Fixed: Why Does Apple Music Keep Deleting My Downloads?

Written By Robert Fabry Last updated: March 7, 2024

Even if you are too prepared and too careful to avoid the problem of why does Apple Music keep deleting my downloads, there are still some cases which are too inevitable, which makes you annoyed because all your saved items keep on disappearing without notice. Let us solve this issue by learning about its possible causes along with the simplest solutions to get away from it.

Contents Guide Part 1. Why Does Apple Music Keeps on Deleting Your Downloads?Part 2. 6 Tips to Stop Apple Music from Deleting Your DownloadsPart 3. Bonus Tip: Keep A Backup of Your Apple Music Library ForeverPart 4. Conclusion

Part 1. Why Does Apple Music Keeps on Deleting Your Downloads?

To easily solve the problem about why does Apple Music keep deleting my downloads, knowing about the reasons that might be causing it should be your first step. Let us see below the list of them.

  • Apple Music Server Is Down: Sometimes, the main reason that is causing errors on Apple Music is the server itself. If the server is down or is having issues, it is only normal for the Music app to act abnormally.
  • Invalid Apple Music Subscription: Another sure thing that makes your downloaded songs disappear is the invalid Apple Music subscription and you are not aware that it has expired already. This will surely explain why downloaded songs from Apple Music delete themselves.
  • Automatic Downloads Has Been Enabled: Once you turn Automatic Downloads on, the music will be automatically downloaded to your device for offline listening. This can easily lead to insufficient storage space, so it will trigger the Optimize Storage function to delete your music.
  • Optimize Storage Has Been Enabled: Why does Apple Music keep deleting my downloads? Apple Music will automatically delete songs that you haven’t played in a while when there is not enough storage space on your device, especially for mobile phones.
  • Licensing of Music Changes: Another reason is that licensing or distribution rights for the song have changed. For example, if a record label or artist decides not to renew a licensing agreement with Apple Music, any songs that were covered under the previous agreement would no longer be available in users’ libraries. So Apple Music will delete the music.
  • iCloud Music Library Has Been Enabled: After you turn on iCloud Music Library on a device, all the music that’s currently on the device is deleted and replaced with songs from iCloud. This means that when you play that track on your iPhone or another Mac, you'll get a DRM-free, 256kbps-quality AAC file rather than your original file.

Part 2. 6 Tips to Stop Apple Music from Deleting Your Downloads

Now that you already know the most possible causes of why your downloaded music disappeared from Apple Music, it will now be easier for you to know about the actions to take. You may check the list below to see the best thing to do.

Tip 1: Check Apple Music Status

One of the basic fixes in case your downloaded songs on Apple Music disappear is to conduct a check on the system status of Apple Music. One of the reasons why the said error is showing up could be caused by the routine maintenance that is carried out by Apple for some services. You can always go to Apple System Status and have a wide look at it. If the Apple Music server is down, you will have to wait for it to be restored before you can load music to your device normally.

Check Apple Music Status

Tip 2: Check Your Subscription

Why does Apple Music keep deleting my downloads? If you’re unable to see any music on your device, your Apple Music subscription may have expired because Apple Music is a subscription-based service. If you cancel your subscription to Apple Music, your music library is removed from all of your devices.

You can't access any content in your library even though you have downloaded them on your device. Why? Because of FairPlay DRM protection, you don’t own the music files you have downloaded. Downloading music with an Apple Music subscription means only that you unlock Apple Music’s entire catalog's access. To fix the issue, you should renew your Apple Music subscription in time to access your music again.

Check Your Subscription

You may be interested: How Do I Check My Apple Music Subscription?

Tip 3: Turn off Automatic Downloads

Apple Music subscribers can add and download songs and videos to your device manually. With the Automatic Downloads option turned on, ‌Apple Music‌ content automatically downloads to your device or computer when you add it to your Library. This can save time in downloading music, but it also has a major drawback, the downloaded content may use up local storage, especially for mobile phones. Once the Optimize Storage feature is also enabled, your iPhone will automatically remove downloaded music that you haven’t played in a while.

To stop Apple Music from removing your music, open your iPhone, Go to Settings > Music, then turn off Automatic Downloads. Songs you add will not be automatically downloaded to your iPhone.

