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hanser

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 29, 2013
354
294
Hi, I read that there is a limit how much music you can store on the watch, at 8 GB. I think that is not true anymore, since I never encountered a limit and my watch has now 11,5 GB of music on it. How is your experience?
 

macphoto861

macrumors 6502
May 20, 2021
452
381
I’m pretty sure it’s never been a hard 8gb limit, just 25% of the watch’s total storage (which is absolutely ridiculous). I’d love it if they finally got rid of this absurd and pointless limitation, but how much total storage does your watch have?
 
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curnalpanic

macrumors 6502
Mar 26, 2008
463
601
go:teborg
My previous watch only had 8 GB, and most of it was occupied by a system update of some sort. Current one is 64 GB, really hope I can fill it with music.
 

okkibs

macrumors 6502a
Sep 17, 2022
901
861
Can someone test and confirm it? That would be great but I don't want to risk running into the limit as it has broken the sync in the past.
 

1rottenapple

macrumors 601
Apr 21, 2004
4,702
2,719
Nope not true. Music is only 700 mb on my ultra. 24 gb free space. 🤦‍♂️ I hate how Apple has gimp off line music.
 

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macphoto861

macrumors 6502
May 20, 2021
452
381
Nope not true. Music is only 700 mb on my ultra. 24 gb free space. 🤦‍♂️ I hate how Apple has gimp off line music.
I mean, seriously, WTF are you supposed to use all that storage for? Apps? You could probably cram hundreds of apps onto that thing and STILL have a bunch if space left over. For what?
 
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1rottenapple

macrumors 601
Apr 21, 2004
4,702
2,719
I mean, seriously, WTF are you supposed to use all that storage for? Apps? You could probably cram hundreds of apps onto that thing and STILL have a bunch if space left over. For what?
I know right. why can't we fill the free space up to 25gb. It's so wacky. They don't want it to work properly in preference to Apple Music subscription.
 
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AgeOfSpiracles

macrumors 6502
May 29, 2020
420
796
My previous watch only had 8 GB, and most of it was occupied by a system update of some sort. Current one is 64 GB, really hope I can fill it with music.
Series 3? Yeah, that was ridiculous. It would download the update, filling the storage, and then not have enough free space to actually install the update. You had to unpair/repair the watch, which makes the update take 3-4x as long to complete. I'm not sure if I've ever had a more significant upgrade of a product as when I went from an S3 to an S6.
 

1rottenapple

macrumors 601
Apr 21, 2004
4,702
2,719
...but you can store up to 8GB so you are nowhere near the limit.
honestly the Apple Watch music storage is so buggy. Most of my playlist don't sync and certain songs get errors but plays fine on iPhone and Mac. It's not worth my time to solve it. At least podcast app actually works!
 

hanser

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 29, 2013
354
294
Nope not true. Music is only 700 mb on my ultra. 24 gb free space. 🤦‍♂️ I hate how Apple has gimp off line music.
It seems to me that you never even tried to reach the supposed limit of 8 GB. So how can you say „not true“??
 

YodaATmac

macrumors newbie
Jun 21, 2012
28
10
Does Apple force us to use Apple Music subscription? Indeed.
Does Apple give a flyin' either we like it or not? Sure it does.

To be fair though: How does Garmin or Suunto or Samsung handling this issue?
 
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Howard2k

macrumors 603
Mar 10, 2016
5,237
5,064
Does Apple force us to use Apple Music subscription? Indeed.
Does Apple give a flyin' either we like it or not? Sure it does.

To be fair though: How does Garmin or Suunto or Samsung handling this issue?
Apple does not force you to use Apple Music.
 

YodaATmac

macrumors newbie
Jun 21, 2012
28
10
Apple does not force you to use Apple Music.
well I beg to differ: Syncing music without Apple Music - which means your own music collection - is a tremendous pontifical pain in the a... At least here. This bloody limit is ridiculous - I have still 9 GB free space on my watch. Pls somebody explain me why it is this 25% limit for music there. And why do I need Iphone to get music on my watch?

With apple music? well badabing, badabum.
 
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Howard2k

macrumors 603
Mar 10, 2016
5,237
5,064
I use Spotify - I have no Apple Music content on my watch or phone whatsoever.
 

macphoto861

macrumors 6502
May 20, 2021
452
381
Apple does not force you to use Apple Music.
They strongly nudge you in that direction with this Apple Watch limitation, and there's seemingly no other valid explanation for why it still exists. Imagine the meeting of the WatchOS team:

Person A: "You know, this media storage space limit of 25%, it made sense back with the original Watch, since those had a lot less storage and we needed to reserve space for software updates, but seems totally unnecessary and arbitrary with Watches coming with 32-64GB now. How about we fix that?"

Person B: "Yeah, I thought about that too and ran it up the chain of command, but the folks from the Apple Music division objected, saying that if people could sync more of their own music to their Watch, they might be less likely to subscribe to Apple Music."
 

Howard2k

macrumors 603
Mar 10, 2016
5,237
5,064
They strongly nudge you in that direction with this Apple Watch limitation, and there's seemingly no other valid explanation for why it still exists. Imagine the meeting of the WatchOS team:

Person A: "You know, this media storage space limit of 25%, it made sense back with the original Watch, since those had a lot less storage and we needed to reserve space for software updates, but seems totally unnecessary and arbitrary with Watches coming with 32-64GB now. How about we fix that?"

Person B: "Yeah, I thought about that too and ran it up the chain of command, but the folks from the Apple Music division objected, saying that if people could sync more of their own music to their Watch, they might be less likely to subscribe to Apple Music."

Sure, whatever. Im just saying that you don’t have to use Apple Music. I don’t, and I still listens to music from my watch.
 
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