Why does Apple Music keep pausing on iPhone?

Started happening with an iPhone 13 pro max and iOS 15.0.1. Happens with Apple Music and podcasts, both with streamed and downloaded content. What finally stopped it was turning off my Bluetooth and that seemed to prevent the pausing.

I noticed my music pausing randomly using Apple Music with my HomePods or if I use my iPhone connected to my HomePods as well. I click play and immediately after it’ll pause. Sometimes it will go minutes at a time sometimes days but it keeps happening and it’s very annoying.

iPhone 8 here, running 14.8.1. The problem only appeared last week while running 14.7.1 and I've yet to find a way to get rid of it. Automatically playing, pausing, speeding up, rapidly cycling through songs... total nightmare! I had to delete the Music app in order to make a call because it was becoming so unpredictable.

I play only downloaded music on the Music app, as I don't have data for this phone (read: glorified iPod). Tried and true advice will be greatly appreciated.

I am having the same issue with my iPod Touch. When listening to Apple Music it randomly pauses, sometimes for a second but other times up to 30 seconds. The frequency of the pauses is also highly variable, ranging from several times per song to once every few songs. I have updated to IOS 15.1 and that has not helped at all. Also deleted and redownloaded the app, again with no success.

Has anyone actually solved this issue?

Erica,

This must be a bug in iOS 14 because I've had this same issue. It is very frustrating and seems to happen whether I have Bluetooth headphones connected or not. I put my phone out on a work table with nothing touching it and my music pauses randomly both in Spotify and in the iTunes app. This has to be a bug and I hope Apple fixes it very soon. It is November 2021 and this is still happening. I am on 14.6 or 14.7, but maybe I need to upgrade to 14.8. I've had an iPhone for 10+ years and haven't had this issue before.

I still have the issue with Apple Music and Amazon Prime Music. I have tried every proposed solution I could find on line and have had zero success. This issue has made my iPod Touch basically worthless since the only reason I bought it was to listen to music. I agree, it has to be an IOS bug.

I am also having the same problems just it happens anywhere. I use a Bluetooth speaker and AirPods and my phone will randomly stop playing audio or disconnect. If I have my AirPods in and out my head back or down the music just stops playing audio. If have a 12 that I bought a couple months ago brand new and the problems have only happened with my 12 and not my 6s before.

Did anything help you resolve this issue?

The suggested fixes of turning Bluetooth off and on, rebooting the iPhone , etc. do not fix the problem. Mine is pausing every 30 secs or so and across different devices/speakers. This is an iPhone issue and I suspect it’s related to a recent software update. I hope the engineers address it promptly. Playing music right now is too irritating.

After the most recent IOS update to 15.3 with my iPhone 12 Pro Max and AirPods Pro & AirPods Max, when streaming music, audiobooks, podcasts, or any other audio media via Bluetooth, the content is repeatedly interrupted by pauses, sometimes at random time intervals. This makes it impossible to enjoy whatever media I am playing.

But if I play the same media from my iPhone on both my Apple Home Pods Minis the issue of random pausing interruptions stops.

First, I speculated that these problems might be caused by the recent rollout of 5G that was announced by two major mobile phone networks. But I see that others have encountered this same issue even before this new 5G event happened.

This is the second glitch that occurred after an IOS update. When IOS 15.1 updated to 15.2 I stopped receiving progress notification from the Apple Exercise App, the one with the 3 colored activity rings. When walking or jogging, listening to Bluetooth streaming media from Apple Music or Overdrive audiobooks App, the Apple Exercise App will not interrupt that media. If I pause that media, then I can hear the Activity App updates on both my AirPods Pro and AirPods Max.

I reported this issue 6 weeks ago, on December 14, 2021, spoke to an Apple Support Advisor, uploaded iPhone and Apple Watch data to him, which he forwarded to Apple Engineers, and was told that it was an IOS issue and would be corrected in future updates.

I am still waiting for that to happen.

Now there are two issues that interfere with my usage and enjoyment of these very expensive premium products.

I used to have the highest regard for the Apple brand. But now I question that loyalty and am very disappointed and frustrated by these continuing and expanding problems, which both need to be addresses and resolved immediately.

Does anyone else in this community feel as I do? Can anything be done to speed up resolving these issues? Please comment and advise as I am a new member and user of the Apple products, IOS, and community.

Thanks for your help.

I am still having the issue with Apple Music randomly pausing on my IPod Touch. I have tried every remedy I could find online and nothing has worked yet. I wish Apple would fix this. I am about ready to try an off brand music storage device and to cancel Apple Music and use Amazon Prime Music.

If anyone has been successful at eliminating the issue with their Apple device randomly pausing while playing music please let me know what you did.

Thanks

This may sound so obvious as to be stupid, but in my case, I suspect it's the lightning connector. If I hit play on the Music app and shake it wildly w/out headphones, it plays absolutely fine... so pausing and no skipping. However, once I add headphones to the mix, via that annoying connector/adapter, it pauses, speeds up, fast forwards to the next song, etc. I haven't yet picked up a new lightning connector; instead opting to use my iPod Touch, but I'll be very surprised if this doesn't turn out to be the fix... at least in my case.

Cedebe, this happens to me on Bluetooth as well... No physical connection.

I have found that when my audio pauses in the car (carplay) the car sees this as a voice command. The microphone icon appears on my dash, and when it goes away the audio sometimes resumes or sometimes I have to hit play

Yes I am having this issue since upgrading to iPhone 12 from iPhone 8 Plus. It is incredibly difficult for me to consider the latest technology going so far backwards in quality. I am going to send it back and return to my iPhone 8 Plus. Apple designers should tune in.

To Ablades and others on this thread,

I think our frustrations may be over. On Monday, 14 March 2022 I installed iOS 15.4 update on my iPhone 12 Pro Max and update WatchOS 8.5 on my Apple 6 watch. Early this morning, wearing my AirPods Pro Max, I played an audiobook on the Overdrive App, and began a 65 minute fast walk on a route that for the past 3-months, since 15 Dec 2021, had resulted in at least 15 or more audio interruptions during the same time and route, while playing a similar audio book on the same app.

There were no pause interruptions in the bluetooth audio stream today. None. The playback was seamless, as it had been previous to when I first noticed and reported this issue to Apple Support last December, after updating to iOS 15.1.

Please let me know if you can also confirm that this issue has been solved by iOS 15.4 update.

I am not at all pleased that Apple took 90 days to resolve such a high impact issue which affected all media playback and product enjoyment, if indeed, it has actually been resolved for others as well.

In addition, the other issue I reported to Apple Support, and which still has an open ticket, occurs when using the Apple Exercise App, the 3-ring activity app that is one of the Apple default Apps in every iPhone. Siri has stopped announcing mile lap times, total distances, and activity speeds from the Apple Watch if other media is playing.

This second issue, apparently doesn't effect all Apple product users. It also started with the update to iOS 15.1, and is also being discussed in the Apple Community Board as thread # 253475658.

A workaround for it is to use the third party free version Runkeeper App instead of the Apple Exercise App, or run both Apps together. The Runkeeper App does announce laps times, distances, etc.

I hope this works for everyone, and that this very troubling issue may be finally considered resolved.

With fingers crossed, Cheers to all.

It doesn't as you still need to play music ONLY from your watch for it to work. Playing music from your phone, ie like the iHeart Radio App, will ensure you do not get voice feedback. Apple needs to fix this as it was working perfectly fine last year. Heck it would be great if they would publicly admit it's an issue, but I think they'll treat this the same way that AMD treated their USB issues. "It only affects a select few users" and ignore it.