Gotcha, but as the HomePod has already been announced and the macs updated, I don't see another one this year.
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The Music Library is Gone in watch OS 4 [MERGED]
- Thread starter blairh
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Gotcha, but as the HomePod has already been announced and the macs updated, I don't see another one this year.
Their October keynotes aren’t very press oriented, usually it’s dev stuff Xcode, occasionally hardware, OS X Server. But this year with hardware already announced and no real info on the HomePod its hard to say what it’ll be if it even happens.
Last year they announced the new MBP on October 27. Candidates for this year would be the loooooong overdue Mac Mini, and maybe even the rumored Apple-branded display. Also, the decision to drop the AirPort product development in its entirety doesn't ring true. At a time when Apple is working on so many home ecosystem things like HomeKit, HomePod etc, and with mesh networking on the rise, it seems really odd that they would just give up and leave the home networking to third parties...
This is annoying and I hope Apple brings back the music library option. Not happy with this change.
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Here’s the thing. Apple has this big “40 million songs on your wrist” thing planned. They want you to subscribe to Apple Music and then stream music from AW to your AirPods. That way there’s no need for music to take up physical space on your watch.
Unfortunately this big plan won’t be ready until October. Which could mean January Or never. Kinda defeats the point of their super hip skateboarding ads
Anyway, long term, that’s the method. No word on iTunes Match or your “own” music library.
As far as I know there isn’t a way to stream podcasts either. Which is ludicrous
Unfortunately this big plan won’t be ready until October. Which could mean January Or never. Kinda defeats the point of their super hip skateboarding ads
Anyway, long term, that’s the method. No word on iTunes Match or your “own” music library.
As far as I know there isn’t a way to stream podcasts either. Which is ludicrous
Being able to control you music collection from the Watch Music app wasn't taking up any space on the Watch anyways. And streaming Apple Music from your Watch means subscribing and purchasing an LTE watch. ($120 Apple Music + $120 LTE service + $399 LTE Watch. No thanks.) Plus all my music is on my iPhone already. No need to sign up for new services totaling $240 yearly that I don't want/need.
Library is there if you have the iTunes music library enabled that's built into Apple Music.
The watch is doing this by leveraging the iPhone's data connection - not it's wifi. (checking on my router, it's not connected at the moment).
This thread is also discussing the same topic: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...the-watch-for-me-what-the-hell-apple.2066963/
The watch is doing this by leveraging the iPhone's data connection - not it's wifi. (checking on my router, it's not connected at the moment).
This thread is also discussing the same topic: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...the-watch-for-me-what-the-hell-apple.2066963/
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OTOH you can upload 8GB of music to the watch. I think they want to gradually de-link it from the phone.
I believe this will all be resolved when the full Apple Music solution arrives in October.
Judging by the number of LTER connectivity issues, they need to find a fix for that before offering streaming music services to the watch
I get that they”re disappointed with the Apple Music subscription numbers and want to create an ecosystem where AM becomes an offer we can’t refuse. Fair game, but IMO they should start at the other end and make sure that the actual music library isn’t inferior to the competition.
The missing songs issue hasn’t really improved, especially when it comes to compilation albums. I went to check out the new Twin Peaks soundtrack album (the one with songs performed by various artists at the Roadhouse), now that the event series has ended. There are 20 songs on the album. Spotify has 17 of them, 3 are greyed out. On Apple Music, a whopping 9 songs are missing – half the damn album. I had to go to Spotify Free to hear the "whole" thing, sans the 3 missing on both.
So, playing music via HomePod and Apple Watch should be fun... trying to reach a broken music library by arguing with an idiot voice assistant without the ability to correct the input by typing.
Another thing they better fix soon is the lumping together of singles and albums. On Spotify, it has to be at least an EP in order to qualify for "album". On Apple Music, everything is an "album". A radio version and a remix of a single song? Yay, it's an ALBUM! If you find a new artist and want to add their actual albums to your library, you're in for a tedious trial and error procedure of clicking on every cover to see whether it's an album or single (more often than not, the title holds no clues).
