Apple Music has completely gone to heck

[MentalFloss]

I was really happy about the performance of Apple Music at the beginning. I didn't have the problems most people seemed to be having, and I used it a lot. In the last weeks, I was travelling, so I used offline playlists near-exclusively.

Well, this week, I went back to streaming music and found that Apple Music has completely gone to hell for me.

Before, it took just a second for a song to start - now it takes five to ten seconds, if the song starts at all! Songs stop playing in the middle. Somtimes, I can restart them by pressing the play button, sometimes they are completely stuck. Sometimes, the progress bar moves, but no music is being played. The "For You" section sometimes just shows me "An Error Occurred" (not a network issue, as I am playing music at the same time). Going into an album from the "Now Playing" screen always shows me an "Unknown Album". I am not talking about single occurrances. No, I can't play a single album without some problems!

What the F happened? I know, all of these problems have been seen by others before, but Apple should work on fixing these problems for them, instead of degrading the experience for people who didn't have these problems before.

Anyone else who noticed that Apple Music got worse over the last month or so?

 

[whsbuss]

I was really happy about the performance of Apple Music at the beginning. I didn't have the problems most people seemed to be having, and I used it a lot. In the last weeks, I was travelling, so I used offline playlists near-exclusively.

Well, this week, I went back to streaming music and found that Apple Music has completely gone to hell for me.

Before, it took just a second for a song to start - now it takes five to ten seconds, if the song starts at all! Songs stop playing in the middle. Somtimes, I can restart them by pressing the play button, sometimes they are completely stuck. Sometimes, the progress bar moves, but no music is being played. The "For You" section sometimes just shows me "An Error Occurred" (not a network issue, as I am playing music at the same time). Going into an album from the "Now Playing" screen always shows me an "Unknown Album". I am not talking about single occurrances. No, I can't play a single album without some problems!

What the F happened? I know, all of these problems have been seen by others before, but Apple should work on fixing these problems for them, instead of degrading the experience for people who didn't have these problems before.

Anyone else who noticed that Apple Music got worse over the last month or so?

No. Have not had any bad experience since July 3 when I signed up family plan.

 

[geesus]

I was having exactly the same problems so I reinstalled El Capitan, *didn't* update iTunes and now it's working flawlessly, so the latest version of iTunes was the culprit for me I suspect. Not skipped a beat since.

 

[MentalFloss]

I was having exactly the same problems so I reinstalled El Capitan, *didn't* update iTunes and now it's working flawlessly, so the latest version of iTunes was the culprit for me I suspect. Not skipped a beat since.

Well, I am having these problems on iOS, so that is not an option for me.

Perhaps it is just a kind of karma, because in the beginning, when nearly everyone else was struggling with the weirdest problems, I encountered practically no serious bugs at all. Now, the bug gods have remembered me.

 

[swandy]

I have read many people having issues like you describe - streaming won't start or stutters all the time - and while I have seen it VERY rarely, it has not been a real issue for me.
My main "complaint" is still the fact that AM/ICML still manages to mis-match a lot of tracks (mainly substituting studio tracks for live ones). Really hope that they solve that issue BEFORE they raise the song limit (reportedly by the end of the year) so that I can safely use my full iTunes library which I can't now.

 

[geesus]

Well, I am having these problems on iOS, so that is not an option for me.

Perhaps it is just a kind of karma, because in the beginning, when nearly everyone else was struggling with the weirdest problems, I encountered practically no serious bugs at all. Now, the bug gods have remembered me.

I have the same issues on my iPhone too so I feel your pain. I've been streaming music from my Mac all day, air playing to my new Apple TV and it's not skipped a beat, whereas when I used the latest version of iTunes it was stalling nearly every other song. I still think the latest iTunes/iOS are to blame.

 

[whsbuss]

I'm not sure why there are so many reports of stuttering and start/stops. When a track is ready to be streamed, the AM servers actually download it to your cache where it starts. If you already have a copy in your cache it does not download and starts directly from the cache folder. The cache is only erased manually using iExplorer or by disable/enable iCloud Music Library. Really strange - haven't had those issues yet.

 

[Tech198]

I was having exactly the same problems so I reinstalled El Capitan, *didn't* update iTunes and now it's working flawlessly, so the latest version of iTunes was the culprit for me I suspect. Not skipped a beat since.

I think u nailed it... never had a problem till around the same time i updated iTunes...

I only wish Apple gave u the option to downgrade without reinstalling the OS... That's probably my only resort now. I'll do that tonight and report back.

