why do I need to be connected to WiFi to play music?

So I had this issue, too, and it just recently popped up. I figured out today how to fix it. On your phone, when you open the music app, click on the little profile button on the top left corner of your screen. If you are signed in on that screen, click "sign out." Bam...all your music is back and available to listen to without wi-fi!

You probably figured out an answer by now, but as a very low-tech senior, I didn't like being connected to WiFi when I synched my iPod, as Apple changed my album artwork. So now, I do two things: 1) I put on Airplane Mode...this prevents Apple from communicating with my device just like when you're flying. 2) I also disconnect WiFi when I synch as an added precaution. When I play my music on either my iPod, I still keep Airplane Mode on, and I do not connect to WiFi, and I always am able to listen. I do get reminders that my iPod is not connected to WiFi but I just ignore the messages.

You might have the option on to show only Apple Music Playlist. From Music, select My Music > Playlists and about 1/3 way down is a Red title that should say All Playlist. If not, click that and choose all Playlists.

Apple Music has been reported to lose Music as you know. You can check what is on your iPhone by selecting My Music > Library > the red text about a 1/3 of the way down (Artists, Songs, etc.) and switch Show Music Available Offline on (green). Then you can see what you have downloaded.

When you enable Apple Music, iTunes stops syncing music from your CD library since you can access all those songs theoretically from My Music now. But I didn't like the idea of being dependent on wireless and cellular data coverage to access my songs and didn't want to download my 3,000 favorites from Apple's cloud. What I did was turned off iCloud Music Library (iTunes Preferences > iCloud Music Library check box). Selected the device in iTunes and choose music the old way by checking sync selected music and synced the device. That put my songs on my iPhone. Then I turned iCloud Music Library back on and I have my 3,000 favorites on the Phone and access to My Music.

I see. I thought you were having Apple Music problems. It sounds more like an iTunes sync issue. I should have picked up on that earlier. I think a second shot at syncing is the right move.

Hi, not sure if we have the same problem.

I had the dilemma of ALL of my purchases being shown on 'My Music' on my iPhone. I fixed it by going to My Music > Red Tab to change between Songs, Albums, etc. and turned off 'Show iTunes Purchases'. I understand that your album was purchased to try and download it on your PC then sync it on your phone then turn of the 'Show Purchases'...

Hope in all this mumbo-jumbo I just typed you have found what you needed.

Hi thanks for your info. but unfortunately i am still facing the same problem after turning off i cloud music

natasha

I'm still having that issue after signing out. I wasnt having this issue a few days ago. I'm only able to listen to all my music if I turn on the cellular data in Music. I have the iphone6s.

Well shoot. It's still working for me. Try clicking on "songs" or "artists" or "albums" in the drop down and make sure the "Only downloaded music" button isn't switched on, maybe? You've probably already done that, though.

I had the same problem trying to sync mixtapes. I logged out of the music app, then I was able to sync my music. When I logged back in, my music was still there and I'm still able to use apple music. Hope that helps

Don't know but that seems odd. I disconnect from Wi-Fi and turn on Airplane mode when synching...to prevent Apple from putting their own album artwork in my library, but using Wi-Fi just to transfer seems unnecessary.

I have the same problem except on my iPod which doesn't have cellular data to fall back on and it is driving me crazy, it has essentially reduced my portable music device into a useless brick.