How to Turn Off Automatic Music Downloads on iPhone 5

Last updated on May 30th, 2023 at 11:22 am

You can stop your iPhone from automatically downloading music by going to Settings > Music and tapping the button next to Automatic Downloads in the Downloads section of the menu.

Do you have multiple Apple devices, such as a MacBook, iPhone and iPad, that all share the same Apple ID? Or do you share an iTunes account with another person? Then you may have been surprised to discover that music purchases made on those other devices can be automatically downloaded to your iPhone.

This can also occur if Apple decides to give everyone with an iTunes account a free song or album, leading to some confusion when you are searching for songs on your iPhone and find something that you did not purchase. Fortunately there is an option on your iPhone that you can turn off to prevent the device from automatically downloading music. Our short guide below will walk you through the steps you need.

Old Method – Prevent Your iPhone From Automatically Downloading Music Bought on Other Devices

The steps below were performed in iOS 7 on an iPhone 5. The directions and screenshots may vary slightly for other versions of iOS.

Step 1: Open the Settings menu.

tap the settings icon

Step 2: Scroll down and select the iTunes & App Store option.

select the itunes and app store option

Step 3: Touch the button to the right of Music in the Automatic Downloads section. You will know that it is turned off when there is no green shading around the button. For example, automatic music downloads are turned off in the image below.

turn off the automatic music downloads option

Now that you know how to turn off automatic music downloads on iPhone 5, you will be able to better control the amount of storage space being used by media files on yoru iPhone.

Would you only like to view songs in the Music app that are actually stored on your iPhone? Turn off the option to show music in the cloud to stop showing all of the songs that you own in iTunes.

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