how to delete local files on iphone from mac

[izihlahla]

i'm on a free plan trying to delete local files from my iphone 13 pro max (iOS 16.5.1) and had previously synced from my macbook pro (macOS monterey 12.6.7)

i have done a full re-install on both the phone and mac, moved the files to an external hard drive before deleting the downloads, cache and original music files, but nothing is fully deleting the songs (so i can replace them with higher quality ones). i'm unable to manually delete them from the app or from my files--since i synced through the finder and not with the newer version.

i have also removed the sync between my phone and mac, but again, nothing is working.

TIA 🙂

[izihlahla · Accepted solution]

i solved it!!

i redid all the steps—deleting cache and downloads on mobile app, moving files to external drive on mac, and a fresh install on mobile.

then i went into my mac’s finder, went under my phone’s info and deselected “manually manage music, movies, etc.”

after that, i opened my account manager on the web and logged out everywhere from my account settings, then after logging into my freshly installed app all the songs came from my files app, not synced from finder.