Itunes icon broken or dotted circle

Hello,
There is a broken or dotted circle next to most songs on my ipad. This occurs when I plug my ipad 4 into my laptop and start itunes on the laptop.
The song won't play at all.
Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated.

I have this problem since i updated from ios 7 to ios 8. This problem started last year when ios 8 was released. It's possible that apple is trying to force users to buy music on iTunes store and that's why it's impossible to sync other music and also that's the reason why they haven't solved this serious problem. That's really disappoints me and i'm angry with apple because i have like 10 gb of music in mp3 and i can't sync music from iTunes to my iPhone.

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Grey dotted circle

Hi
Since updating my software to ios7, over half of my songs are now unavailable and are grey in iTunes with a grey dotted circle next to them. I cannot click on them and they wont sync onto my phone.
I feel like I have tried everything. Even paid £21 for itunes match thinking that might be the problem! :-(
Please can someone advise me in simple terms how to get these songs back
Thanks
Charlotte

Hello chartom
Uncheck the box to sync music in the Music tab within iTunes for your iPhone and sync to remove the music. Once that is done, check the box again and sync to get the music to download to your iPhone.
iTunes 11 for Windows: Set up syncing for iPod, iPhone, or iPad
http://support.apple.com/kb/ph12313
Regards,
-Norm G.

What does the dotted circle mean?

When connecting itouch to itunes, what does the dotted circle mean next to a song? Thanks for the help.

Hi pfn,
From an earlier post on this topic - this may work for you - it's worth a try:
First go to the 'On This iPad/iPod/iPhone' section and note all the tracks that have dotted circles.
In the 'Music' section, un-check/de-select all the tunes noted
Apply and sync the changes.
Once that completes re-check/re-select the same tunes just un-checked/de-selected in the 'Music' section.
Apply and sync the changes again
Go back into the 'On This iPad/iPod/iPhone' section
Hopefully all the dotted circles will be gone and all the tracks can be played
See if this helps!
Cheers,
GB

HT1473 Does anyone know what a dotted circle icon in iTunes means?

Does anyone know what a dotted circle icon means in iTunes?

This article has been archived and is no longer updated by Apple.
FROM- iTunes 10 for Mac: Symbols used in iTunes
FOR THE SYMBOL - GO TO THE LINK ABOVE [ Apple won't let them display here]
****This STUPIDLY took most of an HOUR to find because APPLE "Help" does not know HOW to Help.****
When you import music and videos, symbols indicate the status. Other symbols enable you to do tasks.
Symbol
Description of symbol
What the symbol means
display icon
The item is a video
book icon
The item is a PDF file
arrows pointing out
Click to enter full-screen mode
arrows pointing in
Click to exit full-screen mode
moving zigzag
The song is being imported into iTunes from a CD or your hard disk
green checkmark
iTunes has finished importing the song
exclamation point
Next to a song: The song can’t be located; it may have been moved or deleted
Next to a podcast: Recent episodes haven’t been downloaded because you have multiple unplayed episodes
broadcast icon
The song is stored on the Internet; when you click the song, it is “streamed” live to your computer
black checkmark
The song will be included in the specified action. For example, only songs with a checkmark are imported when you click Import
speaker
The song is playing
chasing arrows
The item is being copied or downloaded from the Internet
eject icon
Click to eject the CD or remove the device from the Source pane
blue dot next to podcast episode or series
You haven’t begun to play this episode, or there is at least one episode in the series that hasn’t been played
blue half-dot next to podcast episode or series
You've begun to play this episode, but haven’t yet played it all the way through
triangle on the left of the display window
Click to switch between the playback bar and the volume meter
curved arrow at the right of the display window
Click to highlight the currently playing song

Ringtones i purchased from itunes disappeared when my iphone 4s restarted and they only show up as 'on my device' in itunes library but with a grey dotted circle. How do I get them back? They worked until the phone restarted!

I purchased some alert tones on my iphone 4s via itunes yesterday. They all worked just fine until the phone ran out of battery and I plugged it in and restarted. They have vanished from the phone and when I connect to my PC they only show up as 'on my device' under tones and with a grey dotted circle by them. How do I get them back? This is crazy! I purchased one a second time, it worked, I switched my phone off and on again and it has gone again!!!

Having the same issue on multiple alert tones on my Iphone5c. After purchase they disappear from the phone and show up on my itune under Tones grayed out with a dotted circle next to them.

HT201250 Circle and cross through iTunes icon afte the seagate hard drive replaced and restored data from time machine backup.

Circle and cross through iTunes icon: had the seagate hard drive replaced and restored data from time machine backup. Why does the iTunes icon have a circle and cross through it? As though incomplete? tried everything and still Circle and cross through iTunes icon.

No it isn't something you'd find on the computer, it has to be custom installed from the 10.6 installer disc or Software Update if it wasn't before. It allows you to use older PowerPC applications on your Mac. On the other hand double check the version of iTunes you have does not require 10.7 minimum either.

