Q: Can't delete 172 phantom songs (streams) that iTunes shows on my iPhone

Had the same issue, so frustrating.  Finally got it; try these steps:

From your phone:

Settings > Music - toggle "Show All Music" to off.

Open music app - identify all songs that are on your device.

Settings > Music - toggle "Show All Music" to on.

From the music app, download songs from iCloud identified in step 2

Settings > General > Usage > Manage Storage > Music > Edit > All Songs > Delete

(Optional) Settings > Cellular - In "Use cellular data for" locate Music App and toggle off.

Settings > Music - toggle "Show All Music" to off.

Sync with iTunes

At which point I had about three quarters of them gone.  If there are more remaining:

Download and install iExplorer http://www.macroplant.com/iexplorer/

Plug in device first, then open iExplorer

Delete the iPhone\Media\iTunes_Control folder (you may want to copy this, just in case)

Restart the iPhone / iPad

Start iTunes. Not restore iPhone from back up, select New iPhone (don't worry, you will not lost apps or data on your iPhone doing this)

Sync with iTunes

Also having this problem with unsynchronized songs showing up in iTunes > On My Device > Music when my iPhone is attached. I have never used iTunes Match or Apple Music services. I do sometimes stream songs that are not downloaded to my phone, and sometimes purchase music on my phone.

Why are these songs marked with dashed circles as if they're cued up to be synchronized to my phone, but are never actually copied to the phone?

On a separate note, it's really quite pathetic that Apple is unwilling to provide and adequate explanation of how their products operate, and have left us here to guess amongst ourselves how to fix this problem. This is exactly how successful enterprises meet their end.

IQDENYC wrote:

Why are these songs marked with dashed circles as if they're cued up to be synchronized to my phone, but are never actually copied to the phone?

 

Because they are queued up to sync.

This is exactly how successful enterprises meet their end

Wait...

So Apple is going under?

But the songs are NOT queued up to sync. They show up in iTunes under On My Device even when all music is removed from the iPhone, and when Sync Music is unchecked in iTunes.

Do you think this might happen if the songs, the files or the folder were renamed? Maybe iTunes can't sync these songs because it can't find the song or can't find the file.

Lots of big companies are crowd-sourcing support and sometimes development of their products. This can save money, but the quality of support suffers.

The following steps may help with erratic syncing behaviour. 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.

1. Backup device.
2. Restore as a new device.
3. 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.

tt2