I have recently added a number of songs to my iTunes playlist (all mp3s). When syncing them over to my iPhone I get an error saying that 'X track cannot be played on this iPhone'.
What could be the reason for this? The file isn't from the iTunes store so I don't think DRM on the track.
What could be the issue?
Best Answer
iTunes might be refusing to sync the tracks because they use an encoding format that it knows isn't supported on iOS devices. As an example, the iPhone 5s technical specification on Apple's website lists the supported bitrates for constant rate MP3s as "8 to 320 Kbps". If the bitrate for the files is outwith those limits that might be the cause of the failure to sync the files.
You could try using the "Create AAC Version" option on the right-click context menu in iTunes to create a copy in AAC format of one of the affected tracks, then attempt to sync the AAC copy, to see whether it is the format of the file that it is objecting to.
You can also confirm the bitrate of the files by right-clicking on them and choosing Get Info.