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can't delete purchased music from iPhone

Apologies if this is addressed somewhere on this forum. I searched, but gave up after about 45 minutes.

I have 24 songs purchased through iTunes on my phone, all of which have been transferred to my iTunes library (and multiple backups). They've been synced to my iPod (not the phone one). I cannot delete these songs off my phone. I have been able to delete other songs on my iPhone and Purchased on iPhone playlists and the entire playlists. The only way I've been able to get these songs off the phone is by unchecking the "Sync Music" option altogether in iTunes and then syncing my phone. If I recheck "Sync Music," those 24 songs are still there. I made a new playlist for my phone with 35 songs and ended up with 59 songs on my phone.

I'm baffled by this. Not a huge deal, but it's very annoying, and I'd love to get an answer to how to delete them (or find out if it's just not possible). If I can't delete them, I'll know never to download anything from iTunes off my phone again.

Thanks much for any help!

iPhone OS 3.0

Posted on Mar 1, 2011 8:22 PM

Reply
70 replies

Sep 19, 2013 10:53 AM in response to bayoukitty

I have the same problem with an iPhone 5 (using ios7). Swiping the song from left to right does nothing, but swiping from right to left does bring up a "delete" option. For most songs. There are some songs it does not do that as to. No idea why. I don't have cloud back-up turned on, or match. The albums are not even in my iTunes system (two of them never were; I deleted the other two). Yet they show up on my phone and I can't get rid of them. One of them asks me if I want to see the rest of the album, which it then does greyed out, asking me if I want to buy the rest of it. But I already purchased the whole album, had it on iTunes, but then deleted it (after it gave me all those messages). Anyone have any ideas at all? This is driving me crazy!

Sep 24, 2013 10:46 PM in response to Trnilsson

Hi! Ok I just figured out how to delete the songs! so here's the deal: You just played the songs from iCloud right? You didn't press the little download cloud yet. You can't delete something that technically isn't there. So go to setting>music and turn ON Show all music. Press the cloud to download the songs you want to delete, go back to setting>music And turn OFF show all music. Now go to the songs you want to delete, slide and delete! :-) Hope that helped!

Oct 9, 2013 7:55 AM in response to bayoukitty

none of these options are working for me either. i have an iPhone 5 with the iOS 7 software. swipe and delte? no, doesn't work. back up to computer instead of iCloud? no, doest work. restore? no, doesn't work. my purchased songs are always on my iPhone. if there is a way to get them off there that's not one the 3 methods already mentioned on this thread, please let me know. i'm this close to going windows / galaxy.

Oct 9, 2013 9:25 AM in response to bayoukitty

I've been on the phone with an Apple tech for about an hour. Nothing. Then a senior tech tried to help me for about an hour. Nothing. I tried this: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4919?viewlocale=en_US Didn't work.


Purchased music from the iTunes store will not go away on my iPhone. I had the same problem as lilouf too with the sliding to delete. I press the cloud thing next to the track to start the download of the track from the cloud. Once it's downloaded, I swipe to get the red "Delete" symbol. I press "Delete," and the track is still there and the cloud re-appears.


Any other ideas?

Feb 6, 2014 10:44 AM in response to bayoukitty

None of the previous options worked for me. I've turned "Show All Music" off but the unwanted songs were still there. I purchased an album which contained 100 songs, but I just wanted 30 of those songs on my iPhone, so I put those 30 songs on a playlist, then on iTunes I chose to sync "only the selected playlists"; in theory I would have only those 30 songs on my iPhone. But that happened only when I played "playlists". Every time I play randomly, one of the unwanted songs shows up. Then I go to the album and try to swipe and delete, but interestingly enough, it works only with the chosen songs, (those which are on iTunes and on my Play Lists), but when I try to swipe & delete the unwanted songs, (those with the iCluud icon), the "delete" option is not available. Conclusion: It's a cloud issue, but not sure if it comes from iTunes Store or iCloud, but it's hard to believe that Apple didnt' figure it out yet, How old is this thread? more than 2 years old?

can't delete purchased music from iPhone

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