Turn Off Automatic Downloads

Tip 4: Turn off Optimized Storage

Why does Apple Music keep deleting my downloads after disabling Automatic Downloads? If you are already noticing that your device is getting low on space, you should also turn off the Optimized Storage feature that you set before. To turn off this feature, go to your Settings app and then tap on Music. From the Music window, tap on the Optimize Storage feature. After a while, its own window will open up and you can disable the feature by switching the button to off.

Optimize Storage Feature

Updated: Some users reported that there is no Optimized Storage option under the Music settings in iOS 15 and later. Please contact the Apple Support Team to confirm that.

Tip 5: Switch to Other Music Services

The artist or record label owns the copyright for their media content. Apple Music works with these copyright holders and signs the licensing deal so that the music will be available to Apple Music’s listeners in nearly 167 markets around the world. If copyright holders fail to reach an agreement with Apple Music services, their songs will be removed from the service once the deal expires. In this case, you have to switch to other music services to find their content if you are a big fan of someone.

Related Topics: Top 10 Cheap Music Download Sites

Tip 6: Back up Copy of Your Music Library

The last one is more on being a preventive activity that every Apple Music user should consider doing in advance, which is downloading music for backup. When you subscribe to Apple Music, you can store your music library online using iCloud Music Library, then you can stream them across devices. However, if you turn on iCloud Music Library on a device, all the music that’s currently on the device is deleted and replaced with songs from iCloud, encoded in 256kbps-quality AAC format.

For example, if you have playlists on Mac at are in lossless uncompressed AIFF format, and many are in hi-res, those may be transcoded into an AAC 256 Kbps file when uploaded to iCloud. So you will find some songs will be deleted from Apple Music. Make sure you have a complete, local copy of all of your music on your primary computer (or external hard drive) before turning on the iCloud Music Library.

Part 3. Bonus Tip: Keep A Backup of Your Apple Music Library Forever

There were a lot of possible factors behind why does Apple Music keep deleting my downloads and some of the major ones are already shared above. Although the solutions above are really on point in solving Apple Music issues, it still does not guarantee that your downloads will be kept every time the service is experiencing errors. As an answer to the last solution shared above which is to have a back up copy of the tracks, the best way to do that would be through using AMusicSoft Apple Music Converter.

AMusicSoft Apple Music Converter is very much known for being a good Apple Music downloader for Macs and Windows, allowing you can be able to download all of your iTunes music library, Apple Music songs, playlists, albums, and audiobooks in one click. AMusicSoft is very easy to use and it has a very simple interface that makes it user-friendly. All of the details that are too important to lose such as the ID tags, Metadata info, and art cover are all kept even after the processes.

With the help of this professional Apple Music DRM removal software, DRM can be removed, and you can now freely transfer or access the songs to any device even if it is not authorized by Apple. Once all the Apple Music songs are unprotected, you'll be able to convert DRM-free music to MP3, MP4, AAC, M4A, FLAC, WAV, or other mainstream format files with lossless audio quality. In this way, you can keep all the songs and playlists in a more safe place.

Simply click on the "Free Download" button to download and install this powerful software on your Windows or Mac computer. Use AMusicSoft Apple Music Converter to download as many songs as you want for playing on any device.

Free Download Free Download

Step 1. Once installed, launch the tool and start adding all the files that you wanted to back up. The AMusicSoft Apple Music Converter supports multiple conversions so, you can add bulk music files if you want or need them.

Adds Songs To The Program

Step 2. Select the output format to use for conversion from MP3, WAV, FLAC, AAC, M4A and AC3. These are the available formats that you can get from AMusicSoft. The output folder must be chosen as well.

Select The Output Format And Folder

Step 3. Hit Convert in order to finalize the files for conversion. In a few minutes, you are able to enjoy songs that you have been longing for quite a time.

Click On The Convert Button

Step 4. Finally, get the results and save the copies on your local computer. Just tap the Finished menu to see the converted files.

View The Finished Files

Part 4. Conclusion

As tackled clearly, why does Apple Music keep deleting my downloads issue may be caused by multiple factors. However, one thing is for sure and that is by using AMusicSoft Apple Music Converter, you will be able to get rid of this problem quickly, and at the same time, you will be able to enjoy the best Apple Music streaming experience ever.

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