Apple Music stopping after 15 seconds. Error code 16833

Hi All

I found a simple solution that worked for me. In settings/music I just reduced the Audio Quality settings. Dolby Atmos didn’t have an impact (I tested a few different options). I have attached screenshots of what I adjusted the settings to

you gotta switch on Download in Dobly Atmos in Settings - Music, then add the song to Library and download them before play.... this is temporary fixed I found myself....It seems there's problem with decrypted Atmos and Lossless file during streaming.

The issue did not consistently occur to me.

Hello I am new here. I have been experiencing the same with Apple Music stopping at 15 seconds whilst using Sony WI1000X. First time I’ve experienced this as I tend to use Apple Music for my Sonos Roam without any issues from my IPhone 12. Anyway all this happens using home wifi. I followed one suggestion to sign out of iCloud and restart then sign in to iCloud and that worked. Music played beyond 15 seconds however I was not using the Sony WI1000X. The moment I used the Sony WI1000X it stops at 15 seconds again. I then tried turning off the Dolby Atmos on my iPhone settings and it seem to work for now with the Sony headphones WI1000X. Hopefully a more permanent fix comes through.

For me, this only happens when I’m offline. In the evening, I switch on airplane mode and listen to music, the I encounter this issue. It also only hope a to a few select songs from an album. If I encounter such a song and turn airplane mode off, then it plays just fine. So for me, it is 100% related to being offline.

This also only seems to happen for Dolby Atmos and Lossless tracks. If I sign out of Media & Purchases in iCloud settings, force quit the Music app, sign in again, disable Dolby and Lossless and then start the Music app again I see that some songs of some of the most recent albums are gone. These are the songs where I encountered the issue. I then have to manually start the download again for these songs of the most recent albums I’ve added. After that I can play the songs even when being offline.

I guess it has something to do with DRM and Apple is checking after 15s and one has to be online for that to work. Otherwise I don’t know why I have to be online.

For the record, I listen with wired headphones via a Lightning adapter.

I solved the issue. First of all you wanna,

1. Delete all your downloaded music.

2. Turn Off Sync Library

3. Turn Off Dolby Atmos & Lossless Audio

4. Set "Download in Dolby Atmos" Off

5. Turn Sync Library back On.

And you should be good to go. I'm afraid some of us won't be able to use Dolby Atmos & Lossless Audio until Apple fixes that bug. If you've been using Apple Music for many years and don't want to switch to other streaming service just like me, this should work.

This really bothered me too as downloaded music would stop playing at 15 seconds if I was offline. For some reason, the following worked:

Go into the Apple Music settings and turn off Dolby Atmos. Then turn it back on. Now my downloaded music works, but I’ll update this post if something happens.

It’s the new updated Lossless and Spatial Audio that ruined the music app. I’ve been constantly prompted with error codes and consistent app crashes.

Plus songs stopping at 15 seconds. You need to turn off the Dolby Atmos and High Resolution Lossless feature in Music from Settings.

My problems were solved —albeit with a band aid.

I find it hard to believe that there could be more than one solution to this problem …

Apparently that is the case.

One more time:

Go to IPhone/Settings/Music and turn off Dolby Atmos.

14.7 fixed the 15 second problem. Update your phone. However, for me at least, even with Atmos always on in the settings, it still doesn’t work for me. I don’t get any issues with the 15 second drop off anymore, but for some reason both Atmos and lossless don’t work for me when trying to stream Atmos tracks. Lossless only tracks work (as long as I don’t have a 256 version downloaded of the same track…which is another issue I made a support question about, but I digress), but Dolby Atmos tracks don’t have a Atmos or lossless emblem upon playing. Really f’in annoying trying to navigate this crap.

I’ve been experiencing this issue with random songs downloaded to my phone. I discovered that deleting the downloaded version of the song and re-downloading the song back to my phone resolves the issue. Downside is I have to do it for every single song I experience this problem.

For me the 15-seconds lossless/atmos stoppage tends to happen on songs I had uploaded from CD many years ago. As a workaround after a song stops at 15 secs I searched my personal library for the song and deleted it (or the entire album) from my library. After I did this, Apple Music had no problem playing the lossless/atmos track. I then re-added the lossless Apple Music version of the song or album to my library (not sure this is necessary but I like my library to contain my music).

I have a fairly large personal music library and this is a cumbersome process for every track that is effected. So I consider it a workaround and not a solution. I’ve been using this process effectively for the past couple days so I’m not sure if will always work but it has so far.

Hope this helps someone and I hope Apple comes up with a real solution sometime soon.

There is a Bluetooth setting icon on the top right of the Music main menu (a triangle with 3 sound arcs coming out from the top). It may have an alert, because it is set to send audio to a device contrary to the Bluetooth setting of your Mac. Setting the preference to match the Mac BT preference fixed it for me. Good luck!

I think this worked for me, the 15 second stop error hasn't happened since I did this:

1 Go to Settings > Music.

2 Turn off Sync Library.

    3       Restart the iPhone 

    4      Turn on Sync library again

You will have to go to settings and go to the music setting. Then you want to turn the Dolby Atmos off. This Should Work 💪.

You will have to go to settings and go to the music setting. Then you want to turn the Dolby Atmos off. This Should Work 💪.