How to Hide the U2 Album from Music App on iPhone & iPad

Many iPhone and iPad users recently discovered that a U2 album appeared on their iOS devices seemingly at random. Though part of a promotion from Apple and the band U2, which was a hit with U2 fans, this also caused a fair amount of confusion, as some people thought it was a bug or their Apple ID was hacked, of course neither being the intention of Apple. If you want to hide the U2 album from your iOS device, you can do that quickly in one of two ways, we’ll show you both.

Before trying to hide the album (and as a result, hide all iCloud music), it should be noted that the U2 album isn’t actually taking up any space on your iPhone or iPad by default, it just shows up in your Music app. The songs won’t download to the device unless you choose to download it locally by tapping on the little cloud icons alongside either the album or song names.

Don’t care about that and want to hide the album and other iCloud music anyway? Here’s how to do that:

Hiding the U2 Album & Other iCloud Music from iOS

Note this has the same effect as disabling Show All Music in Music settings, you only need to do one to get the same effect of hiding iCloud music:

1. Head to the Settings app in iOS and go to “iTunes & App Store”
2. Under your Apple ID you’ll see two “SHOW ALL” options – turn the ‘Music’ option to the OFF position (feel free to turn off Video while you’re in here too)
3. Leave Settings and head back to the Music app, the U2 album will be invisible

Simple enough, but remember this will also hide any other music stored in iCloud that are not currently located on the device. If you don’t use iCloud or iCloud Match to manage your music, that shouldn’t be an issue, but if you do then you probably will want to leave the SHOW ALL options turned on.

Permanently Deleting the U2 Album “Songs of Innocence” from iTunes Account

If for whatever reason you want to *permanently* delete the free U2 album from your iTunes account, Apple has created a free utility that does just that. It’s simple to use, but remember once you delete the album you won’t be able to get it back:

• Click here to go the removal tool on iTunes.com, you’ll need to log in with your Apple ID to confirm deletion of the album

It’s simple to use, but remember once you delete the album you won’t be able to get it back without buying the album again. Generally speaking it’s better to just hide the album if you don’t want it showing up but you think you’ll want to listen to it in the future.