Apple introduced the Memories feature in our photos app back with iOS 10. And many readers are pleasantly surprised when they browse their Photos app and check out this memories section on their iDevice. Plus, Apple provides you some great features that help edit and personally customize these video memories. In this article, we quickly look at how you can make changes to the music that plays along with the memories videos.
Please note that you can only use songs for Memory Videos without a digital right protection. Songs you (or your friends and family) recorded yourself are great options as well as songs ripped from unprotected sources like CDs, and any DRM-free songs purchased online. If you subscribe to Apple Music, those songs are fully protected and cannot be used in a soundtrack for a memory.
In this article, let’s quickly look at how you make changes to the music that plays along with the memories videos.
This method is a Quick Tip and should take you less than 3 minutes to master this skill.
First of all, easily access all your memories by opening up your Photos app on your iPhone. Tap on Photos and then select the lower tab “Memories.” Your iDevice automatically creates Memories for you and displays those in this section, as shown below.
Scroll down to see all the Memories available. And then tap on a specific Memory to select it. Tap on the play button in the lower-right corner to play full-screen and then tap anywhere in the video while it’s playing to get to the Edit menu. And go ahead and adjust the Memory movie’s music, length, and even the photos it chooses for content!
To change and make edits to the music of a particular memories file, tap on the memories, and then you see a few options that you can use.
Option – 1 Change the Mood
If you just want to modify the atmosphere of the background score, select from a preset list of music option that iOS 11-10 make available for you. These preset options range from “Dreamy,” “Sentimental,” “Gentle,” “Uplifting,” “Chill” and more. Swipe on the song options and choose the one that you want to use. To preview a track, tap on it–if it’s not in your library already, it downloads. Tracks with cloud symbols are additional tracks now available for you to download and try out on your projects!
Once you select a track, iOS places a checkmark next to it. To preview that checked track with your photos, return to the previous menu and hit the play button at the bottom to test it out and decide which musical score you like best. If you like it, that’s it! If not, go back into the Soundtracks menu and choose another track for your Memory project.
Option – 2 Choose Your Own
What if you didn’t want any music or wanted your own music from your playlist? That is easy to do as well. After you have opened up the particular Memories file that you want to change, Tap on the Edit button ( 3 horizontal arrows). Next, Tap on Music. You can choose “None” as your option for no music or tap on “My Music” to choose your own personal track from your iPhone.
Only music that is DRM-free and that you downloaded onto your iPhone shows up in the Memories Music as options in My Music. So if all your music is via iCloud or streamed, it won’t show up. That means you can only use songs without digital rights protection. Like songs you record yourself or ripped from unprotected CDs or DRM songs purchased from the iTunes Store. All Apple Music is protected and cannot be used in any soundtrack for a memory video.
Try and download some DRM-free music of your choice or of your own composition to your device and see if My Music options become available.
Make sure to tap on the “Done” in the top corner to save this setting once you have confirmed your music selection for the memories.
Don’t See Memories or Memory Music Options?
If you’re not seeing any of Apple’s DRM-free music options or are unable to download selections when tapping the cloud icon, check that you’re signed into iTunes. Go to Settings > iTunes&App Store and sign in with the same Apple ID connected to your Photos App. (that’s your main Apple ID.) If you’re already signed in, try signing out, restart your device, and then sign back into iTunes.
Also, make sure you’re signed into iCloud Photo Library on all of your devices that you want to use with Memories. To check, go to Settings > Photos > iCloud Photo Library and make sure it’s toggled ON.
Finally, close the Photos App by double pressing Home or swiping up the Home Gesture Bar, locating the Photos App Preview and swiping up off the top of the screen to close. Restart your device and open the Photos App–see if Memories is working as expected.
Still Not Seeing Memories or Memory Music?
If you continue to experience trouble viewing, editing, or creating Photo App Memories, then it’s possible you need to reinstall iOS’s Photos App. Unfortunately, that means reinstalling your iOS since you cannot reinstall just a part of it. We recommend you reinstall your iOS using iTunes since those installations tend to be a lot more stable.
