WatchOS 10 makes playing music on watch so much more tedious

Thank you for sharing this because what you have described is completely true and I have the same issue.

On OS9, the music app on the watch only handled the music stored natively on the device or on the Apple Music subscription using the watch as the source.

In OS10, it seems apple merged the music functionality across the watch and iPhone and now and even when I pair my AirPods or my Pulse 4 to my watch, and select a playlist on the watch, it starts playing music using my phone as the source and not my watch. This is incredibly frustrating because no matter how many times I download the playlists I want, Music on my phone just ALWAYS has to keep undownloading some songs even though optimize storage is turned off in setting. This doesn’t happen on my watch, and it’s very annoying to have to pull out my phone to skip songs while I’m snowboarding just because my phone uninstalled a bunch of songs and now the music app is stuck trying to play it rather than just skipping to the next song.

I do want to add it is genuinely heartbreaking to watch Apples software and ecosystem regress every year. What is Craig doing? How could he allow the music experience to become so shabby?

I used to play music from my iphone using my watch by opening music app on the watch and going to “On the iPhone” section but after upgrading to WatchOS 10, it’s gone. Now my only option is to download music to my watch and play it but the problem is that my music library is larger than my watch’s storage. My first time seeing a company remove a useful and harmless feature just wow

This has frustrated me ever since WatchOS 10. And has not yet been resolved the latest WatchOS version (10.1.1). I use an Apple Watch Ultra with Apple AirPods Pro 2 on my runs. And I always play Music from a playlist downloaded to my watch.

Typically, I disable Bluetooth on my iPhone (15 Pro, always latest iOS version) before I start my run (I had a bad experience with an incoming phone call a couple of months ago in WatchOS 9, when my phone connected to my AirPods during the run and then refused to reconnect to my Watch after answering that call). I then started a downloaded playlist on my watch. This worked like a charm.

Until WatchOS 10. As others have documented here, the Music app on the watch always tries to start the Music on the iPhone. Even if Bluetooth is disabled on the iPhone and the AirPods are already connected to the watch. I noticed that magically Bluetooth on the iPhone regularly was switched back on again (!). Even when disabling both Wifi and Bluetooth on the iPhone, the watch continues to activate the Music app (!).

I have become 'better' in listening music from my Watch, but it always takes me around 10 minutes before I have it properly fixed. Disabling Bluetooth on the iPhone first. And a lot of cursing. Today, it took me a reboot of my watch before my AirPods finally connected to the Music app on the Watch.

So yes, I recognize all the issues mentioned in this thread. It has nothing to do with non-Apple headphones or EarPods as I experience all these issues with my AirPods Pro 2. It is due time for Apple to take this serious and fix this, as indeed WatchOS 10 is far inferior to earlier WatchOS versions.

(And it is annoying indeed that you always need to re-select the Downloaded section on the watch, then select the playlist, then activate Shuffle instead of before when it just resumed where you left it. Apple, this is a no-brainer to fix!)

I use Airbuds and have the problem. It worked fine in June/july - the whole reason I bought the buds. It’s been a night ever since. I can not get music and workout alerts to play from my watch to my airbuds unless I shut the phone off.

Same problem here as of hockeybrian.

Is there any way to downgrade to watch OS 9 as I don’t see any advantage in OS 10 other than it became more cumbersome and complicated in controlling music downloaded to the watch?

unfortunately Apple developers have been always slow in taking any actions to fix issues like these as if they never do a mistake in any UI they develop

Watch OS10 makes everything more tedious. I used to like my watch. After the OS10 update, it was nothing more that than frustration personified on my wrist. It felt like a cheap knock off of itself. Now I don’t bother with it and won’t be purchasing another. Honestly, the OS UX across Apple devices gets worse with each update. It’s sad as the hardware is well engineered, but the OS is infuriating and it’s disenfranchising users while damaging the brand. It literally feels like the OS was redesigned by someone that never used an Apple product. How long does this continue until they realize that maybe it’s time to tap Craig Federighi out as OS lead. I have used Apple products for the entirety of my computing life. This is the first time I am seriously looking to move away from the brand entirely and it is 100% attributed to UX degradation.

You are amazing, thank you for posting this and letting me know that I'm not crazy!

I've had the exact same experience you're describing. I'd start my music from home on my watch with my phone nearby. When I'd start running and get away from my house and phone, the music would stop and I'd have to interrupt my run to start it again from my watch. This happened whether or not my playlist was downloaded on my watch or not. I'm using Powerbeats Pro for my running headphones.

This didn't happen prior to the WatchOS10 upgrade. I used your workaround this morning and am pleased to report that it worked for me. It's not a "pretty" solution, especially since prior to WatchOS10 it was pretty easy to choose where you want your music to play when starting it from your watch.

Thank you for posting this!

Maelock, not sure if it would help with your problem, but I have the airpod pro and when I put them on, if you go to your phone, settings, a line will appear with listing your airpod, click on it, scroll down to "connect to this iphone", click there and you have two options "automatically" or "when last connected to this iphone". If the chosen option is automatically, it would explain why your earbuds connect to you phone as a first option. Choose the other option "when last connected to this iphone". By default (or sometimes after an update), it will revert to "automatically", which means that as soon as you put your earbuds on, it connects to your phone. It took me some time to figure that out, in fact I found it by chance. It should resolve your problem. Since you have other earbuds than the airpods, not sure if you have this option.

