How well does music streaming work on your Apple Watch?

[swandy]

I find when I am out walking/running/bike riding and I only take along my AW Series 6 and my AirPods Pro (instead of my iPhone 12) I rarely can use it for streaming Apple Music. Even when it shows 2 dots out of the 4 the streaming is constantly pausing and stopping. I assume it is because the antenna in the AW is smaller than the one in the iPhone but I would expect it to work better than it does. Downloaded music plays fine - well as soon as I get away from my house’s Wifi and it’s attempting to connect to my iPhone.
Any thoughts or suggestions? Thanks.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Could be due to weak signal or interference (or both).

 

[mk313]

I use playlists that are for the most part downloaded to my watch ,but my exercise music playlist is too large to fit completely so I do stream some songs. In practice, it’s pretty seamless and I don’t even notice. Sometimes it will buffer for a second or two while it starts to download the song but that’s about all, and it’s only at the beginning of the song, not during it. I don’t normally experience what you’re describing.

 

[Shirasaki]

I always sync local music to Apple Watch. Briefly tried Apple Music a year ago or so with Apple Watch series 4 but drops, cut offs, skips, or failed to play (you need to connect to your phone to continue), plus extremely lacklustre library (for my taste) means streaming will never be the option for me to enjoy music.

When music is synced and stored locally, everything works fine. No drops, no cutoffs and definitely no excessive battery drain.

 

[sixtydashone]

Possibly a shot in the dark but I have had very few issues with streaming music on the watch when disabling WiFi just prior to leaving the house. Prior to that, the streaming was terrible, I could really only get through about 1.5 songs before the stream would just stop altogether.

 

[swandy]

Possibly a shot in the dark but I have had very few issues with streaming music on the watch when disabling WiFi just prior to leaving the house. Prior to that, the streaming was terrible, I could really only get through about 1.5 songs before the stream would just stop altogether.

Thanks for that suggestion. Will try it on my next excursion out of the house.

 

[Lee_Bo]

Knock on wood, but no issues here. AW6 and AirPods Pro.

 

[someone33]

It's probably because of your data plan. If you don't have a "premium" data plan you won't get sufficient bandwidth to stream music with the watch if the network in the area congested.

 

[swandy]

It's probably because of your data plan. If you don't have a "premium" data plan you won't get sufficient bandwidth to stream music with the watch if the network in the area congested.

Well my iPhone 12 and my Apple Watch are both on my Verizon Unlimited plan and don't have any issues with the music buffering or pausing on the iPhone when walking, only with the Watch. So I doubt it is the plan. Perhaps the Verizon service is not perfect where we live and the iPhone - which I assume has a better cellular antenna - has less of an issue with streaming music.

 

[someone33]

Well my iPhone 12 and my Apple Watch are both on my Verizon Unlimited plan and don't have any issues with the music buffering or pausing on the iPhone when walking, only with the Watch. So I doubt it is the plan. Perhaps the Verizon service is not perfect where we live and the iPhone - which I assume has a better cellular antenna - has less of an issue with streaming music.

I am also on Verizon Unlimited and I experienced the exact same thing. Streaming Apple Music worked fine on my phone but not the watch. After I upgraded that line to premium data Apple Music streams perfectly on my watch. I can all but guarantee it will be the same thing for you, it has nothing to do with the cellular antenna. My guess would be a watch gets less priority on their network. Just another way for cellular companies to screw us.

 

[swandy]

I am also on Verizon Unlimited and I experienced the exact same thing. Streaming Apple Music worked fine on my phone but not the watch. After I upgraded that line to premium data Apple Music streams perfectly on my watch. I can all but guarantee it will be the same thing for you, it has nothing to do with the cellular antenna. My guess would be a watch gets less priority on their network. Just another way for cellular companies to screw us.

Thanks for the tip. I will check that out.