Apple Watch Series 3 with iPhone - music issues (no default shuffle? watch seems confused)

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Apple Watch Series 3 with iPhone - music issues (no default shuffle? watch seems confused)

To say I am frustrated with the Music controls on the Apple Watch is an understatement. It's pretty much the whole reason I bought the watch and Apple AirPods. If I go on a "short" run (5 miles or less) I don't take my phone and I simply use my Apple Watch to stream music - and this works okay (and that means not "good" just "okay" - it's glitchy).

Besides the general glitchyness of streaming form the watch, I can find no way to make "shuffle songs" the default setting when I choose a playlist or have a playlist auto-play when I select a workout with the workout app. I mean when someone has a playlist with hundreds of songs, why would they want to always start with the first song in the playlist and then hear each song in order?? This is a royal pain when you are working out and you have to spend several minutes fiddling with controls trying to get your playlist to shuffle!

Next issue - when I go on longer workouts, particularly bike rides, I like to take my iPhone and would prefer streaming music through the phone (as to not wear out my watch battery). This is such a cumbersome process - and I can find no way to shuffle songs *within a playlist* at all - when using my watch to control streamed music though the iPhone, and besides that... more glitches abound. The watch gets confused as to what it is trying to control (watch music or phone music) among other glitches.

Please Apple, make this work better and more intuitive, and for goodness sake PLEASE GIVE US A "ALWAYS SHUFFLE SONGS" default option for playlists.

Posted on Feb 25, 2019 8:05 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

seanfromllanelli

Level 6

18,355 points

Feb 25, 2019 8:23 AM in response to Randy Maynard1

Actually ... i figured the answer out myself this afternoon. Here's what you need to do. Go to the MUSIC app on your apple watch. Click on the three dots on the bottom left. Click on SHUFFLE. This will enable shuffle via your MUSIC app. Start a song as normal. Push the crown of the watch in to exit the MUSIC app and go to your WORKOUT app. Start a new workout. When the workout starts, swipe to the left to see the in-app music player for the WORKOUT app. You'll notice that the song you are listening to is displayed and now when you go to the next song, it will shuffle as if you were in the MUSIC app. Enjoy !

from a Apple user

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Answer 2

julieda

Level 7

32,030 points

Feb 25, 2019 8:08 AM in response to Randy Maynard1

Follow these steps if you want to send feedback to Apple:

Open your web browser of choice and enter www.apple.com/feedback into the URL or Smart Search Field. ...
Select your Apple product from all the ones displayed on the screen.
Fill out the Name, Email Address and Subject fields.

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Answer 3

Feb 25, 2019 8:59 AM in response to seanfromllanelli

Hi Sean,

It is true that I can get it to work using the method you describe - and this is the method I've been using. However, since I have an iPhone and also a series 3 cellular watch, and I sometimes stream through the watch and sometimes through the phone using the watch to control the phone - this process becomes quite cumbersome and the watch seems to often get confused. It generally takes me 5 minutes of fiddling with the controls to get the music to stream through my phone (while being controlled with the watch and shuffling songs in a playlist), and even then it is glitchy.

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Apple Watch Series 3 with iPhone - music issues (no default shuffle? watch seems confused)

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