How to delete a song from my library but not from the playlist?

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Level 1

21 points

How to delete a song from my library but not from the playlist?

Hi there,

I know this question has been asked before. But as far as I know not in conjunction with Apple Music.

Since there is a way in Apple Music to add a song only to a playlist and not to the library I was wondering if there is any way to delete a song from my library and not from the playlist?

Is there any way to do that?

All songs on the playlists and in my library are Apple Music.

I tried exporting a playlist as XML then deleting the songs from my library and then importing the XML.

Unfortunately this does not work because iTunes does not find the songs in Apple Music even if there were only Apple Music songs in the playlist before.

I would hate having to create all my playlists once again just to clear out my library.

Thanks for your help!

MacBook Air (13-inch Mid 2011), OS X El Capitan (10.11.4), iTunes 12.3.3.17

Posted on Apr 24, 2016 3:21 AM

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Answer 1

Bálint.

Level 1

40 points

Jan 9, 2017 9:36 AM in response to LATBauerdick

On the bottom of the linked page there's the said news below. 😟 Having the same issue. I am a "full-album" listener, but I have a real bunch of playlists too and I'd like to separate them like that.

Move songs from My Music to a playlist

If you have songs in My Music that you want to move to a playlist and remove from iCloud Music Library, you first need to delete the song from your library, which will remove it from all playlists. Then, add the song back from the Apple Music catalog and add it just to a playlist.

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Answer 2

Jun 22, 2016 4:04 AM in response to Mobile Blues

Hi,

this Knowledge Base Article outlines how to avoid in future to add songs to the library when adding to playlist.

The question asked (and I have the same question) was how to *remove* songs from my music library without also deleting them from all playlists -- which is what happens when one selects "delete from Library". Is there a way?

Thanks!

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Answer 3

May 2, 2016 4:05 PM in response to iOSProducer

Read this Apple Knowledge base article

Add a song to a playlist in Apple Music without adding it to your library - Apple Support

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