10 Ways to Play Greyed-Out Songs on Spotify on Android and iOS

May. 18, 2024

Nothing spoils your mood more than wanting to listen to that one song on Spotify only to find out that it has been greyed out and you cannot play it anymore. When a song is marked in grey, it means it’s unavailable on the platform, which could happen if its license with Spotify has expired. Songs can also be greyed out if it’s not available in your region or if you aren’t connected to the internet.

Whatever the cause maybe, one can be sure about one thing it is quite frustrating to encounter something like this. This is why we have discussed some popular ways that you can try out for yourself to fix the greyed-out song issue on Spotify. Let us take a look at them.

Method 1: Check Your Internet Connection

The first thing to check when you spot a song marked in grey is your internet connection. If you are connected to a Wi-Fi network then make sure that you are in an area with a good enough range and a stable connection.

Besides that, you can alsoswitch on your mobile dataif you are out and about. Once you have made sure that you have a stable internet connection, just refresh the page to verify whether the song is available to play now.

Some songs are greyed out because they are only available in certain regions. This could be because ofsomelicensing-related restrictionsapplicable to certain labels in a region. If you were able to listen to the same song previously then it could be that the regional license just expired which is why it is no longer available to stream. This happens quite often.

In this case, you canuse a VPN serviceto bypass the geo-restrictions and listen to that song or album. You can go with any decent service, free or paid that lets you overcome regional restrictions.

If the above options were of no help then you can try removing and re-adding songs to your playlist. This has proven to be a useful solution for users who have encountered similar issues. Just follow the steps provided below to re-add the song to your playlist.

This is a quick fix for the greyed-out song issue on Spotify that gets easily overlooked by users.

Another reason you might be seeing certain songs being greyed out is because they might contain some bad words or explicit language. Spotify filters such songs and greys them out if you have explicit content disabled in your app settings. To allow explicit content on Spotify, use these steps.

Once enabled, the greyed-out song should now be available for listening.

In case songs that you have saved for offline listening appear to be greyed out, then this could be because of corrupted or damaged files. To fix this, all you have to do is redownload the song itself which should fix the issue.

Note:Spotify does not allow you to download individual songs, so you will have to remove and redownload all the songs in that playlist or album.

This should fix the issue that you were facing. Having songs available for offline playback also helps avoid issues that arise from poor connection so we recommend that you download the songs you find yourself often listening to.

Songs can also appear to be greyed out if you have blocked certain artists or marked songs to be hidden. Such songs won’t appear in your playlist, marked grey, and will be unplayable until you unblock the artists and unhide the song itself.

Unblock Artists on Spotify

After you have unblocked the artist, their songs will appear in all your playlists and you should be able to play them now.

Unhide Songs on Spotify

Doing so will unhide the song and it will be available to play again in the playlist.

Oftentimes, closing and reopening the app fixes a lot of issues with the app itself. It could be possible that certain songs appear greyed out due to some bug which could be fixed by simply force closing the app and restarting it. So we just that you try out this method as well.

Force Close and Relaunch Spotify on iOS

Force Close and Relaunch Spotify on Android

Bloated or corrupted app caches can cause various playback issues including songs being greyed out. Clearing out the cache for the Spotify app may help resolve these issues.

Now, close the app and reopen it to check whether the songs are available.

You should also check for any updates available for the Spotify app on the iOS App Store or Google Play Store. This is because Spotify often pushes out updates to fix bugs or underlying problems that might be causing playback errors on the app. Therefore you should update the app to fix playback issues.

On the iOS App Store

On the Google Play Store

Sometimes the problem could be with the app itself. If none of the solutions were able to resolve your issue thenuninstall the Spotify appfrom your device and reinstall it. This will also let you log in to your account again and also clear cache data for the app as well. This should remedy most of the bugs, issues, or glitches.

These are all the ways that you can try out to listen to greyed-out songs on the Spotify app. These issues usually occur due to regional restrictions or licensing issues. Moreover, we cannot rule out bugs and other glitches with the app. This is quite annoying but I wish Spotify would at least alert the user who has saved the song in their playlist before removing it.

If you have any queries related to this article then share them with us in the comments below.

As a digital streaming service, there can be various reasons as to why it happens, ranging from poor internet connection to region restrictions of the album. Or it might be that its license expired with Spotify, which means that the platform does not hold rights to allow you to stream it making it unplayable.

Blocking an artist will hide or grey out their songs from all playlists, even the ones curated by Spotify. The songs will remain unavailable until you unblock the artist.

There can be several reasons why songs are greyed out in the offline playlist. Reasons include geo-restrictions, corrupted files, or a song you previously marked as Hidden.

To play locally saved audio files on Spotify, open the app > profile icon > Settings and privacy > Local Files > toggle on Show audio files from this device. If you are still unable to play local files then it could be in an unsupported format.

No. Spotify does not allow you to download individual songs to your device. You have to add the song to a playlist, then you can save all the songs in the said playlist for offline playback.

As a tech journalist, I dive into the ever-evolving tech landscape with a particular interest for smartphones, apps, and gaming. With a passion for sharing insights, my articles blend expertise with a friendly touch—think of me as your friendly neighborhood tech support.