Songs may appear greyed out in Apple Music because the device is offline or because licensing restrictions have made a track unavailable in a particular country. Labels and artists can remove songs, change regional availability or stagger releases, in which case neither the user nor Apple can restore access.

If licensing is not the cause, restarting the device, deleting and re-downloading the song, or checking Apple Music for glitches may help. Users should also check that explicit-content restrictions are not blocking playback and that they are signed into the Apple Account used to buy the music; signing out and back in can resolve account-related problems.