Use iTunes Recovery Mode To Reinstall iOS
Update your computer to the latest version of iTunes
If you don’t own a computer, ask a friend or family member or visit a nearby Apple Store or Apple Reseller
Backup your device using iTunes or iCloud (iTunes preferred)
Disconnect your iDevice and close iTunes
Connect your iDevice to your computer and open iTunes
When your iDevice connects, perform a force restart
On an iPhone 6S or below plus all iPads & iPod Touches, press Home and Power at the same time until you see the Apple logo
For iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus: Press and hold both the Side and Volume Down buttons for at least 10 seconds, until you see the Apple logo
On an iPhone X or iPhone 8 or iPhone 8 Plus: Press and quickly release the Volume Up button. Then press and quickly release the Volume Down button. Finally, press and hold the Side button until you see the Apple logo
Choose Update when you see the option to Restore or Update, choose Update
iTunes tries to reinstall your iOS without erasing your data
If the update takes more than 15 minutes and your device exits recovery mode, let the download finish, and try again
After the Update completes, follow the on-screen instructions to set up your device
Restart your iDevice after all steps completed
Open Photos App and see if Memories now works!
We Love Our Photo App Memories!
We especially like this Memory Video feature since it keeps your memories in iCloud, so you can view it on all your iCloud connected devices including Apple TVs! Once these memories have been edited on your iPhone or other iDevice and saved to your iCloud account, pop them up on your Apple TV in your living room!
So sit Back, Relax and take a tour of some of your favorite moments and memories with your own custom music score. Apple has made this feature really user-friendly!
Obsessed with tech since the early arrival of A/UX on Apple, Sudz (SK) is responsible for the original editorial direction of AppleToolBox. He is based out of Los Angeles, CA.
Sudz specializes in covering all things macOS, having reviewed dozens of OS X and macOS developments over the years.
In a former life, Sudz worked helping Fortune 100 companies with their technology and business transformation aspirations.
Hi I hope you can help me in my memories I just want to hear the voices of my grandchildren or family and there’s no way to edit and stop any music from playing is there something I’m missing out I really don’t wanna hear any music when it’s showing my memories just the sounds that I recorded thank you Sheila Ford
Iphone 11 since IOS 15 adds automatically music to memories videos, silencing and/or worst, terribly mixing up with original sound recorded on videos inserted in the memories. No more function “none” additional music as up to IIS 14. Unacceptable; i am no longer able to enjoy the “memories” function !
At this time, there is not a way to adjust the volume input for Memories music–the assumption is that people will adjust the audio level when viewing it.
However, if you made your own music tracks–you can adjust those using Garage Band or a similar editing program.
We can’t locate how to purchase those Memories soundtracks. What you can do is create a video with the memory music you like and then strip out the sound to create a track for you to play using Garage Band or similar audio editing app.
So i had a “memory” of videos in which I had trimmed each individual clip to specific start and end points. A couple days later I went into edit mode and changed the background song, and when I went to play it again all of my specific start and end points for the individual clips had reset to the original default. Pretty frustrating. Anyone else experience this same issue or know what I may have done wrong?
Hello. I made a memories video and used a song of mine that was 3:36 in length. I then decided to add additional photos to the video.
When I went back to recreate the video, I could add the song, but the length/duration of the song stopped at 2:11. In fact, no matter what song I use, including the ones provided by Apple, the length stops at 2:11.
Could someone explain why this is happening and how to fix this issue? It’s never done this before.
We’re frankly not sure why this is occurring on all your Memories videos.
We can try the usual suspects of restarting your device using iOS 11’s new Shut Down feature (Settings > General > Shut Down) or force restarting your device.
Another possible option is to delete and then reinstall the Music App–but this could be a big undertaking if you have a lot of music on your device.
We’ll look more into the issue and if we find anything, we’ll let you know
Hello, Sam, and thanks for the reply. I tried all the options you suggested, but none of them worked. It just won’t budge past that time marker. It’s pretty frustrating. I have even deleted the Memories album of photos I was using and started all over recreating it, but to no avail. Not sure what happened. It was working fine one minute and then it decided to freeze and not allow anything past that time marker.
Sorry to hear that Memories still isn’t working as you’d like. Try giving Apple Support a call or chat and see if they have any alternative suggestions.
We’ll keep looking into it as well. And if you do discover something, let us know. We’d appreciate paying it forward to anyone else stuck in the same circumstance.
Fingers crossed Apple has some additional tips and thoughts!
