“Optimize Storage” doesn't work for Music on iPad and iPhone.

I have several iPads and iPhones, and have had iDevices for over a decade.

I always have clicked “Optimize Storage” in my Music app. It is supposed to DELETE music I haven’t listened to, in order to free up space. But NEVER ONCE has ANY of my iDevices actually done that. They just keep downloading music and never delete my old Music files.

Say I have a 128GB iPhone or iPad. I have clicked “Optimize Storage” under the Music app setting. I usually have it clicked from anywhere of “Keep” 16GB to 64GB. That means in theory if my iPad is full, it is allowed to delete TONS of music. But it never deletes a single song.

I have tried different setting amounts, but it has NEVER worked. This has been going on for years, on ALL of my iDevices, since the option was available. Never worked once. Not a song file deleted.

My iPad and iPhone are constantly filled with music, and I have to MANUALLY delete the files to free space.

I notice this because every time I need to UPDATE my system OS, my iPhone and iPad are FULL, and it won’t update. Music is NOT deleting Music files.

Then I have to MANUALLY delete GBs of music just to system OS update.

But I thought the setting in music was supposed to “delete the music files automatically to free up space.”

So why does it not work automatically and what do I need to do?

After YEARS of the setting not working, I’m tired of manually deleting old music files just to free space to update my OS.