How to restore grayed out songs in my Apple Music library while syncing iTunes?

I have tons of music I can’t get into!! I bought and paid for them all! I’m very angry!!

That solution did not work for me. Same problem continues. And as others have noted, I have had this problem for years. I just don't use my iTunes for music much anymore. But tonight I thought I would look into this problem again. I agree with Stitch178's comment of 2/11/2025. I don't subscribe to Apple Music. I do subscribe to iTunes Match, but will not renew - waste of $25. I'll just let happen whatever happens when it expires in a few months. If there is any music remaining on my hard drive, so be it. Very disappointed in Apple with regard to this issue.

I had the same problem - music would play fine on my desktop but kept getting "This item is not currently available in your country or region" on my iPhone for many songs but not all. I looked at some of the other posts about this - but finally solved it by logging out of my Apple account on my phone and then simply relogging back in as shown here: Sign in to your Apple Account - Apple Support

Same here. I have Music which is nowhere near Apple Store and not playable, or simply just removed. Most of these are DJ mixes made, some of them are free downloads from the musicians' website, etc.

Right now the affected songs are 2 of a set of 13, made freely available by NRK (Radio Norway) a 14 years ago. Parts 10 and 12 are greyed out on my new iPhone. The same songs work fine on my old iPhone. Same Apple ID. I used the usual out-of-box features to install / move things to my new phone from the old.

I have the same, recent, problem. Signing out and then signing back in did not make a difference with my (this) problem. This is a new issue for me. Never had it before. VERY frustrating as I have now "lost" over half of my very large music collection. Ugh. HELP PLEASE!!!!

Ok, I may have the solution to this problem - if your symptoms are the same as those I have experienced. Here is my situation (see if this fits yours): (1) I have many song files, ripped from CDs onto my Macbook, that I sync to my iPhone (no problems playing on iPhone for many years); (2) These songs are grouped into Playlists that are synced to the iPhone from my Macbook, using the Sync and Backup functionality of the MacOS; (3) Recently, the songs, viewed on the iPhone in the "Playlists" view (iOS Music App) are greyed-out, and selecting them causes the pop-up "This item is not currently available in your country or region" to appear, and the song won't play; (4) (important) the song files ARE selectable and playable from outside of the Playlists (from the "Library / Songs" alphabetical list of iOS Music App (iPhone). A side-effect of this apparent country/region issue is that the songs will just fly by and not play if you try to do a shuffle within a playlist. Another possible symptom, though not sure if it is relevant, is that there are a bunch duplicates of song files on the iPhone now (viewed from within the "Library / Songs" sort.

I was on with Apple support (several levels of tech support) and they just don't know what's up. No help.

But the problem is not with region or country - it's with the playlists on the iOS device and manifested after a sync with the computer (MacBook in my case). Here is what worked for me (if your songs are indeed playable on the iOS device, via the "Songs" list):

(1) Attach (USB-C) the iPhone to the MacBook - select it in a Finder window - Go to the Music "tab" - make sure "Sync Music to [iOS device] is selected - uncheck all playlists - press "Sync" button, lower right (may have to do this a couple of times). This will delete all playlists from the iPhone - but THEY WILL REMAIN UNCHANGED on your computer!

(2) Verify all playlists are gone on the iPhone (from within iOS Music App)

(3) Manually delete all redundant song files on the iOS device (iPhone) if there are any

(4) Return to MacBook, now check a single playlist for sync-ing - then press "Sync" button, lower right (may have to do this a couple of times)

(5) Verify that the playlist is on the iPhone and now works (songs are not greyed-out, and play without the "country/region" message)

(6) If successful, add in any other playlists.

This is what worked for me - circumstantially, it seems as though there was some sort of corruption on the iPhone - a use case that Apple never anticipated or encountered in testing - something that is very likely to happen with things as complex as they are in the Apple world now.

In any event, these problems, even if your other symptoms are not exactly the same as mine, are not because of new regional restrictions - these are song files that we own after all - and Apple has not taken away the ability to play them or required an Apple Music subscription now. So if you end up on Apple Tech Support, don't let them take you down that rabbit hole. Best of luck

Did you ever come up with a good solution? I am running the latest version of iTunes on Windows 10 PC and trying to sync music to my iphone 16 Pro. Several songs I either ripped from CDs or purchased in the past have the dreaded "This item is not currently available in your country or region" message.