Archive. This is an archive of the Apple Support Community. Discussions are being restored and soon you will be able to read and post here again.

iTunes not removing unchecked songs from iPhone

I've set iTunes to only sync checked songs, but my iPhone still has them. Is there a way to force an iTunes sync to remove unchecked songs?

3 replies

Hi there


please try this


  1. Uncheck "Sync Music" completely to wipe current music:
    • Connect your iPhone to your computer via USB and open iTunes.
    • Click the iPhone icon near the top-left of the iTunes window.
    • Go to Music under the Settings tab on the left sidebar.
    • Uncheck the box for Sync Music (or change your selection from "Entire music library" to "Selected playlists, artists, albums, and genres").
    • Click Apply or Sync in the bottom-right corner. This removes the synced music library from your iPhone. 
  1. Verify your Summary settings:
    • Go to the Summary tab for your device.
    • Make sure Sync only checked songs and videos is checked.
    • Ensure Manually manage music and videos is unchecked (if it is checked, iTunes ignores the checked/unchecked status of individual tracks). 
  1. Re-enable Music Sync:
    • Go back to the Music settings tab.
    • Check Sync Music and choose either Selected playlists, artists, albums, and genres (and ensure only checked items are selected) or your preferred filtered view.
    • Click Apply to sync only your checked songs back to the iPhone


Found the answer. Hide Purchases.


Thanks for your help.

Unchecking worked, sort of. All of MY music is gone but my iPhone is full of the junk Apple gave me (e.g. the U2 album, etc). How do I get rid of that?