You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

📰 Newsroom Update

Billie Eilish is Apple Music’s Artist of the Year for 2024. Learn more >

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Why when I play music with dolby atmos its not working it stops at 15 seconds of the song?

Why when I play music with dolby atmos its not working it stops at 15 seconds of the song?

iPad Air, iPadOS 14

Posted on Jun 8, 2021 9:53 AM

Reply
37 replies

Aug 6, 2021 5:22 PM in response to mabula_allen

Mabula_allen, Here is what I've posted on this thread and what has worked for me since. Have you tried these settings?:


Jul 24, 2021 10:54 AM in response to peterpantinkerbell

Wow. What a coincidence! Been having the same issue (always with Shazam downloads) and got off of the phone yesterday with two Apple techs and went to the park today and my problem appears to be solved! I also noticed that my problem seemed to occur in my car a lot but then noticed that when I 'disconnected' my iPhone from my cars stereo ...the problem went away. At the park my settings were:

Dolby Atmos: Automatic

Audio Quality: Lossless Audio 'ON'

Wi-Fi Streaming: Lossless....>ALAC up to 24bit/48 kHz

Downloads: Lossless .......> ALAC up to 24 bit/48 kHz

Also....under Music....'Allow Music to Access'......> Cellular Data 'OFF' ('ON' , when it worked once/twice before , was on of my gripes...who wants to have to use data to play music).


And: AirPods Pro.....> 'Spatial' set to 'On'

Hopes this helps. Also found out from the techs that some songs, downloaded from Shazam or otherwise, might not play because Apple Music has lost/never had rights or the artist pulled the song.....so , just because Shazam says it has downloaded a song doesn't mean it'll play!!? ! When this happens you may get a dialog box stating : 'Cannot Open...This content is not authorized' . If you get a 'Connect to Wi-Fi or Cellular to Play Music' dialog it means you haven't used Apple Music for that Song or Playlist in a while and simple have to re-download. Preferably using your home Wi-Fi. This was a gripe of mine with AM years ago but one of the technicians told me it's been 'fixed' provide you have 'Synch Library ' on in Music settings. Time will tell on this but I've gone back to putting a monthly reminder on my calendar to 'Dnld. Apple Music'.

Hope this helps as many as possible.

Jun 25, 2021 2:27 PM in response to Walalang

Same 15 seconds issue on iphone and ipad when:

  • listing to Atmos Dolby tracks and
  • not in a wireless environment, I don‘t use mobile music, just downloads
  • regardless whether directly via iphone or Bluetooth connected regardless of the device (ear phone, car, …)


I gave Apple a call. We tried:

  • new download of the tracks
  • delete music app and re-install
  • remove device from music …
  • reset the iphone and re-install from a backup

Result:

  • several hours of funny work and no difference from what I experienced before prior to the call


I believe Apple has an issue which hopefully will be fixed soon.

Jul 3, 2021 10:59 AM in response to A. Stradford

Tried to listen on my MacBP from their (Apple) Spatial selection (email advert sent to me from them)...don't usually listen from the laptop but noticed on several of the songs:

  1. Nothing would play for at least 15-20 secs.
  2. VERY LOUD Click/Pop from one of my laptop speakers when the song started!!!! Volume was set to low at the time.

Because of 2. above will not continue this 'test'. But: downloaded , via Shazam, one of the songs and will see what happens when I'm outdoors and away from any wi-fi. Don't know why Apple just won't put a a simple notice detailing EXACTLY which settings for iPhone/Airpods and AirPods Pro should be for its users.

Jun 16, 2021 8:08 AM in response to Walalang

I have the same problem with both spatial and lossless, but for me it seems only when not connected to wifi and with the ‘Allow Music to access Mobile data’ switched off.


So when playing only tracks downloaded to the iPhone when not on wifi they all stop at15s in.


If I toggle the ‘Allow Music to access Mobile data’ to on then the problem goes away, ie, no stop at 15s for downloaded tracks. I just have make sure I’m only listening to downloaded stuff and not streaming when not on wifi!


I don’t have the 15s issue when on wifi, for either downloaded or streamed tracks.

