Hidden music files on iPhone?

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Level 1

10 points

Hidden music files on iPhone?

I've had my Apple account for years, and throughout that time, have purchased a lot of music from the iTunes Store. As time went on, my music taste changed and I deleted a lot of the old music from my iTunes library.

My car is compatible with my iPhone, so I can plug my phone into it and browse my library and pick music to play from there, instead of using my phone. However, all of my old music appears on the car's list of my music from my iPhone, and when I test it, I can play the songs, although they don't appear on my phone or in my iTunes library on my Macbook. Then, earlier today, I told Siri to play an album, and my phone played an old album of the same name that I deleted ages ago, and again, no longer appears on my phone or in my iTunes Library.

After playing the songs that weren't supposed to appear, they're suddenly listed on my phone (and don't transfer to iTunes after syncing it), and I can't delete them. My phone isn't giving me the option to.

I've tried restoring from a backup, which does absolutely nothing to fix my problem.

So, basically, I have hidden music files on my phone, and I've no idea how to get rid of them. Any tips? xx

Posted on Dec 27, 2013 9:15 AM

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Answer 1

Jun 16, 2017 11:00 AM in response to abnegations

I have exactly the same problem, on all recent releases of iOS.

Given the apparent lack of a known fix, I suppose the only solution is to reinstall iOS from scratch and not from backup. Painful and time consuming, but that should do the trick.

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Answer 2

Dec 27, 2013 9:21 AM in response to abnegations

If the "hidden" songs are ones you purchased from the iTunes Store, it is likely showing the purchases in your library then, when you select them to play, downloading them from iTunes (as you can do with all past purchases), where they are then saved to your device.

You can disable this by going to Settings > Music and turning Show All Music off. By turning Show All Music off, you will have to manually go to the iTunes Store app and download past purchases there if you want to put them onto your device. By leaving it on, it shows past purchases, even ones not downloaded to your iPhone, so you can easily download and play them.

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Answer 3

abnegations Author

Level 1

10 points

Dec 27, 2013 10:04 AM in response to safari rss

Show All Music was never on, and the problem persists.

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Answer 4

Dec 27, 2013 10:31 AM in response to abnegations

Is iTunes Match enabled?

You may want to try enabling it, then disabling it and see if that makes a difference.

Also, is this only when connected to your car? (e.g. you only see all the additional songs when connected to the car, but songs you download remain even after disconnecting from your car?)

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Answer 5

abnegations Author

Level 1

10 points

Dec 27, 2013 10:47 AM in response to safari rss

No, iTunes Match is disabled. I'm not a subscriber.

It happens totally in general - like, if I shuffle all music, songs that aren't on the device get played as well, as if the device is streaming them. I've tried enabling Show All Music, downloading each song, manually deleting them from the device, and then turning off Show All Music, but it doesn't change anything. I'm starting to think the only solution is subscribing to iTunes Match and just deleting the unwanted songs from iCloud.

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Answer 6

Aug 19, 2014 3:27 PM in response to abnegations

Did you ever figure it out? I have the same issue with my iPhone 5 and Ford Sync. It's 85 degrees out and Christmas music comes on! Not "checked" to sync on iTunes and does not show up on the phone but shows up as a playlist in the car with 798 songs.

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Answer 7

shadly

Level 1

0 points

Oct 27, 2014 2:21 PM in response to abnegations

Hi I have recently been having the same problems as everyone else, I believe its because of restoring an out dated back-up on a Iphone but for some reason Itunes can't read the music files. I had the same problem around spring 2014 when I got my new 5s, and started having the problem again a week ago with my replacement phone. I have also tried restoring it and not back-up it up but the files some how get left on the phone.

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Answer 8

Feb 9, 2015 9:57 PM in response to abnegations

Try Settings > Music and toggle off "Show All Music". Seemed to do the trick for me.

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Answer 9

Alllllly

Level 1

10 points

Mar 15, 2016 8:28 AM in response to abnegations

I have the same problem. Christmas hits playing in my car but not appearing on my phone. If I shuffle all songs on my phone, they are not there but if I plug my iPhone into the car, they are. I'm sure they are not streaming as they play even when data is switched off. iTunes Match is disabled, Show All Songs is switched off and I've never had to restore my phone from back up. The storage settings menu only lists the music that I would expect to be on my phone, not the Christmas songs. They must be on the iPhone's 'disk' but not within iOS's field of view. Is there anyway to get rid of them? The only way I've found to work around it is to start my music playing before I plug in my iPhone but this is a pain and is a bit hit and miss - sometimes it won't connect at all this way.

I tried asking Siri to play some of the songs but it just said, "Hmm. I'm having trouble finding that," every time.

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