HT1535 Grey dotted circles in iTunes music

I have half-transferred songs on my iTunes. Beside these song names, I have grey dotted circle lines. I want to delete it by using the right click but it does not sow me any options of deleting. Do I have to go to my summary tab on iTunes to change your settings to "Manually manage music and videos"????????????? Cus when I right click it, it only gives me three options of "Play", "Get Info" and "Show in iTunes store". When I click manually manage, it says my iPhone is synced with another library, and it can only be synced with one library at a time so erasing and syncing these contents would replace the contents of this iPhone with this iTunes library? I have two iTunes library in this case.
Previously, I copied the music and paste the music into iTunes media > automatically add in. Then I autofilled in iTunes. But I went to stop the autofill suddenly then it became like this. I tried copying and paste again but it does not appear in my phone, only my music library.

See these previous posts on dotted circle
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4643160?start=15&tstart=0
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5524609?tstart=0
https://discussions.apple.com/message/20792130#20792130
https://discussions.apple.com/message/20813679#20813679

Purchased ringtone iphone 4 that is not in my itunes library when i click transfer purchases from it appears in the tones library but in a paler shade of print with a dotted circle to the left of it when i take any action it disappears

have purchased ringtone on iphone 4 not in my itunes library when i click devices, transfer purchases from, it appears in tones in my library but in a paler shade of print with a dotted circle to the left of it, if i try to click on it or take any other action it disappears and leave a blank space i have tried this several time i want to transfer library to my new iphone 5 but i will loose the ringtone

I had the exact same issue!! Seriously p*ssed me off when I checked out my ITunes purchased items (via my computer) and noticed that most of the additional tracks listed on my IPhone playlist was listed there too. However, I never authorized any purchases!! (I have actually written Apple Support asking for a full refund of all tracks listed on my purchased list)
Be careful when you swipe your finger to the left/right on those "additional" tracks on your IPhone playlist... I'm pretty sure that the cloud symbol is an option to download or automatically buy those tracks.
Solution for the problem:
1 - go to your IPhone settings
2 - choose "iTunes & App Store"
3 - go to "Show All" & "Music"
4 - turn off "Music" by moving the bar to the left (it should be a white color once you turn it off)
Should solve your problem :~)

ITunes "Other" Problem & My Music Won't Sync It Only Shows Up In A Grey Dotted Circle. Why ?

On my iTunes "other" section it takes up way too much space and idk what it actually is in the "other" files that have it like that. When I try to put songs on there, it won't download to my phone. It only shows a grey dotted circle next to the songs and they're all grey as well. I've deleted songs from iTunes as well as my iPhone & still the same issues. Can someone help me with this?

I had this exact problem, but I think I've figured it out. Here's what i did step by step
- connect iphone with usb cord
- go to music tab under device, and uncheck sync music and apply changes
( at this point there was no music on my phone)
- go to summary and check off manually manage music and videos
-drag the playlists i want to the sidebar under device (a green plus sign came up)
this worked after trying countless suggestions and my music synced right away.

Grey dotted circle itunes

Hi
I updated my Itunes to latest on 11/07/13. When I attempted to sync my ipad retina display manually selecting playlists and albums, i see some tracks with grey dotted line next to them in playlists under the devices. These are my own creations, not bought, not downloaded from some site. I have synced these songs hundreds of times over past several years without any problem.
Looks like it is due to a new bug in the latest itunes update. Apple: this needs immediate attention.almost Ll remedies suggested in the forums are not applicable since this problem was never there earlier.

same frustration here...
itunes wont sync my large (~5k songs) library to my ipad . i have gone through the sync process many times. it seems apps are properly syncing... i only have a few books and those seem fine too.. strange thing is the songs appear as if they are on the ipad.. however when i select them to play the file must be missing because it just skips the song to the next song and displays a red square surrounded by a red circle. (by the way... what's with all the apple hieroglyphics these days.. what's a dotted circle? whats a red square surrounded by a red circle?)
i recently wiped my computer hard drive and reinstalled a windows. after reinstalling itunes i copied the the itunes library files back to their rightful places and itunes seems to work fine with all my original library, playlists, etc.
when i sync to my ipad... the music doesn't transfer... lots of dotted circles...
i tried the idea of wiping all the music off the ipad (by deselecting 'sync music' in itunes). hasnt' worked... itunes thinks there is No music on the ipad... and yet all the music still 'appears' on the ipad, many of the songs don't play, yet several do play. makes no sense.
This process was a whole lot better in the past when itunes actually showed you want was happening during the sync process... now it's just a black hole of 'waiting for changes to be applied' and 'waiting for items to copy'.

