leech74

Q: Delete music on iPhone but still in iTunes, On My Device, Music

I have had this problem for ages and search everywhere for answer in vain. I cannot believe that it still exist after so many versions of iOS and macOS. Some background: my music files are ripped from CD and I manage music manually from iTunes. Now, I deleted the music files from Music in iPhone. Basically, there is no trace of the music files in the Music app in iPhone. Now, when I connect my iPhone to my Mac and open iTunes. Under "On My Device" , then "Music", the music files are still showing up. However, when I click on them to play within iTunes, they cannot be played and there will be an icon with an exclamation mark next to the entry. This behaviour has been happening since day one when I was using iPhone 3 till now. I cannot believe it it still happening, very frustrating.

iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2014), macOS Sierra (10.12), iPhone iOS 10

Posted on Sep 21, 2016 6:35 PM

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Q: Delete music on iPhone but still in iTunes, On My Device, Music

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  • by Cheese1357,

    Cheese1357 Cheese1357 Sep 21, 2016 6:49 PM in response to leech74
    Level 1 (109 points)
    Notebooks
    Sep 21, 2016 6:49 PM in response to leech74

    Hello, and welcome to Apple Support Communities! I believe that iTunes is telling you that the songs aren't on your iPhone but, the songs are in the cloud. For more information about deleting music, please click or tap this link: Delete songs and music videos from your iCloud Music Library - Apple Support  I hope this helps!

  • by leech74,

    leech74 leech74 Sep 21, 2016 10:40 PM in response to Cheese1357
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iTunes
    Sep 21, 2016 10:40 PM in response to Cheese1357

    First of all, this started happening way back in the stone age when there was no cloud yet. Second, I do not use the cloud service at all, turn everything off, Hence, no reason why the songs are in the clouds. In fact, I am 100% sure they are not.  As far as I can explain, I believe the files are gone but the database record/entry are left behind. iPhone Music ignores the entries because the files are not there but iTunes reads and displays the entries. However, when I clicked on it, it does not play because the files are not there and hence display an exclamation icon.

     

    What I cannot believe is there are not more ppl with the same problem. Probably because everyone either get music from Apple Music and never connect their phone to the computer or they do not manually manage the music files on their phone through iTunes - they sync their music files instead. Actually, the problem does not exist if I use iTunes to sync music files (I believe Apple will probably recommend that) . But then what is the point of having the setting/option to manually manage music files. I have live with this problem for a long time but after I upgraded to Mac Sierra and iOS 10, I just felt that it is so ridiculous that this problem still exists. I am almost 100% sure that this a a bug if not a flaw left over in the design.