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Music continually quits unexpectedly in Big Sur. My library is fairly large, 22,595 items.
never had this problem before Big Sur. Twice I had to re-boot to get Music to open after quitting.
any ideas?
iMac Line (2012 and Later)
You are absolutely correct, Tim Lovern, that «The universe of possibilities is quite large.»
This is, of course, why Apple has their Beta test program, so a larger set of users, sampling a larger portion of that «universe of possibilities» can be tested.
However, as large as that pool may be, it still cannot cover the entire «universe of possibilities».
In the «universe of possibilities»—barring triggered hardware issues—the greatest range of possibilities is in software interactions: especially with a major Operating System (OS) upgrade: after all, all software interacts with the OS.
Updates are seldom expected to suddenly change interactions with other software.
Upgrades, on the other hand—especially the more major the upgrade—are seldom expected not to require corresponding upgrades to associated software.
Quite frankly, I’ve been surprised there haven’t been more issues with third-party software!
(The hardware “thing” was brought up because:
safe mode didn't provide any answers, just more questions... in safe mode:
not in safe mode:
in safe mode, I have no audio output, other than airplay! I use a small amplifier attached to the headphone port for my music play.
I ran disk utility on all my disks and there were no issues.
puzzling. The problem is sporadic, so I'll just keep an eye on it and keep reporting when the issue happens for now. Very frustrating. I love my iMac, but this does irritate me.
Anything you try to edit or change in any way in Music causes the app to go into "forever beachball" mode. I haven't ran into any other problems with Big Sur yet, and there have been some nice surprises. But the Music app, was NOT ready for prime time.
I can't plays music at all right now, after booting this morning. reporting it to apple has been a challenge as it won't let me select any option other than to share info with Apple, which I didn't want to do.
How can it be an Amazon problem? Music is an Apple product, I have iTunes purchases and CDs I loaded. There’s no Amazon anywhere in the mix...
I have noticed that if another app plays a sound or tries to do audio output, music will also quit. Maybe some issues around device ownership and multiple processes running...
Welcome, Tim Lovern and @All, to Apple Support Communities!
I’m sorry y’all seem to be having trouble with the Music app on Big Sur.
Unfortunately, all I can provide y’all with, at this time, is the assurance that this is, most certainly, not a fault in just the Big Sur software (which includes Music), since many of the rest of us have experienced no such troubles.
This suggests there is either a hardware or other, third-party, software interaction.
A recommended test for the third-party software possibility is to boot into Safe Mode, and try Music there, without running any third-party software.
If you have trouble in Safe Mode, without running any third-party software, this greatly narrows the possible causes.
If you have no trouble in Safe Mode, then try rebooting into normal mode, and see if the problem recurs.
Since booting into Safe Mode includes performing a repair of your filesystem (which is why it can take extended time [as much as 20 minutes] to boot into Safe Mode), there are cases where this can actually correct some issues even running normally.
As a software engineer, the fact that others aren't having an issue, doesn't mean a lot. There is a huge number of use-cases possible, and it may just be that I'm one of the ones that wasn't tested. The universe of possibilities is quite large.
The problem did not exist prior to Big Sur. My hardware has not changed since the software upgrade. When the only thing that changed is the OS, then the OS becomes suspect.
because of thesis of my music library and my photo library, I have these on external drives, connected via a certified thunderbolt 3 cable.
I'll try the safe mode boot, in case this does something. I'll also use the disk utility to check my external drives....
I would be surprised if the headphone port were not working under Safe Mode.
If you unplug the external amplifier from the headphone port, so you are using the internal iMac speakers, do they work?
If you plug earphones into that port, do they work?
I take it that the external amplifier, attached to the headphone port, usually worked when not in Safe Mode?
Now. The principle issue I thought we were trying to address, in this Discussion, was the Unexpected Termination of the Music App, within Big Sur.
Does this issue persist under Safe Mode?
(The headphone jack issue appears to be an additional problem that may not even be related. However, if there are drivers missing, for some reason, that could be related to both. Possibly. However, having such drivers go missing in Safe Mode is troubling.)
unplugging the speakers made zero difference.
and yes, I've been listening this way since I had my first gent Intel Mac Pro, which was superseded by my current iMac. pf course this worked in normal mode - I'm listening to a live stream while responding here.
in safe mode, not being able to hear music playing makes it difficult to diagnose.
The problem is sporadic for me, not predictable. If it were every song, every time, then the issue would be easier to detect.
that I can be listing for a while, and that music quits unexpectedly is the issue. After recovering from it quitting, I can play the song it quit on without any problems, so it isn't an apparently corrupt song file.
Disk utility reported no issues on any of my drives.
I guess I could try playing music for an hour or two, silently in safe mode to see if it fails...
the speaker issue is puzzling.
Yes, Tim Lovern, sporadic or intermittent problems are always the most difficult to track down or diagnose!
However, having no internal audio (internal speakers or headphones [jack]) in Safe Mode sure doesn’t seen anywhere close to normal.
Perhaps this is a reproducible issue where progress could be made.
However, I recommend that that be under its own support question.
(Just to make sure I don’t miss it, I would appreciate it if you would post a link to that Discussion, here, if that’s OK with you.)
Same issue here, although it has changed a bit during the past 10 days: Now I can play music from my meagre library. However, still quits/freezes when I try to listen to song-based radio, which is what I typically do. Very frustrating! Pre upgrade to Big Sur, Music started repeatedly launching a dialog box asking me to join Music; would stop playing if I ignored, and if I clicked on it, the resulting modal simply confirmed that I already belonged. Support suggested I upgrade to Big Sur, so I did that, and now I no longer get the modal + CAN play playlists but Music stops (progress bar doesn't move yet pause/play button shows pause as the option, meaning Music is in Play mode).
I have had this problem and its not fixed but I have tracked it down to only happening when I sync an iPhone with my mac with the Music App open. Its annoying but I now know not to sync with the Music app on my mac when syncing with an iPhone. Once the sysc is comnpletred the Muisc App works fine until sysncing with another iPhone. Hopefully Apple with fix this soon
I have had this problem and its not fixed but I have tracked it down to only happening when I sync an iPhone with my mac with the Music App open. Its annoying but I now know not to sync with the Music app on my mac when syncing with an iPhone. Once the sysc is comnpletred the Muisc App works fine until sysncing with another iPhone. Hopefully Apple with fix this soon
Very good, Mike form Godalming!
Have you reported this through the Music Feedback? (macOS, Apple Music, or some other Feedback.)
That’s the way to make Apple Engineers aware of the issue.
(They don’t read these Discussions.)
Music quits constantly Big Sur
