Play music on iPhone, does not update plays or last played on Apple Music for Mac

This worked for me too. iOS 17.6.1 and macOS Sonoma 14.6.1.

My process was:

1. Hard restarted iPhone 15 Pro.
2. In Apple Music on the Mac, File > Update Cloud Library.
3. In Apple Music on the iPhone, played a song from my library.
4. After song finished, I checked back with Apple Music on the Mac and that song had updated. I didn’t even have to choose Update Cloud Library.

Seems like a success. I have an Apple Music Family Plan, but I tried this with both devices logged into the same Apple ID.

Thanks, Brandisfender!

Yes -- Here's how I did it:

-- Go to Apple Music on Mac

-- Under "Music" on top of toolbar, go to "Settings"

-- UNcheck the red box that says "Sync Library", press OK button - wait about 20 seconds

-- Then check the red box that "Sync Library", press OK button and wait a few minutes

This is how I usually force a syncing between iPhone and Mac.

Let me know if it works!

I updated tonight with version IOS 17.2 . For the first time since November 19th it is now corresponding between my iPhone and Apple Music on Mac. The "Last Played" list again appears to be syncing on Mac. It didn't list any of the music between November 19th - now but at least the two seem to be communicating again.

Confirmed to be solved here. Tested and functions (again) using Apple M1 MacBook Pro with MacOS Sonoma Versie 14.2 (23C64), iPhone 13 mini with iOS 17.2.

For all that still are experiencing this issue I have to point out that it is elementary to update to the latest versions of the OS on all your devices. If you for instance only update your MacBook and not your iPhone, it still won't work properly. If you have hardware that doesn't support the latest versions anymore, the error probably still is unsolved.

[ Ger ]

The new IOS update 17.2 fixed the issue for me. Everything is working as expected.

Idk how many of you have already tried this, but for me this worked to sync play counts again from my phone to my MacBook Pro:

1. On MacBook, go Settings > search for 'media sharing' > toggle and sign in with your apple ID > select update play counts
2. On iPhone, go settings > music > all the way at the bottom is 'home sharing' > sign in with the same Apple ID

Play counts now seem to be updating (although with a few hours lag, but that seemed to be the case before too).

I need to follow up on my post because there’s an important detail that I missed initially.

Apparently, when you add Apple CarPlay into this equation, it doesn’t always work. Oddly, when plugged into CarPlay, you can access your music library either through the car’s interface (mine is a 2021 Subaru Outback for reference) or through the phone itself and you will get two different results. I find that if I play music from my library using the CarPlay interface, the last song I was listening to won’t be the last song that appears on my phone’s Music app when I unplug from the car. Instead, it’ll be the last song I was listening to when using the app directly. So the way CarPlay accesses your music library and the way the phone’s Music app access your music library are complete different. And one updates your library’s play count and the other doesn’t.

Anyone else found this to be the case?

I updated all software on all devices and the playlists is updating again, some delay but they eventually show up.

The only way I have gotten my play counts to update consistently is by turning off 'Sync Library' on my iPhone and then when I physically connect my iPhone to my MacBook Pro via Lightning, I have to have the Music App on my MacBook Pro set to be the master. Then whenever I connect my iPhone to my Mac, I manually tell it to Synchronize, my Play Counts will update.

Make sure both devices are logged in correctly at the same Apple ID account. To be sure: stop syncing on both devices and connect again from scratch. Works like charm here now for more than four months between an iPhone 15 Pro and Macbook Pro M1 16". With some slight delay on the line, though.

[ Ger ]

Just want to say -- me too! My iPhone (12 mini) went through an update on 11/20/23. Ever since then - no syncing between iPhone and Mac. It had been working perfectly for years before IOS Update 17.1 . I have called for service many times -- they always sound confused, despite the number of other people calling with the same problem. Then they say there's nothing more we can try - and pretty much say they hope it will be resolved at the next software update. Very very frustrating!

Problem solved on Iphone SE after updating to iOS 17.2

Mine had stopped working after the update to 17.1 in November but is working again after the update to 17.2.1. Yay!

Hi all: I have iPhone 13 with iOS 17.2.1 and MacBook Air that is updated to most recent version of Sonoma.

My play count hasn't synced properly from iPhone since I "upgraded" from iPhone 8 a few years ago. The play count update in the library on MacBook Air from phone is very sporadic & updates a fraction of the songs played on the phone ~ 10%. I have reported it to Apple Support- my sense is it is not a high priority for them to fix. When I plug the phone into the computer (the old way to sync up play count in library, it says it is "syncing" but nothing happens. One support person suggested that I uninstall/reinstall the Music app on phone indicating "for some it has resolved this issue"- but this would likely lose all of that play history from phone and may cause more problems so I haven't done it.

So on mine -- It takes about 24 hours for the lists to sync. I'm not sure if that's the problem you're describing or not , or why it happens that way. But here's an example of how this goes on my end:

I listen to 15 songs on my iPhone on Thursday. Only the first song syncs with my playlist on the Mac.

I listen to 15 songs on my iPhone on Friday. All the songs from Thursday sync with the mac once the first song from Friday is played.

So it takes about 24 hours for the lists to sync - which was true even before the updates. During the most recent update on 17.1 NOTHING was syncing at all. Now with 17.2 it is syncing again - but with the 24 hour lag time. Hope that's helpful!