tvOS 15 Dolby atmos stops working in music app.

Genius! Reset and update seems to have to resolved this. I found that a newer Apple TV 4K (new enough to have been delivered with the newer style remote) worked properly running 15.2 while my older Apple TV 4K took the reset and update process to resolve this. So glad to find a solution.

Unfortunately I am also having this issue. Was working perfectly fine before TVOS 15 and now having the exact same issue you all described. Even the fix isn't even a fix since it will stop playing in Atmos or surround all together if you manually switch to another atmos track. Lossless works perfectly fine even when manually switching songs. Have my apple tv 4k connected via HDMI to my Yamaha receiver with all latest updates on all hardware so I know it's not the hardware. Thought it might be an issue because I have several airplay speakers around the house but now know it's definitely a software issue. Please fix asap, apple. I really want to embrace atmos music but this is a major glitch. Only work around I found is to change the audio format and leave as Dolby Digital 5.1 in settings. When you do this, it will play atmos songs in 5.1 surround and non atmos tracks in 2 ch, even though receiver shows it's receiving a 5.1 signal.

Update: Installed new software update and fixed issue. Thanks Apple

Good news - I’ve installed TVOS 15.2 and first impressions are that Apple may have fixed it, had no issues so far today for the first time since TVOS 15.

Your not the only two. The exact same thing happening to me since the tvOS15 update, I was hoping the new bug fix would sort it in tvOS 15.1 but sadly not. I have a Marantz NR1510 AVR amp with Dali Oberon 5.1 speakers and had no problems at all with tvOS14 atmos music in mutichannel, it sounds sweet. I too can still listen to it and if I don’t skip songs it will continue to play multichannel through an atmos playlist but if I want to go straight to a new track I have to let it start then manually take it back to the start of the song to get rid of the annoying left channel only bug. I really hope they sort this out soon. If you hear of any fixes other than this I’d love to hear them.

Hello clintgray,

Welcome to Apple Support Communities!

We understand Music is not playing in Dolby Atmos as you'd expect. We'd like to help.

We see that you're coming to us from Play audio in Dolby Atmos or surround sound on your Apple TV.

Is this happening with all songs or just specific songs in Music? Some content may not support "Your Apple TV and HomePod speakers automatically play sound in Dolby Atmos or surround sound if it's available with content that you watch."

Take a look at "How to listen to Dolby Atmos on your Apple TV 4K" in About spatial audio with Dolby Atmos in Apple Music. Check for any tvOS updates. Also, try turning Dolby Atmos on and off in Music settings.

Take care.

Hello mario49,

i can confirm this behavior as described by clintgray.

Within my signal chain I was able to reproduce this bug reliably solely by playing, pausing and starting a song again from 0:00. All done solely with Apple TV remote.

1. Play Title “STAY - The Kid LAROI & Justin Bieber” - from 0:00-0:19 only left front, weak center, right front only noise and . All other channels missing. From 0:19 all vocals missing, just drum and background noise. Overall poor quality.
2. When reverting the song to the beginning by either skipping back or klicking the wheel “left arrow” all channels come up well distributed, quality is clear again.

I could provide video material of it hoping you to fix this bug soon, Atmos music is a very nice addition to my home theater setup!

For further reference: my setup includes a AppleTV4K 2021 series hooked up to a Yamaha 5000series Receiver connected to 75” Q9F Samsung TV.

All HDMI cables are high quality 8K UHD certified and shielded.

Best regards from Germany

I own the CX-A5000 which is indeed not capable of playing Dolby Atmos natively but it „decodes“ PCM just fine as 5.1 Signal.

I write „decodes“ since it is set to output the „pure direct“ signal without alternating it.

Also regarding @richeboy‘s statement I can confirm - as long as there is a sustained atmos signal from e.g. an atmos playlist everything‘s fine but in case of an downmixed stereo song playing in between it all goes ham and I have to adjust it according to the procedure mentioned above. (Re-starting the song)

This is really a tricky Situation - i do not trust this signal chain to play music unsupervised without me in the room/remote in hand which is annoying/discomforting to say the least.

I have a Pioneer SC-99 and I am using AppleTV to play Atmos tracks from Apple Music and it will randomly start cutting out uncontrollably after a song or two. Pausing and playing make it stop until it starts again moments later. It's incredibly disappointing because it sounds amazing through my system when it isn't glitching out.

I also downloaded 15.2. There is no improvement on my system. Still have to pause and restart on Atmos mixes in Apple Music. Source material, Neil Young & Crazy Horse “Barn”.

I was so hopeful for a fix.

Same issues as other posters.

In a playlist with a mix of non Atmos and Atmos mixed songs and the Apple TV4k in auto, for the Atmos mixes to play correctly with audio in all channels of my 5.1 system, each Atmos song has to be paused and restarted to play properly. Otherwise non Atmos songs sound great and Atmos songs are missing channels and sound pretty terrible. Didn’t happen with iOS 14. Does that help explain it? So in my case at least, it seems to be Atmos mixes playing through a 5.1 non Atmos system where this fails. iOS 15.2 has not solved it for me.