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

Playing music by default from watch and not phone?

K

kat.hayes

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Oct 10, 2011
1,448
52
Just got the new watch and when trying to play music on it, it keeps trying to play music from my phone instead, and I am on the other side.

Is there some way to change the setting so it defaults to playing directly from the watch? I did not see an option under settings. Instead, I have to click over on a few buttons to get it to play on the watch.

Thanks
 
  • Like
Reactions: AngusYoung
I just made the jump to cellular hoping to have my watch as the main player but if the phone is close it doesn't really seem possible. Plays to Airpods fine but around the house it still stays connected to the phone so I'll get drop outs on the other side. Even with the phone in airplane mode I couldn't get it to work, I had to completely turn my phone off to get the watch to stream music and it to be the actually device playing. Hopefully there are better answers but I doubt it. One of those things where apple doesn't want you to have a choice and they think they know what is best for you.
 
I have the same issue. I could not get my watch to play music through its own speaker unless my phone was turned off. The whole music interface on watchOS and iOS is absolute garbage and I can only assume has been compiled by a bunch of backward monkeys.

If anybody else does work out a way to do it without having to turn everything off, there would be many of us which would really appreciate it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: kat.hayes

Choose an audio destination on Apple Watch​

When playing music, podcasts, or other media on Apple Watch, you can hear the audio output on your paired iPhone, paired Bluetooth headphones or speakers, or the Apple Watch speaker (supported on Apple Watch Series 10 and Apple Watch Ultra 2).

Choose an audio output​

  1. Press the side button to open Control Center.
  2. Tap
    the AirPlay button
    , then choose one of the following destinations:
    • Your iPhone speaker
    • Paired Bluetooth headphones or speakers
    • The Apple Watch speaker (supported on Apple Watch Series 10 and Apple Watch Ultra 2)
      Note: Media playback through the Apple Watch speaker drains the battery more quickly. (10 minutes of audio playback reduces the battery life by 1 hour.) Media playback through the speaker isn’t supported when Apple Watch is being charged.
You can also tap
the More Actions button
on the play screens of the Audiobooks, Music, Now Playing, and Podcasts apps to open the AirPlay setting.
 
  • Like
Reactions: StumpyBloke
mine works fine…. When you have a song in the display hit the 3 dots in top right …. Then hit airplay and make sure the AW is checked.

I’m not saying it’s a fix but the only obvious thing I can see.

EDIT …. Just seen the post above with same info.
 
  • Like
Reactions: StumpyBloke
Gator5000e said:

Choose an audio destination on Apple Watch​

When playing music, podcasts, or other media on Apple Watch, you can hear the audio output on your paired iPhone, paired Bluetooth headphones or speakers, or the Apple Watch speaker (supported on Apple Watch Series 10 and Apple Watch Ultra 2).

Choose an audio output​

  1. Press the side button to open Control Center.
  2. Tap
    the AirPlay button
    , then choose one of the following destinations:
    • Your iPhone speaker
    • Paired Bluetooth headphones or speakers
    • The Apple Watch speaker (supported on Apple Watch Series 10 and Apple Watch Ultra 2)
      Note: Media playback through the Apple Watch speaker drains the battery more quickly. (10 minutes of audio playback reduces the battery life by 1 hour.) Media playback through the speaker isn’t supported when Apple Watch is being charged.
You can also tap
the More Actions button
on the play screens of the Audiobooks, Music, Now Playing, and Podcasts apps to open the AirPlay setting.
Click to expand...
The problem isn't selecting the playback device. It's the source it wants to stream from. If it can magically sense your phone anywhere close it's going to try and use the phone as the source instead of the watch and treat the watch as a remote. I want to be able to force the watch to be the source so even if my phone is in the house I won't get cut outs when not close enough.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1madman1, Roadster Lewis and kat.hayes
ukms said:
If you look in your music library on the AW there is a downloaded tab.
Click to expand...
I am trying to figure out if I can play any music I want from Apple Music like I can from my phone or if it first needs to be added to a library on the app on the phone and then “downloaded “ to the watch?
 
kat.hayes said:
I am trying to figure out if I can play any music I want from Apple Music like I can from my phone or if it first needs to be added to a library on the app on the phone and then “downloaded “ to the watch?
Click to expand...
If I try playing music from the Radio tab and any of the genres, it plays. I haven't figured out if the phone has to be near, or I have to be on home wi-fi, etc. But it plays through the watch speaker.

