Remove songs from playlist but not library

Such a garbage problem. Have no idea how to get these songs back now or which ones I even deleted. Do these people even use their own app? Seriously, things like "play last" instead of an add to queue, now this crap? What a joke, I might just to switch back to spotify at this point

It’s getting harder and harder to love Apple the way I used to. This is such an idiotic change, functionality was REMOVED. Just like how they massacred the Podcast app. Someone PLEASE fix this feature.

I understand that clicking the three dots and editing the playlist will remove songs from specific playlists; however swiping left on songs within playlists BEFORE the update would do this more efficiently. Now that they replaced the word ‘Delete’ with the trash bin icon, I assumed it would be the same effect but NO! I went through a couple of weeks before realising I was deleting songs from my library !!

Why would they remove such an efficient feature?? Who in their right mind would think that people would want to remove songs entirely from one specific playlist!

Exactly - removing a song from my library altogether is a significant action and should be harder to do. Make me tap through the three dots menu for that. Simply removing a song from a playlist isn’t near as extreme, so the input should be simpler, a simple swipe (like it used to be before the update).

Unfortunately I ended up deleting about a dozen of my songs this way, and no way to get them back as they were not downloaded/purchased via iTunes.

This is where I draw the line with Apple. No way this wasn’t intentional. Time to switch! When you care that little about your customers, you don’t deserve them anymore.

Hi reid172,

Thank you for posting in Apple Support Communities. From our understanding, when you attempt to remove a song from a specific playlist it remove the song from your library completely, is that correct? How are you deleting it? Are you selecting the 3 dots at the top right, selecting "Edit" and then selecting the minus sign next to the song instead of selecting the song and selecting "Delete From Library"?

Check out the steps in the user guide under the section titled " Edit a playlist you created on iPhone": Create playlists on iPhone.

Hope that helps!

I had the same thought. Apple is deleting the music I purchased and then telling me I am not entitled to a refund to force me to subscribe to Apple Music. No way!

Thank you, Mark, for confirming my suspicions

I have no idea how to get these songs back now. When I go into the iTunes Store the affected songs show as “purchased” if I search for them in the store, but they don’t show under my purchased song list in the “more” section. I have no idea how to get these songs back or even begin to identify which songs were deleted. Infuriating. Anyone have any idea?

I’m so glad I found this post after deleting a bunch of my music. I found the answer, although I can only figure out how to solve it in a computer. You have to UNHIDE the music.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208167#unhide

I went through a lot of conversations and help pages, but I found that you can hide/unhide music just like you can with apps. I don't know if you can fix it on your iPhone, but you can on a computer.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208167

I have yet to figure out how to do it from my PC but on an iPhone do this:

• open your Playlist
• select the 3 dots upper right
• select Edit
• scroll down to song you wish to delete
• select the minus sign on left side
• select Delete - this removes song from Playlist only (not Library)

I had this problem too for like 5 months and then I was told they released the new update. Download that and things should be back to normal.

I agree though, not sure why they would mess with that feature in the first place.

Hey all! I had the same experience - here's what I did to re-download the songs:

First I figured out which songs I had deleted by noticing certain albums were missing tracks. I also tried to think about which playlists I edit a lot and what would be on them...

To re-download them, I had to search for the songs individually in the ITunes Store app on my phone. Once they showed up in search , I clicked the little price and authorized payment. Then I got a "you already bought this, click here to download again" message and downloaded from there!

Note that I could NOT re-download them from my purchases list or from finding the whole album in the ITunes Store! Only via searching for individual songs in the ITunes Store 😵‍💫😵‍💫 definitely some BS.

Anyways I hope this helps!

I have the same understanding. Apple removed functionality on mobile to remove specific songs from playlists without removing them from the library. This was previously possible mobile. Now it's not and what looks like the same feature achieves what it is I'm trying to avoid: remove song from library.

I did this and then had to spend a few hours recovering music as normac0_0 describes below.

Would be great if this capability could be added back to mobile. Having to manage playlists on desktop devices only is a step backwards for the service.

Yes, this happened to my wifes extensive playlist. Chatted with a apple tech, they seem to have no idea that this issue is even a problem.

She was do frustrated she showed me on my phone. One of my playlist had the same song seven times. Deleted one instance of the seven in play list, all seven instances disappeared as well as from my library.

Notice to apple: if you think you are going to get me to commit to Apple play by screwing up our 15 years of purchased music with you.

Then you are wrong. The music play from Big A and the Spot are now on my preffered go to.

FIX this! We did not screw up playlists , you did. We do not need to go back through

for hours trying to repair your mistake.

if you move my music, I move my money!