Are you playing a track on Apple Music but the lyrics option at the bottom is greyed out? Do you experience this issue on an entire album as well? In this troubleshooting guide, we’ll explain why the lyrics button turns grey and how you can fix this issue by applying there easy DIY steps.
Apple Music was launched in 2015. The app’s recent updates not only let you stream on-demand content but also can access and play your music from the iTunes catalog on all your devices. With internet radio, offline listening features, and Siri assistance, Apple Music is becoming a leader in the streaming music industry.
If you are a subscriber of Apple Music, you can listen to your favorite songs with perfectly timed lyrics. However, a lot of the subscribers are reporting that the lyrics option greys out for some songs and albums. Let’s find out the reasons for this issue and the troubleshooting steps that can help fix it quickly.
Why are the lyrics greyed out on Apple Music?
If the lyrics are greyed out for tracks and albums on Apple Music, it can be due to the following reasons.
- You are trying to play a song that is not from the Apple Music catalog
- Lyrics are not available for a particular song (The artist may have chosen to do so)
- Lyrics are not available in your country and region
- Poor internet speed is not letting Apple Music load lyrics
- Certain restriction settings on Apple Music are restricting the lyrics to load at all
How do I fix greyed out songs on Apple Music?
Restart Apple Music
If you are trying to load the versus of your favorite song and the lyrics button is greyed-out, it may mean that something is causing a glitch in the Apple Music app. Your first fix option is to restart the Apple Music app.
To do this, open the app switcher on your iPhone or iPad and swipe away Apple Music. Next, restart your iOS device and launch Apple Music once again. Now play a song and see if the issue persists.
Check subscription status
If restarting the Apple Music app and iOS device didn’t fix the lyrics issue, the next step is to check your subscription status. Lyrics are part of the subscription for the songs that have their lyrics added by the artists. The artists can choose not to upload lyrics with their songs resulting in the lyrics button greying out on Apple Music for those songs.
However, if the songs in your library have lyrics enabled and you transferred them from iTunes without an active Apple Music subscription for your Apple ID, you won’t see any lyrics. Therefore, it is a good idea to check your subscription status. To do this:
- Navigate to the Apple Music Settings and tap on your name
- Now tap on iTunes and then tap on the App Store menu
- Next, select your Apple ID and head to the Subscription menu to check its status
- If the subscription is inactive, reactivate it and redownload the songs to enjoy their lyrics
Troubleshoot network issues
Is the issue persisting on Apple Music? If yes, the next mode of action is to troubleshoot your cellular data connection. You may have run out on your data limit and the live lyrics couldn’t appear for your downloaded songs. Therefore, try switching to a WIFI connection and check if this fixes the issue.
Furthermore, if you are experiencing speed issues o your broadband, reboot your router or contact your internet service provider to fix network issues.
How to manually add custom lyrics on Apple Music?
As mentioned earlier, if the lyrics are missing from tracks on your Apple Music Library, you will see the lyrics option greying out when you try to tap on it. The good news is that you can use the Apple Music Custom Lyrics feature to manually add the lyrics to your favorite songs.
Custom Lyrics feature is only available for users who are using Apple Music on Mac computer or iTunes on Windows PC. However, you can synchronize custom lyrics to your mobile devices after adding them manually on your PC.
The custom lyrics will only be visible to you. If you want everyone to see the custom lyrics, you have to be the original artist for that particular song or album. To add lyrics manually:
- Launch Apple Music on Mac PC and search for a song or album in question
- Click on the three dots under the song’s thumbnail
- Next, select Get info and then click on Lyrics
- Enable the option of Custom Lyrics
- Do a quick Google search, for example, “[Song name] lyrics”
- Copy the words and paste them in the Apple Music tab
- Click OK to save the new custom lyrics
- Now launch the Apple Music app on your mobile device
- To view lyrics, tap on the Sync library option on your iPhone or iPad
How do I turn off restrictions on Apple Music?
Sometimes, certain restriction settings on the Apple Music app create a conflict with the lyrics. As a result, you are unable to view the lyrics for some particular songs or albums. To fix this, you may have to turn off restrictions on Apple Music. To do this:
- Go to the Apple Music settings and tap on Screen Time
- Next, choose “This is my device” or “This is my child’s device”
- Create a passcode by tapping on “Use Screen Time Passcode” (This will prevent anybody else to enter restrictions settings)
- Next, tap on Content & Privacy Restrictions and re-enter the passcode
- Go to the Music, Podcast, and News option
- Finally, turn off the Content & Privacy option
Conclusion
It can be very frustrating if the lyrics icon gets greyed out and you can’t bring up the verses on your screen. We hope that the troubleshooting steps in this guide helped you get back the lyrics option on your screen. However, if the issue persists, try re-downloading the particular song or album and check if the lyrics play again.
