ICloud Music Library will allow you to share the songs you have on one of your devices with all the other devices you own. However, turning off iCloud Music Library is sometimes necessary. In this article, we will be showing you how to turn off iCloud Music Library. But, why is turning off your iCloud Music Library. How to enable or disable iCloud Music Library. If you want to turn iCloud Music Library on or off, here's how you go about doing that. On your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch. Open Settings. Tap the iCloud Music Library switch to turn it to the 'off' position.
When you've subscribed to Apple Music and want to access it from more than one device, it works best when you have iCloud Music Library turned on for all supported devices you want to use Apple Music with, but that doesn't mean you have to use iCloud Music Library with all of your devices. If, for any reason, you want to use Apple Music, but not iCloud Music Library, you have the freedom to choose.
Why wouldn't I use iCloud Music Library with Apple Music?
One of the biggest reasons some people may not want to enable iCloud Music Library is Apple's 100,000 song limit. If you have more music than that, you won't be able to fit your entire collection in the cloud.
Another reason, and probably the one that evokes the most fear of using iCloud Music Library, is that some people have very organized and meticulously tagged metadata that they don't want Apple's iTunes Match to mess up.
Whatever the reason, when you turn off, or if you never turn on iCloud Music Library, you can still use Apple Music, just with some limitations.
What happens when you don't use iTunes Music Library?
When you disable iTunes Music Library on *all your devices, this is what happens with Apple Music and your personal collection:
- You can't stream music from your Mac's music library to your iPhone, iPad, or other Macs when outside your home wi-fi network.
- You can't download Apple Music content and sync it between devices. You can't access Apple Music offline either.
- If you want to sync your local music library from your Mac to another device, you'll have to do so manually by connecting your device to your Mac and transferring it.
What if I want to use iCloud Music Library on some devices, but not others?
It's so easy to turn iCloud Music Library on and off (though it may take a long time to sync), that you can decide that you only want to share your music in iCloud on just your iPod but never your iPhone, or something similar.
If you choose not to enable iCloud Music Library on one or more devices, even though you have it enabled on your Mac, it won't affect what happens to devices that have it enabled. Your Apple Music activities also won't have any effect on the devices that don't have iCloud Music Library enabled.
Any songs, albums, or playlists you have saved from Apple Music won't be synced with devices without iCloud Music Library turned on, even if you've downloaded them onto your Mac.
How to disable iCloud Music Library
On iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch
- Launch the Settings app.
- Tap Music.
Tap to turn off iCloud Music Library.
If you have been using Apple Music on your device, you'll receive a warning that any Apple Music tracks you've downloaded will be disabled.
On Mac
- Launch iTunes.
- With iTunes selected, click on iTunes in the app menu in the upper-left corner of the screen.
- Click on Preferences.
- Select the General tab.
Tick the box for iCloud Music Library.
If you have iCloud Music Library enabled on any device, and want to disable it on your Mac, you'll have to first disable it on those connected devices or the option to make changes will be grayed out on your Mac.
Any questions?
Do you have any questions about what happens when you disable iCloud Music Library while using Apple Music? Put them in the comments and we'll help you out.
A little something to go with your Apple Music
AirPods(From $159 at Apple)
The smallest headphones with the biggest features. You can enjoy streaming music, making calls, and asking Siri for help.
Wonderboom 2($100 at Apple)
Portable size with a booming sound. The Wonderboom 2 is a great travel companion and is even water resistant.
Seagate Backup Slim(From $55 at Amazon)
Make sure to always back up your music collection before you disable iCloud Music Library with an external backup drive.
Sweet Music
Apple Music
We may earn a commission for purchases using our links. Learn more.
More Apple TV+ contentMartin Scorsese's next movie might come to Apple TV+ after Paramount walked
Spiraling costs have put Paramount off Scorcese's next gig and Apple TV+ is one potential suitor. Netflix is said to be another potential avenue.
iCloud Music Library is a great feature that lets Apple users to sync and share all the music tracks from Apple Music and iTunes to all devices. However, by enabling this service, you may encounter unexpected errors like:
* Songs are synced with missing or mismatched album artwork
* Tracks show wrong metadata
* live tracks matched to their studio versions
* ...
The more complex your music library is, the more likely the issues occur. Instead of finding fix to those bugs, the better solution is to turn off iCloud Music Library on your devices. How? The following content will show you the complete guide to disable iCloud Music Library on your Mac, PC and iPhone step by step.
Things You Should Know before Disabling iCloud Music Library
Although turning off iCloud Music Library is a permanent solution to avoid syncing errors, you'll however lose the access to music files including a cloud-based copy of your iTunes library, any saved songs from the Apple Music catalog and other tracks you uploaded to iCloud to stream on other devices.
Turn Off Icloud Music Library Mac
Don't like using iCloud Music Library but still want to listen to Apple Music songs offline on your devices? You can do some tricks as below to use Apple Music without turning on iCloud Music Library.
Turn Up
Step 1. Download and install TunesKit Apple Music Converter on your computer.
Step 2. Launch the program and add your saved Apple Music tracks to the converter. Choose the output format as MP3, FLAC or others. Hit Convert.
Step 3. After conversion, locate the converted Apple Music files and move them to any device or player for offline listening.
For more details about Apple Music and TunesKit, you can visit this tutorial: How to Remove DRM from Apple Music.
How to Turn Off iCloud Music Library on iPhone, iPad, iPod
Follow these steps if you want to disable iCloud Music Library on your iOS devices.
Step 1. On your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, go to Settings >Music.
Step 2. Scroll down to the iCloud Music Library setting.
Step 3. Uncheck the option iCloud Music Library.
How to Turn iCloud Music Library Off on Mac/PC
To turn off iCloud music on your Mac or PC, you can follow the instructions below:
Step 1. Open iTunes on the computer.
Step 2. Go to iTunes >Preferences.
How Do I Turn Off Icloud Music Library On Mac
Step 3. Under the General tab, uncheck the iCloud Music Library option.
Turn Away
Adam Gorden is an experienced writer of TunesKit who is obsessed about tech, movie and software.