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iTunes Won't Erase Deselected Music from iPhone

S

spellflower

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 7, 2005
236
16
iTunes 11.4 (18) won't erase deselected music from my iPhone 5s 64 GB running iOS 7.1.2. I just deselected every playlist, artist, album, and genre and synced, but all the music I had on the phone is still there on the phone after the sync. iTunes thinks there's 28.5 GB available, but if I sync again with new music, it gets stuck and says there's not enough room.

Also: if I manually delete music from the phone, then sync again, it puts those tracks back on my phone.

Ideas?
 
What about not syncing music at all? I mean, tick off "sync music" option.
 
Just tried- no dice. iTunes thought there were 0 songs and gobs of GB available, but the phone still had all the music. It has stopped putting things that I manually delete back on, though, even when I sync music (with none selected), so that's good. But it's a major PITA to delete everything one track at a time (why, oh why can't they let me delete an entire album manually on the phone?!?)
 
Did you try a Reset Network Settings - a lot of times it just untangles everything in background and you're good to go with another sync.
 
I've had to go into storage and delete all music from the phone and the resync it back using iTunes. I think this has been broken in iTunes for several years now.

I have also had trouble getting artwork to update on my devices and I've also had to delete albums on my phone and then resync them in iTunes.
 
Jackie, when you say "go into storage and delete all music from the phone," what exactly do you mean? I found something that says you can follow the following steps:
  1. Settings > General > Usage > Manage Storage > Music > Edit > All Songs > Delete
but "Music" does not appear under "Manage Storage" on my phone. Maybe that's because I don't use iCloud or iTunes Match?

At this point it looks like I'm going to be spending my time on the train individually deleting songs for the next few days. At least I was able to put the music I want on, after deleting some pics and vids. But now my phone is completely full.
 
Last edited:
spellflower said:
Jackie, when you say "go into storage and delete all music from the phone," what exactly do you mean? I found something that says you can follow the following steps:
  1. Settings > General > Usage > Manage Storage > Music > Edit > All Songs > Delete
but "Music" does not appear under "Manage Storage" on my phone. Maybe that's because I don't use iCloud or iTunes Match?

At this point it looks like I'm going to be spending my time on the train individually deleting songs for the next few days. At least I was able to put the music I want on, after deleting some pics and vids. But now my phone is completely full.
Click to expand...
For the place you mention it should be always visible regardless of whether you are a subscriber or not. I can see mine, but I am not a subscriber.
 
spellflower said:
Just tried- no dice. iTunes thought there were 0 songs and gobs of GB available, but the phone still had all the music. It has stopped putting things that I manually delete back on, though, even when I sync music (with none selected), so that's good. But it's a major PITA to delete everything one track at a time (why, oh why can't they let me delete an entire album manually on the phone?!?)
Click to expand...
P
Oh. I notice that you are using iOS 7.1.2. Yes. It does not have Music section in storage setting in this version of iOS. iOS 8 and iOS 9 has a dedicated "Music" section in settings app.

So, you really need to delete them one by one on music app while you are on train. Maybe you can consider using playlist to better curate songs you want to listen, on mac or PC, and sync that playlist onto your iPhone.
 
Thanks, Shirasaki. I actually do use Playlists- I have one called Always, one called Now, and one named for the current season. This all started when I deselected "Spring" and selected "Summer". It seems that Spring just won't give way, despite temperatures outside making it very clear that Summer has arrived.

Maybe this will be the thing that finally motivates me to update my iOS. I've held off until now because I figure that the system that ran on the phone when it was state-of-the-art is the least likely to experience issues, but I'm also finding that I can't download new apps anymore.
 
spellflower said:
Thanks, Shirasaki. I actually do use Playlists- I have one called Always, one called Now, and one named for the current season. This all started when I deselected "Spring" and selected "Summer". It seems that Spring just won't give way, despite temperatures outside making it very clear that Summer has arrived.

Maybe this will be the thing that finally motivates me to update my iOS. I've held off until now because I figure that the system that ran on the phone when it was state-of-the-art is the least likely to experience issues, but I'm also finding that I can't download new apps anymore.
Click to expand...
More and more apps are dropping iOS 7. But be wary. If you just update, then you will likely update to iOS 9.3.2 or iOS 9.3.3 straightaway. You should consider using ipsw file to update, although I don't know if this will work, given those old systems are stopped signing.
Due to the size of my music library, i now also switch to use playlist for syncing. At least I don't need to scroll through all albums/artists etc. to find the one I want to listen.
 
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