iTunes Cloud Storage Confusion - I HATE THIS!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I thought I was going insane! This was the only thing that worked for me.

There is definitely an issue, since iOS7. If you start to play a song in the cloud, it gets (sort of) downloaded, but it cannot then be deleted, unlike actual downloaded songs in your library. Also, deleting downloaded songs has become fiddly - with the delete button you get when you swipe left disappearing very quickly - so that you can actually start playing a song just as you've deleted it to the Cloud - giving you the problem I described in my previous sentence! Also the ability to delete whole albums at one go was lost at iOS7 - which is annoying.

The only way I found to get rid of those unintentionally downloaded songs I have found is the nuclear option of going to settings and deleting all music, and then starting again.

I'm hoping this might get tidied up at some point.......

Yes there certainly is room for improvement in how the management of "iCloud songs" is supposed to work. I normally don't re-download songs from iCloud, but when I've done that I've seen quirky behavior like not being able to delete such songs right from the device and them not showing up on the device when viewed through iTunes while docked. One time I did see the song in the "Manually Added Items" category in iTunes, but that doesn't seem to happen anymore (too bad, that actually made sense and was easy to delete the song).

I haven't looked close enough to see any difference between tapping on the cloud symbol vs. letting the device finish a song that is loaded and let it start playing an iCloud song on its own, without tapping the cloud. But I can see how users who "Show All Music" would get a lot of cloud downloads without always realizing it, and not have a way to remove the downloads. Yes, hopefully this gets fixed soon ... but for now I do all my music installing the old fashioned way, via iTunes. (now if Apple could just fix the hours-long "Waiting for changesto be applied ..." sync problem then I'll be happy with the old way).

1. Go to iTunes Store > Music > Music Quick Links > Purchased

There you will find all the songs the iphone was blocking to delete, or not showing in the computer, you just tab on the X mark and delete all of them!

2. To avoid it in the future you better disable iTunes Match, Genius or any 'Automatic...'

Hope this helps someone 🙂

I was driving crazy. Now I can rest and here my OWN music in peace. Thanks for nothing iTunes.

I finally figured out how to get those pesky songs off of my iPhone music library. Hope this helps someone out there:

iTunes > iTunes Store > Music > scroll to bottom, click on Purchased > hit the All button near the top right hand corner > click the X at the top left corner of the album covers

GOOD LUCK!

Just 5 more months and I can get rid of this POS phone. Its one issue after another having to jump through hoops to get music on now I cant get it off. Like some other I tried to delete this U2 song and now its stuck on my phone. I have tried clicking and unclicking the setting, still there. I even saw on another thread to re-add it and download it then you can delete it. Nope, the crap is still there. But hey thanks apple for making it so difficult to put what I want on then put on crap I don't want, then act likes its my fault because I didn't deselect/turn off something that I didn't know to look for.

Did you manage to solve this problem? The same is happening to me and is very frustrating...how are you expected to listen to music off the iPad if you are unable to use WiFi to access the Cloud???

If anyone is still looking at this, I think I have a partial solution. When you use only one ID on tunes, and everyone uses it, then all of the music is going to be under that ID. If i understand correctly, this question is more about why the music that someone else has gotten. and THEN why you cant delete. Suggestion first, would be to use FAMILY SHARING. each of you really needs an icloud acct. With Family sharing you can still manage payment and purchases and give permission or not for others to download items or music. Once each of you has an icloud acct, then you initiate a FAMILY sharing option. you can do this on your phone. The problem I found is that most of us dont realize that in order to manage multiple devices with different tastes, the only way is to separate them in icloud and then pull them back together so to speak with family sharing. The important point here is the following : EACH icloud acct was specifaclly meant to handle only ONE PERSON's device(s) at a time. Icloud should not be used as a backup for multiple peoples devices...There a number of reasons for this, not the least of which is that you want to use facetime or texting to one number or email only.

This ways you have individual accounts with backups of your devices only...like an iphone and ipad that is yours...The others have their own ipad and/or iphone on their respective accts, BUT you can share the music from iTunes, any number of apps and other purchases as you see fit...I will say this...You have to remove your daughters and your wife's phones off icloud acct. If you don't go into icloud and delete their devices, then they will show back up like a bad habit. Once you do that, sign out of icloud on all devices ...initiate the individual accts on icloud and then reset your network setting on your devices...then shut down your devices, reboot and then go to icloud in the settings and log in individually on each persons device. Once you have that you should be able to go to each icloud acct and see only that persons device(s) on each acct. Once you see that, you can initiate FAMILY SHARING. This can include location monitoring if you allow it..That way you can see where your child is at all times, if you so choose. I do this with my daughter who is too young for no monitoring. You as head of household can manage how things are set up and then you can send invites from your phone to each member of your family...namely your daughter and your wife. You will need their icloud account ID...they have to accept the invite on their device(s) and then you will see everyone on your family sharing page. After that, it will be much easier to sync each device, bec each device is signed into a different icloud acct, but still SHARES many items, if you so choose.

I hope this helps..i fought with it too for the longest time and finally started "getting it", but apple makes it too **** hard to understand

BrianMBM wrote:

I don't think this is true.

But it is.

The important point here is the following : EACH icloud acct was specifaclly meant to handle only ONE PERSON's device(s) at a time. 1 (ONE) Icloud should NOT be used as a backup for multiple peoples devices..ONLY YOUR PERSONAL DEVICES, like an iMac, an iphone and an IPAD....There a number of reasons for this, not the least of which is that you want to use facetime or texting to one number or email only.

sorry couldnt edit this correctly...i should have typed this instead up in previous reply.