Apple Music play count not working well and very inconsistent

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Level 1

20 points

Apple Music play count not working well and very inconsistent

I recently started a 6 month free trial after simply using my own library with iTunes on Windows to transfer Music to my iPhone. Play count tracking only updated when I would connect my phone to iTunes but it was flawless.

Since starting the trial I listen to music on my iPhone, Homepod Mini and Apple TV. Play count is inconsistent and definitely doesn't track everything. "Last played" between devices isn't consistent. Sometimes play count takes a few days to update, sometimes it's instant, I can't tell what causes either. This morning I listed to 9 songs while in the car, 1 is showing as played in iTunes on Windows, no idea if the others will or not. The Apple TV (4k, latest version) doesn't seem to report play count at all. Homepod Mini's sometimes do but are less reliable then the iPhone. Problems don't seem meaningfully different between music added from the Apple Music subscription or titles from my own library. I've even had songs show a "last played" date but that show a 0 play count.

I have unlinked/linked my account in Apple music on my phone, verified all devices are on the latest firmware, verified all devices have "Sync Library" and "Use Listening History" enabled, have also disabled and reenabled both those settings on all devices.

Play Count tracking is a very important feature to me and I'm a bit baffled as to how something so basic is so broken. Is there anything I can do to resolve this or should I just accept that it won't work and go back to simply listening to my own library without an Apple Music subscription?

Posted on Feb 22, 2022 1:56 PM

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Answer 1

Sharon_419

Community Specialist

Feb 23, 2022 11:01 AM in response to Splurch

Hey Splurch,

Thank you for using the Apple Support Communities! We understand play count is not updating consistently between your devices when playing music, and we can tell this is an important feature to you.

You've done some great troubleshooting and we want to make sure you get the support needed to investigate this more. To do that, we'd recommend reporting this behavior directly to Apple Support. You can use this link to connect with them: Get Support

Take care and stay well!

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Answer 2

SnapperT

Level 1

35 points

Feb 23, 2022 9:56 PM in response to Splurch

My play data syncs in batches, at random intervals. Sometimes every couple days, sometimes it takes 4 days or more. It is very aggravating. I posted my analysis with many details: Ongoing issues syncing Play count and Las… - Apple Communitypple Community

I finally was able to get a work order open and they are supposed to call me back on the 28th with an update.

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Answer 3

Splurch Author

Level 1

20 points

Feb 24, 2022 10:19 AM in response to SnapperT

Yeah I've noticed that it can sometimes take days, the weirdest part I find is that one song can update instantly and the others listened to at the same time won't show up for days (or seemingly not at all.) There's also seemingly a disconnect between the "recently played" list between devices. My iPhone will have the full list of what it has played and the "recently played" list on iTunes on Windows and my iPad will match each other but usually only get a fraction of the players from the iPhone. When/if song count updates the "recently played" list doesn't change. It just seems to be an absolute mess somewhere on the backend and I can't figure out anything consistent.

I'll open a support ticket when I get a chance to see if they can help but it really feels like I'm just sinking a huge amount of time into a problem that I can solve by dropping my subscription and going back to my own music collection. I just haven't decided if sinking even more time into this outweighs the time I would save by the subscription and more easily managing everything.

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Apple Music play count not working well and very inconsistent

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