Itunes - grey dotted circle - HELP

Hello guys, i have a problem that grey dotted circle appears next to my music in library. It is whole grey and when I sync it nothing syncs and I cant play the music on my iPhone! Help please!

same frustration here...
itunes wont sync my large (~5k songs) library to my ipad . i have gone through the sync process many times. it seems apps are properly syncing... i only have a few books and those seem fine too.. strange thing is the songs appear as if they are on the ipad.. however when i select them to play the file must be missing because it just skips the song to the next song and displays a red square surrounded by a red circle. (by the way... what's with all the apple hieroglyphics these days.. what's a dotted circle? whats a red square surrounded by a red circle?)
i recently wiped my computer hard drive and reinstalled a windows. after reinstalling itunes i copied the the itunes library files back to their rightful places and itunes seems to work fine with all my original library, playlists, etc.
when i sync to my ipad... the music doesn't transfer... lots of dotted circles...
i tried the idea of wiping all the music off the ipad (by deselecting 'sync music' in itunes). hasnt' worked... itunes thinks there is No music on the ipad... and yet all the music still 'appears' on the ipad, many of the songs don't play, yet several do play. makes no sense.
This process was a whole lot better in the past when itunes actually showed you want was happening during the sync process... now it's just a black hole of 'waiting for changes to be applied' and 'waiting for items to copy'.

Grey dotted circle on phone in itunes

i why are the songs like that i just restored through icloud on my iphone 5 and they are like that? how do i get rid of it

kathy35335
Re: grey dotted circle on phone in itunes
Sep 8, 2013 3:36 AM (in response to Markitos96)
Hello This circle thing has been bugging me for days I have been making ringtones from my libary of music which is very easy to do. The difficult bit is when i add them to tones to sync with my phone they appear as shaded out with a tick in the box with a small dotted grey circle. I have tried everything and been very unsucessful but yesterday i managed to get my tones synced with my phone but it took me for ever so I would suggest if you are going to make ringtones do a few alltogether and then do it.
The only way I could get it to work was take the tick out of the box in the summary tab manually manage music, which in turn when i connected my i phone it took all my music and tones off my i phone 5 I then had to sync all the libary back to my phone whilst it was doing this click on the tones tab and tick the boxes of the new tones you want to add and press sync while the libary is still updating and hey presto all new tones were on my phone along with all my music again.As soon as this is done please tick the box in summary to manage music manually as the next time you connect your phone it will take all your music and data off. I know this is a long way round the proplem having to take your entire content off and put it all back on but its the only thing that worked for me. Oh by the way after you have done this do a back up either to your computer or to i cloud so no data is lost.
Hope this helps
This honestly works xxx

When I sync music from iTunes to iPhone, the music shows a dotted circle in iTunes and does not play on my iphone, When I sync music from iTunes to iPhone, the music shows a dotted circle in iTunes and does not play on my iphone

When I sync music from iTunes to iPhone, the music shows a dotted circle in iTunes and doesn't show or play on my iPhone music app.
any ideas how to resolve this?

after looking at a few other posts, i tried the uncheck the sync box, did a sync, rechecked the box, and synced again. the music is now downloading into my phone. if anyone else has this problem try this first.

My recently downloaded CDs to ITunes appear in my IPod Touch as light grey and a dotted circle on the left column of list of songs. and i have been unable to sync to my IPod. any idea why and what to try?

Downloaded songs into Itunes are not syncing to IPOd Touch though they appear in light grey and dotted circle in column on the left of list. Why?How sync?

what does the dotted circle mean?
What does the gray dotted circle in iTunes mean?
Dotted circles next to songs, won't sync, red circle with square?

ITunes music sync problems (clouds and dotted circles)

I think this is a common problem but I tried several solutions I found online and nothing seems to work.
When I connect my iPhone to iTunes I have several songs on it that have a dotted circle and that are in grey font. These songs are mostly from an album I purchased some time ago and then removed from my iTunes library since I did not want to hear it anymore.
I would like to get those phones off my phone. I tried to uncheck the "sync music" box and made a sync but this did not work. I also tried to remove all songs from my iphone using the storage management settings but this did not work as well. On a related note, there are several songs that show up on my phone and that have a little cloud next to them. These songs do not show up in iTunes when I connect the phone.
So in summary: My iPhone shows songs (with a cloud) that I do not see in iTunes when I check what is supposed to be on my phone. And what I see in iTunes (the songs with the dotted circle) do not seem to be on my iPhone.
This is driving me crazy. Any suggestions anyone?

The songs with the cloud symbol don't appear in iTunes because they aren't on your phone. Those are links to your previously purchased music in the iTunes store so you can easily download them by tapping the symbol.
If you want help with the "dotted circle" issue you should post this question over in the iTunes forum. The only thing I can suggest is to delete all your music (by going to Settings>General>Usage>Manage Storage>Music, tap Edit, then tap next to All Songs), then sync it back using iTunes. If you already tried that unsuccessfully, try posting over in the iTunes forum.

Itunes icon broken or dotted circle

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