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Issues syncing music to Apple Watch

W

wagszilla

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 13, 2015
66
29
I cannot sync music (m4a files) to my Apple Watch anymore.

I've done everything here in attempts to troubleshoot the problem and nothing has worked. I've also tried disabling Bluetooth on my iPhone.

The watch waffles between the "Your music will resume downloading the next time your Apple watch is charging and connected to the internet" message and "downloading" but not moving past 1/8th done.

Anyone have these issues? How did you solve them?
 
It’s wonkey ever since I got my Apple Watch 6 to 7 years ago. I have never had complete 100% syncing. I don’t think Apple wants us to load our purchased songs to the Apple Watch. They want Apple Music subscription.
 
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My hope/guess is that it's related to me having iOS26 Beta on my iPhone since I haven't attempted to sync in months.
 
I think I've figured out the issue:

On Settings > Music there is a toggle for "Add Playlist Songs".

I can toggle this On (Green) and attempt to Add Music via iPhone (Watch > Music > Add Music) but this does not work.

After the attempt fails, the toggle for "Add Playlist Songs" is automatically turned off on my Apple Watch.
 
Do you have problems with songs on the watch that’s supposed to be there and the watch not playing it. I get that a lot enough that I find it super frustrating.
 
The issues persist.
  • For some reason the "Add Playlist Songs" toggle stays on now. No difference.
  • I upgraded to Watch OS 26 beta. No difference
  • I have no idea what happened but roughly 1/3 of my running playlist synced to the watch.
  • All other playlists have not synced.
1rottenapple said:
Do you have problems with songs on the watch that’s supposed to be there and the watch not playing it. I get that a lot enough that I find it super frustrating.
Click to expand...
Yeah, it's done that a couple times. It'll load the song/cover art but it then skips to others.
 
wagszilla said:
The issues persist.
  • For some reason the "Add Playlist Songs" toggle stays on now. No difference.
  • I upgraded to Watch OS 26 beta. No difference
  • I have no idea what happened but roughly 1/3 of my running playlist synced to the watch.
  • All other playlists have not synced.

Yeah, it's done that a couple times. It'll load the song/cover art but it then skips to others.
Click to expand...
Yah same. This is my second Apple Watch the ultra gen 1 since 2021. I previously had series 5. I never resolved this issue which makes me believe Apple just doesn’t want us to use our music with the watch. Subscription service rule the day. When I get the notion to retry using my watch with my music which I did the other week at the gym I always run into an issue and give up.
 
1rottenapple said:
When I get the notion to retry using my watch with my music which I did the other week at the gym I always run into an issue and give up.
Click to expand...
Yep, my feelings exactly. I've tried everything. It's under 1-year warranty so I'm gonna try to complain and see if they do anything about it.
 
I scheduled an appointment at the Genius Bar for tomorrow. Maybe they'll help me or replace the watch.

Hopefully we can get it fixed.
 
Told me to wait until iOS26 is officially released.

Hard reset of both my phone and watch seem to be the next option.

Sigh.
 
It’s never worked for me with podcasts. Had to use a third party app and transfer over Bluetooth with my iPhone because the way wifi works on the Apple Watch is complete trash.
 
Still doesn't work after the official iOS26 release.

I really don't get it.
 
I had another appointment at the Apple Store.

The Geniuses didn't have any idea. I seemed to know more than they did. Solid guys though.

If anyone has a work around or has run into the same issues as me, please let me know.

🙏
 
I’m having a similar issue but with MPEG-1,Layer 3 (MP3) files. I have a playlist for running consisting of 27 songs. Each song is approx 55 minutes long, the size ranges from 60MB to 150MB. These were previously downloaded to my Ultra with no issues. In a moment of stupidity I removed the playlist from my phone to allow more storage for photos on a recent trip. After returning and updating to iOS26 I was unable to add the playlist back to my watch. I have tried a few things, converting to AAC, or just adding 1 song instead of the whole list but no luck. Other playlists download with no issues so I’m sure it’s something to do with the size or format of these songs.

acba98eecfdce5c97e4ddaac3bd6ab29.jpg
 
Some good news.

I managed to download Spotify playlists to my watch so I don’t need my iPhone to play music. I suppose I should accept the win.

I’ve tried everything under the sun to get me my M4A Apple Lossless playlists/files to sync and still basically nothing. After resetting my iPhone and watch (two side button reset), I can sneak on 15 songs from my 153 song playlist but that’s it.

The Spotify route is $10/mo but hey, at least it works
 
Markakett said:
I’m having a similar issue but with MPEG-1,Layer 3 (MP3) files. I have a playlist for running consisting of 27 songs. Each song is approx 55 minutes long, the size ranges from 60MB to 150MB. These were previously downloaded to my Ultra with no issues. In a moment of stupidity I removed the playlist from my phone to allow more storage for photos on a recent trip. After returning and updating to iOS26 I was unable to add the playlist back to my watch. I have tried a few things, converting to AAC, or just adding 1 song instead of the whole list but no luck. Other playlists download with no issues so I’m sure it’s something to do with the size or format of these songs.

acba98eecfdce5c97e4ddaac3bd6ab29.jpg
Click to expand...
Sorry to hear about your issues.

For the playlists that work do you create the playlists on your Mac, sync to iPhone, and mirror to Watch? Or do you manually create the playlist on iPhone? Just curious, I’ve done both and still no dice
 
wagszilla said:
Sorry to hear about your issues.

For the playlists that work do you create the playlists on your Mac, sync to iPhone, and mirror to Watch? Or do you manually create the playlist on iPhone? Just curious, I’ve done both and still no dice
Click to expand...

I create the playlist on my iMac then sync to iPhone then to watch. Now I’ve got a new wrinkle, when I play songs from my watch to ear buds only one song plays. I have to swipe left from workout screen to music screen, the hit next song, then play. Frustrating to do while running, impossible while rowing. Another issue is I get no audio feedback on time or distance in workouts unless my phone is nearby. I’m not going to subscribe to a music service at this point, I’ll either go old school and put an old iPod nano in my pocket with wired buds, or see what deals on basic runs watches with audio go on sale on Black Friday. In the grand scheme of life this is a minor issue but it is putting a buzzkill on my running. I just want to run with some music and enjoy the scenery and the workout..
 
Well I hoped yesterday’s update might fix this but no. Even more weirdness. In the about tab in the watch app on the phone it shows 32 songs. On the watch it shows 133. When I look at the playlist on the watch it shows songs properly, but when I put on my Powerbeats Pro 2 they become blurred and no music plays. I saw a couple of posts on the Apple forums where the poster had mentioned in a call with Apple they were aware of this issue but had no further information. Oh well for tomorrow’s run I will forgo earbuds and sing to myself, that should keep the dogs away also

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