Jun 16, 2021 3:29 PM in response to Little_dalek

I have the same problem, regardless of whether it’s Dolby Atmos or even with an external dac and non-Apple headphones. Apple support told me the same thing, downloaded one song and it worked for me too. Today it stopped working. If I drag the music dot beyond the 15 second music plays and then I don’t have a problem with succeeding songs. There is clearly a programming bug

Jun 22, 2021 9:54 AM in response to Walalang

I have tried everything. On the way to work it was happening. At work with wifi it does not. This is so frustrating. I saw solutions like log out of iCloud and back or log in and out of Apple Music. Both are a pain and it keeps coming back. Apple should be ashamed of not quickly addressing this issue with a permanent fix. They advertise this feature and it does not work properly is quite the black eye!!! Very frustrating! Give your customer a gift that doe not work properly is pretty bad!!


Jun 26, 2021 2:17 AM in response to Walalang

I am also having the same constant issues with some of my songs downloaded in Dolby Atmos or even Lossless Audio just randomly stopping at 15 seconds.


I have also noticed that my music sounds noticeably a lot quieter through my AirPods Pro when streaming in Dolby Atmos but louder when streaming in Lossless audio or regular AAC format.


Spatial audio as well only seems to work through my AirPods when I’m watching music videos, but not when streaming albums or singles that are available in Spatial audio with Dolby Atmos.


I have tried deleting and re-downloading my songs and it doesn’t seem to work 😕

Jul 24, 2021 4:32 AM in response to Walalang

Guys, don't know if im a bit late to help you out... or at least try too.


just got off the phone with an apple advisor after a few days trying to resolve the same issue I see a few of you having, I haven't actually tried this in my car yet but this is where my problem like all your problems seems too occur the most.


the guy on the phone told me to do to these steps so im hoping it works.


settings-music-dolby atmos and make sure this is off as it tries to find the highest possible quality of audio it can and he said this could be causing my problem.


hope if you do try this it works for you all.


good luck

Jul 24, 2021 10:54 AM in response to peterpantinkerbell

Wow. What a coincidence! Been having the same issue (always with Shazam downloads) and got off of the phone yesterday with two Apple techs and went to the park today and my problem appears to be solved! I also noticed that my problem seemed to occur in my car a lot but then noticed that when I 'disconnected' my iPhone from my cars stereo ...the problem went away. At the park my settings were:

Dolby Atmos: Automatic

Audio Quality: Lossless Audio 'ON'

Wi-Fi Streaming: Lossless....>ALAC up to 24bit/48 kHz

Downloads: Lossless .......> ALAC up to 24 bit/48 kHz

Also....under Music....'Allow Music to Access'......> Cellular Data 'OFF' ('ON' , when it worked once/twice before , was on of my gripes...who wants to have to use data to play music).


And: AirPods Pro.....> 'Spatial' set to 'On'

Hopes this helps. Also found out from the techs that some songs, downloaded from Shazam or otherwise, might not play because Apple Music has lost/never had rights or the artist pulled the song.....so , just because Shazam says it has downloaded a song doesn't mean it'll play!!? ! When this happens you may get a dialog box stating : 'Cannot Open...This content is not authorized' . If you get a 'Connect to Wi-Fi or Cellular to Play Music' dialog it means you haven't used Apple Music for that Song or Playlist in a while and simple have to re-download. Preferably using your home Wi-Fi. This was a gripe of mine with AM years ago but one of the technicians told me it's been 'fixed' provide you have 'Synch Library ' on in Music settings. Time will tell on this but I've gone back to putting a monthly reminder on my calendar to 'Dnld. Apple Music'.

Hope this helps as many as possible.

Jul 26, 2021 8:24 AM in response to All Day Breakfast

It's not fixed with 14.7.


Today I removed the complete Music library from the iPhone.

Deleted the Music.app.

Reloaded the Music.app

Downloaded some songs.

Walked outside for an hour, no Wifi, no Mobile data.


After around an hour. Song stopped and can't be played.

Not anymore after 15 seconds like before.

Now after 2 seconds ...


And this even on a matched song, not an Apple Music song.

So I can't even play the songs I bought.

Jul 26, 2021 8:38 AM in response to kh91

Sorry to hear this. Your experience sounds so frustrating. Here’s part of the Apple release note for iOS 14.7


iOS 14.7 includes the following improvements and bug fixes for your iPhone:

...

– Dolby Atmos and Apple Music lossless audio playback may unexpectedly stop

...


Personally I haven’t experienced any problems since the update. As you seem to be having severe problems which are different from the 15 second problem I suggest you call Apple Support.

Why when I play music with dolby atmos its not working it stops at 15 seconds of the song?

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.