The music app with WatchOS10 is a real screw up as far as I am concerned. I haven't figure out how to put the "remember the last song played" on my watch. I have a 1200 song playlist, and it starts back at the beginning after each workout, and the "shuffle" option is a waste of time (out of 1200 songs, it played the same song twice after 3 workout). Before, I could go 2 months before reaching the last song.

It seems the Apple has lost track of why people buy a watch, for me, it is an add-on to my iphone...I do not want a mini-iphone on my wrist...

The thing that blows my mind is that when I leave my phone behind and go for a walk with only the Apple Watch on me and no internet at all, I still play songs that was never downloaded on the watch. How can that even happen. Where these songs come from if they are only on my iPhone and my iPhone is not on me.

Thank you for posting this. I've been thinking I was alone in this experience and it's been driving me nuts. The only reason I download music directly to my watch is so that I can go phone-free on my runs, but the only way I've been able to play that downloaded music is to turn off my phone. I will give your workaround a try the next time I go out, but wholeheartedly agree that this new watchOS has made the simple act of playing music an absolute headache.

watchOS 10.2 seems to have made it worse in my experience.

I listened to downloaded music from my Watch with my AirPods at work today. No problems there. Then I get off work, and on my way out I pull out my phone (Watch music is still playing at this point), then putting it back in my pocket, deciding instead to reply to a message on Watch. After that I get to the car, and put my AirPods back in its case (so the Watch can connect to the transmitter when I turn the car on), then I turn the car on. I turn on the speaker and hit play on the transmitter....nothing happens.

So I return to the Music app on Watch, only to find that it's restarted entirely. Then I notice.....it's connected to the iPhone. Not the transmitter (at least for playing music). Even weirder, the song I was playing in Watch is now what wanted to play on iPhone. So I had to do the whole song and dance to change it back to the transmitter and have it running through my car stereo.

Why Apple has yet to fix this is beyond me. Even Zollotech on YouTube hasn't brought up the issue.

It's absolutely enraging. I was just in exactly the same scenario - wanted a quick run with music over bluetooth headphones and for some reason the watch insisted on playing from the phone, with no sign of an option to play from the actual watch

Come on Apple, there has been a real regression in usability with WatchOS 10, and this the worst yet. Of course I expect the Watch's music app to play music first and foremost on the headphones linked to the Watch, and I shouldn't have to go digging in the airplay options when it isn't even using airplay. WatchOS 10 is a lot prettier than WatchOS 9, but it's a lot less usable.

I've had this issue and/or a similar issue since WatchOS10 and with 10.2 it was the worst.

As others have stated, my watch would constantly try to play through my phone and not my earbuds. On occasion I would get a message that I would need an Apple Music Subscription to play the song I selected. I own all the music I have stored locally on my watch so this was confusing.

Here is what I noticed and did to fix the issue:

I noticed some music was greyed out on my Watch under downloaded and playlists.

I also noticed in the music section on the Watch App on my phone 4 out of 5 of the playlists I previously had were gone. So, I deleted the remaining playlist and re-added all 5 back. Then I rebooted both devises and placed them on the charger. Mainly the watch to re-transfer my music back. (Oddly enough the storage amount under music on my watch did not change from before to after)

Now it does not try to control my phone through Airplay, nor do I see any greyed out music on my watch. When I disconnect and then reconnect my earbuds they start playing where I had left off.

One or more updates somehow broke my downloaded playlists. I think my watch couldn't find the songs so it automatically tried to play them through my phone. When that didn't work it told me I needed a music subscription.

TLDR: Make sure the music you previously put on your watch is still listed under added music on the Watch App on your iPhone. If not, re-add it, reboot, charge and that should fix the issue.

I hope this helps anyone who's been having the same or similar issues as I have had.

Same problem! With phone in locker at gym and music loaded onto watch and playing from watch, the watch jumps back to phone at random times and crackles due to do Bluetooth distance from phone. Kills the workout flow and vibe. Nearly fell off the treadmill trying to fix it. Stupid.

I have contacted Apple SEVERAL times regarding this issue. Here is the issue with me. I have ALL of the advanced technology devices, but by many standards I am technologically primitive. My wife, children, and even my granddaughter rib me continually. At any rate, my first Apple Watch was the series 3 and I used to be able to control my entire iPhone library with over 200 albums and 14k songs EASILY with the watch. I was fortunate to be able to utilize this function for well over 3 years. One day I updated both my iPhone and Watch and the control function was zapped. I tried EVERYTHING. I called Apple and I’ve emailed them. I have posted on the Apple Community several times. It would seem obvious that if we were capable of utilizing full control of our iTunes music on our iPhone with our Apple Watches before, it shouldn’t take much to reimplement this function. Apple has a way of appeasing many of its other customers/subscribers with various apps, but they seem to ignore those of us who enjoy music. This is extremely frustrating and disheartening as an owner of an iPhone, iPad, MacBook, and Apple Watch.