Hi there! I’m creating a video montage for my daughters first birthday and thankfully this feature has been a lifesaver AND a timesaver since my husband and I are already pretty busy. ANYWAY, I’m asking if anyone has tried to put more than one song on for one video? My video is 6 minutes long and I can’t seem to have the option to have it slide into another song. It just plays the same song over and over. Thanks for the assistance!
I can’t download any of the free memories music. It sucks because I have a iPhone 8 and my iPhone 7 had all the songs on there. Does anyone else have this issue and if so how do I solve this? I use my memories a lot for little short videos.
Sorry, you’re having trouble with your Photo App Memories Videos. That’s terrible and certainly not fun!
First, check that you are signed into iTunes&App Stores with the same Apple ID associated with your Photos App and iCloud Photos Library. To Check, go to Settings > iTunes&App Store. If already signed in, try signing out, restarting, and signing back in. Then close the Photo App by double pressing Home or swiping up the Home Gesture Bar, locating the Photos App Preview and swiping up to close it.
If none of these tips helps, think about reinstalling your iOS using iTunes. It’s drastic so make sure you backup before engaging in any kind of update.
In my Iphone 7 the “My Music” option is greyed out. So in order for that option to be available I need DMR-free music downloaded. But where and how can I download DMR-free music?
Sorry, you’re having issues with creating Memories on your iPhone 7. Only music that DMR-free and is downloaded onto your iPhone shows up in the Memories Music as editing options. So if all your music is via iCloud or streamed, it won’t show up. Try and download some music of your choice to your device and see if the music edit option becomes available.
That means you can only use songs without digital right protection. Like songs you record yourself or ripped from unprotected CDs or DMR songs purchased from the iTunes Store. All Apple Music is protected and cannot be used in any soundtrack for a memory video.
Hi! I can’t download all the soundtracks on memories. I still have a lot of free space both on my phone and on my icloud. Everytime I am trying to click the downlod it will just turn into a blue circle which means it’s trying to download it. But after that there will be no progress anymore. I hope you can hep me. Thanks!
sorry to hear that your Memory music selections aren’t downloading. The problem you describe sounds like a connectivity issue, either on Apple’s side or your side. Over the past couple of days, there have been reports of issues with iCloud and Apple Servers impacting some users. So it could be that you tried contacting the Servers during this time. I just checked Apple’s System Status and it now reports these issues as resolved.
So, let’s check if things are working again. First, close the Photos App by double pressing the Home button or swiping up the Home Gesture Bar and then closing the Photos App Preview by swiping it up, off the screen. After closing the Photos App, restart your device by powering it off, sliding off, and then powering it back up.
Once fully restarted, go to Settings > WiFi and connect to the WiFi signal that is the strongest. Also in Settings, go to your Apple ID Profile and make sure you are signed in with your Apple ID to the App Store, iTunes, and iCloud.
Then open your Photos App and see if you can download the Memory Music.
Sure! Since Photos creates a video when you share the Memory, any changes you make will not get automatically shared with that other person. You would need to share it again after you made changes!
When you get into the music edit mode, in the soundtracks area you can choose the music you want to use. But there appears to also be downloadable tracks. However they are grayed out. How do I go about downloading the tracks so they appear as one of the usable tracks?
Thanks in advance to anyone who knows!!
If you’re seeing a grayed out cloud icon next to additional Apple provided music tracks, tapping on the cloud should download that track if connected to the internet (WiFi or Mobile Data.) To download a track, your iPhone needs to have sufficient storage available.
If the track itself is grayed out, make sure you have iCloud Photo Library turned ON. Do that via Settings > Photos or Settings > Apple ID Profile > iCloud > Photos.
Are you allowed to use the stock music tracks in a memory that would then be shared to Facebook? It’s a memory album of employees interacting with customers in a work setting.
Great question. As far as we know, the tracks Apple provides in the Memories Videos are copyright free, meaning that you should have no problems using that music. HOWEVER, Facebook itself may block you due to a perceived copyright infringement. Music in a video is usually detected by the filters on Facebook and rejected from upload to avoid copyright infringement.
To get around this problem, upload the video to a YouTube channel first (yours or your company’s if they have one) and then share the link to the YouTube video on Facebook. This seems to work.
