Preventing iTunes from deleting non-purchased songs on iPhone

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Level 1

16 points

Preventing iTunes from deleting non-purchased songs on iPhone

I have songs that were not purchased through Apple Music or Itunes, and recently, Itunes is deleting them when I am using them on my iPhone. I have not ever used an Apple Music subscription. How do I prevent Itunes from deleting songs that were not purchased through Apple?

I have not been able to find the right article regarding this issue, so help would be appreciated.

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: Hello, I would like to ask how to keep my music on my phone when syncing with iTunes when I do not have apple music.

iPhone 11, iOS 18

Posted on Sep 5, 2025 07:30 PM

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Answer 1

turingtest2

Level 10

277,759 points

Sep 6, 2025 04:08 AM in response to JoshuaCM

Syncing with iTunes is essentially one way, from the computer to the device. Attempting to manage the device from a new library that does not contain the music that is on the device can cause what is on the device to be removed. See Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device - Apple Community. The easiest method may be a temporary subscription to the Apple Music service, merging the music on the device into a Cloud Music Library which you then download to a computer and backup for security.

tt2

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Answer 2

JoshuaCM Author

Level 1

16 points

Sep 6, 2025 10:26 AM in response to turingtest2

I am not currently able to do a cloud subscription. Is there a way that to stop the erasure of data when Apple was not the original source besides using third-party software? For instance, if I update IOS, it may sync the phone with my hard drive. If I purchase more music, I do not want itunes to delete anything that was not from the Apple Store when I sync the libraries. Can I do that without a temporary Apple music subscription?

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Answer 3

turingtest2

Level 10

277,759 points

Sep 6, 2025 10:35 AM in response to JoshuaCM

Read the user tip. There are free alternatives to using Apple Music, but you are going have to use third party software. I've used iFunBox on a couple of occasions to access the raw file system to copy off media, and some custom scripts of my own to read playlists and playcounts/ratings. Any attempted edit of media on the device (including attempted manual management for iPhones) may trigger the removal of all non-iTunes Store purchases. Recover your media to a computer before updating iOS. Device backups do not include media.

tt2

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