How to See and Delete "Recently Played" on Apple Music [2023 Guide]

Part 1. How to Access Recently Played on Apple Music

You can access Recently Played in the Music app easily in the History section. Once you accessed the tracks in the History section, it's up to you to clear them or not.

For iOS/Android:

1. From the home screen of your iPhone or iPad, open the Music app.
2. Tap on the song at the bottom of your screen or play something and tap on it.
3. In the Now Playing view, tap on the menu icon in the lower-right corner.
4. When you see the a list of songs, swipe down to reveal the History section. You recently played songs are displayed here.

For Windows/Mac:

1. On your PC, open the iTunes software. On your Mac, open the music app.
2. Go to the Music section in the Apple Music contents menu at the top menu.
3. Click on the hamburger menu icon at the top of the window.
4. Click on "History."
5. You will see a list of recently played songs.

Why can't I find the "Recently Played" section in my Apple Music app?

If you haven't played any song in the Apple Music app yet or have cleared your Apple Music history already, you can't find the section. Try playing something and repeat the steps to find Apple's recently played songs list. In most cases, closing and reopening the app also works efficiently.

Part 2. How to Delete/Clear Your Apple Music History

Clearing your Apple Music history is pretty straightforward as long as you know how to see your recently played songs within the Apple Music app. However, Apple Music only allows users to delete individual items from its recently played list on iOS. On other platforms, you are only allowed to clear your Apple Music history entirely.

How to remove recently played songs:

For iOS:

1. On your iPhone or iPad, go to Music > Now Playing > hamburger menu.
2. Swipe down to access your Apple Music history.
3. Swipe left on the recently played song you want to delete. This will reveal the "Remove" option.
4. The selected song will be deleted from your Apple Music history.

How to clear Apple Music history entirely:

For iOS/Android:

1. On your smartphone or tablet, go to Music > Now Playing > hamburger menu.
2. Swipe down to access your Apple Music history.
3. Tap on "Clear."
4. Tap on "Clear" again to confirm.

For Windows/Mac:

1. On your computer, go to iTunes (Windows or macOS) or Music (macOS) > hamburger menu > History.
2. Look for the "Clear" button located at the bottom of the songs list.
3. Click on "Clear," and confirm the deletion.

Part 3. How to Fix Recently Played Not Updating on Apple Music

Users never expect an error about Apple Music Recently Played, but some errors do exist. Sometimes, Apple Music app stops updating the Recently Played track list, you try the following solutions to get it back on track.

How to Update your device:

On iPhone:

1. To update iPhone, go to Settings > General > Software Update.

The screen shows the current installed if iOS and whether an update is available.

2. To turn on automatic updates: go to Settings > General > Software Update > Automatic Updates.
3. Turn on Download iOS Updates and Install iOS Updates.

On Mac:

1. To use software update on Mac: use Apple menu > System Settings > General (or System Preferences) > Software Update.
2. If Software Update finds new software, click the Upgrade Now or Update Now to install it. You'll also need to enter all the information required.

How to force stop/close the Apple Music app:

On iPhone:

1. To force stop the Music app, swipe up on the Home Screen or double click the Home button to see all the apps running in the background.
2. Swipe left or right to find Music app, pause on it and then swipe up to force stop it.
3. After that, restart it to see if tracks have been updated.

On Mac:

1. To exist Apple Music, use Go > Utilities > Activity Monitor > Apple Music processes > Quit Process.
2. After that, reopen the Apple Music app.

How to sign out and back in the Apple Music app:

On iPhone:

1. To sign out of Apple Music, go to Settings > [Your Account] > iTunes & App Store > [Your Apple ID] > Sign Out.
2. After that, sign back in to the Music app.

On Mac:

1. To sign out of Apple Music, open the Apple Music app > Account > Sign Out.
2. After that, use Account > Sign In to sign back in to Apple Music.

Part 4. Alternatives to Access Your Apple Music History

If the common steps above are tried with no success, there're more methods that can help to see what are recently played on Apple Music.

If you are using some scrobbler app like Last.fm to track your listening activities on Apple Music, then it's simple to find the recently played on Apple Music on Windows or Mac.

How to Connect Apple Music to Last.fm on Desktop & Mobile

Do you want to connect Apple Music to Last.fm? You can do that with the method introduced in this post.

Last.fm: how to see recent tracks on Apple Music

1. For Last.fm Desktop Scrobbler, right-click the Last.fm icon the the traskbar > View your Last.fm Profile. This will direct you to your Last.fm profile page.
2. On this webpage, see your recently played tracks under Recent Tracks.
Note

This Recent Tracks section will show 10 recently played tracks on Apple Music. To see the entire listening history, click More tracks button to go to Library > Scrobbles.

3. For Last.fm Desktop App, check Scrobbles or Profile in the application to see the recent tracks on Apple Music.



The Windows version of Last.fm (Last.fm Desktop Scrobbler) will tell the last time when you listen to some specific songs - for example: Taylor Swift's London Boy - 12 minutes in the taskbar.

The Mac version of Last.fm (Last.fm Desktop App) will tell even how many times you've listened to the songs.

Last.fm: how to scrobble Apple Music to access recently played

The process to track your listening activities on Apple Music is quite simple on Windows and Mac.

1. Go to the download page of Last.fm Desktop Scrobber to download Last.fm Desktop Scrobbler (Windows & Mac) or Legacy Last.fm Desktop app (Mac).
2. When installing Last.fm Desktop App, please make sure to check iTunes > Install Plugins. For Last.fm Desktop Scrobbler, right-click the Last.fm icon in the taskbar > Settings > iTunes, then check iTunes option.



3. Once iTunes has been enabled on Last.fm, start to stream an Apple Msuic content in iTunes.

ViWizard: How to make tracking your Apple Music history easier

However flexible Apple Music (iTunes) is to keep your own music files with Apple Music catalog, it's not always convenient to track your listening activities on it. You should know there's a better place letting you see your without limits - but DRM-free Apple Music in format like MP3 is required.

No worries. ViWizard Audio Converter is the best Apple Music converter to help download and convert Apple Music contents into MP3, M4A, AAC, FLAC, WAV and M4B. Just as important, it's hard to go wrong with this ViWizard software.

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• Convert songs, albums, and playlists from Apple Music to MP3
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Part 5. FAQs about Apple Music Recently Played and Music History