You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

💡 Did you know?

⏺ If you can't accept iCloud Terms and Conditions... Learn more >

⏺ If you don't see your iCloud notes in the Notes app... Learn more >

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

phraxion Author

Level 1

0 points

iOS 6: Music playback issues?

After upgrading to ios 6 I've found an extremely annoying problem regarding music playback. iOS 6 doesn't seem to remember where you last paused a playlist, album, etc... it always starts back at the last place you originally started it.

For example:

I have an album with 12 songs. I start it on track 4, listen to a few songs on the way to work. Pull the headphone cord once I arrive and Music pauses as expected. When I return to the car for the drive back home, instead of resuming playback where I left off, it starts back at track 4 again.

Another example:

Let's say I want to listen to an artist, so I go to "All Songs" and just hit shuffle so it plays randomly. I listen to a few tracks here and there, skip a few, all is good. Just as with albums, when I stop playback and resume later it will always return back to the first song played, and play then back in the same order again.

Am I missing a setting or something? I searched the settings app may times and can't find anything even close. Does it have anything to do with me pausing the player by removing the headphone cord? Could it be some app I am using between pauses?

Never had issues with ios 5, so this is defenitely software related. iOS 5 used to remember where I last played music over days -- even if I were to watch videos on the iPhone or listen to Pandora between music playback.

iPhone 4S, iOS 6

Posted on Oct 2, 2012 5:02 AM

238 replies

phraxion Author

Level 1

0 points

Jan 2, 2013 7:51 AM in response to Barry.Houghton

Barry,

I've sent Apple feedback and called their support and mentioned it to them but to no avail. I can't believe this is not a more widespread complaint, it drives me INSANE.

I don't use a Bluetooth headset, but I have noticed with ios6 sometimes the music app doesn't re-load when you hit play from the lock screen. This usually happens if at some point between playing music I watch a video in Safari... then I have to log back in past the lock screen to re-launch the music app to play again.

My volume seems pretty consistent, but I don't use a bluetooth... maybe that's interfering and ios can't remember your volume settings between apps?

Hard to believe they are already working on ios7 and this is still broken... I'm seriously reconsidering my next phone purchase because of this

phraxion Author

Level 1

0 points

Jan 2, 2013 7:54 AM in response to pmiranda

pmiranda,

If I keep my phone charged this issue completely disappears... but as soon as the app is gone from memory when its automatically removed, I'm back to square one. This doesn't happen if you manually close the app from memory.

I can't believe this hasn't been fixed

Jan 6, 2013 10:42 PM in response to phraxion

I had this problem until just now.. solution...

In iTunes, click songs, get info, then "options" then "remember position"... set it to yes. It seems this is set to no for default now.

Jan 6, 2013 10:44 PM in response to erockomania

Make sure to select all songs before making this change or it will only work on individually selected songs.

Jan 7, 2013 1:43 PM in response to erockomania

Thanks Erockomania.

Looks to me that this option is designed for Audio Books, but giving it a go this evening to see how it pans out. If it works then that's a great work around, but the issue itself remains unresolved. They broke this 2 major releases ago whether it was on iPhone 5 or updates to older models. So they really should be pushing more to get this fixed so that it works as it did before. WAKE UP APPLE!!!

Out of interest does anyone know how to reinstall the Music App??? Perhaps that might fix it.

Can't understand why this is selective in working, I would love to know why it seems that only some people are impacted by it.

😠

Jan 7, 2013 2:21 PM in response to Barry.Houghton

I do not think this feature is for audiobooks only. It is working for all my music as well :)

If I remember right, before the latest version of iTunes, this option defaulted to "yes". After upgrading to os6 and iTunes 11, this default became "no".

Jan 7, 2013 5:16 PM in response to erockomania

That's great news. Now how do I do this with itunes 11.0.1? Do I have to select all the songs in my library and then click Get Info --> Options --> Remember Playback Position --> Yes? If that's the case, then how do I make sure that happens to my music on my iphone? Do I basically have to clear out my iphone music and then move all the music from my library back onto it? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Jan 7, 2013 5:41 PM in response to ChicagoLuv

That's it! Simply select all songs, make the change and the sync your iPhone to iTunes.

phraxion Author

Level 1

0 points

Jan 7, 2013 5:42 PM in response to erockomania

I tried erockomania's solution, and while it does indeed remember the last position of the song, it will not remember the position where you left it in the playlist.

