Apple may be extraordinarily good at making the actual phones, but when it comes to the software on the phone they seem to be lacking a lot of things. One of the issues people are having with their devices is how to delete songs from iPhone. Believe it or not, it’s not as easy as it may sound. This is mainly due to the confusion caused by OS changes. But also on account of the fact that, someone, probably Tim Cook, had the brilliant idea of adding U2 songs for free to all iPhones.

We’ve split our guide to how to delete songs from iPhone into three subsections. First, we’ll be dealing with how to delete songs that are stored on your iPhone’s internal memory. Next we’ll deal with how to delete songs from iPhone iCloud so that they cease to appear in your music library. Lastly, we’ll be talking about how to delete songs from iPhone on iTunes.

U2 has become synonymous with unwanted songs, sadly.

Needless to say, Apple adding songs to people’s libraries has stirred up much confusion. And even today people are still baffled as to how to delete U2 songs from iPhone music libraries. And along with “a subpar rock album” as some Twitter users have called U2’s undeletable effort, the iOS 7 update also added a new logo for the “artists” section of the music library. The logo looks a bit too much like a profile of Bono, U2’s singer. Fear not – we’ll finally tell you how to delete U2 songs from iPhone permanently, how to delete them from your iCloud, as well as from iTunes.

How to Delete Songs from iPhone Memory

Some of you may think that adding U2’s Songs of Innocence to iPhones was the “sweetest thing,” but in fact, many said that Apple management was making moves in “mysterious ways.” Lame wordplays and references to U2 song titles aside, the following are the exact steps to make sure that those annoying tunes, along with other songs you might want to erase, are gone forever. Remember, these are about how to delete songs from iPhone without iTunes.

• Go to Settings. This is the first of some precautions that you need before actually deleting the songs.
• Turn off “show all music.” The button there should be completely gray. If the button is blue then all the songs in the world can possibly pop up in your music library.
• Turn off “iTunes match.” This part is optional. You can leave iTunes match on if you then subsequently delete the songs you want from your iTunes library.
• Go to Music. Now for actually deleting the songs. This process differs for each iOS version, so be mindful to the following instructions.
• On iOS6 or older. Go to your music library. To delete an album, swipe left on the album and then select delete. To delete a song, swipe left on the song, then delete. To delete all the songs from a particular artist, swipe left on the artist and then press delete.

How to delete songs from iPhone 3GS

• On iOS7. Apple went one step back with this ‘upgrade’. On the iOS7, you can only delete one song at a time. This means that if you want to get rid of U2, you have to repeat swiping and deleting for every song.

How to delete songs from iPhone 4S

• On iOS8 or later. Realizing their mistake, Apple went back on their decision and now you can delete songs, artists, albums, as well as all the music from your phone.
• How to delete all songs from iPhone: this can be done by going to Settings – General – Usage – Manage Storage – Storage – Music – Edit, after which next to the All songs option there should be a delete button. Remember: this is only as a last resort!

How to delete songs from iPhone 5, 6, or newer

How to Delete Songs from iPhone iCloud

If getting rid of Bono from your internal memory didn’t solve the problem, then you skipped steps 2 and 3 of the guide above. Check again. After that’s done, you may also want to do away with unwanted U2 songs from your iCloud.

To do this, simply open the iCould and delete the folder containing the songs you want to get rid of. It’s very important that you turn off the sync between your iPhone, your iCloud, and your iTunes. If you do not, then the songs you’re trying so hard to get rid of may very easily reappear.

How to Delete Songs from iPhone on iTunes

Lastly, you will probably be wondering how to delete a song from iTunes on iPhone devices. You can do these either by accessing iTunes from your phone, or by turning on the sync between the three Apple services, and then deleting the songs manually from your iTunes. And this should be just about it. You were probably wondering “how do I delete songs from iTunes on my iPhone” – well, not anymore. We leave you with one last piece of advice:

Warning: if you delete one or more songs from all three storage spaces (iCloud, iTunes, or the internal memory of the iPhone), the songs will be permanently deleted and cannot be redeemed again.

Image sources: 1, 2, 3, 4