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Music - Missing Features, Bugs, Issues & Troubleshooting (Golden Gate)

Songs view: sort order ("Album by Artist/Year") not respected during playback — confirmed not random, not a display bug

Running Music 1.6.5.10. I first noticed this after updating to macOS 26.1 (Tahoe) — can't swear it was that exact update vs. just when I noticed it, but that's my best timing.

In Songs view, sorting by "Album by Artist" or "Album by Artist/Year" displays the tracks in the correct order, but actual playback doesn't follow it — instead it plays in something close to Date Added order. It's consistent (same wrong order every time, not random), and survives quitting/relaunching the app and re-clicking the sort column.

Ruled out:

  • Not a rendering bug — the displayed order is correct, only playback is wrong
  • Not a Sort Album/Sort Artist override field issue — both blank
  • Not a stale Up Next queue
  • Not the old iTunes Library.itl file being mistakenly active — confirmed the modern .musiclibrary is active
Workaround that works: building a Smart Playlist with a no-op rule (e.g. "Date Added is in the last 50 years") sorted by Album by Artist/Year plays back correctly. Playing directly from the Songs view does not. So it seems specific to how playback queues get generated from the live Songs view vs. a materialized playlist.

Anyone else seeing this / found a cleaner fix? Filed Feedback with Apple, posting here in case it's useful for others hitting the same thing.

Screenshot #1: I annotated the actual, incorrect playback order (Courier, red).
Screenshot #2: This incorrect order seems similar to the Date Added, but it's not exactly the same.
 

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  • actual play order.png
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Huge bug where dragging and dropping songs to another playlist causes beachball/hang. I can't even complete the drag and drop. The action of dragging itself is where it immediately hangs. It usually seems to happen around 30+ songs. Only way out is force quit. I ran into the not respecting view (song list etc) issue. Also I've had slow playback performance since 2023. Songs that used to play immediately and I could use arrow keys and hear instant playback no more. I tested side by side with Swinsian and unfortunately something is inherently broken with Apple Music player from a design perspective ....not sure exactly what. Can someone confirm the drag and drop bug?
 
Screenshot 2025-11-04 at 16.30.38.webp

Can someone please check if this has been fixed in macOS 27?

Column Browser results (Genre/Artists/Albums) used to also filter when searching. This stopped a couple macOS releases ago. Songs filter as expected.
 
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MJedi said:
I sent my suggestion to move the music bar back to the top through Feedback Assistant. I recommend other do the same.
Click to expand...

I'd like to be wrong, but I think "suggestions" all end up in the bin not being read due to other priorities. I created one anyway!
 
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My Music app (iTunes) on my M4 Studio, isn't playing uploaded mp3s from my Music Match library. It just stops. What's going on Apple? Why can't it just find the song from their library and play it? Those matched songs play fine on all my other devices. Unfortunately the Studio is my main computer at home and I use it to airplay around the house. The good old Spoke and Hub setup I've had for years and years.
 
Can anyone test to see if the speed of converting tracks from one file format to another (say ALAC to AAC 256K) has improved? I have found that on my M4 MBP the speeds are unbelievably slow in Tahoe and Sequoia, enough to make it a waste of time to use the Music app to do the conversions. I find that even my 733MHz Power Mac G4 converts tracks faster than the M4 which is beyond pathetic, using iTunes 8. My 2012 iMac takes about a sixth the time of the MBP running High Sierra with iTunes 12. Nothing else is wrong with my MBP.
 
retta283 said:
Can anyone test to see if the speed of converting tracks from one file format to another (say ALAC to AAC 256K) has improved? I have found that on my M4 MBP the speeds are unbelievably slow in Tahoe and Sequoia, enough to make it a waste of time to use the Music app to do the conversions. I find that even my 733MHz Power Mac G4 converts tracks faster than the M4 which is beyond pathetic, using iTunes 8. My 2012 iMac takes about a sixth the time of the MBP running High Sierra with iTunes 12. Nothing else is wrong with my MBP.
Click to expand...
Did this exact conversion and a 6 minute track took about 6 seconds. Is that too slow? Mini M4 Pro
 
Not sure if this has been covered but you can no longer add an entire album to a playlist. Used to be under the 3 dots on the upper right but that ability is now missing as per the attached screenshot.
 

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  • Screenshot 2026-07-09 at 11.41.54 AM.png
    Screenshot 2026-07-09 at 11.41.54 AM.png
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SwampYankee0! said:
Not sure if this has been covered but you can no longer add an entire album to a playlist. Used to be under the 3 dots on the upper right but that ability is now missing as per the attached screenshot.
Click to expand...
You can still add an entire album to a playlist if you right-click the album from the Albums view.
 
Reading this thread actually makes me feel glad I'm still running Mojave!

Being the last version with proper iTunes, it does music things just fine, like Macs always have since the days of Mac OS 9 and iTunes 1.

I've also used newer versions from Catalina up to and including Sequoia, but I never really tried the Music app. Sounds like Tahoe's version is a hot mess, though, so perhaps I haven't missed much?

Is there a way to hack the newest available version of iTunes 12 to run on Catalina and up?

c
 
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Just installed the macOS 27 public beta and am having a song matching issue I've not come across before. Here's the scenario and what I've always done in the past.

1) I have 3 tracks that are 'uploaded' status
2) I deleted the 3 tracks on my iPhone
3) Normally, in the Apple Music app on macOS, the tracks would show as 'removed' status and I would be able to either delete or right click and add to library to attempt a match or upload.

This time they disappeared! Turns out the files are still in the respective folder in Finder, however, when I drag them back into Apple Music, they instantly show 'uploaded' status, do not attempt to match or upload, and do not show on my iPhone.
 
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