Learn how to do anything: How to Delete Music on Your iPhone

Whether you need to free up some space or are just tired of a song or artist, there are times when you want to dump some of the music on your iPhone. Depending on your iOS version, you may be able to delete single songs, albums, or entire artist libraries. If you are having difficulties deleting songs from your iPhone, you can use iTunes to resync and get rid of the songs you don't want. If you want to remove the free U2 album that Apple gave all iOS users, see How to Remove the Free U2 Album from Your iPhone. If you are trying to update to the latest version of iOS and don't have enough free space, see How to Install iOS 8 Without Enough Free Space.

Steps

Deleting Songs, Albums, and Artists

Turn off iTunes Match. If, like most people, you have never turned on iTunes Match, you can skip this step. iTunes Match is a paid streaming service for your music, and can make it difficult to determine which music you actually have stored on your device. Music you haven't downloaded cannot be deleted.
- Tap Settings → iTunes & App Stores → iTunes Match. Make sure that it is toggled off.
Hide your undownloaded music. Return to the Settings app and select "Music". Toggle the "Show All Music" slider off. This will hide music that has not been downloaded to your device but is associated with your iCloud account. Hiding this music will make deleting the music stored on your device much easier. (Since undownloaded music cannot be deleted.)
- As a precaution, you may also want to turn off or log out of Home Sharing, as this has caused problems for some people when trying to delete music.
Open the Music app. Some versions of iOS will allow you to delete songs only (iOS7), some will allow songs and albums (iOS6), some will allow songs, albums, and artists (iOS8). If your version doesn't allow you to delete something, you must delete all the songs in it.
Delete a song. To delete an individual song, navigate to it in the Music app. Swipe from right to left on the song entry to reveal the "Delete" button. Tap the button to remove the song.
- You cannot swipe songs that are located on your iCloud account but haven't been downloaded. These are indicated by a small iCloud download icon on the right side of the song. You will need to hide these by toggling off "Show All Music" in the "Music" section of the Settings app.
- If you can't swipe the song and there is no iCloud icon, there may be a problem with the song. The quickest way to fix this is to use iTunes to resync your music.
- Songs are all you can delete on certain versions of iOS.
Delete an album. If you want to delete an entire album, select Albums from the bottom menu (you may have to tap "More..." to find it). This will open the Album view. Swipe the album you want to delete from right to left to reveal the "Delete" button. Tap this to delete the whole album.
- You cannot swipe an album if any of the songs on the album are located on your iCloud account but haven't been downloaded. If you can't swipe the album, it means that the some or all of the album is not actually on your device.
- Albums cannot be deleted from all versions of iOS.
Delete all songs by an artist. Select Artists from the bottom menu. Swipe the artist that you want to remove all the songs by from right to left. This will reveal the "Delete" button. Tap this button to delete all songs by that artist.
- You cannot swipe artists if any of their songs are located on your iCloud account but haven't been downloaded. There is no indication of this on the "Artists" menu, so if you can't swipe you'll need to check which of that artist's songs aren't downloaded on your device.
- Artists cannot be deleted from all versions of iOS.
Delete stubborn songs. If there are songs that just won't delete or that you cannot swipe no matter what you do, you may be able to get rid of them by deleting all of your music.
- Open Settings
- Tap "General"
- Tap "Usage"
- Tap "Manage Storage" in the "Storage" section
- Tap the "Music" app
- Tap Edit
- Tap the delete button that appears next to "All Songs".
Resync your library using iTunes if you are still having problems. Syncing your iPhone with iTunes and resetting the music on your device may help remove lingering songs that you can't seem to delete.

Deleting Your Entire Music Library

Go to the Settings control panel. Select "General" and then "Usage".
Click on "Music". You will see an "Edit" option in the top right-hand corner. Click on it and a red minus button should appear beside "All Music".
Click on the minus button. This will delete your entire music library.
Resync your library using iTunes if you are still having problems. Syncing your iPhone with iTunes and resetting the music on your device may help remove lingering songs that you can't seem to delete.

Removing Music Using iTunes and Your Computer

Turn off iTunes Match on your phone. From the Settings app in your phone, tap "iTunes & App Stores" or "Music," then set the iTunes Match toggle switch to "Off."
Turn off Automatic Downloads. When you enable iCloud on your device, you typically enable your iPhone to automatically download your purchases. Turn this option off so that your iPhone will not redownload your music.
- Tap Settings
- Tap "iTunes & App Store"
- Tap the "Music" slider in the "Automatic Downloads" section to toggle it off
Launch iTunes on your computer and turn off Match. From the Store menu, select "Turn Off iTunes Match."
Connect your iPhone to your computer. Whether you use a wireless connection or connect over USB makes no difference.
Select your iPhone from the Devices menu. Click the "Summary" tab if it is not automatically selected.
Make sure your sync settings are correct. Uncheck the "Manually manage music and videos" box and the "Sync only checked songs and videos" box at the bottom of the "Summary" tab.
Click the Music tab at the top of the window.
Check the "Sync Music" box.
Select "Entire music library". Click . Your entire music library will be synced to your iPhone. You will need to do this first to help remove any entries that aren't going away.
Select "Selected playlists, artists, albums, and genres" after the sync.
Uncheck the content you want to remove. Uncheck all the artists, albums, and playlists you DON'T want on your iPhone. Click the button to sync again. If you left everything unchecked, you should no longer have any music on your iPhone.