How do I delete music from my Galaxy phone?

Reasons for Wanting to Delete Music from Your Galaxy Phone

There are several reasons why you may want to remove music from your Samsung Galaxy phone. Two of the most common motives for deleting songs are to free up storage space or to remove unwanted music tracks.

Music files like MP3s and M4As can quickly consume your phone’s internal storage capacity or SD card space over time. Deleting unused or unneeded music can help regain gigabytes of space for apps, photos, videos, and more. Additionally, you may want to rid your phone of songs you simply don’t listen to anymore.

Whatever your specific reasons, fortunately it is possible to permanently erase music from various locations on your Galaxy device. This guide will provide multiple options for finding and removing songs you no longer want to preserve.

Locate Music Files

Music files downloaded or synced to your Galaxy phone are typically stored in a few common locations:

Internal storage – Music files saved directly on your phone’s internal storage are usually located in a Downloads or Music folder within your Files app. Swipe down and tap on Files to browse and locate downloaded music in internal phone storage (source).

SD card – If you have an SD card inserted for expanded storage, music files may be located on the SD card within the Music folder. Tap on My Files app and navigate to the SD card to find music here (source).
Cloud storage – Songs synced from cloud accounts like Google Play Music, Spotify, YouTube Music, etc. will show up in your Music app but the files are not actually stored locally on your device.

Use the My Files (or Files) app to browse your phone and SD card storage to see the folder locations containing any locally downloaded or transferred music files.

Delete Music from Internal Storage

To delete music files that are saved on your Galaxy phone’s internal storage, first locate the “My Files” app on your home screen or app drawer and open it. This acts as a file manager on your phone. From here, navigate to the folder where your music is saved. This may be a folder named “Music” or “Audio” depending on your device.

Once you have opened your music folder, browse for the songs you wish to delete. You can multi-select songs to delete several at once, or delete songs one at a time. Select the songs you want to remove, then tap the “Delete” or “Trash” button within the My Files app (The icon appearance varies across devices and Android versions). Confirm you want to delete the files when prompted.

These files will move to your phone’s Trash folder, from which they can still be restored if needed. However, they will no longer appear in your music apps and playlists. To permanently remove them, locate the Trash folder from within My Files app and delete files again from there. For most Galaxy phones, deleted files in the Trash folder are permanently removed after 60 days (source).

Delete Music from SD Card

If you have music saved directly to your Galaxy device’s SD card, you can delete them by removing the SD card and connecting it to a computer:

Turn your phone off and locate the SD card slot. Carefully remove the SD card.
Use a SD card adapter or built-in SD card reader on a computer to connect the SD card. This will mount the SD card as an external drive.
Browse to the folder where your music files are saved on the SD card. This is often in a folder called Music or Media.

Select the unwanted songs and delete them. You can delete individual files or highlight multiple and delete them together.
Safely eject the SD card from the computer.
Reinsert the SD card into your Galaxy phone and turn it back on. The deleted songs will no longer appear in your music apps.

By directly accessing the SD card from a computer, you can permanently delete any music files stored there. This method avoids phone-based restrictions that may prevent deleting files from SD card while the card is still inserted in the device.

Unlink Cloud Storage

You can free up storage space by unlinking cloud storage services that are syncing music from the Internet. To unlink a cloud music service:

Open the Settings app.

Scroll down to, and tap, Cloud Settings.
Tap the name of the cloud storage service syncing music such as Google One, Amazon Music or iCloud.
Tap Sync Settings.

Turn off Music Sync to unlink the music account and disable the storage syncing feature.
Tap Stop Sync and confirm in the popup dialog.

This will remove the synced music that’s being stored on your device, freeing up space. The music will still remain accessible from the cloud when connected to the Internet. If you want to later resync the music library from a cloud music service, you can relink the account and reenable Music Sync.

Delete Synced Music

Music you’ve synced to your Samsung phone from the cloud may continue to appear in your music player even after being removed from the cloud service. To fully remove synced music:

1. Open your Samsung music app and go into its settings.

2. Look for options related to sync or cloud music and disable anything related to syncing music from the cloud. For example, in the Samsung Music app, go to Settings > Cloud Sync and toggle off “Sync with cloud”.

3. Return to your music library and check if the synced music still appears. If so, close the music app entirely and reopen to refresh the library.

4. The previously synced tracks should now be removed since the sync connection has been severed. You can also uninstall updates for the music app to revert it to factory settings.

For additional details, see the Samsung support page “How to disable/enable auto sync?” (source).

Clear Music App Cache

An alternative solution for removing unwanted music files from your device is to clear the cache and data for the music app. App caches and data store temporary files, search history, settings, and other information used by the app which can build up over time. Here’s how to clear it:

Go to your phone’s Settings app.
Select ‘Apps’ or ‘Applications’ and find your music app in the list (e.g. Spotify, Google Play Music, default Media Playback app, etc.).

Tap on the app and select ‘Storage’
Then ‘Clear Cache’ to delete the tmp files, and ‘Clear Data’ to remove the app-specific settings and data.
Re-open your music app. Any downloaded music you saved to your phone will still remain, but this eliminates any cached songs or corrupted data which could have gotten stuck.

Clearing the app cache helps conserve some storage space and improves any sluggish performance you may have noticed in the app.
^[1] However it doesn’t delete actual music files saved on the device or cloud storage. To fully remove songs from your phone, refer to the Delete Music from Internal Storage and Unlink Cloud Storage sections of this guide.

Factory Reset

To delete all music and data from your Galaxy phone, you can perform a factory reset. This resets your phone back to factory default settings and erases all personal data from the internal storage:

Backup data first. If there are any files or media you wish to keep, copy them off your Galaxy phone before proceeding. Move files to a computer or cloud service like Google Drive or Dropbox.

To factory reset, open Settings on your Galaxy phone. Scroll down to and select General Management. On the next screen, tap Reset and finally tap Factory Data Reset. This wipes the phone clean – use with caution.

According to Does a Factory Reset Delete Everything? (for iPhone), “A reset will remove all of your personal data and files. Yes, that’s a lot.” So backup your important data before proceeding further to avoid losing anything important.

Alternative Storage Options

There are several ways to store music files other than on your phone. Streaming music services allow you to stream songs on demand rather than store them locally. Popular options include Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, and Amazon Music. These services offer millions of songs available to stream which reduces the need for local storage.

You can also use external drives like USB flash drives or portable hard drives to store your music collection. These drives connect to your phone via the USB port or wirelessly using technologies like Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. External drives give you lots of affordable storage space for music and you can easily connect them to other devices.

Using streaming services or external drives avoids filling up space on your phone while still giving you access to your music library. Consider using these alternative storage options if storage space on your phone is limited.

Conclusion

To recap, there are several main ways to delete music files from your Galaxy phone:

Visit your internal storage or SD card and manually delete music files
Unlink cloud storage services, like Google Play Music or Dropbox, to delete synced files
Delete cached data from music streaming apps, like Spotify

Do a factory reset to wipe all data, including music files (backs up first!)

Remember to always make a backup copy of your important files before permanently deleting anything. You can backup your music files to another storage device or use a cloud storage service. This will ensure you have a safety net if you manage your phone storage incorrectly and accidentally lose data.