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Can no longer completely purge iPhone library via iTunes for Windows

I have an iPhone 7 running 13.3.1 and iTunes for Windows running 12.10.4.2. For the years I've had the phone, I have occasionally purged every song in iTunes and then synced to the phone. Voila -- phone had zero songs as desired, so I could re-populate it. It's been a couple of months since I've done a purge, so I don't know if my problem is related to a software upgrade or something else. Here's what happens:

In iTunes, I delete all songs as I've always done. Then I perform a sync, which appears to go through all stages of progress. Indistinguishable from a successful sync UNTIL... I find that all of the songs are still on the phone. No amount of syncing deletes the phone's songs.

BUT, if I then add a single random song to iTunes and sync again, all of the other music is deleted from the phone and only that one song is there. I can then delete that one song via Music app. All future additions and deletions sync correctly so long as I don't try to purge ALL phone music. It's as though iPhone can no longer tolerate a zero-music state if it came from iTunes. Has anyone else experienced this?


iPhone 7, iOS 13

Posted on Feb 10, 2020 8:46 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Feb 13, 2020 1:29 PM

Hello Octolad, 


Thanks for reaching out to the Apple Support Communities! I see from your message that you're looking to see how you can remove all the songs from your iPhone. 


You can do so on the iPhone itself. Just follow these steps:

    1. Open the Settings app. 
    2. Tap General, then tap iPhone Storage or iPad Storage.
    3. Scroll to Music, then tap it.
    4. Swipe left on any artist, album, or song. Or if you want to delete all music, swipe left on All Songs.
    5. Tap Delete.


You can find this and more information in this article: Delete music, movies, and TV shows from your device.


Once this is complete you can then sync your music back to your iPhone as you normally would. With no music on the iPhone, you would see the music reappear as you have selected in iTunes. To not have any music sync back to the iPhone, be sure that you don't have any selected under "Music": Use iTunes to sync your iPhone, iPad, or iPod with your computer.


All the best!


Similar questions

3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Feb 13, 2020 1:29 PM in response to Octolad

Hello Octolad, 


Thanks for reaching out to the Apple Support Communities! I see from your message that you're looking to see how you can remove all the songs from your iPhone. 


You can do so on the iPhone itself. Just follow these steps:

    1. Open the Settings app. 
    2. Tap General, then tap iPhone Storage or iPad Storage.
    3. Scroll to Music, then tap it.
    4. Swipe left on any artist, album, or song. Or if you want to delete all music, swipe left on All Songs.
    5. Tap Delete.


You can find this and more information in this article: Delete music, movies, and TV shows from your device.


Once this is complete you can then sync your music back to your iPhone as you normally would. With no music on the iPhone, you would see the music reappear as you have selected in iTunes. To not have any music sync back to the iPhone, be sure that you don't have any selected under "Music": Use iTunes to sync your iPhone, iPad, or iPod with your computer.


All the best!


Feb 13, 2020 3:02 PM in response to Octolad

Hi Octolad,


Thanks for the additional information.


When you go to remove the music from your iPhone, try these steps: Select your iPhone from the Devices list in the sidebar of iTunes > Music > click on one track then use CTRL + A to select all the music > Right click > Remove from Library. The songs will be removed immediately, and you won't need to sync until you're ready to put the music back on your iPhone.


Cheers!


Can no longer completely purge iPhone library via iTunes for Windows

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