If I use the Search tab, I tried something that I know I've never downloaded and it played. It's a bit slow searching and I had to try searching again to get it to do so.
 
  • Like
Reactions: kat.hayes
I am also having this issue, I'll be sat at my desk, put my AirPods in and select something to listen to on my Watch, then go elsewhere in the house, but if I go int certain rooms the audio drops off because it is playing from my phone, which is still on my desk.

I assume it would be the same thing if I was going out for a walk, leaving my phone at home.
 
  • Like
Reactions: f1vespeed
Roadster Lewis said:
I am also having this issue, I'll be sat at my desk, put my AirPods in and select something to listen to on my Watch, then go elsewhere in the house, but if I go int certain rooms the audio drops off because it is playing from my phone, which is still on my desk.

I assume it would be the same thing if I was going out for a walk, leaving my phone at home.
Click to expand...
It's not an iOS 18 or AW10 thing. My S8 on iOS17 did it also - I'd put my AirPods Pro in at the gym, queue up a playlist on my watch, select my AirPods as the playback device, and throw my phone in the locker. When I moved far enough away from the locker room in the gym my music kept cutting out, indicating that it was playing from the phone and not my watch. I finally solved it by turning my phone off before I went into the gym, so my AirPods had no choice but to connect to the watch.

I've googled it pretty extensively and there doesn't seem to be a way to force the AirPods to connect to the watch while the phone is on and within range.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Roadster Lewis
I really hope Apple fixes this. The main reason I bought the Series 10 is to putz around the house listening to podcasts off the speaker.

The watch prefers using bluetooth to stream podcast episodes via the phone. So everytime I get a *bit* too far from my phone, podcast playback stutters and stops.

The solution I've found now:
1. Turn off bluetooth by using "Hey Siri, turn off bluetooth". This severs the iPhone connection and forces the Apple Watch to stream over wifi.
2. Start streaming my podcast.
3. Once I'm done, turn bluetooth back on using Siri.

Apple could solve this problem by giving us a setting to always stream over wifi when the watch is connected to wifi. I will take the battery life hit.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Roadster Lewis
I was able to play a podcast from the Watch, by navigating to "Download" and selecting it from there. I was able to walk out of the house, without my phone, and the podcast kept playing. However there is a few caveats, when I tried to do it again later, it started from the same point, so hadn't updated where I had listened to back on the iPhone.

I have tried to do it again with music and it doesn't work.

Apple have offered me a 30 minute "Personal Session" to go through setting up the Watch, so I might take them up on it and ask about this sort of thing.
 
  • Like
Reactions: f1vespeed
Roadster Lewis said:
I was able to play a podcast from the Watch, by navigating to "Download" and selecting it from there. I was able to walk out of the house, without my phone, and the podcast kept playing. However there is a few caveats, when I tried to do it again later, it started from the same point, so hadn't updated where I had listened to back on the iPhone.

I have tried to do it again with music and it doesn't work.

Apple have offered me a 30 minute "Personal Session" to go through setting up the Watch, so I might take them up on it and ask about this sort of thing.
Click to expand...

By navigating to "Downloads", you are only getting access to the podcast episodes that the watch has synced over from your iPhone while charging. You are listening to these episodes offline.

Apple currently does not have a solution for reliably streaming episodes that have not yet been synced to your watch, and I hope the Personal Session doesn't end up being a waste of your time.
 
I am happy with it playing episodes that have been downloaded, the option to stream would obviously be better, but I just want to make sure that I am doing everything right with using my Watch away from my iPhone.
 
  • Like
Reactions: f1vespeed
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