I recently upgraded my iPhone to iOS 26 and my Mac to Tahoe.
I have a large music library that I Airplay from my Mac to various devices around the house. The iTunes Remote app on my iPhone will no longer function properly. It will only play one song from an album or a playlist, and the Up Next list is blank. If I initiate the Airplay from my Mac, it still works as it should.
iPhone 16 Pro, iOS 26
Well on Friday morning I took the plunge and started to undo the misery of Tahoe.
Late on Saturday afternoon my Music library was back in a fully useable state.
If anyone is considering doing the same I’d urge you to google the process of downgrading the OS by a bootable USB procedure.
Make sure you do a Time Machine backup to a fresh USB drive. I used this as a reference for what to re-install after the OS was downgraded. It took a good 15 hours to complete but it would I knew it would help me identify what apps I needed to re-install and also that my data was safe.
Make sure you have an “old” version (one created under Sequoia) of your music library file as the ‘upgraded’ Tahoe version won’t work. They are usually in a folder called ‘Previous libraries’.
Export your playlists to files - I forgot to do this but thankfully mine haven’t changed much since the Tahoe.
I then wiped my Mac mini using the bootable USB stick downgrade procedure, remembering to log out of iCloud beforehand. My experience was slightly different to the video I watched but essentially it was quite straightforward apart from a point where the Mac went into some kind of authorisation / registration procedure which no video seemed to mention. I just entered the information it asked for and clicked through it and restarted the OS install in recovery mode, it all went well after that.
I had my Apple Music folder on a separate SSD - so its folders were untouched by the downgrade / wiping. I used the option key whilst opening the music app and pointed the library selection to the one just before I opted to ‘upgrade’ to Tahoe (from the previous libraries folder). All my music was visible again.
I needed to re-import the albums that were imported after the Tahoe ‘upgrade’. I had to make a copy of the album folders (that needed importing again) from the Apple Music folder to a ‘reimport’ folder then I deleted those folders from the original Apple music folder. I simply copied the albums back into Apple Music by dragging and dropping. If you don’t delete the existing album folders Apple Music with duplicate the files with (1) post fixes. You might also see that the album artwork gets stripped, so it’s a case of adding it back.
Don’t forget to reimport your playlists. I only had one playlist different and I simply added the songs back into it.
…. and that was it! I’m back using Apple Music on Sequoia and the iTunes remote app works perfectly!
Thanks Apple for your non testing worthless OS. Tahoe will never get re-installed.
I honestly don’t understand how, in 2025, with all the talk about Apple Intelligence and advanced AI technology, such a basic Apple-made app can still be broken — and nobody seems to fix it. Is this really the Apple we’re talking about?
Exactly this from Mr Tea!
Please, anybody having issues should submit your feedback to Apple.
It is an absolute embarrassment that Apple ever allowed this to be released. The Music App is now next to useless for use as a remote media library.
I’m now considering removing this “update” and go back to Sequoia, at least that worked as designed.
Same problem here. I use a M1 mac mini as a music server for my 2 channel audio system and another M1 mini at my cabin and an M4 in my office. Also I have been a iTunes user going back to when I had my digital audio mac. The one thing that's been consistent is about every other iTunes/music update Apple breaks something in iTunes and Music. On top of this annoying issue which renders Remote useless for listening the apple fix on average takes 6 months to be resolved and no announcement that there's been a fix. I hope this doesn't go the way Thunderbird went with the last major update that removed a lot of features like unread mail count at the bottom of the window. On the Thunderbird forum someone from the "team" pipped up and said "we don't think anyone needs those features and so we will not reinstate them.". AND BTW I've been an apple user going back to the IIe.
I have the same issues as noted above. I am especially peeved that AirPlay for devices needs to be deactivated and then reactivated before the airplay devices will turn on. And then the signal mysteriously drops after 10 minutes, needing to be re-set yet again. This is NO WAY to treat the Apple Music/Remote installed base.
Exact same problem for me, super frustrating.
Apple has I believe forgotten this app ever existed. I hope adding another reply in here might help the collective noise so they might realize they broke something that’s worked otherwise flawlessly for years for a use case there’s a group of people who love/need.
Just piling on; nothing technical to add to the above reports but will reinforce that I’m experiencing the same behavior. Remote + Mac Music library is a primary use case for me, so it’s disruptive and disappointing that this no longer works reliably. After the issues I’ve seen with WiFi unreliability and Remote/Music behavior, I’m saddened that I upgraded to 26.2; I thought I’d waited long enough. Will report to Apple.
Strange, I used Remote to run a playlist to 7 airplay speakers for 29 hours to test it with ios27 on an iPhone 14pro and Mac os27 on an M4 Mini with no problems. I also accessed it multiple times with my wife’s iPhone and my iPad during this time to check status and access and it connected immediately and showed the playback status accurately. After reading your post I connected to verify it’s still working and it is running right now.
It's always done a limited amount. Try selecting an artist or album or artist then album and pick the first track. You will see the 'forward' track button greyed out and it will stop playing after the selected track, because it fails to load an 'up next' list. This has been the case since Tahoe and remains it.
I just want to add it's telling that we have had no response to these issues.
Still no fix in 26.2, pathetic really.
This is the "new" Apple ... without Steve.
Tahoe 26.3 has made no difference. Looks like I’ll be reverting back to sequoia. This whole new music “upgrade” is a farce by Apple and they should be embarrassed.
Wow @Padwack: That's hard-core attachment to the app. That's commitment! I just wish Apple would make whatever fix they need to (I can't imagine it's a difficult one).
Still no fix in 26.3.1 - even more pathetic. Looks like they are casting this adrift.
Yup, still broken in 26.3.
iTunes Remote App no longer works properly. iOS 26, MacOS Tahoe
