Music not deleting off of phone

Question

Level 1

112 points

Music not deleting off of phone

I have an iPhone 7, 32GB and iTunes 12.7 on Mac. Since iTunes 12 I have encountered an issue where music isn't deleting off of the phone even after I delete it when the phone is plugged into iTunes.

I plug my phone into my computer, it shows up in iTunes. I go to the Music section and scroll through the phone, deleting songs/albums that I want to replace (I keep maybe 30-40 albums of music on my phone at once). Once done those songs do not show in the Music library in iTunes - I assume they are deleted. Once I unplug the phone and go to my library about 10% of the music I deleted is still on the phone. I have to manually delete the songs/albums from the phone.

I manually manage my music, of course, and this was never an issue until iTunes 12. I have done a Sync of the phone (don't want to do again, I lost my ringtones) and restore but the problem still persists. I couldn't find anything about this in any forum discussion. Any ideas would be appreciated.

iPhone 7, iOS 11

Posted on Sep 20, 2017 10:51 AM

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Answer 1

rose_10

Community Specialist

Sep 21, 2017 9:46 AM in response to bfarneth

Hi there, bfarneth.

I see that you're unable to delete music from your iPhone 7. When you sync it with iTunes, it reappears. I'm happy to help.

Manually manage content on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch using iTunes -- Since you're already manually managing music, sync it from the phone instead of deleting it from the phone. If the missing ringtones are still in your iTunes library, you can sync them back as well.

If you can't manually add or remove content from your device

Check to make sure that the "Manually manage music and videos" option is turned on:

Connect your device to your computer.

Open iTunes. Make sure that you have the latest version.

Locate and click on your device.

In the left sidebar, click Summary.

Scroll to the Options section.

Click the box next to "Manually manage music and videos."

Click Apply.

You might see a message that your device is synced with another library. This means that you've used a different computer to sync your device in the past, and iTunes can't sync without first erasing and replacing all iTunes content on your device.

Use tones on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

Redownload previously purchased tones

With iOS 11, you can redownload purchased tones that you bought using your Apple ID.

Go to Settings > Sounds & Haptics, then tap on any sound. At the top of the page, tap Download All Purchased Tones to check for any previously purchased tones not currently downloaded to your device. You might not see this option if you've already redownloaded your purchased tones or if you haven't purchased any tones.

You might not be able to redownload some previously purchased tones.

Cheers!

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Answer 2

Ric 2 2

Level 1

37 points

Oct 27, 2017 5:41 PM in response to bfarneth

I had to go into Settings on my iPhone scroll to Music, click on it. Then scroll down again to DOWNLOADS and then click on "Downloaded Music". My phone has "all songs", and then a list of all artists. Slide to the left and press delete, and they disappeared. Then I went back plugged the iPhone into the computer and synced a new set of "smart playlists" that have songs in them onto the iPhone. This seemed to work for me, but of course your milage may vary.

Ric

P. S. Good luck, and thank god they make it so easy.

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Answer 3

bfarneth Author

Level 1

112 points

Sep 21, 2017 10:11 AM in response to rose_10

I appreciate the post. I work in IT and I’m aware of how to manually manage my music and restore my purchases. As I said, I won’t sync because last time I did it erased all of my custom ringtones and they aren’t in iTunes so I can’t restore them. These are tones I made in iTunes and they were deleted when I updated to iTunes 12 (don’t know why, they aren’t in Finder in my iTunes folder either). I manually delete songs when my phone is plugged into iTunes but some of them don’t delete off of the phone. Most do but about 10% don’t. I’m not syncing my phone and erasing everything in Music just because some songs won’t delete through iTunes.

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Answer 4

trepie53

Level 1

8 points

Oct 18, 2017 7:55 PM in response to bfarneth

I have a similar problem, with an iPhone 5. I manually manage media because I don't like having videos in my iTunes - so I prefer to drag them from the finder to the phone. But that means music and audiobooks are manual. I've deleted albums and audiobook files in iTunes, with the phone connected, and sync'd and they are still on my phone and playable. They are not downloaded from the iTunes store - so they aren't being streamed.

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Answer 5

Ric 2 2

Level 1

37 points

Oct 27, 2017 4:44 PM in response to rose_10

REALY, this really does not work.

Ric

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