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I'm hoping perhaps when they add Apple Music support to watchOS 4 that this includes some cloud library solution where the watch uses the iPhone to serve music and then when away from the iPhone the watch uses LTE. This could provide a single interface that would be perhaps less confusing to customers.
As it stands, the removal of the iPhone library actually removes lock in to Apple music. If I can't browse my library on the watch then why shouldn't I try Spotify or Amazon music? watchOS 3 actually provided a great incentive to use Apple music as I had access to all my cloud music + apple music to choose from on my watch, with the benefit of the larger storage of the iPhone to store music locally.
Siri is just not a reliable solution for initiating music. Too often it makes a mistake or mysteriously loses access to an internet connection.
As it stands, the removal of the iPhone library actually removes lock in to Apple music. If I can't browse my library on the watch then why shouldn't I try Spotify or Amazon music? watchOS 3 actually provided a great incentive to use Apple music as I had access to all my cloud music + apple music to choose from on my watch, with the benefit of the larger storage of the iPhone to store music locally.
Siri is just not a reliable solution for initiating music. Too often it makes a mistake or mysteriously loses access to an internet connection.
Being able to browse music was one of the things I liked about the apple watch and I bought a 256GB phone in part because I needed storage for music.
For music controls, it's now on the same level as my old Sony smartwatch.
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So what alternatives are there? I read the post about neplayer.
For music controls, it's now on the same level as my old Sony smartwatch.
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So what alternatives are there? I read the post about neplayer.
May I ask why you think this? I've read this online a few times in forums but have yet to see that this is anything but speculation. Why remove this feature now in 4.0 only to return in next month?
I will say yet again how utterly ridiculous this decision by Apple is. I'm paying for iTunes Match, I should have total access to my collection on my Watch, as previously. It makes complete sense. The last thing this move makes me want to do is join Apple Music and purchase an LTE Watch.
I guess we will see for ourselves when Apple Music comes to the Watch next month. As of right now I continue to be baffled by Apple's choice on this front.
Here’s the story I’ve heard that makes the most sense, related by people who claim to be in position to know. Of course this is speculation on my part, is I can’t prove they are who they say they are.
The full Apple Music solution was intended to be released with watchOS 4 and the new series 3 watches. When it became clear that it wasn’t going to be ready on time, they pulled it out of this release. But the old music solution also wasn’t ready and needed to be rewritten for OS 4. And no time for that of course. So were left in an interim where neither of the solutions are available.
Done! Thanks for the link.
The other problem I have with this change is now my iPhone has no idea what the Watch is playing... if I start music on my watch, I might want to change, pause/resume, or see that on the phone, but iPhone only shows what I last played on the iPhone. Not what’s currently playing on the Watch. I don’t think the coming Apple Music update will fix this.
Yes, in WatchOS 4 the ability to browse music on your iPhone has been removed; you can only browse the music stored locally on the Apple Watch.
I have been an Apple Music subsriber for ages and think it's great but I never use it if I'm not connected to WiFi. Anything I download from it happens on WiFI so I have no need for LTE and wouldn't use it for AM. I cancelled an order for a chrome SS S3 and have about a week to either return, or keep an S2 SS. This change killed my only real reason for having an AW. (I'll end up with one ultimately since I'm in the "cause it's there, and I can" camp) If there are apps that can do a workaround of the player screwup and Apple doesn't resolve it, or won't, is getting an S3 and returning an SS S2 worthwhile? It's become apparent that getting a new watch every 2 - 4 years or so seems to be the norm for most people here, so I'm trying to wrap my head around that too. Any suggestions?
This whole 'Apple Music Solution' that's supposedly coming down the pipe is NO value to me. I will not use cellular data to stream anything.
This whole 'Apple Music Solution' that's supposedly coming down the pipe is NO value to me. I will not use cellular data to stream anything.
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