Using an iPhone 6 and IOS 8.4 and Apple Music.
There is a phone ICON next to some songs that I have in My Music.
These appear to be songs that I purchased from iTunes prior to using Apple Music.
Trying to figure out what the Phone ICON means.
iPhone 6, iOS 8.4
This indicates the song is physically on your device. This way you can see if it's available offline so you know when you get on a plane, for example, you'll be able to listen to it. If you select "..." and tap "Make Available Offline" next to songs or albums, this icon will appear as it's been physically placed on your device. This is for purchased and Apple Music files alike.
Sean - Thank you. This is helpful. Quick follow-up question. I am trying to free up memory on my iPhone6 and am looking to remove songs previously purchased. As you have advised these purchased albums reside on my iPhone6. I would like to remove them. When I click on the "..." next to one of these albums the only option that seems appropriate is "Delete". However when I chose "Delete" I get a follow-up message "Delete from iCloud Music Library". If I do this will the album be permanently deleted? I don't want to delete the album but rather just want to remove it from my iPhone6....again to free up memory. I am not sure if this matters but I purchased these albums via my iPhone and not on my iMac. Thanks for your additional help here.
Be careful here. If you have a purchased song or album with all the songs on your phone - (some may be in the cloud, some on your phone, so you may need to to this on a song by song basis) - the ... pop up will have an option to "Remove Download". Delete should not appear if the item is on your phone. On the other hand, if an item is not on your phone but in the cloud only, then the "Delete" option will appear. This indeed will remove it from the cloud, meaning you will need to have the original file/song/album backed up, archived, and/or on another device (such as your iMac's hard drive) if you want that item to be available in any way in the future. Purchases should still be available for download, but you'll have to view that item in your iTunes account or via the iTunes store to access it.
You can and probably should turn on Show Music Available Offline - which is under the Playlist tab, tap on the red lettered "All Playlists" (or this may say Apple Music Playlists or even My Playlists). Turning this on will only show you the items that are actually on your phone. This way you'll only see those songs that you can remove from your phone, rather than deleting something in the cloud that's not on your phone. Be sure to turn this back off after you've removed your songs so you have access to them via the cloud for streaming on your phone.
The number one rule is to have a back up of all your music - Purchased, Matched or uploaded so you can access them without any assistance from Apple's cloud or purchased area in your account. Time Machine works great as well as having a master iTunes device where all music is physically on a drive (such as your iMac). This way, you greatly reduce any risk of having either you, or Apple, permanently deleting files. There are a ton of issues with this right now, so be safe and not sorry.
In a further effort to gain space on your phone, you can go to Settings/General/Usage and under STORAGE tap Manage Storage. The next page will populate a list of what is taking up space on your phone. This can help you decide what to keep or remove. You can tap Music to view what's taking up the most space.
Sean - once again very helpful. The key was that this seemingly has to be done at the song level. While I did NOT have the option to "Remove Download" at the album level (not sure why) I did have the option to do so at the song level. A bit inconvenient to have to go thru each song on the album but this did work. I even noticed some of the music (non-purchased) that I thought was streaming (meaning not resident on my iPhone) was actually downloaded as well....not entire albums but a song here and there. I removed these random downloads as well. I realize that I will NOT have the ability to listen without an internet connection but most of the time I am on WiFi, etc. And I have successfully freed up space on my iPhone memory. Thanks again....very helpful indeed.
What does the phone icon next to a song within My Music mean?
