iTunes not working on new phone

[AndiAlexander]

Just upgraded to the IPhone X from the 7, and half of my iTunes library won’t play. Any suggestions?

[FidoAmanda]

Hey @AndiAlexander!

Got any updates on this? 

It would definitely help the Community to know how you got this figured out!

[AndiAlexander]

Nope none of the suggestions offered did anything at all. And some more songs have greyed out too. Like random ones in the middle of an album. Not playable. So weird. I’m hoping an update or something will fix it. 

[FidoSaira]

We're sorry to see you're still having trouble with that!

Our members have offered the best advice and workarounds. Did you contact Apple as @Cawtau suggested? 

[FidoRanya]

Hey @AndiAlexander , 

Welcome to the Community! 

What happens exactly when you try to play your songs ? Were they all backed up ? 

Let us know exactly what happens so we can help  

[AndiAlexander]

Yes everything was backed up to the cloud. When I open iTunes on my new phone, about half of my albums are greyed out and won’t play, although they display. All the ones that are music that is not available to purchase through iTunes. Mostly music I’ve recorded myself, as I’m a professional singer, and music people I know have produced. These were all downloaded in my iphone7 as well as my MacBook and played fine before I upgraded to the iphoneX. 

I looked up some trouble shooting suggestions, and tried signing in and out of iTunes, backing up from the cloud again, and deauthorizing and reauthorizing my computer, but nothing helped. 

[Cawtau]

Hello AndiAlexander,

  Welcome to the community!

  Just to clarify, are you unable to play the songs from all your devices or just your new iPhone X?

  I understand you backed everything up to the cloud, however, had you selected to sync music files as well?

  I have all my music files stored on an external hard drive. If I sync my iPod with my computer without attaching the external drive, all of the songs on my iPod will be greyed out and not available. I have to connect my hard drive and re-sync before the songs will be available on my iPod.

  I wonder if something similar might be happening with your situation. Is it possible that your iTunes library has lost the location of where the music files are actually stored? They were backed-up'd to the cloud, but presumably the originals should still be somewhere on your MacBook (or iPhone 7). Are you able to find the music and play them on your MacBook? Are you still able to find the music and play them on your iPhone 7?

Hope this helps

Cheers

[AndiAlexander]

Same issue on my computer. The old phone (iphone7) was wiped, recycled and disconnected from my account. 

I tried signing in and out of iTunes on my computer, and de and reauthorizing my computer. That just removed all the greyed music completely. Then I backed up from the cloud again on my phone, the X, and the grey ones reappeared but are still grey.

[FidoCharles]

Hey @AndiAlexander

@Cawtau did bring up an important point. Did your iTunes library lose the location of these music files?

If you check the source directly, is it a broken link or something like that?

It could mean that your iTunes had each songs source directly from the original file and is now missing it. If the links are made again from valid files, you should be able to play them again

Hopefully I'm making a bit of sense here  

[Cawtau]

Hello again,

  Yes, since the music also isn't available on your computer suggests the location information might be lost (or worse, the music itself might be lost). I'm not an expert on iTunes and my version is for a PC, but if you select one of the greyed out songs, there should be an option to Get Info for that song. If I don't have my external hard drive attached, it will say The song 'xxxx' could not be could not be used because the original file could not be located. It then asks whether to locate it or not.

  If your issue stems from missing location information, then locating the songs should allow them to play once again. However, if the songs can't be located, it might mean the songs themselves are lost.

Hope this helps

Cheers

[AndiAlexander]

Super weird update to my question:

still most of my original music won’t play. But now a few will. And even weirder, a few albums have some songs greyed out and some that will play. 

[samgabbay]

This probably has to do with some corrupt files, can you try to redrag all your music folder on itunes for it to fix broken links?

[AndiAlexander]

No the files just say “not available” on my computer, and I can’t do anything with them, although they are still listed. 

[Cawtau]

Hello again,

---

@AndiAlexander wrote:

No the files just say “not available” on my computer, and I can’t do anything with them, although they are still listed. 

---

  To clarify, do you mean the files listed in iTunes or Finder (I think that's what it's called). If you mean iTunes, then it sounds like the songs are missing their location information or are indeed missing.

  On the other hand, if you mean Finder, it's possible the files have lost their association. Again, I'm not very familiar with iOS. With PCs, music files are generally MP3s, movies MP4s, pictures JPGs, etc. If a music file looses its .mp3 association, the computer does not know what to with it. Re-associating the .mp3 designation allows the computer to play them as music again (provided it hasn't been corrupted). Is it possible something similar has happened?

Sorry I couldn't be more helpful, but hope some of this helps

Cheers

[Cawtau]

Hello again,

  An additional thought... Have you considered contacting Apple or searching through Apple forums? They might have more insight as to what actually happens with iTunes and media when backing up to the Cloud. The Apple forums would reach a more target specific audience who might be able to provide additional information.

Hope this helps

Cheers

[samgabbay]

Hey There! 

Speaking of authorizing, all of them where iTunes purchases or just MP3 files? And if they are ITunes purchases, are they all using the same account? 

Thanks! 

[AndiAlexander]

The ones that aren’t working were not purchased through iTunes but they showed up as iTunes files in my old phone and on my computer, and now they don’t. Well they show up but won’t play. They weren’t MP3 files. They were all burned from CDs onto my computer, then stored in my old phone and backed up to the cloud. 

[samgabbay]

They where backed up to which cloud? Are the files on your HDD? If you manually drag the file does it sync? 

Please try to click on the device, in the general tab click Manually manage music and videos. and let me know if that works!