Learn how to turn off automatic downloads for Apple Music on iPhone, iPad, or Mac to stop the Music app from downloading every song, album, or playlist you add to your library.
You can add any song, album, or playlist on Apple Music to your library. Doing so prompts the Music app to automatically download it for offline playback.
However, those downloads can consume significant storage space, especially as you add more content to your library over time.
With a few taps, you can stop Apple Music from automatically downloading music added to your library, reducing the size of the offline cache and freeing up storage.
iPhone and iPad
- Open the iOS Settings app.
- Scroll down and tap Apps at the bottom.
- Select Music from the list of installed apps.
- Scroll down to the Downloads heading and turn off Automatic Downloads to stop the app from downloading songs, albums, or playlists added to your library.
Mac
- Open the Music app.
- Click Music > Settings or Preferences in the top menu bar.
- Make sure you’re in the General tab and untick Automatic Downloads. Click OK to save the new changes.
Even with automatic downloads turned off, you can still tap the cloud icon to manually download the selected song, album, or playlist for offline listening.
And if you have plenty of free storage space on your device, you can download all your Apple Music songs to your device at once.