WatchOS 10 makes playing music on watch so much more tedious

I am having the same issue. It really seems like a bug that Apple needs to fix. It is counterintuitive as it is now in os10, and it is really a pain every run now. I have to turn off the iphone now everytime i want to run. @apple help!

To add a little more to what happens with me:

I put my Jabras in my ears, they say "Connected", I open Music on my Ultra2 and select a playlist to listen to. A RANDOM song starts playing on my IPhone 15 Pro Max, not even the same playlist. I Power OFF my phone, then select music again on the watch, select the playlist I want and now it plays the expected song.

The watch always reverts to controlling music on the phone rather than simply playing through my earbuds (which always stay connected by the way). I have Auto Launch turned off on my watch and my phone.

This is a very annoying software problem with WatchOS. Playing music on watch is not at all intuitive.

Not sure how to let Apple know but hopefully someone will read these discussions.

After all… The bug came back… So sad.

I Have done 2 workouts without any problem, but listening music during my yesterday’s evening workout, with brand new Apple AirPods Pro 2(!) was very difficult again. Play during workout: default on iPhones. After a lot of manual manipulations have set it on Apple Watch, so far so good. The first crossroad - pause music for safety reasons - play and yes, plays music again on iPhone. What a disaster. I’ll contact Apple support again. Slightly glad the problem appears also on their branded Bluetooth devices, it should definitely be a bug…

You’re not alone and I understand everything you’re typing. I usually turn my phone all the way off. Start the music on my watch. Turn the phone back on, which usually hijakcks the AirPods. Then I have to tell the watch to use the AirPods (again), restart the song, and it works

Perhaps what's more irritating (or rather, what's compounding this issue) is that watchOS 10 now closes apps in the background that aren't being used. That's generally not a problem, unless it's Music.

This means that if I pause music from the app, then turn my wrist down and go do something else, even just for a few minutes, the Music app can (and often does) close, which means I lose where I was at in the song and album/playlist, and have to do the above mentioned steps all over again.

It is seriously infuriating every time this happens.

I too am having the same issue. I shut my Bluetooth off on my phone. I also noticed once I get the music to play off my watch it will crackle or pop as the cellular signal changes. I shut cellular off on my watch and it was much better. Yes, this was all OS10.1

Hello,

Unfortunately, this is not 100% working for me if the Apple Music app is yet open on the iPhone. The earphones then switches easily to the iPhone once the pause function is used by the earphone buttons. Once I force close the iPhones Apple Music app it’s nearly working as expected, but still switches to iPhone from time to time when using the earphones buttons. If only using the Apple Watch ‘play now’ software controls it’s fine. Hooray! I Am still searching for a more consistent workaround where the earphone buttons can be used all the time.

What a sad change in WatchOS 10!

Hey Apple folks out there, please explain what’s the reason for implementing this silly setting!

I have exactly the same issue as hockeybrian. I've been using apple watch to work out for years. I recently upgraded to Apple Watch Ultra 2 and iPhone 15 and have had this incredibly annoying issue ever since. The watch defaults to wanting to play music from my iPhone - literally using my iPhones speakers instead of the PowerBeats Pro headphones I always use. When I try to go in and change air play source as hockybrian does, sometimes it will just spin and not connect to my headphones. It's at that point I just say the heck with it and leave the headphones at home. Is there an issue with using my old(er) Beats headphones with the new Apple hardware/software?

Thanks for this post. Since Apple watch 1, I've used this feature for working out. ie: I hate working out with my phone around me, so Apple Watch with downloaded music was the best!

In recent weeks, I couldn't figure out why this kept playing on my phone and not the usual through my watch and AirPods, and couldn't find in the settings where to tell the music to play from (watch or iphone)

This solution works and I'm now able to workout or run without having my phone present!!!

There was another update on Thursday for the iPhone. I figured out how to get to working again and after the update is was broken again. Got it fixed again but shouldn’t have to go through a bunch hoops to get it to work.

I’m glad to see I’m not the only one. Upgraded to AW9 from AW3 and this is incredibly annoying. I was already thinking of turning off my BT before starting to exercise, as I always leave my iPhone in the locker.

Hello,

I am having the exact same problem, so the problem is definitely out there. Since IOS 10, playing music from my watch is a pain. I use it almost every day for working out, but each day I have start over and find my last song instead of it just starting where it left off the day before. Today I had my air pods in, went to my playlist, scrolled to the last song I’d played the day before and when I hit play it played the song from my phone which then transmitted to my air pods from the phone. I couldn’t get it to play music directly from my watch no matter what I did.

By the way IOS 10 for Apple Watch is the worst version by far. It’s unwieldy, awkward and generally sucks.

Yes, the issue is the same with AirPods.

Beside volume and FW I cannot use the controls on my Airpods at all.

It is even slightly more stable on my Shocks Bluetooth headphones, probably because the AirPods are in constant contact with all devices in range. This can be turned off on Shocks.

It is so sad Apple has implemented this horrible configuration.

Thanks for the steps because I could not figure out how you were supposed to do it. I was resorting to turning wifi and bluetooth off in settings to get it to work. That's awful. I recently spent an inordinate amount of time trying to find the repeat button which is similarly buried and hard to find.

I guess apple watch users who exercise and listen to music from their watch is not a large use case?