Comments on: What to do if a song is “not currently available in your country or region”

By: Deb

Deb — Sun, 19 Mar 2023 15:20:54 +0000

I was able to get hundreds of songs back after removing all music from my phone. None of the music was purchased through iTunes. Unfortunately, this Apple problem cost me a lot of a frustration and time. I have a Windows PC so I don’t bother contacting Apple because they won’t support issues.

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 23 Feb 2023 08:34:45 +0000

I have over 2000 songs on my iphone, none of them bought from Apple. The tunes have been transferred each time I’ve change my phone, never a problem. Now, after a software update, one of my playlists of 71 classic songs, all of which taken off my own cd’s, has half of the tunes “greyed out”. Absolutely hacked off with Apple, I’ve tried all of the so called “fixes”, none of which worked. It feels like they don’t care, “if the fixes don’t work, tough!”.

By: Paul Taylor

Paul Taylor — Sat, 21 Jan 2023 02:19:19 +0000

I have kept iTunes in spite of it short comings and higher price because I have accumulated 1,000’s of songs and a dozen playlists over the last 10 years. The most recent update erased 2/3’s of my library and shows 30% of the remainder as “not available in my region” $16.95 a month for this of problem?
Apple isn’t the cutting edge service it used to be…
Spotify is looking like an easy solution..

By: Rex C. Jeanpierre

Rex C. Jeanpierre — Tue, 30 Aug 2022 09:21:23 +0000

Thank you so much for sharing. I am confused on this issue for a long time! I have tried to reset warnings in iTunes. It worked! Well, but I am afraid of same problem next time so I have burned all songs to a CD by AMusicSoft converter.

By: Alberto

Alberto — Mon, 08 Aug 2022 22:08:02 +0000

Thanks guys for the tips! To me, it worked reseting the warnings!

By: Jon

Jon — Fri, 21 Jan 2022 18:26:56 +0000

This “not available” etc. message is not really related to unlicensed material. I have this issue only when I try to use the music on AppleTV so I can listen in to the music in my living room instead of my studio. There is a bug in that program which Apple is ignoring. Uploaded music sometimes will transfer to display in AppleTV through the “Music” app–but much of the time the album appears to upload, but clicking on it show a long which rectangular blank instead of a list of songs. BUT, if one goes back to the image of the album cover, holds down the control to trigger the menu for options and puts the blank album into a playlist, suddenly the list of music appears. Sometimes the music is grayed out. Only recently has the “not available in your country or region” message appeared. Checking the licenses for the music (I’m a composer) finds that the music is licensed–but it was from an old recording (vinyl) that I burned and digitized or purchased from some other sources than Apple’s iTunes store. You can bet that AMAZON or PRESTO or any other major retailer of downloaded songs is not risking a law suit by selling unlicensed material. Sure, it happens, but not that often. There are too many other ways to rip off composers that bring in big money without the risk–it’s how the royalty system is set up. What I have found is that this issue is entirely related to changes Apple has made in the transition from iTunes to Apple Music–or from a more long term perspective, the transition from integrated software operating system programming to apps. Apple has not done this very well and it is most evident in the “entertainment” side of its software. What to do? First, complain to Apple. If enough users “stick it to them” with complaints, they will do something–but it is very much like asking a sleeping elephant to wake up and take you for a ride on its back. Uninstall/reinstall is rather cumbersome when one had been with Apple since the 1990s and has an icloud music “Match” collection that will play f24/7 or 34 days without repeating anything. Believe me, as an old guy who has carefully digitized albums that have never been turned into CDs or MP3s and made original covers from scans just to have an effective library, Apple really ruined years and years of careful work that cannot be completely redone (as stuff always slips through the well-intentioned attempts to back up everything–and 4Tb backups are impossibly long). Bottom line with Apple is you have to buy it from them if you want service. So, if you use Apple the only non-gamble for downloaded music is to buy it from them, else you may suddenly find that you cannot listen to it on other devices in your own personal network. The notion that licensing was intended to prevent a person who buys a recording of any kind from listening to it in other parts of the home via streaming is totally bogus. If you ain’t reselling it or broadcasting it to others who did not pay for a license, there is no violation for strictly personal use.

By: Davidm

Davidm — Thu, 14 Oct 2021 03:35:01 +0000

Wow! This is a seriously garbage software flaw that has been happening for years. Obviously not a priority for Apple.

By: Daryl

Daryl — Tue, 14 Sep 2021 20:26:43 +0000

Reset warnings and resynch worked for me

By: Joseph

Joseph — Wed, 25 Aug 2021 14:09:59 +0000

The solution of re-downloading songs I have previously paid for because of a ‘bug’ in Apple’s product seems the very definition of a rip-off

By: Al77

Al77 — Fri, 30 Jul 2021 18:27:10 +0000

Connecting to my computer with a cable (vs. syncing over wifi), removing the music from my iPhone, and re-syncing worked for me – thanks!

