WatchOS 10 makes playing music on watch so much more tedious

I'm dealing with the exact same scenario, except for me, it's when I'm in the car driving (as I use a Bluetooth FM transmitter).

On top of having to do the above mentioned steps, I have noticed that if I open the Music app after music is paused for a short while (I'm not sure what exactly causes this), it essentially restarts (like it's the first time I've opened it since I last booted the Watch) and goes right to Listen Now. So I have to hit the back arrow, then Library, then Downloaded, and then find the song I want to play. On watchOS 9 when I opened the Music app, it generally opened to the last album/playlist (or my entire list of downloaded music) from the get-go, unless I restarted my Watch for some reason.

This is an especially bad experience considering, well, I'm in the car, possibly driving, so having to do all of that just to have music downloaded from my Watch play in my car stereo does pose a bit of a safety risk, even if I'm stopped while doing so.

I have been having this issue as well. Are you also seeing that when you pause your music, it switches back to the iphone? And if so, when you pause while still on the watchface, does the music icon at the top briefly show a purple question mark icon?

hockeybrian wrote:

I have reported it and as you see reports are starting to come in of others having similar/the same issue.

I don't see reports that are made to Apple. But, yes, I see one other person responding here. And 5 "me, too" clicks. Even if we assume ten times that number of people are experiencing this issue (which may well have multiple causes), that's an infinitesimally small percentage of users. Either not a bug or an amazingly rare one.

Something clearly isn't working as intended, unless you're saying Apple intentionally made what is reasonably a widely and frequently used app among the install base more difficult to use.

If the app just remembered what it was doing before without acting like it was just opened for the first time, that would probably satisfy most folks. It was sometimes buggy before, but now it's cumbersome as well.

subnetmask wrote:

Something clearly isn't working as intended, unless you're saying Apple intentionally made what is reasonably a widely and frequently used app among the install base more difficult to use.

I'm saying that the problem the original poster described is not something everyone is having. I am not. And, it's not coming up a lot on these forums. And that makes it harder to troubleshoot as there is less data and it makes it far less likely that any updates Apple releases will have any effect.

Most people would just complain on social media and their local communities and Facebook and such. Apple doesn’t exactly make submitting feedback visible directly in iOS. ****, even I didn’t know how to do so until a kind fellow here shared a link.

On top of that, things like this is what we had betas for. If this occurred in the watchOS 10 betas, why was this not fixed?

Tjoeb123 wrote:

Most people would just complain on social media and their local communities and Facebook and such.

People complain here. A lot. Consider the current issue with the inability to use custom text tones that was introduced in iOS 17. It's everyone on these forums and there are many, many discussions in the wider internet.

On top of that, things like this is what we had betas for. If this occurred in the watchOS 10 betas, why was this not fixed?

Perhaps it didn't show up in the beta because it's not a watchOS bug? Or, because it's an extremely obscure one cause by an extremely unlikely combination of conditions that didn't arise for anyone who reported things.

Not everything that goes wrong is a bug. That doesn't mean it didn't go wrong. But, getting invested in the idea that it's a bug usually means people stop troubleshooting.

Hello,

I Have exactly the same problem since watch os 10!! Listening music in a workout, on a non apple Bluetooth headset you are lost in menu’s when you have paused the music. It will start playing again on the phone speakers but not true the headset. Not even possible to hit play in de dedicated music screen (swipe right in workout app) I Have the slight impression apple forces users to go buy EarPods to seamlessly work with watch/music/workout. How dare they!!

Hello again,

This is a build in change, a very bad one. Everyone can reproduce it: if you listen music with a non apple headset. It turns the music player just worthless on Apple Watch during a workout with a non apple headphone. Yesterday I was out for a run and normally I pause (headset button) music every time when coming into high traffic zones and start playing (headset button) again when back in more safe environment. But the play again just never start anymore! Not even from the watch. You need to go searching in menu’s to select the source (watch in stead of phone) and then you can continue listing. This is very badly done. It really looks like a downgrade for the non apple headset users. The same problem appears outside a workout though. So I am sure a lot of users are suffering this issue. Listening music on an Apple Watch becomes just useless this way!

plus: I Was trying to ad a complication to the ‘Now Playing’ app to bypass a bit this problem, but hey..: ‘Now Playing’ can’t be found anymore as a complication. What a coincidence!! Please Apple, update this huge error.

Hello again,

Since I was running out of solutions I have contacted apple to see if they were aware of this problem. Seems unknown for them. But… unlinking and reconnecting my Apple Watch with my phone seems to solve te problem. I Have tried quickly and now I can use pause again without resending play to the iPhone speaker! I’ll test it out in depth but it seems te solution. 

Realy sorry to complain directly about product and brand protection…!! 

Stays a problem: Now Playing can’t be added as a compilation. But ok, no dealbreaker.

Jan

I'm not what you would call a "runner", but for me, it's not even a week - it happens even over the span of a few minutes. I can be driving with my music (paired to my Watch as it's a BT-FM transmitter), then go into my local McDonald's or something (I do use its app to use my account code even when I'm in the store), then get back in my car and I have to pick my music again, starting from backing out of Listen Now. Again. It's like the app just randomly closes.