Problems with IOS 5 Music App

I discovered something that some might find useful. If you have a smart playlist syncing to your phone, try turning off the "Limit to ?" rule!

Like a few of you, I've been seeing quite of bit of slowdown in the iPhone music app. One playlist in particular would take something like twenty seconds to load, and would take about the same amount of time if I selected shuffle from within the list. I tried a couple of the suggestions made on this thread, and must have un-and re-synced my music library about a dozen times, with no success.

Experimenting a bit, I discovered that it was actually only one playlist that was causing all my trouble. I have a smart playlist set for any songs I've rated above 3 stars. All my other playlists are "dumb" and display none of the trouble I've been experiencing. At first I thought it had something to do with the size of the list (approx. 1500), but managed to eliminate that as a possiblity. I then deleted the playlist and recreated it, and after re-syncing the iPhone, it seemed to have dramatically improved the performance of the music app. I then realized I had forgotten to set the "Limit to ?" rule in the new verison of the smart playlist, and corrected it, setting it to 1500. After re-syncing, the slowdown and crashes reappeared. Turning the "Limit" back off once again corrected the problem.

So it seems that ios 5 is having trouble with smart playlists, and in particular the "Limit" rule. Hope this helps.

-m

(Sorry, this was a reply to Marlon Rubio. I clicked on the previous message by mistake)

Yes, this is quite consistent with my experience. I have a complicated list (let's say "List A") that prevents a song that has just been played to repeat in 15, 30 or 45 days, according to my rating. Then I limited the list to 1500 songs selected randomly.

I soon realized that it was this list who was creating most of this mess, so I unchecked the "limit to" box, AND created a different smartlist with just two instructions: 1) List is "List A" and 2) Limit to 1500 songs selected randomly.

And it works much better. A bit slow at times, but at least I've had no crashes since then.

Not a satisfactory solution, especially because I had no problems before, but at least a stand-by until our Apple friends fix this disaster.

Greetings

I am also having these same issues but with my iPhone 4. The music app is very VERY slow and will not show all the album art etc..... I have tried all the delete and re-down load tricks to no avail. Is there ANY way to roll back to 4.3? I use the music app a lot with my sound crew gigs and it is to slow and unreliable for me to use any longer. I do have over 20G of music on the 32G phone but in iOS 4 it worked like a dream!!!

The problem for me is, 99.9% of what I use the iTouch for is music. (the other .1% is checking the weather and Twitter). If the music doesn't work, I have a $200 brick on my hands. And the music doesn't work.

The worst part is, anyone who buys a new iPod Touch or iPhone with iOS5 will likely have the same problem - they'll upload their music to the device and discover that it doesn't work - that half their music doesn't play, that the app crashes, that the app will lock up and not play at all.

That's terrible. The iPod is first and foremost a music player. It's unacceptable that the music app doesn't work. This shouldn't have been allowed to happen.

Steve, wherever you are, come back and fix this. Your successors are dropping the ball. And they don't seem to care about it, either.

(In response to Heal 1093)

Yes, you can downgrade to version 4.3.5 by doing a clean and official "restore" from iOS 5 (Shift + Restore on Windows and Ctrl/Option + Restore on Mac). But first, you have to get your phone into a DFU mode NOT Recovery Mode! When you're doing this make sure that your device is still plugged in to your computer, otherwise there might be a disruption during the process. Don't worry this process is totally allowed and legal but Apple doesn't recommend downgrading because they want your phone to have a full security protection from hackers with their latest iOS. This is "important", beware that downgrading your iPhone 4 can be done (not guaranteed but I've tried it successfully with iPod touch 4) but you "might" be replaced with a newer baseband which means your phone might not has any service running or doesn't recognize it. Worse, you might lose your phone's unlock/license/activation. BUT, I think it'll be okay.

(In response to Sarah B1863)

I agree! Furthermore, what about the new iPod touch that has just released and pre-installed with iOS 5??? I mean the hardware is still the same but with iOS 5, will this impose the same problems for people who bought it? OMG! Apple is planning somethin horrible for iPod touch users! And yes, I also have a 299$ brick on my hand. Which raised a stupid question: what is an iPod without Music??? (you can guess all you want)

I just got my mac a few months ago so please forgive my apparent lack of knowledge here but what buttons are the Ctrl/Option + Restore? I could not find that particular combo in the apple support section. And again I am showing my lack of mac knowledge here but how exactly do you get the phone into DFU mode. Thanks

After further review it looks to be a bit complicated for me. Some of the web sites out there seem to make it look easy but I am still much to new at MAC OSX to make it happen. Hope Apple comes out with patch and QUICK!!

(In response to backdoc01)

Sorry for the complicated instructions... Anyway, follow this link for DFU tutorial: http://www.wikihow.com/Put-an-iPod-or-iPhone-into-DFU-Mode

And again, sorry for the weird combo combination because I'm a Windows user so I was a bit confused with it. And the correct term was either Ctrl + Restore or Command + Restore for Mac OS X. By the word "Restore" I mean press the Command or the Ctrl button and click at the Restore button (in iTunes) simultaneously. Then, you have to choose iOS software for your iPhone which is probably version 4.3.5 as you wanted, and proceed. Oh, welcome to the world of IT. Oh! the Command button is the button that has a sign of tangled square near the Ctrl button.

The same problem here, the album art doesn't work, the music app crash, this is terrible.

Would just like to add my voice. Same problem with app just stopping for no reason, displays wrong art, inability to navigate backwards through tracks (it just switches between 2 tracks when hitting back multiple times). The app is in a terrible state right now. Really surprised to see this complete lack of quality frome the walled gardener.

If you backup your iDevice and then restore your device, it will work !!!

Music App problems resolved:

I haven't had time to read all of the posts but I was able to resolve two major issues with the Music App on my iPad after upgrading to iOS 5 and thought they might help those that follow. Apologies if they've already been covered. (I undestand this is the iPod Touch area, but the issues appear to be the same).

1. Playing incorrect tracks/not playing tracks/missing artwork.

Connect iPad to computer > open iTunes > under "Music" tab uncheck "Sync Music" > click "Apply" to sync. (This will remove all music from the iPad. ) Disconnect iPad and shut down iTunes. Reconnect iPad > Open iTunes > under "Music" tab re-check "Sync Music" > Click on "Apply". (This will reinstall all music files and can take some time depending total file size).

2. Music App slow response.

Reset iPad. Press the Home button and the Sleep/wake button on the top the iPad's case, holding them down together for at least 10 seconds, until you see the Apple logo. The iPad should then reset itself. The boot up process will take longer than the restart.

That resolved all of the issues I had after upgrading. Hope it helps others.

FWIW I am NOT a big fan of the changes to the original iPod App on the iPad. Hopefully Apple will take note and fix this downgrade.

If you'd like to let Apple know your thoughts about this or any other iPad issues, bugs, etc., use their online feedback form:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/ipad.html