If you have been streaming and downloading music through Apple Music for a while, you may have noticed your Mac's available storage quietly shrinking. Knowing where Apple Music stores downloaded songs on your Mac — and how to manage that folder — is one of the more effective ways to reclaim several gigabytes without touching anything you actually need.
Where Apple Music Stores Downloads on Mac
Apple Music keeps all locally downloaded tracks inside the Music Media folder, which lives here by default:
~/Music/Music/Media.localized/Apple MusicThe tilde (~) is shorthand for your home folder, so the full path is something like /Users/yourname/Music/Music/Media.localized/Apple Music. Each album or artist you have downloaded appears as a subfolder, and the actual audio files are stored in the .m4p or .m4a format.
If you have ever imported music from CDs or other sources, those files sit in a parallel path:
~/Music/Music/Media.localized/MusicBoth trees live inside the same Media.localized parent, which is why the entire folder is commonly called the Music Media folder.
How to Check the Exact Location in Music.app
Apple Music lets you confirm or change the folder location from within the app:
- Open Music on your Mac.
- Go to Music → Settings (macOS 13 Ventura and later) or Music → Preferences (macOS 12 Monterey).
- Click the Files tab.
- The path shown next to Music Media folder location is where your downloads live. You can click the folder icon to reveal it in Finder.
Cloud Library vs. Downloaded Files: What Is Actually on Your Disk
This distinction matters a lot when you are trying to free space.
| State | Stored locally? | Playable offline? | Takes disk space? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Added to library, not downloaded | No (cloud only) | No | No |
| Downloaded for offline listening | Yes | Yes | Yes — often several GB |
| Imported from CD / file | Yes | Yes | Yes — permanent copy |
When you hit the download button (the cloud icon with an arrow) in Music.app, Apple copies a DRM-protected file to your local Music Media folder. Removing it from disk does not remove it from your cloud library — it simply goes back to streaming-only mode. This makes offline download cleanup safe and fully reversible.
How to See How Much Space Apple Music Downloads Are Using
Before deleting anything, it helps to understand the scale of the problem. There are two ways to check.
Option 1: Check in Finder
- Open a Finder window and press Cmd+Shift+G.
- Paste
~/Music/Music/Media.localizedand press Return. - Right-click the
Apple Musicfolder and choose Get Info. The size shown is your offline download footprint.
Option 2: Use Crumb's Visualize to Find It Instantly
Crumb is a native macOS menu-bar utility that maps your entire disk and ranks items by size. When you open the Visualize tab, the Music/Music/Media.localized folder typically surfaces near the top of the largest-items list alongside things like Xcode simulators and Docker images — making it immediately obvious how much space offline downloads are consuming, without any manual folder-hunting.
How to Delete Apple Music Downloads and Free the Space
There are several approaches, from the safest (Music.app's built-in controls) to the more direct (Finder or Terminal). Choose based on how granular you want to be.
Method 1: Remove Downloads from Within Music.app (Recommended)
This is the safest method. Apple Music removes the local file but keeps the song in your library so you can re-download or stream it anytime.
- Open Music and find the downloaded song, album, or playlist. Downloaded items show a small device icon next to them.
- Right-click the item and select Remove Download.
- For a whole playlist, right-click the playlist name in the sidebar and choose Remove Downloads.
To remove all offline downloads at once, you can filter your library by "Downloaded" and select all, but Music.app does not offer a single-click "delete everything offline" button — you will need to select all items (Cmd+A) in the Downloaded view and then right-click → Remove Download.
Method 2: Delete via Finder
If Music.app is not cooperating, you can navigate directly to the folder:
- Quit Music first to avoid conflicts.
- Open Finder, press Cmd+Shift+G, and go to
~/Music/Music/Media.localized/Apple Music. - Select artist or album folders you want to remove and move them to the Trash.
- Empty the Trash.
Important: Deleting files here is permanent once the Trash is emptied. The songs remain in your iCloud Music Library and can be re-downloaded, but the local copy is gone. Do not delete anything inside Media.localized/Music if it contains music you imported from CDs or files that are not backed up elsewhere — those are irreplaceable local copies, not cloud-backed downloads.
Method 3: Terminal (Quick Bulk Delete)
If you want to wipe all offline Apple Music downloads in one command:
rm -rf ~/Music/Music/Media.localized/Apple\ Music/This deletes the entire Apple Music downloads folder. Music.app will recreate the folder next time you open it. Again, your library metadata and any music in the Music subfolder (imported tracks) are unaffected — this only removes the downloaded streaming content.
Double-check the path before running rm -rf. There is no undo from Terminal.
Other Music-Related Files Worth Knowing About
- Music cache:
~/Library/Caches/com.apple.Music— temporary streaming buffers, safe to delete while Music is closed. - Music.app logs:
~/Library/Logs/Music— diagnostic logs, safe to delete. - iTunes backups (if migrated): If you upgraded from iTunes, old library databases may still be in
~/Music/iTunes. Safe to delete if you confirmed everything migrated to Music.app correctly.
Preventing Downloads from Accumulating Again
Apple Music can automatically download songs you add to your library, which will gradually refill the Music Media folder without any action on your part. To disable this:
- Open Music → Settings → Files.
- Uncheck Automatically download (if present, the label may vary by macOS version).
On macOS Sequoia (15) and later, you can also go to System Settings → General → Storage and click the info icon next to Music to see a breakdown and remove downloads from there.
Conclusion
The Apple Music download location on Mac is ~/Music/Music/Media.localized/Apple Music, and because downloaded tracks are cloud-backed, clearing them is one of the lowest-risk ways to recover meaningful disk space. Use Music.app's Remove Download option for surgical control, or delete the folder directly if you want a clean slate. If you want a quick way to spot how large the Music Media folder has grown relative to everything else on your disk, download Crumb — its Visualize tab ranks your largest folders at a glance so you always know where your gigabytes are going.