Apple music stream lag

[LiE_]

Recently (maybe with the new iTunes version, can't be sure) Apple music has been unusable with extremely slow loading of music. I've been running Apple music since it was released and this is the first time songs haven't literally loaded instantly. Now they are buffering and cutting out. Anyone else having this issue? I'm in the UK, with ISP Sky, which I know have had issues playing well with Apple in the past.

example:

Check out that buffering, not bad for a 70mb connection...

To make things more confusing, some songs still load fast.

 

[Marko L.]

Yeah, streaming and off-line downloading have been pretty dismal (on and off) for a couple of days now. It takes about 30 minutes to download an album for off-line listening and streaming pauses to buffer every 15 seconds. I'm in Finland with 100 mbps connection. Every other site works normally for me.

 

[LiE_]

On the phone to Apple support.. I feel like this will be a waste of time.

 

[Mad4WDW]

I've having buffering issues with the new version of iTunes. Its actually pausing the music in places because it can't keep up. I'm on a wired Fibre 76meg connection. Not good

 

[LiE_]

I get the same issue on my phone too. Both my MBP and iPhone were updated yesterday to the new versions. It's either that or an issue with the apple servers.

 

[hagar]

Same issue here: some songs load fast, and some too slow to be playable. And of course Apple's software cannot deal with this and just plays the songs in bits and pieces instead of properly buffering. To make things worse: if you pause the song, buffering also stops.

Seems to be a server issue and there's nothing we can do to fix this ourselves.

 

[keogh]

Same here, pretty much every song now lags and the buffering can't keep up so it's stop, start, stop start. Useless and unusable, and I am paying for this.

Tbh it's been pretty crappy for the past several weeks, 1 in 4 songs doesn't even load and then you get buffering issues.

 

[hagar]

We should get a free extension. This is ruining my "love for music"

 

[loxx26]

Weird, but since the update I've been experiencing "stop & play" issues. It usually occurs when I'm walking or on the go. Most of my library is offline and I've even tried different earphones

 

[hagar]

Weird, but since the update I've been experiencing "stop & play" issues. It usually occurs when I'm walking or on the go. Most of my library is offline and I've even tried different earphones

Problem does indeed occur on both iTunes and iOS. But for me only when streaming. Offline songs play normally.

It just baffles me how these issues with even the most basic functionality (playing music) can occur.

 

[hagar]

Anybody a solution yet? Apple Music is unusable for me. I have now contacted support and they could not help me. I had to send an email to another helpdesk within Apple.

 

[LiE_]

Seems to be OK for me.

 

[hagar]

I'm quite sure there's nothing you can do on your end. I've been experiencing this issue on 4 apple devices, including OSX and iOSX. The problem is also not a burden on Apple's music servers. It seems that a few of them (otherwise a lot more people would complain about this) have throttling issues. They are misconfigured and as a result their connection with your device is too slow. They simply send the songs too slow to your device: slower than the rate needed to play them. This explains why buffering is so slow and the songs stop at regular intervals, like every 2 seconds.

This is just speculation, but either they need to reconfigure the affected servers, or you should be lucky enough to switch to another server. Cause apparently we are always connecting to the same ones. I already tried logging out and in again, but that's no solution.

This morning I played 5 songs that did not play yesterday, and they're fine for me now.

 

[carambo]

Incredible that Apple launch and promote Apple Music with such a poor service, particularly when you know how good is Spotify ! Tonight it's unusable for me, as yesterday, and the day before...the streaming is sooo slow ! So many people complain about the same issue, and no word from Apple...Bye Bye Apple Music

 

[geesus]

I have exactly the same thing happening, but worse in that after a song finishes, everything just stops. Doesn't even attempt to play the next song in the playlist or album. iOS seems to be working OK though so I wonder if it is an iTunes issue?

 

[Mad4WDW]

Mines been working fine now for the past 4 days or so, there was a problem for a day or something with me

 

[geesus]

Disabling iCloud library fixes my issue by the way, I've just discovered. Kind of sucks having to miss out on that feature, especially on a paid service now, but at least I can listen to music without it stopping. Sort it Apple.

 

[whsbuss]

Disabling iCloud library fixes my issue by the way, I've just discovered. Kind of sucks having to miss out on that feature, especially on a paid service now, but at least I can listen to music without it stopping. Sort it Apple.

So how do you stream with iCloud Music library off?

 

[geesus]

So how do you stream with iCloud Music library off?

You can still playback music with it disabled, you just have to search and find the album. It's all moot anyway as even with it disabled, the issue came back for me last night. Incredibly, iTunes works just fine on my Windows PC, which frankly blows my tiny little mind.

 

[Tech198]

Recently (maybe with the new iTunes version, can't be sure) Apple music has been unusable with extremely slow loading of music

Maybe, but i have had some buffering on Mac tonight.

Yes, unable to play songs here too, but just stop it and/or start playing again, usually fixes it..

I thought this was account related, as well as the message "you are not connected to the internet" but now i am playing Apple music just fine in iTunes 12.3.1 its not definitely not account issue..

 

[whsbuss]

Maybe, but i have had some buffering on Mac tonight.

Yes, unable to play songs here too, but just stop it and/or start playing again, usually fixes it..

I thought this was account related, as well as the message "you are not connected to the internet" but now i am playing Apple music just fine in iTunes 12.3.1 its not definitely not account issue..

I have Verizon FiOS and there has been a bad router about 4 hops from my location (view using traceroute). When is has problems, I get lags for everything including AM.

 

[decafjava]

Apple Music works fine on my iPhone but it is dismal (the streaming anyway) on my iTunes on my PC.

 

[Tech198]

went back to itunes 12.2.1, seems to fix the issue for me on Mac anyway for now, Plus other issues with 12.3.1. Done feedback good

 

[thekayman]

I had this problem for the past week but as of yesterday everything seems to be back to normal, without me changing anything. Tested on both Mac and iPhone, wifi and 4G.

 

[xmlninja]

For me, apple music has been much much faster in el cap than in yosemite.

And for songs starting to play lag etc - it starts playing much faster on cable 75/mbit and fiber 100mbit than with my 20mbit dsl at home.