 

[decafjava]

I was really happy about the performance of Apple Music at the beginning. I didn't have the problems most people seemed to be having, and I used it a lot. In the last weeks, I was travelling, so I used offline playlists near-exclusively.

Well, this week, I went back to streaming music and found that Apple Music has completely gone to hell for me.

Before, it took just a second for a song to start - now it takes five to ten seconds, if the song starts at all! Songs stop playing in the middle. Somtimes, I can restart them by pressing the play button, sometimes they are completely stuck. Sometimes, the progress bar moves, but no music is being played. The "For You" section sometimes just shows me "An Error Occurred" (not a network issue, as I am playing music at the same time). Going into an album from the "Now Playing" screen always shows me an "Unknown Album". I am not talking about single occurrances. No, I can't play a single album without some problems!

What the F happened? I know, all of these problems have been seen by others before, but Apple should work on fixing these problems for them, instead of degrading the experience for people who didn't have these problems before.

Anyone else who noticed that Apple Music got worse over the last month or so?

Exactly my problem. Happens occasionally on my iPhone but VERY often on iTunes on ym Pc (Win 7 so if you are on Mac it's clear it's not OS related.) I think it must be Apple Music ??

 

[geesus]

I still think there is a fundamental flaw with the latest versions of iTunes and iOS music, as again I've been playing back music without any issues all day today, whereas before I could only listen to a handful of songs before it would pack up. iTunes is the only thing that is different, as I've stuck with the version the ships with El Capitan and not updated to the latest version.

The only thing I don't understand, is why the problem isn't being reported in a more widespread fashion, if it was a flaw with the latest iteration. Seems odd that it would only impact on some people and not others. Either way, if you are having issues, I strongly recommend rolling back to an earlier version of iTunes, using whichever method you can. It's totally worth the aggravation of an OS reinstallation to finally be able to listen to music stress-free.

 

[whsbuss]

I still think there is a fundamental flaw with the latest versions of iTunes and iOS music, as again I've been playing back music without any issues all day today, whereas before I could only listen to a handful of songs before it would pack up. iTunes is the only thing that is different, as I've stuck with the version the ships with El Capitan and not updated to the latest version.

The only thing I don't understand, is why the problem isn't being reported in a more widespread fashion, if it was a flaw with the latest iteration. Seems odd that it would only impact on some people and not others. Either way, if you are having issues, I strongly recommend rolling back to an earlier version of iTunes, using whichever method you can. It's totally worth the aggravation of an OS reinstallation to finally be able to listen to music stress-free.

I have not had the latest problems you report. Is it not possible that its Apple's servers? I would think Apple has distributed music servers throughout the world and different network connections and/or servers could be the issue.

 

[geesus]

I have not had the latest problems you report. Is it not possible that its Apple's servers? I would think Apple has distributed music servers throughout the world and different network connections and/or servers could be the issue.

I can't see it, because I literally went from it not working to working in the space of the 30 minutes it took me reinstalling OS X. It may well have been something that needed fixing in El Capitan, but my phone is still not working correctly (on the latest iOS) and iTunes remains flawless, so it doesn't point to the servers, at least in my case.

 

[thekayman]

I have started having these problems in the last week or so. Both on my Mac as well as iPhone, so it seems more like a backend issue. Best to call Apple and report it.

 

[Tech198]

not too sure about iOS cos i don't do this, but anyone having issues on Mac, try going back to itunes 12.2. or any previous version, Don't use 12.3.1.. its buggy as hell. and my main reason why i went back before of this.

Apple doesn't have link on website, but i'll post it if anyone wants it (direct link on Apple's servers)

They keep them,,, they just don't allow access from their website but u can still find it

 

[geesus]

Since rolling back to the version of iTunes that comes with El Cap (12.2.2.25) I've not had a single issue in hours and hours of streaming. Before, I couldn't go a few songs without playback just halting. I can't believe it was just an issue with Apple's servers, at least not in my case.

 

[thekayman]

Everything seems to be back to normal, without me changing anything. Tested on both Mac and iPhone, wifi and 4G.

 

[rarebeauty]

I'm having this problem. The free trial went mostly smooth and as soon as I subscribed and paid I keep getting a ton of errors. Keeps telling I need to join when I'm already subscribed. Annoying!

 

[whsbuss]

I'm having this problem. The free trial went mostly smooth and as soon as I subscribed and paid I keep getting a ton of errors. Keeps telling I need to join when I'm already subscribed. Annoying!

Call apple support. They will answer your questions