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watchOS 6.1: Music on iPhone “Cannot Play This Item”

Hi folks,


Wondering if anyone else experiencing this issue when attempting to play music that is on the iPhone and not on the iWatch (Series 5).


The album details (tracks, artist, etc) appears and are selectable; however, choosing and tracks returns an the above noted error.


Standard reset & repairing performed; still no luck ... was working as expected pre-watchOS 6.1.


Cheers

Apple Watch

Posted on Nov 3, 2019 8:25 AM

Reply
34 replies

Dec 11, 2019 7:43 AM in response to H Gagne

Alrighty; did some digging in my thread archives ... seems the issue is related to what many of discovered and discussed in this thread:


https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8088791


I'm fairly certain that Apple has made (is making) changes behind the scenes to its music platform which is now breaking their implementation of ID3Tags. Just went through the process documented in the above-noted thread and sure-enough, the issue still persist.


If I didn't know any better, I'd get the impression that Apple is expecting all audio to have been purchased via their platform and in .M4A format.

Dec 11, 2019 8:31 PM in response to H Gagne

Like others, I typically play an entire album start-to-finish and have any media iCloud Library syncing options disabled on my iDevices and iTunes respectively.


Additionally, I typically drag-n-drop albums via the iTunes (Mac and/or Windows) interface after physically connecting my iDevice via USB. This approach yields individual tracks as albums. Using the "Add To Library" option in iTunes and then drag-n-dropping from the iTunes Library to the iDevice instead yields the desired result on the iDevice - still doesn't solve the problem introduced as of watchOS 6.1.


That said ..


*UPDATE*


Created a "test" playlist on the iPhone (8 /w iOS 13.3) and added an entire album to it. Selecting the playlist on the iWatch (S5 /w watchOS 6.1.1) plays the content of the "test" playlist as expected.


Also took a moment to compare the "Song Info" properties via iTunes of a track on the iPhone against the Library version; visually, the track metadata appears consistent.

Dec 12, 2019 5:39 AM in response to Automatox

I'd be surprised if they weren't aware of the issue.


When the iTunes/iOS issues began a while back, it meant my having to rework my ID3Tags as they appear in the example. It took quite some time to isolate the root cause - ID3Tag: Group, Work, Work Name being the source of the issue.


Additionally, audio enthusiasts typically prefer to manage the organization of audio files on the file system differently that what Apple envisions. iTunes and by extension iOS handle the file organization differently; this can be seen for iTunes by looking at how the files in the Library folder. On iOS, one can use a tool (ex: iMazing, iExplorer, etc.) to view how the files have been renamed and stored. One would assume properly tagged files would be the only requirement but it appears that physical file organization also plays a part.


In all cases, Apple hasn't/isn't forthcoming about changes to iTunes which makes problem resolution extremely challenging. It certainly isn't making it easy for those of us with decades-large libraries.

Jan 27, 2020 4:13 PM in response to Wurzel666

Thanks for taking time to do that.


I'd be interested in knowing which logs they had you upload; the logs I've looked at don't contain any iphone/iwatch music related errors/crashes.


I'd be surprised if they haven't encountered the issue, but anything is possible I suppose. I can consistently reproduce the problem with my albums from my audio library (MP3) - similar to others who have posted here. In my case: I don't sync my audio with iCloud, haven't joined Apple music, I'm not signed into Home Sharing, and the following options are "off/disabled" in iOS: Show Apple Music, Show All Purchases, Cellular Data, EQ, Volume Limit, Sound Check.

Jan 29, 2020 6:44 AM in response to H Gagne

Just updated to iOS 13.3.1 (iPhone 8) and watchOS 6.1.2 (iWatch S5); as reported, issue persists.


Steps to reproduce (in my case):

  1. Connected to iTunes (12.9.5.5) via USB on macOS Mojave (10.14.6) using MacBook Pro mid-2012
  2. Sync & Backup iPhone
  3. Copy two (2) complete albums via drag-and-drop from Library to iPhone (Manually Manage Music & Videos)
  4. Place iWatch onto charger for five (5) minutes to allow album covers to be visible
  5. Launch iWatch Music app, selectOn iPhone, attempt to play album on iWatch; result: FAIL with Cannot Play This Item
  6. Play album from iPhone; result: able to play any song via Now Playing app


Remainder of post in this thread continue to be applicable.


As a test, I transcoded some test albums as follows:


Channels: Joint Stereo

Bitrate: 192kbps

Sample Rate: 44.100 kHz

Encoder: LAME 3.10

Format: MPEG-1, Layer 3

Tag: id3v2.3 + apev2

Album Cover: 1 only, Front

Volume Levelling: Yes, MP3Gain


Notes:

  • There are *no* id3v1.x headers in the .MP3 container
  • The audio files are stored on a NAS and have been added to iTunes Library via Files > Add To Library. The folder access is set to 'read only' so as to ensure that media is not altered.


Reference URL's:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP3Gain

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LAME

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ID3

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APE_tag

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musepack


Feb 20, 2020 3:21 PM in response to H Gagne

Quick update ... watchOS 6.1.3 released in the past 24 hours ... problem playing items on iPhone as covered throughout this thread remain present.


A few other websites have on-going discussions on this issue ... the prevalent theme being that Aple purchased audio (music) files appear to play as expected.


Ref

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/music-cannot-play-this-item-there-was-a-problem-playing-this-on-your-iphone.2209067/page-2

watchOS 6.1: Music on iPhone “Cannot Play This Item”

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