Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

iWatch Music and Airpods not working

jquest68

jquest68

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 26, 2016
188
27
Georgia
Ok, this is annoying me. I got the iWatch SE specifically to run and to use it in the gym with my AirPods. It's not working and I don't know why. I leave my iPhone in the car because I don't need it in the gym. I used to listen to music before but now it's not working for the past iOS updates. My watch is recently updated to 10.2.
Every time I link up my AirPods press the music app on my watch pick shuffle and press play, it doesn't play anything. A pop-up comes up and says something about this item requiring a membership. I do have a membership. This is very frustrating.
 
Apple Watch has been out for nearly a decade, and there are still people who call it an "iWatch" 🤦🏼‍♂️ This doesn't sound like an AirPods and Apple Watch issue, but an Apple Music issue. Do you have an Apple Music subscription? I'm guessing it's this "membership" you're referring to. If you are subscribed to Apple Music, you should be able to play songs from your watch. However, since you're leaving your phone in the car, you should make sure that your watch either has 1) cellular to stream the songs over data, 2) songs downloaded onto the watch itself, or 3) connected to your gym's wi-fi.
 
  • Like
Reactions: joeblack007 and bricktop_at
There was an iOS app I’d used for a decade and it appeared to have run into decline, not many updates, new features etc. then one day an update was pushed which referenced an ‘iWatch’ complication. That’s when I knew for certain the app was done and it was time to move on.
 
  • Like
  • Haha
Reactions: bricktop_at and BillGates1969
Isn't called iWatch? anyway, you all know what I mean. I managed to reset my watch and I think it's working but my watch battery died on me at work so I didn't get a chance to verify if resetting it fixed the problem. I did turn and shut down my phone and was able to hear my music on my AirPods. I'll be able to go to the gym tomorrow and check it out.
 
OK, I got my watch to work. I did a reset and today I went to the gym and it's working. Thank you for all your suggestions
 
jquest68 said:
who cares if I miscalled it? Everyone knows what I mean. It's not a big thing.
Click to expand...


It's an issue if you need help. If you're googling iWatch instead of Apple Watch you're less likely to find your answers. It's like if you need help with a Ford Mustang you've have better luck searching for Ford Mustang rather than Chevy Pony. :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Mackilroy and BillGates1969
The issue is WatchOS 10 and every update since its release. They royally screwed the menu system and how Airplay works with the watch and phone. Its beyond frustrating and you'll find many many threads over in the apple forums about this.

With WatchOS9 this was never an issue. Now with WatchOS10 the music app on your phone defaults and resets to either trying to open apples subscription music or the music on your phone.

I have a few playlists I listen to when I run. It frustratingly virtually impossible to get the music on my watch to play threw my headset without jumping through at least 10 layers of menus every time I go for a run.

Once I get to a playlist from my downloaded music and start to play it pushes it through to my phone. Then once I go into the airplay settings, upper right corner, and reroute it through to my earbuds half the time it changes to a different playlist. It I can actually get it to play the playlist I want through my earbuds I better not try and change songs because the Airplay icon in the upper right defaults back to my phone and anything I try to change happens on my phone and not the watch. Rinse, repeat and groundhogs day all over again.

At least with WatchOS 10 and 10.1 once I set it to play through my earbuds it remembered that. Now with WatchOS 10.2 it starts from scratch every time I go for a run. The only way it works properly is if I connect my earbuds to my watch after I leave my phone in the car and walk far enough away that my watch disconnects from my phone.

And yes I have auto-launch music controls turned off on both my watch and the watch app on my phone.
 
jquest68 said:
Ok, this is annoying me. I got the iWatch SE specifically to run and to use it in the gym with my AirPods. It's not working and I don't know why. I leave my iPhone in the car because I don't need it in the gym. I used to listen to music before but now it's not working for the past iOS updates. My watch is recently updated to 10.2.
Every time I link up my AirPods press the music app on my watch pick shuffle and press play, it doesn't play anything. A pop-up comes up and says something about this item requiring a membership. I do have a membership. This is very frustrating.
Click to expand...
As a follow up to my rant above, I think I may have discovered something that worked for me and may work for you.

I had a bunch of greyed out songs listed in my playlists that are on my watch in the downloaded section. If I went to play them I got the "apple music membership" popup. This is/was extremely frustrating since I own this music independent of Apple. Most of it was ripped from physical CDs.

I decided to poke around the watch app on my phone. I went into the music section and saw that only one of the 5 playlists I previously had on my watch were gone. It's weird because they are listed on my watch in the downloaded section but most of the songs were greyed out.

I deleted the one playlist left and then re-added all 5 of the playlists I previously had. Then I rebooted both my phone and watch and put the watch on the charger so it would re-add the playlists back to my downloaded music. Oddly enough the amount of storage I was using for downloaded music on my watch never changed.

After being on the charger for 15 minutes I decided to take it off and all my playlists were back and the music app on my watch stopped trying to connect to my phone. It seems like one or several updates FUBAR'd my playlists and the watch didn't recognize the music as local but saw the songs clearly listed, so it tried to connect to the phone to play them but when that didnt work it told me I needed a music subscription.

Anyway, I hope deleting and putting back your playlists as downloaded music helps you.
 
I did all that everyone recommended and still, this happens. But I think I may have solved it. I'm going to test it out again tomorrow when I go to the gym. I believe it was the fact that I left my iPhone in the car and use my watch to listen to my music while working out but this time I shut off my phone before going into the gym and there was no pausing at all.
I think my AirPods was trying to pick up my phone and watch at the same time so it just pauses. I believe this is what's happening. Going to test this out again to make sure.
 
  • Like
Reactions: surfzen21
Ok, this was the second time I tried this. I believe that it's the fact that my Airpods are syncing with my watch and my phone at the same time which is causing the pausing of music each time. So I shut off my phone and left it in the car as I went into the gym just used my watch as I always do and it didn't pause on me. I did this twice and it worked just fine.
 
  • Like
Reactions: surfzen21
My connection with the AirPod and Watch was working just fine for me whenever I shut down my iPhone and used my watch to listen to music while I worked out. Now with the new update 17.5 instead of pausing around 3 times the update was pausing like 20 times. I was so annoyed that I almost took off my AirPods and chucked them in the garbage. When I got to my car my phone was on instead of off. So maybe this was the reason. I usually leave my phone connected to my car and then I shut the phone off but it was on when I got into my car.
I'm going to disconnect it next time shut it off again and see if it continues to pause. It was pausing every 5 seconds while I was working out. Damn, this was so annoying. If it continues I'm just going back to wired earphones and using my Nano iPod. The frustration continues.
 
Update: I disconnected my phone and shut it off and had no problems with the pausing. So I guess that was it then that my watch and phone were competing for connection to my AirPods. Today was a good day at the gym with no pausing.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ZebraDude
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back