[6 Ways] iTunes not Playing Music on Windows 7/8/10/11

As a media player, iTunes allows you to enjoy purchased and downloaded songs on Windows PC. However, it can also be so troublesome when it doesn't play music as expected.

Why is iTunes not playing music on Windows 7/8/10/11?

Many people have reported issues such as the progress bar moving but no sound, or purchased songs and audiobooks not playing. Why do these problems occur? There are some common reasons.

⛔ Devices limitation: If you have authorized five computers, then you can’t listen to any purchased songs on the sixth computer.

⛔ Incompatible file format: The songs that can be played in iTunes are encoded in the new MPEG-4 AAC format. Other AAC files you find on the Internet will not be playable in iTunes.

⛔ No authorization: When you are listening to a shared music playlist, iTunes may skip any purchased music files that the computer is not authorized to play.

⛔ Some software or hardware errors: Using an outdated iTunes app or encountering errors on your computer can lead to playback failures.

How to fix iTunes not playing songs on Windows

Now that you understand why this issue occurs, we've prepared a guide to help you solve this iTunes error. You can go through the solutions one by one to fix it.

Method 1. Update iTunes

To begin with, you should check if you have the latest iTunes app on your Windows PC: Launch iTunes and click on Help > Then, click on Check for Update. If an update is available, follow the on-screen instructions to update it.

Method 2. Update audio driver

iTunes is designed to work on Mac systems at first. So if you are experiencing issues with iTunes not playing music on a Windows computer, it's essential to verify that the Windows audio drivers are up to date.

Search for "Device Manager" on your system and select "Sound, Video and Game Controllers" from the list > Right-click on each item in the list and then select "Update Driver Software."

Method 3. Check audio settings

If the previous method doesn't solve the issue, it's possible that the problem lies within the audio settings rather than the audio driver itself. Then you can change settings to fix it: Go to the volume control setting > Tap on Speaker icon > Advance > Select 2 channel 24 bit, 44100 HZ from the list > Click OK to save the settings.

Method 4. Check output speaker settings

If you've configured the audio parameters correctly and the issue persists, it's essential to verify that your output speaker and player are appropriately connected to your computer. Alternatively, you can consider switching to another player to check if the music plays normally.

Method 5. Authorize computer

If you've exceeded the authorized count of computers for playing purchased music, you'll need to disable authorization on other computers and enable it on the current computer where you want to listen to your iTunes playlist. Here’s how:

Turn on iTunes and log in with your Apple ID > Choose Account and tap on Authorizations > Choose Authorize this computer or Disauthorize this computer to finish the process.

Method 6. Access Music from iPhone

If the five methods mentioned above don't solve the iTunes songs not playing issue, you can access your music from your iPhone. Although iTunes can sync music to your iPhone, you might encounter other iTunes errors during usage, such as 'iTunes will not let me add music' or unknown iTunes error codes that disrupt your normal use.

Then FoneTool can be the best tool for you to transfer iTunes music to your iPhone. Compared with iTunes, you can get various features and advantages with this handy app.

FoneTool can help you transfer purchased and non-purchased music from PC to your iPhone, while iTunes only sync purchased music to your device.

FoneTool can easily add music from any computer partition directly to your iPhone. You don’t need to add them to your iTunes playlists.

FoneTool offers high-speed data transfer, significantly faster than iTunes. For example, you can transfer hundreds of songs in seconds.

FoneTool runs stably on various iOS devices, including iPhone 4 to iPhone 15, iPad and iPod Touch. So you can transfer music from iTunes to iPod Touch efficiently.

FoneTool will also help you easily transfer music from iPhone to PC, while iTunes only performs one-way synchronization.

Now you can download FoneTool on your Windows PC and connect your iPhone to the computer to learn how to transfer iTunes music from PC to iPhone.

Step 1. On the main interface of the FoneTool, choose Phone Transfer > PC to iPhone then click Get Started.

Step 2. Click the Music icon on the page, then drag and drop your targeted music files to this FoneTool interface.

Step 3. Check all the listed songs, and click Start Transfer to begin the task.

Summary

That's the complete guide on how to fix the issue of iTunes not playing music on Windows 7/8/10/11. You can follow the detailed steps one by one to solve your problem. If none of these methods work, you can consider playing iTunes music on your iPhone as an alternative solution.

If you want to transfer iTunes music to your iPhone, FoneTool can help you avoid iTunes errors and finish the process efficiently.