Purchased Music can't play after Apple Music expiration

Question

Level 1

9 points

Purchased Music can't play after Apple Music expiration

I've run into a bug. After cancelling Apple Music, turning off iCloud Music Sync, and then resyncing all my playlists back to my iPhone 8 Plus on iOS 13.3 from my MacBook Pro running Mohave from iTunes 12.9.5.5, I have one playlist with songs that are iTunes purchases where if I try to play certain songs by selecting them with a touch, it brings up a popup sheet asking me to resubscribe to Apple Music. These are iTunes purchases so it shouldn't do that. Other older purchased songs work fine. Also, if I just play the entire playlist and skip to the track in question, it plays correctly there too.

I've deleted the songs from iTunes and redownloaded them and resynced, and it still happens.

The only workaround I found was to delete the playlist and recreate it with a different name.

This works, but immediately after syncing I found that if I select a song to play, then switch to back to the Play button on the entire playlist, and then select a different song again, the song shown now playing is different than the one actually playing, and also when it finishes it doesn't continue to the song right after like I expected, but continues back to where the playlist previously left off (I guess it has this playing next functionality from iTunes now). And it seems to start playing one of the earlier songs not from the very beginning, as if it's resuming from a different point. Sometimes it also seems to not finish playing a full song but skips to the next one. I'm not sure if I'm just running into correct behavior that is different from what it used to be, but it seems confusing to me.

iPhone 8 Plus

Posted on May 9, 2020 7:47 PM

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Answer 1

CarlAVII

Community Specialist

May 10, 2020 6:34 PM in response to brunogmachor

Hi brunogmachor,

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities. I understand you're having some issues with the Music app on your iPhone 8 Plus since you've cancelled your Apple Music subscription.

First, you mentioned that you're still seeing the pop-up appearing asking you to subscribe to Apple Music. If you go to Settings > Music > turn off Show Apple Music. Once you've turned off that setting follow these steps:

1 - Quit the Music app on your iPhone with these steps: How to force an app to close on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.

2 - Restart your iPhone.

3 - Launch the Music app and select a track to play.

If you're still unable to play a song, which you know was synced to your iPhone, I would recommend updating your iPhone to the latest iOS, which is 13.4.1 (as of the time I'm writing this). Be sure that you have a backup of your iPhone data before you install any updates. Having a backup of your data is like having an insurance policy, you don’t plan on using it, but it’s great to have if you need it. Here's how to create a backup: How to back up your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

When the backup is complete, Update your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. If the issue persists, and the song was purchased from iTunes, delete the track from your iPhone and follow these steps to redownload the music: Redownload apps, music, movies, TV shows, and books.

You mentioned that the playlist is not playing in order. Check and see if Repeat may have gotten turned on: Repeat and shuffle music.

All the best.

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Answer 2

brunogmachor Author

Level 1

9 points

May 11, 2020 1:49 PM in response to CarlAVII

So, I've turned off Show Apple Music, but I can still get this popup to appear if I search for the song and select it from that view, instead of playing it directly from the playlist. It only happens to songs from two Doctor Who albums I purchased.

Also, if nothing was playing, and I go to the playlist and select the song to play it, the sheet at the bottom that is supposed to show the current playing song thinks no song is playing. If I select a different song that didn't have the Apple Music problem, it correctly shows the new song. But if I select one of the problematic songs again, it doesn't update the now playing sheet, it still shows the previous song playing. I think there's something wrong with the metadata for these songs that's messing up both the Apple Music popup and the now playing view.

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Answer 3

jeremy_v

Community Specialist

May 11, 2020 3:47 PM in response to brunogmachor

Hello brunogmachor,

Great work isolating this issue down to the two Doctor Who albums that you've purchased.

The next step will be to delete these albums from your library, and redownload them again following the steps in this article: Redownload apps, music, movies, TV shows, and books.

If you have already done that and the issue persists, Contact Apple Support for more assistance.

Enjoy the day!

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Answer 4

brunogmachor Author

Level 1

9 points

May 11, 2020 3:51 PM in response to jeremy_v

Thanks Jeremy.

I already deleted the albums and redownloaded them, it was the first thing I tried.

Deleting the playlist and recreating it mostly worked, but I still see the problem if I select the songs manually through the search page rather than playing them through a playlist, which now works.

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Answer 5

May 11, 2020 6:02 PM in response to brunogmachor

Hi brunogmachor,

You've done a great job troubleshooting and isolating it to the songs that you play though the search page.

Based on that information, you'll want to Contact Apple Support for more assistance. Be sure to let them know the troubleshooting steps that you've worked through and the results that you've had up to this point.

Cheers.

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Purchased Music can't play after Apple Music expiration

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