Alarm Clock is not playing downloaded songs from Apple Music

If you haven’t fixed it yet I finally figured it out delete the song from the iPhone then go into settings and choose your download audio quality as high-quality not lossless then download it set it as your alarm and it will work perfectly

I had the same issue with my alarms not playing my downloaded music from my Apple Music playlists.

I am on iOS Software Version 14.7.1

Under the Music tab under settings, I turned Dolby Atmos off, Lossless Audio off(under Audio Quality) and turned off Download in Dolby Atmos.

I also had to redownload previous songs that had been downloaded with the previous settings.

I tested my alarms with Apple Music from the new downloads and they worked again.

It was through a lot of trial an error that I finally got the right combination.

Hope this helps.

You can turn off the higher quality audio settings like Dolby Atmos, remove the download ON JUST the song you want to use, redownload it, and then turn the settings back on. That way the rest of your library still has better quality audio.

Struggled a while with this but figured out a solution that works for me.

1. Delete from downloads and library
2. Download again, add to library but NOT to any of your created playlists.

The latter was the culprit for me. I kept “lossless” on also.

If you want them in a playlist, find an alternate from another album of the same artist and add that one separately to the list.

Hope this can solve issues for other users. Good luck.

1. Un-download the song you want.
2. In settings, turn off "Download in Dolby Atmos"
3. Download the song(s)

You can turn Dolby back on for other music downloads, but any song you want for an alarm, it'll need to be off.

If LOSSLESS AUDIO under Settings > Music > Audio Quality is already turned off and the song is still not playing for your alarms:

1. Delete your current download of the song.
2. Navigate to Settings > Music > under AUDIO:
   1. Set Dolby Atmos to OFF
3. Then on that same Music screen (Settings > Music) under DOWNLOADS:
   1. Switch Download in Dolby Atmos to OFF.
4. Redownload the song
5. Set song as alarm

This should ensure it plays.

delete the song you want as an alarm. Go to settings, then music, then audio quality, and set downloads to high quality. Then re-download the song you want as an alarm and it should work… just did it for myself right now. Alarms don’t like high res lossless 🤷🏻‍♂️

Finally found a fix that worked that someone else in this thread mentioned. In your settings, go to the music app settings, scroll down to "download in Dolby Atmos" and turn that option OFF. Then delete the song from your downloaded library, and download it again. Worked perfectly. Hope this helps.

I have an old iPad Pro running iOS 15.3.1. I was having the same problem. I would set an alarm, choose a song, the name of the song would appear as the sound in the alarm setup panel. Looked dandy. However, when the alarm went off at 6 am the following morning, one of the Apple sounds played instead of the song I had selected. The song was still listed as the alarm sound in the iPad Clocks app.

I opened Music on my iPad, scrolled to the song in question. There are three horizontal dots on the far right. I clicked that to see a drop down menu. I then scrolled to Download and clicked. An open gray circle appeared just to the left of the song length time. In a few seconds it was filled with a down arrow. Then I closed Music. I set a test alarm, selecting the song I had just “downloaded?’ and it worked! The alarm went off and played my chosen wake-up song!!

Go into the Music App, find the song you’re wanting your alarm to play, and ensure it’s downloaded to your phone. If the song isn’t downloaded to the phone, a default alert will play.

MAKE SURE the song you download is the SAME version you’re trying to play on your alarm (single or EP or album or remix or whatever).

I had the same problem and this resolved it for me.

I had this same issue for a long long time! I this a while back Apple changed the way iTunes/Apple Music works. I noticed that even though my music would play, it wasn’t necessarily downloaded to my device. I’m assuming my music was all in the cloud. I just went into Apple Music and tapped the “download” arrow at the top of the song I want to have play as my alarm. It downloaded to my phone and will now play as my alarm. Hope this works for everyone else out there!

In my case it’s because songs I was selecting for my alarm were historically downloaded to my old « iTunes » app, but while visible and accessible in my newer « Music » app, they were not also « downloaded » into my Music app. So I fixed this by: Open Music app —> Tap Library icon —> Tap Songs —> Tap 3 dots beside song I want —> Tap Download. After grey down arrow shows download, Open Clock app —> Edit alarm you want —-> Tap Sound —> Scroll ti Songs section and Tap « Pick a Song » —> Tap Downloaded —> follow prompts from there. System will only allow you to make a choice from songs downloaded to your Music App and not those on your iTunes app.

I dunno if this helps but ever since I got the iPhone 14 Pro Max I also wasn’t able to choose a song for my alarms. It would let me choose the song but it would just go to radar default instead of the song. So in Music, I turned off Dolby Atmos and Lossless Audio as these are listening enhancements. I also went to album or song and removed it from downloaded not deleting it. Next I went to download the album or song again but downloaded without Dolby Atmos. I finally can use a song for my alarms. Quick and easy!

So… quick update. I finally managed to get my alarms working again with my music. I’m not sure if it matters that you own the music you use or you can use downloaded Apple Music songs but, what I did is:

1) delete the purchased download song I want to use,

2) removed it from all Playlists,

3) turned off Lossless option in the Music Settings

3) turned off Dolby Atmos in the Music Settings

4) downloaded the song

5) setup new timers using the downloaded song and …

… YAY … I got it working again!

what I do know is two things…

1) I’m not messing with anything until Apple has some official “fix” announcement or,

2) Apple updates/provides some official documentation on how to actually use music with an Alarm Setting.

I’m exhausted just thinking about how much work this was and never, never have I ever thought/expected a workflow to configure something as simple as this would be so painful, especially with Apple. It shouldn’t be this problematic.

Apple, please fix whatever’s going on with this please.

The ONLY reason I went to this much trouble rather than just using an OOTB alarm sound is that I wanted something gentle and calm sounding and ALL the alarm sounds, at least to me, is jarring and annoying.

ok, so maybe this isn’t just a quick update! “My bad”

1. Un-download the song you want.
2. In settings, turn off "Download in Dolby Atmos"
3. Download the song(s)

You can turn Dolby back on for other music downloads, but any song you want for an alarm, it'll need to be off.