Hi I hope you can help me in my memories I just want to hear the voices of my grandchildren or family and there’s no way to edit and stop any music from playing is there something I’m missing out I really don’t wanna hear any music when it’s showing my memories just the sounds that I recorded thank you Sheila Ford
Iphone 11 since IOS 15 adds automatically music to memories videos, silencing and/or worst, terribly mixing up with original sound recorded on videos inserted in the memories. No more function “none” additional music as up to IIS 14. Unacceptable; i am no longer able to enjoy the “memories” function !
Tried everything possible & still CANNOT TURN OFF THE MUSIC IN MY PHOTO MEMORIES!!
How can I stop the music on my memories file In Photos on my iPhone XR it is driving me nuts.
Memories are nice but I simply want them without ANY music. On iOS 15 I fail to see an option to turn off music. Any up-to-date suggestions? Thanks.
Hello! Could you tell me how to add more than one song to a memories slideshow, rather than just having one song repeated?
Hi! I would like to know if there’s a way to lower the volume of the soundtrack music
Thank you!
Hi Jacobo,
At this time, there is not a way to adjust the volume input for Memories music–the assumption is that people will adjust the audio level when viewing it.
However, if you made your own music tracks–you can adjust those using Garage Band or a similar editing program.
Hi Team !
I would like to know
if and which way I could buy the awesome soundtracks
who are at disposition to underline
Videos
The apple Photo Memory soundtracks music
Thanks
and kind regards,
K.B.
Hi KB,
We can’t locate how to purchase those Memories soundtracks. What you can do is create a video with the memory music you like and then strip out the sound to create a track for you to play using Garage Band or similar audio editing app.
So i had a “memory” of videos in which I had trimmed each individual clip to specific start and end points. A couple days later I went into edit mode and changed the background song, and when I went to play it again all of my specific start and end points for the individual clips had reset to the original default. Pretty frustrating. Anyone else experience this same issue or know what I may have done wrong?
Thanks!!
Hello, I’ve been successfully using the memories photo app for months to make movies for posting on Facebook and Twitter.
However all of sudden when I press save video they are no longer saving. I’m using an iPad mini.
I’ve deleted loads of photos and videos in case it’s a storage problem. Any ideas?
Many thanks
Hello. I made a memories video and used a song of mine that was 3:36 in length. I then decided to add additional photos to the video.
When I went back to recreate the video, I could add the song, but the length/duration of the song stopped at 2:11. In fact, no matter what song I use, including the ones provided by Apple, the length stops at 2:11.
Could someone explain why this is happening and how to fix this issue? It’s never done this before.
Hi Susan,
Well, that’s a frustrating situation!
We’re frankly not sure why this is occurring on all your Memories videos.
We can try the usual suspects of restarting your device using iOS 11’s new Shut Down feature (Settings > General > Shut Down) or force restarting your device.
Another possible option is to delete and then reinstall the Music App–but this could be a big undertaking if you have a lot of music on your device.
We’ll look more into the issue and if we find anything, we’ll let you know
Sam
Hello, Sam, and thanks for the reply. I tried all the options you suggested, but none of them worked. It just won’t budge past that time marker. It’s pretty frustrating. I have even deleted the Memories album of photos I was using and started all over recreating it, but to no avail. Not sure what happened. It was working fine one minute and then it decided to freeze and not allow anything past that time marker.
Hi Susan,
Oh, bummer! Darn it!
Sorry to hear that Memories still isn’t working as you’d like. Try giving Apple Support a call or chat and see if they have any alternative suggestions.
We’ll keep looking into it as well. And if you do discover something, let us know. We’d appreciate paying it forward to anyone else stuck in the same circumstance.
Fingers crossed Apple has some additional tips and thoughts!
Sam
Hi there! I’m creating a video montage for my daughters first birthday and thankfully this feature has been a lifesaver AND a timesaver since my husband and I are already pretty busy. ANYWAY, I’m asking if anyone has tried to put more than one song on for one video? My video is 6 minutes long and I can’t seem to have the option to have it slide into another song. It just plays the same song over and over. Thanks for the assistance!
I also forgot to add I don’t have the cloud on the side of the music to download. Just one downloaded song per section and that’s it.
