mac it still lists the songs on my phone but they are greyed out. can anyone help? very frustrated and want my music back.

I am having the same problem. I have just tried this. Unplug iphone > open itunes > delete all music from itunes library > close itunes > re-open itunes > add music from original folder > plug in iphone > select songs > press sync > unplug iphone using eject button onscreen > checked phone .... still nothing in music folder on phone. On itunes the "On this iphone" tab the songs remain there but greyed out.

My music won't sync to my phone, it's greyed out and details below.

Hey everyone,
So I have an iPhone 4 running iOS 5.0.1 (I know I should upgrade but I don't think it really matters in this issue), and I had like 700 songs on it, right. Then I had downloaded some new songs into my iTunes on my PC. I wanted to just sync them onto the phone. When I clicked the Synch Music (from my Library) and then proceeded to apply and sync, the two arrows were turning as usual, but then BAM a very helpful error message pops up "Your iPhone could not be synced because the sync session didn't finish." I'm like, ok, that's cool, I'll just try it again. Bam, same message. By now I'm getting really irritated and I figure that perhaps I should free up some space. I proceed to delete like 3/4 of my photos. Then when I try it again, not only will they not let me do so, but the "Apply" button is greyed out. I'm like you know what, screw this, I'll just drag and drop them the old fashioned way. By then I realize that all of my songs are indeed in my phone's music tab on the dropdown menu once you select the device from iTunes. But here's the catch: they're all freaking GREYED OUT for no reason. And not only the new ones, ALL OF THEM. Soooo when I grab my phone and enter the Music app, the songs are greyed out on there too, and the album artworks aren't displayed. It's like they're mocking me, 'your songs are right there, but you can't reach them'. I tried to check the "Manually manage music" didn't change a thing. And no, the songs don't have an exclamation mark next to them. It's just like iTunes is deciding whether or not to trust my decisions to sync my music and the small arrows that are supposed to be revolving are just grey, frozen. Please help me. It's late and I'm seriously considering killing an Apple employee with an iPad. (joke of course, Apple, don't take me seriously.)

Have you tried to force quit the app? Got to Finder, Apple icon on top left and then select 'Force quit'.

I updated my iPhone and now none of the music on it will play. When I sync, I can change teh music selections on it, but they all won't play and are greyed out. Only the Playlists, Artists, Albums are black font, but all songs are grey and won't play

I recently updated my iPhone 3G to 5.0 (9A334) and it was somehow interrupted during restoration, or at least that is what it tells me. But it keeps making a new restore and adding it to a list, but never gets through without getting interrupted. anyways, I kind of got through all that, but now all the music on the iPhone won't play and is greyed out. I had some APPs greyed out, but they are not as important. Music is a huge investment in my life and this part of it has gone silent. I SYNC with my iMac. Resyncing doesn't help. I can change the selections, but can never get them to play on the iPhone.
Any ideas?

I'm having the same issue, i restored my phone to Factory settings, even tried restoring it to my backup, half of my music bought from itunes won't play on my iphone and i'm super annoyed, this only happened once i updated to ios 7.2 so i assume its another glitch to go with my imessages not sending, getting sick of this.

Help, I can't sync any music to my iPhone 5s or iPad 2 ! :( it says it's finished sync but the music is greyed out and not on my devices.. I've tried unchecking the music and doing it manually. Nothing works. I took it to Apple store Robina no help..

Help, I can't sync any music to my iPhone 5s or iPad 2 ! it says it's finished sync but the music is greyed out and not on my devices.. I've tried unchecking the music and doing it manually. Nothing works. I took it to Apple store Robina no help..

So I have found a common denominator to this phenomenon. After having the same problem, I started to recopy my playlist of 500+ songs in groups of 10-20, 30+, 75+, and then over a 100+. Any music I have purchased from iTunes won't copy, but everything else did. Unsure if I made a playlist called "Purchased" at some point or this is an iTunes default, I also noticed it had some of the songs contained in my other playlist and was showing on my iPhone. Regardless of what I did such as dragging music from that playlist to the other and clearing songs from that playlist, I removed it altogether from the iPhone itself vs. doing through iTunes. After that, music copied fine to my playlist.
So, my theory is that iTunes is getting tripped up on purchased tracks already showing on the phone and all songs are showing grayed out/dotted circle because iTunes can't resolve the conflict with purchased tracks.
Hope this makes sense and is helpful.