By: Kim

Kim — Sat, 01 May 2021 05:42:00 +0000

In reply to David.

I’m so pissed right now. Some time back I synced my music thinking what was in my library on my computer was going to my phone. I painstakingly imported most of it from CD and now they are grayed out. I am REALLY starting to lose my respect for Apple. After so long their Ipads might as well be doorstops too. Some apps won’t work unless you update them. You go to the do the update and it says the operating system isn’t current enough for the update – with no way to upgrade OS in the device. This thing with the regional or music not available in your country seems way out of line. I subscribed to Match Tunes, I haveno idea how but I thought that would have prevented this. About ready to just chuck it.

By: David

David — Thu, 29 Apr 2021 22:56:41 +0000

Out of over 9500 tracks in my iTunes library only about 3 dozen were purchased from iTunes. The rest is my collection of vinyl, cd, cassette tapes which I have painstakingly added to iTunes so as to a) preserve older recordings in case they get damaged or deteriorate b) be able to play my music from my iPhone/iPad/pc.

However, far too many albums are missing tracks altogether or are giving out the message … Not Available In Your Country or Region.

The albums were all correctly added to iTunes and when initially added were all complete.

Given that I have never purchased any import music or travelled out of the country (UK) since uploading my music I find that the message regarding the tracks not being available in my country or region is completely erroneous and like other contributors question if this is Apple’s way of trying to get me to pay to stream their copies of music I already own.

Well Apple, if it is your way of trying to get me to pay to stream music I already OWN —- you have FAILED big time !!!

If I have to go down that route I will pay someone else and get rid of my iPhone and my (at time of purchase) top of the range iPad (which you stopped supporting and providing updated ios for just four years after purchase making a £600 iPad effectively redundant !!!).

If anyone at Apple actually ever reads these posts then I suggest you get your corporate act together before you lose lots of long standing customers!!!!!

By: Ed Beesley

Ed Beesley — Sun, 25 Apr 2021 18:22:19 +0000

The issue is that I BOUGHT THESE SINGS ON ITUNES IN THE REGIONWHRTE THEY’RE NO LONGER AVAILABLE. I require a refund for at least 50 songs and counting

By: Jan

Jan — Sun, 14 Mar 2021 17:46:52 +0000

Super post! Thank you so much for writing up the solution. It worked!

By: Jon

Jon — Sat, 13 Mar 2021 22:16:26 +0000

In reply to Charlotte. This is not correct, Charlotte. I have music and I use iTunes Match running an iMac on Catalina and an iPhone in the current operating system. The music I purchased was not purchased from the iTunes Store but was purchased from the person who made the music. I could have purchased it from the iTunes Store or Amazon or other places here in the US. I not only constantly get the "unavailable in your country" message, but no amount of synching changes that. So, either Apple is engaged in some kind of illegal attempt to force users to buy the Apple Music service and/or only purchase and download music from the iTunes Store, or there is something very wrong with the portion of the Music program that is supposed sync devices. It is possible that this has to do with Apple's encoding all of the albums/songs you can download from the iTunes Store with DRM. Thus, any item not having that coding will not transfer or play across devices. IF that is the issue, what Apple is doing may be illegal, as it blocks legitimate licensees from using the music under the license they purchased.

By: Mike Floutier

Mike Floutier — Fri, 05 Mar 2021 16:09:00 +0000

Many thanks, I updated my iOS and reset the dialogue warnings. I then re-synced my iPhone to iTunes and I was then able to play the songs that were previously grade out.

Wonderful thank you!

By: jaylectricity

jaylectricity — Tue, 02 Feb 2021 04:39:45 +0000

This is maddening. I burned a CD to itunes. Some of the songs are available and some aren’t. How in the world does that make sense? None of the songs in my library are from Apple music. I’ve even experienced this problem on a song I made with my own software on my own computer.

By: KL

KL — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 13:59:43 +0000

Many thanks! The “Reset Warnings” method in Apple Music works right away in my case, where the grey out songs in my iPhone instantly change back to black after sync and playable again!

By: Charlotte

Charlotte — Wed, 30 Dec 2020 17:45:04 +0000

I know some people don’t want to do this but if you go into iTunes Store and find the music you’re looking for you can buy it and then you will have it on Apple Music.

By: Steve

Steve — Sun, 20 Dec 2020 00:57:16 +0000

Thank you thank you thank you! I had added an album to my iPhone and it said it was not available in my country or region. Very frustrating! Your fix to delete all music from the iPhone and resync worked!