When Apple introduced the all-new Apple Music app a few years ago, the company also tied your iCloud account into the mix. With iCloud Music Library, you are able to create an entire library of music, and have all of those songs synced across any device signed into the same iCloud account. Apple even tried making life easy for those who cultivated and created personal libraries of music with iTunes Match, aiming to give your library of music the correct kind of metadata along with providing songs and albums of a higher quality.
How to turn off iCloud Music Library on iPhone and iPad
But what if you’re someone who doesn’t want to rely on Apple Music and the cloud to sync your entire music library? Well, you can still use Apple Music as your primary media player, but you’ll need to first turn off iCloud Music Library. Here’s how you can do so:
Open the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad.
Scroll down and tap Music.
Tap the toggle next to Sync Library.
When prompted, tap the Turn Off button to continue.
After you’ve saved the changes, it might take a little bit of time, but all of the saved songs, albums, and playlists from Apple Music’s streaming service will be removed. They will still be accessible, but they will no longer be listed in your library within the Apple Music app. When going through the process to turn off iCloud Music Library on iPhone and iPad, you’ll be presented with the following message.
“This will remove all Apple Music content and downloads from your library on this device.”
Some may think that Apple is trying to “scare” its users into sticking with iCloud Music Library, but the prompt is really there to provide an additional layer for those who might accidentally tap the button when scrolling through Settings.
How to turn off iCloud Music Library on Mac
If you own a Mac and really want to separate your own library of music from Apple Music, you can also turn off iCloud Music Library from your laptop or desktop Mac of choice. This is where turning off Apple’s cloud implementation makes the most sense, as many of us rely on our computers to manage music and other media forms regardless. Here’s how you can turn off iCloud Music Library on Mac:
Open the Apple Music app on your Mac.
In the Menu Bar, click Music.
From the drop-down menu, select Settings.
Click General in the menu bar of the Settings app.
Uncheck the box next to Sync Library.
Click the OK button in the bottom right corner to save your changes.
Unlike the iPhone and iPad, you won’t be provided with any “warning” prompts. As soon as you uncheck the appropriate box and click the OK button, any songs, albums, or playlists from Apple Music will be removed.
No matter whether you want to turn off iCloud Music Library on iPhone, or whether you’re turning the feature off from your iPad or Mac, the changes may not be immediately apparent. Removing the information from your associated iCloud account will take time as it needs to be processed through Apple’s servers, and is also dependent on the speeds of your network connection. In order to avoid any hiccups, we recommend turning off iCloud Music Library and then leaving your computer alone for a little while. This way, Apple Music gets to communicate with the servers without other apps interfering, or an accidental macOS crash interrupting the process.
Andrew Myrick is a freelance writer based on the East Coast of the US. He enjoys everything to do with technology, including tablets, smartphones, and everything in between. Perhaps his favorite past-time is having a never-ending supply of different keyboards and gaming handhelds that end up collecting more dust than the consoles that are being emulated.
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