I can’t download any of the free memories music. It sucks because I have a iPhone 8 and my iPhone 7 had all the songs on there. Does anyone else have this issue and if so how do I solve this? I use my memories a lot for little short videos.
Hi Tam,
Sorry, you’re having trouble with your Photo App Memories Videos. That’s terrible and certainly not fun!
First, check that you are signed into iTunes&App Stores with the same Apple ID associated with your Photos App and iCloud Photos Library. To Check, go to Settings > iTunes&App Store. If already signed in, try signing out, restarting, and signing back in. Then close the Photo App by double pressing Home or swiping up the Home Gesture Bar, locating the Photos App Preview and swiping up to close it.
If none of these tips helps, think about reinstalling your iOS using iTunes. It’s drastic so make sure you backup before engaging in any kind of update.
Hope something helps,
Liz
In my Iphone 7 the “My Music” option is greyed out. So in order for that option to be available I need DMR-free music downloaded. But where and how can I download DMR-free music?
In my iphone 7 plus my music option is not highlighted as shown in pictures , what should I do?
I can’t edit my own music in my memories video
Hi Mazah,
Sorry, you’re having issues with creating Memories on your iPhone 7. Only music that DMR-free and is downloaded onto your iPhone shows up in the Memories Music as editing options. So if all your music is via iCloud or streamed, it won’t show up. Try and download some music of your choice to your device and see if the music edit option becomes available.
That means you can only use songs without digital right protection. Like songs you record yourself or ripped from unprotected CDs or DMR songs purchased from the iTunes Store. All Apple Music is protected and cannot be used in any soundtrack for a memory video.
Hope that helps,
Liz
Hi! I can’t download all the soundtracks on memories. I still have a lot of free space both on my phone and on my icloud. Everytime I am trying to click the downlod it will just turn into a blue circle which means it’s trying to download it. But after that there will be no progress anymore. I hope you can hep me. Thanks!
Hi Shirly,
sorry to hear that your Memory music selections aren’t downloading. The problem you describe sounds like a connectivity issue, either on Apple’s side or your side. Over the past couple of days, there have been reports of issues with iCloud and Apple Servers impacting some users. So it could be that you tried contacting the Servers during this time. I just checked Apple’s System Status and it now reports these issues as resolved.
So, let’s check if things are working again. First, close the Photos App by double pressing the Home button or swiping up the Home Gesture Bar and then closing the Photos App Preview by swiping it up, off the screen. After closing the Photos App, restart your device by powering it off, sliding off, and then powering it back up.
Once fully restarted, go to Settings > WiFi and connect to the WiFi signal that is the strongest. Also in Settings, go to your Apple ID Profile and make sure you are signed in with your Apple ID to the App Store, iTunes, and iCloud.
Then open your Photos App and see if you can download the Memory Music.
Keep us posted,
SK
Can you edit a memory after you have forwarded to another person
Paula,
Sure! Since Photos creates a video when you share the Memory, any changes you make will not get automatically shared with that other person. You would need to share it again after you made changes!
Have fun with your Memories.
Liz
When you get into the music edit mode, in the soundtracks area you can choose the music you want to use. But there appears to also be downloadable tracks. However they are grayed out. How do I go about downloading the tracks so they appear as one of the usable tracks?
Thanks in advance to anyone who knows!!
Hi Brandt,
If you’re seeing a grayed out cloud icon next to additional Apple provided music tracks, tapping on the cloud should download that track if connected to the internet (WiFi or Mobile Data.) To download a track, your iPhone needs to have sufficient storage available.
If the track itself is grayed out, make sure you have iCloud Photo Library turned ON. Do that via Settings > Photos or Settings > Apple ID Profile > iCloud > Photos.
Hope that helps,
Liz
Are you allowed to use the stock music tracks in a memory that would then be shared to Facebook? It’s a memory album of employees interacting with customers in a work setting.
Hi JR,
Great question. As far as we know, the tracks Apple provides in the Memories Videos are copyright free, meaning that you should have no problems using that music. HOWEVER, Facebook itself may block you due to a perceived copyright infringement. Music in a video is usually detected by the filters on Facebook and rejected from upload to avoid copyright infringement.
To get around this problem, upload the video to a YouTube channel first (yours or your company’s if they have one) and then share the link to the YouTube video on Facebook. This seems to work.
Good luck with your video!
SK