Music play count

I have this same issue.

Details:

• macOS Big Sur 11.4
• Music 1.1.5.74
• no Apple Music subscription
• all music in local hard drive
• mix of iTunes purchased and ripped music.
• Local (wired) computer speakers, multiple airplay devices (Apple Airport Express, Apple TV)

Issue:

• If playing music to any airplay devices, the song play count and 'last played' time stamp DOES NOT update. This is true for Apple Airport Express and Apple TV (all I have access to). This is true any time an airplay device is selected for playback. It doesn't matter if it's one or multiple devices. Any time an airplay device is selected, the song metadata does not update after a play.
• If playing music only from the computer, play counts DO update correctly.

So...things don't update properly if you play using any Airplay devices.

Also note:

• Only started happening after updating to macOS Big Sur 11.4.
• I have restarted my Mac multiple times.
• Started and restarted Music multiple times.
• Run first aid on the Music hard drive and primary hard drive multiple times.

I posted this as a bug on the Apple Music service site, but there is no opportunity to report a bug for the MacOS Music desktop App. Also, you cannot specify the current OS when posting this bug.

I hope they fix this soon! I need my smart playlists with play count and last played functions working properly.

Fixed as of macOS 11.5 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211896

• "Music may not update play count and last played date in your library"

Hi Ventmo,

We see you're having an issue with play counts not updating, and we'd like to see if we can help out.

Just to clarify, it sounds like the issue is only affecting songs added to the library after the update, is that right?

Are you an Apple Music subscriber?

Some general steps to try would be to first try a quick restart of the Mac: Log out, sleep, wake, restart, or shut down your Mac

While it's a simple step, it can often help with general issues like this.

You may also wish to try logging out of the Music app, close the app fully (Command+Q, or Music menu > Quit Music), and then relaunch it. You can log out at the Music app's Account menu > Sign Out.

Take care!

Ventmo,

Thank you for clarifying. Have you been able to test that issue out with playing it directly on the Mac, as well as via AirPlay from the Mac, while using a new Admin user account? That can help to see if it's system-wide or a user-specific issue.

If needed, this page can help with that: Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac

If it still persists in a new Admin account, we'd suggest reaching out directly to Apple Support for further investigation. You may use this link to start a support request: Get Support

Take care!

“Lossless” is short for “Apple Lossless” aka “ALAC”. It’s an audio format, like MP3 or AAC. Apple recently began offering music in this format, which is compressed without any loss of data, from Apple Music.

Music.app, and iTunes before it, have been able to play music in this format for some time now.

So it comes in two flavors:

• Apple Lossless files on your computer
• Apple Music’s lossless streaming & downloads

It sounds as though you are suffering from the same issue of no play counts, but with your local music. I’m guessing this happens when you use AirPlay? That’s what others have reported here.

It seems there’s two flavors to this bug, as well:

• When using AirPlay, play counts are not recorded, regardless of source (local, Apple Music stream, Apple Music download)
• When playing Apple Music lossless tracks (streamed or downloaded)

Ventmo,

Thanks for clarifying further, as well as taking those steps. Have you had a chance to try logging out of your account in the Mac's Music app, restart the Mac once more, and then try logging back in? This will be done in the Music app's Account menu > Sign Out. You can then sign back in via the same menu post-restart.

Please note that particular step will cause songs saved for offline use to no longer be downloaded to the Mac itself.

Cheers.

Just when I thought iTunes/Music couldn't get any worse. That horrible thing is just full of surprises, isn't it.

I've come up with a kind-of solution. It's a horrible hack. I should be ashamed of myself. Below, please find a script that polls Music every 5 seconds to find out if something is playing. If something is playing, are we within the last 10 seconds of the track? If we are, the script will increment the play count by one, and set the last played date to now.

I couldn't see a way to "listen" to Music for a "track finishing" event or something like that, so that's why I'm polling the app. There may be some weird edge cases that happen if you pause playback within the last 10 seconds of a track, and similarly for tracks that are less than 10 seconds long. But hey - it's a horrible hack. If you've got ideas for improvement, please share here as well.

# how many seconds to repeat (must be less than beforeEndOfTrack)
set repeatTime to 5

# how many seconds before end of track to set played
set beforeEndOfTrack to 10


tell application "System Events"
	repeat
		delay repeatTime
		if exists process "Music" then
			tell application "Music"
				if player state is playing then
					set currentSong to current track
					set songDuration to duration of currentSong
					set playerPosition to player position
					if playerPosition > (songDuration - beforeEndOfTrack) then
						set played count of currentSong to (played count of currentSong) + 1
						set played date of currentSong to (current date)
						delay (songDuration - playerPosition)
					end if
				end if
			end tell
		else
			exit repeat
		end if
	end repeat
end tell

Copy/paste into Script Editor, and run the script. I've had it going so far all day, and it's worked great. I hope this is helpful for people.

I've been doing some troubleshooting. I've also been on with Apple Support and the tech with whom I spoke did not seem to know of the problem.

In fiddling, I have found that simply turning lossless audio off in Music will allow play counts to update as usual. I guess I'll just wait for an update.

Seriously @wildcelt43? Wow. Good detective work!

How could the file format of the track cause Music to advance the play count or not? Crazy. I didn't notice the difference on this because my collection is (mostly) lossless. Fingers crossed for an update soon - especially with the recent push for lossless streaming.

I can confirm, this is the behavior for me. If I play tracks that aren’t “HLS media”, play count & last played metadata are updated.

I have noticed a very small number of exceptions, but it’s like 3 tracks, 1 each from 3 different albums.

I have also discovered that another feature does not work with lossless tracks: setting the stop time (“Get Info” on a single track, then switch to the “Options” tab) is ignored, the track continues to play past the set time, but the playback progress bar respects the stop time.

Feels somewhat related, since it’s limited to lossless tracks. There’s something different about their playback that’s different from lossy media kinds.

thanks for sharing a workaround, though doesn't seem to work for me :/

I just tried remove download, set streaming/download to 256kbps, uncheck lossless audio, and didn't work to fix this unfortunately. For what it's worth I'm playing a smart playlist using Shuffle, which definitely used to update my play count, so not sure if the workarounds aren't working due to my listening setup.

Dolby Atmos is off, though I did previously turn it on just to try it out.

I also can reproduce the problem via AirPlay or playing on my computer. The only thing that does seem to update my play counts is explicitly tapping on a song on my iPhone or iPad (i.e. not via shuffle), or asking my HomePod to play a specific song, and then that'll eventually sync to my cloud library and in turn the Music app, but I don't think that is new behaviour

The AppleScript solution shared previously does not seem to permanently save, seems to be overwritten by a cloud sync within a few hours.

Either way, all of us seem to be having problems since 11.4 :/

I assume you tried creating a new Music library? I'll usually just rename the "Music" folder and have Music (ugh, I still wish they would have called it something different) create a new one. If it doesn't fix it, just close uh, Music and delete the Music folder Music just created. Then rename your old Music folder back to Music and then restart Music. (Grrr... :) )

FWIW, I too have not had success with Apple scripts ever since they started cloud syncing libraries.