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Downloaded Apple playlist music remains on device but inaccessible after playlist changes

Scenario: I add an Apple playlist to my library and download it. As Apple adds new songs to the playlist and removes others over time, those new songs are also downloaded. The key though, is that as far as I can tell, the songs that were removed from the playlist are not deleted from my device. This results in downloaded songs I cannot even access accumulating in my phone storage, and they can only be deleted manually by going through Settings > Music and deleting music I don't recognize.


Note that I have the setting "Library > Add Playlist Songs" turned off, so these songs are never added to my library. Once they are removed from the playlist, they become completely inaccessible on device.

This seems like a big oversight by the Apple Music team.


iPhone 13 mini, iOS 17

Posted on Oct 31, 2024 12:44 PM

Reply
1 reply

Nov 1, 2024 10:07 AM in response to mitchell253

Scenario: I add an Apple playlist to my library and download it. As Apple adds new songs to the playlist and removes others over time, those new songs are also downloaded. The key though, is that as far as I can tell, the songs that were removed from the playlist are not deleted from my device. This results in downloaded songs I cannot even access accumulating in my phone storage, and they can only be deleted manually by going through Settings > Music and deleting music I don't recognize.


Note that I have the setting "Library > Add Playlist Songs" turned off, so these songs are never added to my library. Once they are removed from the playlist, they become completely inaccessible on device.


Is this possible? It's a hard thing to confirm manually since I can only see music I don't recognize in my downloaded in settings, but I realize this could be correctly downloaded music from current playlists.

Downloaded Apple playlist music remains on device but inaccessible after playlist changes

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