Here's what I did:

1) iTunes Library, select all tracks, choose options and set Remember Playback Position to yes, click OK and confirmed

2) Synced my iPhone with my iTunes library

3) Left for work: started playing a music playlist on shuffle

4) Arrived at work, unplugged headphone cord with the phone locked and didn't touch the music app again for the rest of the day. Battery drained to about 25%, I received one phone call and used mail, facebook, messages app, and safari throughout the day

5) Left work heded back home, and from the lock screen hit play

Once I hit play, the playlist started back at the beginning. Interestingly enough, I hit the next track until I got to the song it was stopped on when I arrived and it resumed playing within that song right where I paused it (by pulling the headphone cord).

I've found a free Denon Music app that reads your playlists from your phone and started playing with it, but I dont think its going to make a seamsless replacement... because even after using the Denon app if you hit play from the lock screen it will fire up the built in music app (once the Denon app has been cleared from memory).

This is so stupid... I can't believe its even an issue to begin with, much less STILL an issue after multiple software releases. You can't tell me that at least one of Apple's development team uses the Music app?

Jan 9, 2013 3:36 PM in response to phraxion

I also tried this method and have to say that the same happened to me as phraxion, not exactly the same but very similar.

I actually deselected the Music Sync in iTunes, deleted the playlist I had, made the change to all the tracks in the library to remember position = yes, created a new playlist, checked that the songs in the playlist still had the setting then selected Music Sync and then re-synced back to my iPhone.

I then started on my playlist, stopped when I got to work, on the way home everything was ok. Last night I double checked the track number and closed the Music App in memory.

This morning, started up as normal and the 1st track playing on the way to work was one I had already listened to, not the very 1st in the playlist, but the 1st one I listened to going home the night before! I skipped through to the track playing when I got home and it started part way through.

Tonight I loaded the Music App so it appears in memory and I am going to leave it there when I switch off the phone tonight to see what happens in the morning.

I have raised a case with Apple, but didn't get time to call them today, so I will try and call them tomorrow to see what they have to say about their quiet destruction of one of their signature apps.

I love the IP5 but this issue is either a real F**K up in iTunes or iOS or both, no wonder the Galaxy is gaining popularity so quickly.

FOR ANY APPLE STAFF/DEVELOPERS/SUPPORT reading these threads, I emplore you, nay BEG you, get this SH*T sorted for your loyal customers!!!!

LatishaM

Level 1

0 points

Jan 9, 2013 4:11 PM in response to phraxion

Thankfully I am not the only one experiencing this. I've been having this same issue since last month. I have reinstalled the iTunes. And to no avail. I have rebooted the phone numerous times and nothing. And oddly it doesn't start at the beginning of the list. Just one specific song. They need to fix this ASAP!

LatishaM

Level 1

0 points

Jan 9, 2013 4:20 PM in response to erockomania

Did you do this for "each" song??! I have over 800 songs!

msujdog

Level 1

4 points

Jan 10, 2013 3:45 PM in response to phraxion

Just to add to the thread, I've had this same problem with my iPod 4th gen since upgrading to iOS6. It was not an issue with iOS5.

Very frustrating.

I notice the problem occurs when I've opened 4 or more apps. If I'm toggling between music and, say, Twitter, the Music app remembers my last spot. But if I switch between 4 or more apps and have to restart Music from scratch, the place is gone.

Jan 12, 2013 1:22 AM in response to phraxion

All,

Still no further to finding a workaround, I still have the remember position set on all the tracks in the playlist, but no matter what combination of steps I take, it still refuses to remember the position of the actual track. I even tried only using the controls on the IP to play/pause and that made no difference either.

Essentially this looks to be a combination of the iOS with a bit of iTunes that has broken this.

No idea what to try next 😟

LatishaM

Level 1

0 points

Jan 12, 2013 7:06 AM in response to Barry.Houghton

Same here. I followed the same steps. I have removed and reinstalled all my music. The "remember song position" is checked. It worked for like a day then started again. Extremely frustrating. This is not helping my case that I love my iphone vs my boyfriend's awesome Galaxy phone!!

iOS 6: Music playback issues?