In the iOS Music app, you can choose to show or hide purchased music, if you aren’t using iCloud Music Library. You may want to show your purchased music, so you can download it when you want to the device, or you may want to hide it, because you’ve synced music directly from iTunes. Or, even if you’re using iCloud Music Library, you may be in an area where you have no data access, or don’t want to use data, and want to only play music that’s already on your device.
When only local music is displayed, the Music app tells you, with a small text at the top of the main My Music screen.
But if your purchased or cloud tracks already show up in the Music app, it’s not easy to find where to turn this off, and hide music that’s not on the device. The setting is hidden in the display menu. In the screenshot above, you can see that my music is sorted by Albums. Tap Albums – or Artists, Genres, or whatever displays in that menu on your device – and you’ll see a sort menu, which has an option at the bottom.
Toggle Only Downloaded Music to change what displays on your device. I’ve already set my iPhone to only show downloaded music – or, in my case, music I’ve synced from iTunes.