Itunes will not let me sync my music after downloading IOS 7 the music is greyed out and will not transfer to my iPhone

Hello, so I have an iphone 4s and just put the update for ios 7 onto my phone but I am having trouble syncing the previous music onto my music app. Itunes will not sync my songs and when i click the "On this Phone" button it shows the songs i want but they are greyed out with a circle next to them. Idk what this means

You cannot drag a song to Touch. It forces you to be organized. Make a list in itunes then drag that list to the Touch icon in the side bar. That should work.
R

HT1296 I am having difficulty in 'sync' my pc with my ipod4 I have just purchased some new music items on my pc and it always used to transfer them straight to my IPOD this is not happening. The 'SYNC' option on the file menu is greyed out so I can not d

I am having great diffivulty in 'sync' my IPOD4 with my PC. I have purchased some new music with my PC and I am trying to 'SYNC' the IPOD with it so that they can both have the same music on each. I used to be able to 'sync' from my PC I TUNES menu but the 'SYNC' in the file menu is greyed out so I am unable to use it. Please help me.
Hilary Clavering (CLAVS)

Is the iPod signed into the same account that purchased the music?
Is the computer still authorized for the account?

I have a itunes 11, iMac, iPad sync issue... all new kit, the itunes library and photos are on a networrk drive but syncing is useless, no music, no photos, no video, sometimes music and videos may be visible but greyed out on the ipad....

This is my first posting so sorry for the messy title... I didn't realise how it all worked here.
I have a shiny new imac, shiny new ipad and have all my media on a network hard drive - itunes works fine on the mac - no problems - photos visible in finder and photoshop - no problems, but when I come to sync the new ipad - several things may happen (I have tried many times now)
1) a long wait - whirly gig round spinner thing - then music visible on the ipad but greyed out and useless
2) no photos at all synced
3) no videos synced
4) info syncs ok
5) apps seem to have synced OK
It is not a data size issue as the same amount of data synced before the new kit from my old windows pc on to an iPod - I daren't try syncing the ipod as I need it for my next business trip.
I tried removing the ipod cache files for the photos - no difference - I tried restoring the ipad - no difference
Have I completely wasted a large amount of money?

ps when syncing it jumps through steps 1 - 4 real fast, i seem to remeber iphone showing the number of tracks transferring and names, but i see nothing? then it sits on 5 saying "waiting for changes to be applied"

Why is all of my music greyed out on my iPhone 4?

I haven't been able to sync my iphone with my iTunes music for several months now, which is getting increasingly frustrating, and as the holiday season approaches, I really need something to tune out all the holiday music >:-|.
To avoid all the obvious questions: I am running the newest version of iTunes (11.0) and iOS (6.0.1), I have over 4 1/2 gb free on my phone, I have unselected and selected different folders of music (being sure it can all fit in space available on my phone), attempted to auto-fill free space and not, restarted iTunes, my computer, my phone, shut down all the apps, connected and disconnected my phone to my computer, and connected and disconnected the wi-fi sync. Changed settings to sync only checked songs, and manually manage music and back, I have attempted a sync every step of the way.
The music shows that it is syncing, the blue bar of music content volume shows that it's filling up, then at the end of the sync it disappears again. My music folder on my phone has all of the songs I want to sync listed but greyed out and unplayable.
Reading through a bunch of other discussions I have found a few unsuccessful solutions and have attempted this: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1747, as reccomended, but my efforts were thwarted with a "iTunes can’t be modified or deleted because it’s required by Mac OS X." message, so I didn't get very far.
I cant seem to make podcasts sync either, but books seem to sync fine.
I did to a restore when the problem first happened, but am afraid to do it again as my iCloud is also acting up (another battle for another topic...) and I'm afraid I will lose everything.
Am I missing something really obvious? Why isn't this working???

Hello Donna,
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities!
It sounds like you have some purchases that for one reason or another are grayed out and will not play on the iPhone.
You can delete the songs and then download them again for free from the iTunes store.
Delete a song from iPhone: In Songs, swipe the song, then tap Delete.
From: iPhone User Guide
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/iphone_user_guide.pdf page 61
And then to re download the song use this article.
Downloading past purchases from the App Store, iBookstore, and iTunes Store
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2519
All the very best,
Sterling

Greyed out Music

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