iTunes remote for iPhone dont work with Catalina

Terrible, non-intuitive UI...

Here's how I got it to work. (on Catalina 10.15.2 and iOS 13.3):

1. Have the Phone and Mac on the same network.
2. (on the iPhone) Open "iTunes Remote" App
3. In upper right, tap [Settings]
4. Tap "Add an iTunes Library". (It will show a 4 digit code) LEAVE THE IPHONE ON THIS SCREEN
5. (on the Mac) Open iTunes... oops, I mean the "Music" app
6. Look under the heading "Devices" for the name of your Phone (with a black square "play" icon next to it). Your phone will probably also be listed below it with a "phone" icon... ignore that.
7. Click on the "Play" icon and name of your phone.
8. The Mac will now show you a screen where you can enter the 4 digit code from Step 4. Enter the code.
9. Done. You can now control Music from your Mac with your Phone.

Oh, what a terrible road this has been.

Hope this helps.

After updating to macOS Catalina 10.15.2 and iOS 13.3 I tried using Home Sharing, but that didn't work so I disabled it on the Mac in System Preferences > Sharing > Media Sharing > Home Sharing. Then I launched the iTunes Remote app on my iPhone and disabled it there as well in Settings > Home Sharing.

Still on the settings page in the Remote App I clicked on Add an iTunes Library to generate a 4-digit code. As soon as I did that my iPhone appeared in the Music app on my Mac, in the left menu under Devices. I selected my iPhone in the Music app and entered the 4-digit code.

I got a confirmation message: Your Remote is now able to control Music.

I repeated the above procedure for my Apple Watch and iPad.

Apple has discontinued the iTunes Application within the new MacOS Catalina operating system. It is replaced with a application called Music.

Only with Mojave or older an MacOS (with iTunes) will work with the iTunes Remote app on any iOS mobile device.

There are a few 3rd party apps that will work (Remote+ and Airfoil Satellite are two that I am using). You can choose, play, pause, adjust the volume for each device. However you can't use the apps to choose a playlist or song. They will only play what is already selected on the Mac Music App itself.

I do hope that Apple will ether fix or create a new Music Remote app.

Update:

As some others have suggested, it looks like the stuff I previously used "Remote" for is now included within the Music app on my iPhone.

Here's what I did:

1. I enabled "Media Sharing" and "Home Sharing" on my Mac (see my previous post).
2. I opened the "Music" app on my phone.
3. I observed a new option: "Home Sharing" which I tapped.
4. I then saw a list of available music libraries which contained the name of the music library stored on my Mac!
5. I tapped the library.
6. I have full access to my Mac's music library!
7. Once a song is playing I can open that song full screen on iPhone and choose which speaker I want.

This is working!

I guess "Remote" is obsolete now.

Try this and report back!

Hello,

Last week I decided to contact Apple support about Remote not working. They took me up through 5 levels of support. At the last level an apple senior support person admitted that "at present iTunes remote is not supported in Catalina" and that "They are aware of this situation" and ""have received "many" complaints about this situation as the remote app does not work with the iPhone or Apple Watch"". They asked me to to provide feedback through http://www.apple.com/feedback, Which I did. Not sure if they were just blowing me off or trying to get the problem documented. If you have not already done so, I would like to suggest that everyone here submit a feedback form. The more complaints they receive, I believe, the higher the likelihood is of iTunes Remote app being "re-supported".

Separately, I have noticed that the new Apple TV app on my iPhone allows me to select a home movie on my Mac, that used to reside in iTunes and now is in the Mac "TV app", and then Airplay it to an Apple TV (just like music in the the Music app) BUT I can then shut off my iPhone and the content continues to play on the Apple TV like it would on iTunes Remote. I would be interested if anyone else finds this so. It's odd they would use a different interface implementation for what is essentially the same content.

Here's what I did to get Remote App to work. Click on the Apple, go to System Preferences, then Sharing, then click the box on the left hand side for Media Sharing. Also click the Home Sharing button. It worked for me. Good luck!

With macOS 10.15.2 released on December 10, 2019, iTunes remote functionality has been added as a returning feature to the Music app. Make sure Media Sharing is enabled in System Preferences, and you should be able to use the feature as you normally would.

It’s fixed!!!

Update your Mac to 10.15.2 (Catalina), also update your iPhone to OS 13.3. Delete the ITunes Remote app, then reinstall on your phone. Launch the app, then click set up manually option. You’ll see the remote icon on the left hand side of Music (Where you choose playlists) enter your code and you’re good to go!

Last night was a bittersweet experience. I used the approach others recommend to get my iPhone’s instance of Remote to control Mac Music in 10.15.2 and was overjoyed. We’re back to where we started! However, the night was ultimately frustrating as my other iOS devices wouldn’t pair properly.

ultimately, I found a universal paring solution that worked for me:

1.) turn off home sharing on the Mac

2.) uninstall Remote app on iOS device in question

3.) reinstall iOS devices

4.) during Remote install, first question will be whether to install using Home Sharing or to manually configure the app...choose to manually configure

5.) open Music on the Mac

6.) under Remote app’s settings, Add an ITunes Library...this will generate a 4-digit code on the iOS device

7.) watch left margin of Mac Music to see you iOS device appear...left click on it and you will be prompted to enter the 4-digit code

inknow that it’s frustrating to do a reinstall, but this is a really easy one and it was the only way to get multiple iOS devices to work

by the way, if you wish to control legacy devices (AppleTVs or Macs with older OS versions), you will need to turn toggle (turn on) Home Sharing in Remote app’s setting to do that. Since we just reinstalled the Remote app, you’ll need to use the old school method of pairing the iOS device to the old instance of iTunes...but we all know how to do that

6.) look

Go into Settings on your remote app on the iPhone and choose Add an iTunes Library. Make a note of the 4 figure code, go into Music on Catalina, click the iPhone icon and enter the number. Back in the phone select the name of your library. Then either select a song, or Now Playing.

Thanks to the person who posted that the iOS Music App now contains the functionality of the old iTunes Remote App. In the Music App, select your iTunes Library, wait for it to load the first time, and then you are good to go! This is the right answer. Problem solved.

I found an app that allows you to still run old iTunes on Catalina which allows the remote iPhone app to work. Check it out.... I’ve installed and have been using love it.

https://appleinsider.com/articles/19/10/28/free-retroactive-tool-brings-aperture-itunes-back-to-life-in-macos-catalina

I installed iTunes 12.9.5.5 with Retroactive and luckily got everything work fine, just as before, with Remote via home sharing.

My library contains 3491 albums, 73286 songs for a total of 1.39TB.

Before importing my files into iTunes, I configured it as follows:

• General
  • iCloud music library => unchecked
• Advanced
  • iTunes Media folder location => /Users/my name/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media
  • Keep iTunes Media folder organized => unchecked
  • Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library => unchecked

Make sure you do as said and have everything up to date. once you do this, uninstall the remote app, then re- install it and after plugging your phone into your Mac, open the app and try to add an iTunes library. Your phone will appear twice in the side bar under devices. click the new one and the boxes appear for the code to pair. Enter and it's done.

Fixed for me on one device at least. I had to enable Home Sharing to then enable Media Sharing. After that, the library showed in the remote app on the iPad. No reinstall of Remote on iPad necessary.