Remove Music from iPhone

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Level 1

5 points

Remove Music from iPhone

Dear community!

I am not able to remove music from my iPhone. What I tried so far:

step 1: in iTunes uncheck the "Sync Music" option and start syncronization

Behaviour: when I uncheck the bar on the sync-music page in iTunes shows as expected more free space and area with music is removed. After sync the entire music, all songs and albums except playlists are still shown on the phone. Playing the music shown also works (which means to me the music is still stored on the phone)

step 2: in iTunes check the "Sync Music" option again, uncheck all elements (playlists, albums, title) that have been checked (=choosen) and choose only 1 (new) title

Behaviour: the new title is syncronized but also the rest of the music (like after step 1) is still on the phone and can be played.

step 3: in Settings > iPhone device storage > music app > delete/remove all songs

Behaviour "something" happened, also in this section of the menue only the 1 title from step 2 is shown

step 4: also removed (and unchecked) in iTunes the one song from step 2

Behaviour: Sync process started, according to iTunes no titles should be on the resp. synced to the phone (no checkbox at all on the music sync page in itunes is checked). Music is still on the phone and can be played

I have installed the latest version on the iPhone (16.2)

I have installed the latest iTunes version on Windows 11 (12.12.7.1)

What would I like to achieve? I would like to remove all songs from my iPhone and store only a few but keep my entire library and music in iTunes.

Thanks for any Hints!!

iPhone 12 mini

Posted on Dec 27, 2022 10:15 AM

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Answer 1

turingtest2

Level 10

277,799 points

Dec 27, 2022 11:12 AM in response to reinhard292

You can try removing the Music app in its entirety, which should also remove all the songs, then reinstall the app.

Or you could try the following all-purpose steps for dealing with erratic device or sync behaviour (including the troublesome greyed out tracks and/or dotted circles of stalled transfers). They assume that all of the content you want on the device is in your library ready for restoring. If it isn't see Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device first. I would also recommend you copy everything out of the camera roll if you haven't already.

Backup device.
Restore as a new device.
Restore the backup you made earlier.

Use an encrypted backup (*) if you want to preserve passwords, Wi-Fi settings, web history and health data where appropriate. I also suggest syncing with a selection of playlists (unless you're using iCloud Music Library) rather than manually adding content as, if nothing else, the process above is easier to do if you ever have to go through it again.

(*) The downside with backup encryption is that if you forget the password when you need it again, which could be years later, you may need to invoke a workaround to turn off encryption as shown in Disable iOS backup encryption, which can only help if your device is in a state that can backup to iCloud, or runs iOS 11 or better.

For added security you might also want to make an independent backup to iCloud and/or archive your current backup before you start.

FWIW I successfully used this method some time ago when Siri became unable to call contacts or play my music.

tt2

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Answer 2

reinhard292 Author

Level 1

5 points

Dec 30, 2022 5:50 AM in response to turingtest2

Hi, thanks a lot for the reply and the super convinient description what to try!

I actually wanted to avoid restoring/reinstalling as I will have to re-configure and install lot of stuff (e.g. company apps and mdm enrollment etc.) to get everything working again. Anyway since the behaviour is getting even more confusing I guess I have no choice. Just for documentation purpose in case if anyone else has the same purpose here is what I tried and how the phone behaves:

Settings > storage > delete the entire music: music in the settings menue gone, but still on the phone playable

uninstall the music app > after re-installation music was also shown in the storage section again. so I tried to delete the music again by wiping. Once I touch te "DELETE" button the phone hangs for a while and switches then back to home screen, music is not deleted. Same behaviour when I try to delete on song or album.

Remove the music app again > I even prompted if I am sure as after the deletion all data in this app like purchased title will be deleted (i thought YESSS!! that is what I want). Anyway, after downloading and installing the music app again the whole music was shown again.

meanwhile when I try to sync one title via iTunes I get a message that it is not possible as there is no more free space available, even iTune shows 8 GByte free space.

So I will spend another day reset, install and configure from the scratch. Hope that works.

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Remove Music from iPhone

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