iTunes remote for iPhone dont work with Catalina

Download link and instructions for Retroactive can be found on the author’s page: https://github.com/cormiertyshawn895/Retroactive/releases

On your Mac click on Apple/SystemPreferences/Sharing/MediaSharing/HomeSharing. Closed Remote on iPhone, Close Apple Music on Mac, Reopen Apple Music on Mac, Reopen Remote on iPhone. Voila!

Yes, but turn off and back on your mac... every time I do this I have to manually pair again

What you are describing is not what everyone here is referring to. You have always been able to play music to a single source from an iphone with airplay devices on the same wi-fi network. The problem is not being able to play to multiple airplay devices which is only achievable through the desktop interface in music or the previous version of itunes. This capability has been removed in the Catalina update as the Apple Remote App does not function with catalina. Hopefully this makes sense, but if you do not use multiple airplay speakers in your home you may not understand the situation. Thanks

No it’s not solved. After 20 mins of my phone downloading my Mac Library the music is still played from my phone to the airplay devices not from the Mac, there is no remote functionality in the latest IOS music app of any kind.

Try these steps:

• On your Mac, go to System Preferences ➔ Sharing
• Make sure that "Media Sharing" has a checkmark next to it.
• Make sure that "Home Sharing" has a checkmark next to it.
• On your iPhone or iPad, open "Remote."

When I did this, my Library was there (in Remote) right away.

I can scroll through my Mac's Music (previously called iTunes) library.

However, I can't play anything! When I tap on a song, nothing happens! 😡

Screenshot:

This is not the same thing at all I'm afraid - you are simply streaming from your iPhone, with all the limitations that implies (battery life, Airplay 2 only etc).

Until Mac libraries appear as "services" on the Airplay menu (as Apple TVs do) you can't use the `Music app as a proper remote for them.

Ben, What device is pushing the music to the speakers? The Mac (then you are remotely controlling it) or the iPhone (then you are "downloading" from the Mac, to the iPhone, and then it is going to the speakers).

Here's the test:

1. On your iPhone, do as you posted, and start playing a playlist.
2. On the phone, Turn off WiFi.
3. Wait until the song playing, (and maybe the next one?) have finished playing. (AirPlay sends whole songs to the speakers, it doesn't really stream "live")

==If the music keeps playing, you are Remotely Controlling your Mac.

==If the music stops playing, your iPhone was playing the tunes.

You can also go look at your Mac. Look at the "Music" app. Is it playing the songs you hear coming from the speakers? Can you pause it from the Mac and restart it from your iPhone? That's "remote" control.

For me the icon is greyed out unless the app is running on my Mac. The Home Sharing connection seems to work now that I've stripped out all saved libraries and tried again. Remote is working with the TV app too. Ah, I see the Remote app got updated today. Of course it can't control Podcasts, or Audiobooks playing in the Books app. Still unconvinced by this approach. Thankfully I still have access to iTunes in Mojave and Windows.

tt2

Been following the discussions but hadn’t taken any action since I was fine with Retroactive. I’ve been busy but the updates for iOS and Catalina installed automatically. Had turned off the Mac two nights ago (expected power outage).

Yesterday, picked up iPad, opened Remote - no libraries found (duh, Mac was still off) - turned on Mac and opened Music (not iTunes under Retro), library showed up in Remote on iPad (colour icon) and it worked like a charm (still slower to load artwork than iTunes, and artwork missing from recent purchases). I had not turned off Home Sharing - it wasn’t an issue (in fact, Remote gave its usual “make sure Home Sharing is turned on” speech.

So, they’ve got that working, now they just need to make the Music app as usable as iTunes was (someone pages back wrote a brilliant piece on Music issues - every one of them was bang on).

After the first unsuccessful trial, I gave Retroactive iTunes another try, and this time it worked !

Both iTunes remote and simultaneous airplay to multiple speakers work.

Up and running again with Retroactive! Thanks Tuong66!!!

My mistake. I stupidly assumed my Mac was up to date as I had selected automatic updates. I am now on 10.15.2 and remote works perfectly. Thanks for your instructions

Unfortunately the "iPhone music" app is buggy compared to the simple, light-weight, and responsive Remote app. I have 1662 Albums (23400 Songs) in my library, stored on my iMac. Remote would start up in a flash from my iPhone or iPad and present a streamlined purpose built interface for quick scrolling through all of it. It was fast as light. (Still is fast as light, but the Play buttons don't work anymore, now that Catalina/Music has broken it). When I try to use the Music app + Home Sharing, it takes over 5 minutes to load the library, the artwork doesn't seem to ever cache so then it takes more time to load that, and it seems to forget the artwork when I scroll past it and so reloads it again as I'm trying to navigate, causing the interface to stutter. Further more, Playlist based on rules seem to be broken. Playlists assembled "manually" display properly but the rules based lists show the entire library as their contents. In principle, the Music app + Home Sharing might be a solution, but it won't be until it's as fast, fluid and reliable as Remote was.