Ipod content is grayed out and I cannot select as source or play on mini

Question

Hi - this just happened and I need to know how to fix. I cannot seem to play any of the music on my ipod mini. I see the songs but the ipod skips right over them. The exception is one song that I downloaded for free. When I log into itunes, I see the ipod and the songs, but they are all grayed out and I cannot select any of them or play from my ipod source. This just happened this week and I wonder if I have somehow removed thelink to the purchased music? I connect the ipod to my other computer and it erased my content (I am new at this) so I reconnected to the orginal and restored my playlist, but nothing will play now. All itunes and ipod are up to date. Can any one help?
Ipod Mini   Windows XP  

Answer 1

Grey text when you look at the content and lock symbol at the bottom of the screen simply shows that your iPod is set to "automatically update songs and playlists". When you connected your iPod to the second computer you will have been presented with a dialogue box saying you were linked to another computer and asking if you wanted to link to this one. I would guess that you clicked "Yes" instead of "No" which is why your iPod was erased. If you want to access your iPod directly, play it through your iTunes, connect it to a second computer etc. you just need to change the update method to "Manually manage songs and Playlists" in the iPod preferences. Managing Your Songs Manually One thing to remember about manually updating though is that the iPod also has to be manually ejected before the "Do Not Disconnect" message will go away. Safely disconnect iPod
Also, If you usually change your iPod Options by selecting 'View iPod' from the 'Edit' menu in Windows, you may on occasion find it is also greyed out, however if you right click the iPod icon in iTunes you can select 'iPod Options' and change to manual update from there.
For info: iPod 101
The iPod offers three ways to transfer music from your computer. You can select one of the following update modes from the iPod Preferences menu in iTunes (Edit=>Preferences=>'iPod' tab):
1) Automatically update all songs and playlists. This is the default mode, in which your entire music library, including playlists, is automatically synced to your iPod. If the music library on your computer exceeds the iPod storage capacity, you are prompted to select a different update method.
2) Automatically update selected playlists only. With this option, iTunes automatically copies the playlists you have selected to the iPod when you connect it to the computer.
3) Manually manage songs and playlists. You can also choose to transfer music to the iPod manually. This allows you to drag and drop individual songs and playlists from iTunes to the iPod.