macOS Music crashes upon using Home Sharing

[dauber]

So for years I've been sharing my music libraries between my MBPs and my iMacs, and suddenly it's no longer working.

My iMac is an Intel i7 (21.5-inch 2019), 32GB RAM, running Sequoia OS 15.6.1, the latest available for Intel macs.

My MBP is an M2 (13-inch, 2022) on 24GB RAM, running Tahoe 26.0.1.

Both computers are "authorized" for Home Sharing. They're both connected to the same WIFI network, different IP address so we can rule out clashing. Both macOS Music apps are logged in under the same account, so they should work. And have been working. Forever. Until now.

I've rebooted both computers, restarted the router too.

But what happens is if I try to access the iMac's Music library via the Music app on my MBP, I get a busy pointer for a moment, and then as soon as the iMac's library appears, Music crashes.

However, if I go the other way around and try to access the MBP's Music library via the Music app on my iMac, it works like a charm. But I really need to go the other way around.

Music app is open on both machines.

What could be causing the crash??

 

[Brian33]

To me, this sounds like a bug in Music.app running under Tahoe. When did you upgrade the MBP to Tahoe, and did the problem start only after that?

I use home sharing, but don't have any Mac running Tahoe yet, so I can't try it out for you.

 

[thejollywag]

Just want to say I have experienced what I imagine is the same exact issue, since I updated my 2023 Macbook Pro M3 to Tahoe. My 27-inch 2019 iMac (Intel) is updated to Sequoia 15.7.1. I haven't found a fix yet.

 

[dauber]

Drat. Latest update didn't fix it.
I ran my problem through ChatGPT, and here's what it said:
The Music app called a method named statusBarExactStateString on an object that does not have that method.

In macOS/Objective-C terms:
A UI element (or its data binding) was expecting an object that implements this property, but instead was given an object of the wrong type.

This is not a plugin issue or user error — this is a straight-up Music.app bug.

This kind of crash—"unrecognized selector" inside NSBinder—is almost always due to an OS-to-OS framework mismatch.

Your iMac is on Sequoia.
Your MacBook Pro is on Tahoe 26.1 (brand new, and currently buggy).

Music.app on Tahoe expects a different behavior or property from the shared-library connection layer than what Sequoia’s version provides.

The shared home-library protocol relies on:

• MediaLibrary.framework
• iTunesLibrary.framework
• MusicLibrary.framework

 

[peskat]

I have the same issue between my wife's Tahoe M2 MacBook Air and my iMac 2019 running iTunes on Ventura.

My use case requires iTunes, and Ventura is the latest that iTunes can run on.

I have submitted the error to apple multiple times in hopes it is somehow fixed when 26.2 ships, though I'm doubtful. It was working solidly until 26.01, then broke completely on 26.1

My "fix" is using airdrop to transfer the mp3 files and then import them into Music, but that is far from a real solution.

 

[seanx]

I am having the same issue. I just upgraded to Tahoe 26.1 to see if it would fix screen sharing through messages, which was broken in Sequoia... I could screen share with older Macs using any os earlier than Sequoia. Anyway, Tahoe did not fix that... but also broke home sharing for me. I record vinyl records on an old 2010 Mac Pro tower running Catalina. Home sharing worked great under Sequoia. On my 14 inch m3 MacBook Pro I could choose the library from the old Mac Pro and it would show up, then I could choose "Items not in my library" from the Show: pull down menu. I would then select the songs and hit the import button and the songs would copy over to my main Music library on the m3 MBP... Now Music unexpectedly quits every time I attempt to access the shared library. I went through all the usual trouble shooting. Logged out of home sharing on both, logged out of iCloud, restarted... logged back into iCloud, logged back in to home sharing... etc. Still quits every time... Looks like I may downgrade back to Sequoia. Edit: Also, same as the OP, I can see the new Tahoe M3 MBP library from the old tower but I really need it to work the other way in order to get the music into my main library on the M3 MBP.