Why is Siri unable to play music from my Apple Music library?

Ok update on my situation.

I said the usual “Hey siri” but instead of saying “move this song to xxxx-playlist”.

I now say “move this song to playlist” then I wait for Siri to ask what playlist, then I say the playlist name. And it works perfectly.

This is the same for playing any of my playlists.

To summarize: I now have to complete an extra step by saying play or move to playlist, then wait for her to ask what playlist. Followed by the appropriate playlist name.

This is for both versions of CarPlay in my cars, one is wireless (BMW iDrive) and wired (Ford sync3).

Hope this helps

In reference to the “looks like Apple Music can’t play that” issue, I spent the last three days on the phone with Apple support, unable to resolve the issue, so I created a workaround using the Shortcuts feature where I say “Siri, play playlist” it opens up my list and begins reading all 540 playlist titles, but if you interrupt Siri with the title you want it will immediately start playing it - I set the final function of the shortcut to “repeat all” and it plays until you stop it or repeat the shortcut for another playlist. It’s not perfect but, if like me you don’t want to reset all your data and permissions, it’s a workaround that retains the same functionality and safety while driving and trying to remain hands free. I sincerely hope this helps anyone who needs a fix until the next update corrects this issue (if ever).

Apple update 17.6 available now solved the problem.

Ur theory about Apple blocking Siri from responding to requests to play specific playlists unless you have an Apple music subscription seems eerily correct. My new AirPods came with a free 3 month trial, I accept the offer, voila, Siri now happily responds to commands to play specific playlist. Coincidence??? I think not.

With the recent iOS 17.6 update installed, the Siri playlist failure issue was resolved for me.

HOWEVER… I renamed each of my playlist names to a single unique name that was not at all similar to an Artist, Album or song within my library.

Siri now acknowledges all of my playlists by verbal request and plays their song content in the correct order.

I am having the same problem. I thought I had read that you needed to append your request with "on my iPhone", but that wasn't working. I just tried it with "from my library" as you suggested and it worked.

I can't wait for Apple to fix this. It's seriously annoying.

I updated my iPhone 12 Mini to 17.6.1 this morning and, as of right now, this seems to be working again.

If I press and hold the Siri button on my phone and say "Shuffle (Playlist Name)" it works. (To be clear, my playlists are stored in the Music app on my phone, mostly in MP3 format. I'm not streaming.)

I haven't yet tried this with CarPlay and pressing the Siri button on my steering wheel.

Just updating my post: So as of 17.6.1, I can ask Siri to play a playlist stored on my phone by saying "Shuffle (Playlist Name)" BUT this doesn't work when I'm connected to CarPlay.

When I'm connected to CarPlay, Siri just says "Looks like Apple Music can't play that." If I'm not connected CarPlay, Siri can play my playlist just fine. Super weird.

I can too finally say that it seems fixed now that I have downloaded IOS 17.6!

Apple update 17.6 available now solved the problem.

I also do not subscribe to Apple Music. Why? I have 8,663 songs in my phone (51.8 GB). I have created many Playlists on my phone. Up to iOS 17.5, I was able to play these playlists in Muisc on my phone by asking Siri to play the music while driving. Now it does not work. This means I can not change my music while driving as I have the phone be locked out while driving.

Thanks others on this board I was able to create Actions in Shortcuts that tell Siri to play these playlists. We should not have to do this.

This is a work around for those with Apple Watch or iTunes Match Subscription.

From my observation Siri on CarPlay will only search the Apple Music Subscription for the playlist.

1. Apple Watch: For those with Apple Watch, this method bypass the Siri interface via CarPlay, simply raise the watch to your lips and say: “Hey Siri, play playlist x” and Siri will play flawlessly. Just have to make sure the “‘’Listen for “Siri” or “Hey Siri”’’ is activated on your watch. Search the web, if you don’t know how to do this;

2. iTunes Match Subscription: This is a more complicated work around and make sure you do this on WiFi; or else, the iPhone will gobble up your mobile data.:

• On your Mac or PC, on your iTunes app, Goto the “Settings” select “Sync Library”, then, “OK”. Following that - Click “File” - “Library” - “update Cloud Library”. This takes a while to complete.;
• Delete your music library from your iPhone :- Goto “Settings” - “General” - “iPhone Storage” - “Music”; then, scroll down to the middle of the page for ”Edit“, next to “All Songs” click on the red circle with “-“. Wait for a few minutes for the iPhone to delete all songs from the device.
• Goto “Settings” - “Music” - “Sync Library” toggle that option on.
• Open the Music app, from here you’ll find all your music library and playlist. At this point, the music library is stored online. Select the playlist that you use most often, you will find “+” on top of the screen, next to the name of your playlist. Click on the “+” sign to download the songs onto your device.

So, bear in mind, other then the playlist you have downloaded, the rest of the songs reside online, should you play all music while using CarPlay, you are using Mobile Data. Download as many playlist as you want and only ask Siri to play playlist.

From now on, until Apple Developers fix the Siri on CarPlay playlist search parameter, do not connect your device to your Mac or PC. Any music from iTunes to the devices will render playlist unworkable again.

Good Luck!!

There’s a workaround by creating shortcuts for each of your your playlists. It works for now until Apple breaks that also.

As of today, this is now fixed for me on iOS 17.6.