How to cleanup unwanted orphaned Apple Music downloads no longer in library

Looking at Music/Media/Apple Music folder there's a lot of folders and downloads which aren't in my music library any more. I think at some point I downloaded one of those white noise playlists for Rain, Spa, Ocean sounds etc. When I check some of these files they are no longer in my library, so there is "remove download" to do and I don't want them. How do I clean up these orphaned downloads? Can I purge my Apple Music folder and re-download everything that is valid?

(I suppose I can trash the files manually if I find one-offs, but it's a lot of random artists/folders with small number of songs per artist so it's not easy to identify).

Further, I am sync'ing music to iPhone also, are these orphaned downloads also on my phone, if so how can I identify and clean those up?

This is MAC OS 27 with Music 1.7.0.163

Posted on Oct 22, 2026 5:49 AM

1 reply

TheLittles

Level 10 (211,627 points)

Oct 22, 2026 3:31 PM in response to ringspa

"How to cleanup unwanted orphaned Apple Music downloads no longer in library: Looking at Music/Media/Apple Music folder there's a lot of folders and downloads which aren't in my music library any more."

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Ridding Of Unwanted Files ad Folders:

Create a New Admin User, and Remove these in Finder:

Create a Time Machine Backup of your Mac, for restoration purposes. Then, using Finder, locate the library from your current user, and expire as desired. Once exported, trash these files from with in it. This I located in:

Click: the Desktop
Select: Go menu
Select: Go to Folder...
Type: /users
Select: [this user]
Select: Music folder
Select: Music folder
Perform: the export (if required) and then the deletion.
Restart the Mac.

Screenshot: