While it’s great to always have all your albums in your pocket, putting all your music on an iPhone can present storage issues, leaving you with no space for videos, photos, and games. Fortunately, there are solutions to this problem.
In this article, we show how to delete music on your iPhone or iPad and explain how you can still access tracks without storing them on your device.
Delete one album or song at a time
Open the Music app. On the Library tab, select Albums Or songs, and find the track or album you want to delete. Long-press on an album or tap on the small three-dot menu and a list of options will appear, one of which is a red trash can icon labeled Delete from library. Tap on it and you will be asked to confirm the deletion.
Note that if you purchased the music and didn’t back it up in iTunes on your Mac or in the cloud, you may lose the album or have to import it back into iTunes when you want to add it to your device. again. If you have already purchased the music from iTunes or subscribed to Apple Music, you can download it again for free.
Delete music at once
If you have a lot of albums stored on your phone, or just want to wipe the slate clean and start over, there’s a quick way to delete them all in one go. To do this, go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage.
At the bottom of the screen, you’ll see a list of all the apps on your phone, categorized by how much storage they take up. (Data is at the top.) Find the Music app, then tap it to continue.
Foundry
At the bottom of this screen, you’ll see your music library listed (in alphabetical order) by artist, with a number next to each indicating how much space they take up. At the top, you’ll also see the space used by your entire music library.
Tap the Edit button above All Songs and you can delete an artist’s entire catalog or your entire library by tapping the minus icon or swiping left on an artist. You can also tap an artist to see their albums and songs and swipe or tap Edit to delete individual tracks. Once you have made your selections, press Do.
Delete Music Using iTunes
Another solution for those who still plug their devices into a computer is to use iTunes. (At least for those running macOS Mojave or earlier, or the Windows version of iTunes. In macOS Catalina, iTunes music tasks are taken over by a dedicated music app, while other roles are handled by podcasts and television.)
Connect your device to a Mac or PC and open iTunes. Click the iPhone icon in the top left, then select Music under Settings in the left menu. Make sure Sync Music is checked, as is “Selected Playlists, Artists, Albums and Genres” below. Now you just need to make sure nothing is checked – no songs, genres, nothing. Next to Sync Music at the top it should say ‘0 songs’.
When you hit Apply, iTunes will remove all music from the iPhone and “replace” it with the new sync and delete all your stored music.
How to continue to access music you deleted
Any music you buy from the iTunes Store is still available to download again if you delete it, and Apple’s iTunes Match means you can have access to your entire catalog for $24.99/21. £99 per year. There’s also Apple Music, which has a massive collection of music and videos ready to stream anytime for $10.99/£10.99 a month, or $5.99/£5.99 if you’re student. You can also sign up for a free trial here.
The advantage of iTunes Match and Apple Music is that you can download any track from your collection and listen to it whenever you want (as long as you have a data connection). It’s also nice because you can delete all the tracks from your phone if you need them and be sure they’ll still be there in the cloud the next time you want to play them.
Table of Contents
