Has anyone noticed any issues with controlling music on iPhone (X iOS 11.4) via the watch? It seems after updating to WatchOS 4.3.1 on my S0 I can browse without any issues but when selecting to play it thinks for a few seconds and then nothing. It displays the correct artist/album info and just doesn’t play, the info disappears and shows the play/skip/back buttons and that it’s currently looking at the iPhone library. If I hit play there it shuffles all music on the iPhone. Is anyone else experiencing this? Cheers in advance.
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iPhone music control via Apple Watch
- Thread starter Waldo-Tron
- Start date
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I have this exact same problem. I have a series 3 (non-LTE) and a iPhone 7 both updated with latest software and since the update I have had this issue. Before update I would press the play from library option and I could play music from library through my wiresless beats with no problem. Now I have to select the on phone option, whenever I don’t I get this message even though I am an Apple Music subscriber? Is there something I am missing?
I can navigate through all my iPhone music and select:
You can see the blurred artwork behind for the album but after a few seconds it doesn’t play and goes back to:
Maybe Apple are easing me into the inevitable device upgrade for watchOS 5?
I can navigate through all my iPhone music and select:
View attachment 765644
You can see the blurred artwork behind for the album but after a few seconds it doesn’t play and goes back to:
View attachment 765645
Maybe Apple are easing me into the inevitable device upgrade for watchOS 5?
That’s weird. Mine play the whole album.
Looks like it connected & played but suddenly stopped. Very weird.
Stupid question, did you try force restart the watch?
Have to say your behavior is just like my HomePod when I ask it directly (I can AirPlay from iPhone but if i try to command it to play the songs itself it’ll behave like what you described.).
Yeah, it is weird. I’ve force restarted the watch, unpaired etc. If I select music on iPhone/Artists or Albums and navigate to anything in particular, nothing. If I go to music on iPhone/Songs and navigate it will always play the first track (first in alphabetical order) and once that’s playing and I select another track it will start the first song over again! Interestingly it will play tracks I navigate to whether via Artist, Album or Song if it was purchased via iTunes!
I just tried playing 3 different playlists that I manually added to my iPhone and I'm experiencing the same issue. If I play an album or playlist that contains music purchased from iTunes, it will play nearly instantly. Interesting that the Apple Watch can see those songs, but it refuses to play. (For reference: iPhone 7 on iOS 11.4 and Series 2 on 4.3.1)
At least it's not just me. Typically Apple took away the feature, brought it back and have now broke it.
Same for me. I did a reset of the watch, put the problem persists. I'm tempted to do a wipe of my phone and watch, but that's hardly ever fixed a problem for me.
**Update** I wiped my phone and watch. Did a clean install on both and the problem remains.
**Update #2** I was having issues with my Mac (it wouldn’t shut down), so I took the opportunity to do a clean install of High Sierra. I reimported my music into iTunes, wiped my phone and watch and set them up as “new”. I still have the problem.
**Update** I wiped my phone and watch. Did a clean install on both and the problem remains.
**Update #2** I was having issues with my Mac (it wouldn’t shut down), so I took the opportunity to do a clean install of High Sierra. I reimported my music into iTunes, wiped my phone and watch and set them up as “new”. I still have the problem.
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You are 100% right - I just tried it. I don't have much music from the iTunes Store, but I am able to initiate playback on the watch if the music on the phone is a Protected or Purchased title (Songs of Innocence is finally good for something - I listened to it for the second time ever today). In fact, I have an album that I ripped from a CD, but then bought a "bonus track" from iTunes. When I try to initiate playback from the watch, it skips the entire album and starts to play the one track that I bought off iTunes.
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I'm looking forward to getting home and doing the update! Not ready to listen to that U2 album yet