How do I prevent iTunes from deleting locally stored songs leaving them just on the cloud? I regularly find songs unavailable to play locally and available only on the cloud. I don’t delete local content and cannot find a setting that’s relevant. I am often in areas with no data or Wifi so storing content locally is the best option.
What version of iOS is installed? In the current version if you scroll down Settings > Music there is a section called Downloads, of which Optimize Storage is one of the options.
Whether you use Apple Music or iTunes Match, or not, Apple provides access to your purchase history from iTunes and iOS devices. Any unhidden purchases that are not downloaded will show with cloud links allowing them to be streamed or downloaded. Occasionally a device might show both copies. Signing out of the store and back in again usually resolves that. For persistent duplicates, or for any other item in the cloud that you don't want to see, you can hide the purchase. See Hide and unhide music, movies, TV shows, audiobooks, and books - Apple Support.
tt2
What version of iOS is installed? In the current version if you scroll down Settings > Music there is a section called Downloads, of which Optimize Storage is one of the options.
Whether you use Apple Music or iTunes Match, or not, Apple provides access to your purchase history from iTunes and iOS devices. Any unhidden purchases that are not downloaded will show with cloud links allowing them to be streamed or downloaded. Occasionally a device might show both copies. Signing out of the store and back in again usually resolves that. For persistent duplicates, or for any other item in the cloud that you don't want to see, you can hide the purchase. See Hide and unhide music, movies, TV shows, audiobooks, and books - Apple Support.
tt2
From your description, I assume you have an Apple Music subscription. If so, see the "Change your settings" section in:
Listen to music and more in the Music app - Apple Support
You may also want to look at:
Access your music collection on all of your devices with Apple Music - Apple Support
Scroll to the top of the Settings app and type in "Optimise". If you get a result with the Music app icon that is the one you want. If you don't get it then I don't know why, although I do have iCloud Music Library so perhaps it only shows when that is active.
It is possible to manually remove downloads of downloaded purchases on your device, but one assume that isn't something you can easily do in error without being aware of it. I've proposed the only other mechanism I can think of that might be responsible.
tt2
How much free space is on your device? If you just installed iOS 12 and didn't have a lot it is possible iOS offloaded the content to make room for the update.
tt2
To be honest, I don't understand this behavior either. All I can think of is your iTunes Library is corrupt or you have multiple libraries. In either case, perhaps this article will help:
If you don't see your entire library after you update iTunes on your Mac or PC - Apple Support
I've been looking around the internet and it seems there might be a glitch in Music, lots of entries with people having similar problems - all around tracks moving to the Cloud with no manual assistance.
Will try to report it.
Hi Javaliga.
No I don’t have an Apple subscription, just an iTunes account.
I don’t understand why iTunes randomly deletes songs from my phone and leaves them in the cloud.
Is there a way to simply switch off this function?
turingtest2, thank you for your response.
I have checked my iPhone and there is no option for Settings, Music, Optimise Storage. I am clearly missing something could you please advise?
I don't have, or want, Apple Music, just good old fashioned iTunes with nothing in the cloud.
Hi turingtest2
I'm using the latest version of IOS, 12, on an iPhone 8 plus. There is no setting called 'Optimise Storage'.
However I do not use the Cloud and always opt out when I am asked to join. Also I once trialled, briefly, Apple Music, and hated it before cancelling the subscription. Could either of these choices be causing Apple to be deleting my music from my phone?
Early versions of iTunes were in many ways far superior!
Simon
Can’t see why this has been marked as Solved. Sadly you haven’t helped at all.
Masses of space, over 20 Gig. And the problem ins't new. Its clearly an issue with iTunes. ill find something better!
If you're referring to music going cloudy on your iOS device see Delete songs and videos from your iCloud Music Library - Apple Support. Make sure that Settings > Music > Optimize Storage is off.
See Backup your iTunes for Windows library with SyncToy to backup your library. iTunes for Windows doesn't have a similar feature, so if tracks go cloudy there that suggests some form of library corruption. That usually takes the form of all store content showing with cloud links and no non-store items remaining, in which case see Empty/corrupt iTunes library after upgrade/crash.
If neither suggestion applies then please give some more detail about the nature of your problem.
tt2
I can't say it is anything I've run into before although I do spend more time in iTunes forums than the iPhone ones. If you haven't already tried the approach below then I think you should give it a go.
You could try the following all-purpose steps for dealing with erratic device or sync behaviour (including the troublesome greyed out tracks and/or dotted circles of stalled transfers). They assume that all of the content you want on the device is in your library ready for restoring. If it isn't see Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device first. I would also recommend you copy everything out of the camera roll if you haven't already.
Use an encrypted backup (*) if you want to preserve passwords, Wi-Fi settings, web history and health data where appropriate. I also suggest syncing with a selection of playlists (unless you're using iCloud Music Library) rather than manually adding content as, if nothing else, the process above is easier to do if you ever have to go through it again.
(*) The downside with backup encryption is that if you forget the password when you need it again, which could be years later, you may need to invoke a workaround to turn off encryption as shown in Disable iOS backup encryption, which can only help if your device is in a state that can backup to iCloud, or runs iOS 11.
For added security you might also want to make an independent backup to iCloud and/or archive your current backup before you start.
FWIW I successfully used this method some time ago when Siri became unable to call contacts or play my music.
tt2
How do I prevent itunes from deleting locally stored songs leaving them just on the cloud?
