"connect wifi to play music" why?

So I went to the Apple Store to see if I can get some answers and the two helpful Geniuses (amateur and senior) were both stumped why my music I synced shows offline.

They confirmed all my iMac, iTunes and iPhone settings that I've mentioned here are correct and the music should be on my iPhone when I sync.

The senior Genius did suggest that perhaps my iMacs iTunes database is causing this issue.

I wasn't sure that was the case so I decided to just troubleshoot this issue at home by purging all my music from iPhone by:

• unchecking all my iPhone sync categories in iTunes so I can purge my music from the iPhone when I wire sync to iTunes
• Deleting all music from my iPhone in Settings > Music > Downloaded Music
• I turned off wifi to prevent any music automatically downloading

Once all my music was gone, I noticed in the Music app > Library > Songs that all my music I've purchased was still listed, but, all songs were offline with the cloud icon*, and the songs can only play or rather "stream" when I'm connected to wifi.

I was confused by that but pressed on to sync my music into my iPhone via iTunes ...

As a test, I picked just one artist in iTunes, put their songs in a new playlist (called it Test list) and selected only that list to sync to my iPhone.

So here is the even stranger thing I don't understand:

On my iPhone, the songs I decided to sync all showed offline, *when viewed in* Music app > Library > Playlists > Test list *but they are available and can be played* in Music app > Library > Downloaded Music > Playlists > Test list

So confusing ! because I assumed all my synced music to be online and shown in Music app > Library. Not so.

So this explains why I'm seeing my music offline.

Well I sync'd all my playlists back to my iPhone.

The annoying thing I now have to get used to is accessing my music via Music app > Library > Downloaded Music.

Was more intuitive to just goto Music app > Library

*Anyone know a way to hide offline music Apple wants me to download or stream in the Music app > Library ?

Thanks

Hi Rysz,

I don't have the iCloud Music Library/Apple Music setting turned on in Settings > Music:

I really avoided that service as best as I could.

Is it on in another setting in my iPhone that I'm not realizing?

Thx

Hi Miss Smartie Partie,

Thanks for your fast response! I have plenty of available room on my iPhone (luckily), about 19GB, and I've always had the Automatic Downloads settings turned on in iTunes and on my iPhone for all content including Music.

And I too thought those 'Auto Download' settings would have downloaded these song files on my devices and prevented this issue but unfortunately not.

Well, I just found and followed the advice by DRAWJW in this post: I can't listen to purchased music without wifi

and there was a bunch of songs that needed downloading... Even with all my settings. So hopefully this solves the issue.

Thanks again!

I continue to have this issue even with all the iPhone settings I've have mentioned here. Also the suggestion to download purchased music via the iTunes app in the other post I referedoesn't seem to help. Do you guys have any other suggestions to resolve this?

Or do I just need to download offline music via cellular or wifi? I'd really like to avoid downloading music while commuting to work.

Thanks for your help

Also want to add that agree with Miss Smartie Partie and your advice here, and it's very appreciated and it's been very informative. Thanks!

I'm not subscribed to iTunes Match.