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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

Reply
238 replies

Oct 3, 2012 5:27 PM in response to phraxion

A little shocked not very many people expierence this!


I noticed today (on my iPhone 4S), pausing the playback from the phone menu instead of pulling the cord produces the same result. It even happens when I pause music (to walk away from my desk), and when I return to resume playback it won't start back where I paused it -- nothing happened in between the pause and restart, no phone call, text or other notifications, no apps, not even a phone unlock.


Not even thorough Google searching has turned up any results

Oct 4, 2012 6:13 AM in response to phraxion

Experiencing the same thing with my iphone 5. Listen to 3 or 4 tracks on the way to work. Close out all apps throughout the day (including the music app) and when I go to listen to music on the way home, the music player starts at the beginning of the album. It should start exactly where I had left off earlier in the day. This is really annoying as I rarely remember where I left off.


It doesn't seem to do it if I leave the music player running all day. But on my 3gs running ios5, I would always close out the music player and it would still remember where I left off when I opened it again.

Oct 5, 2012 9:19 AM in response to phraxion

I'm having the same issue on iPhone 4 running iOS 6. Whether I pull the headphones or manually pause playback, leave the app running in the multi-tasking bar or close it out, the Music app loses my place if I don't restart the music within 10 minutes or so. I have changed playlists after listening for a little while, stopped it, then restarted the music later and it reverted to the playlist I originally opened instead of the last one I was listening to. The same thing happens when I use the FluxTunes app to access my music as well.

Oct 5, 2012 10:12 AM in response to phraxion

I would bet that the issue exists for everyone but depending on how one listens to music on their iDevice they may just not be affected by it. Or they are like me and feel that this is such an obvious problem that Apple will address it in the first patch to iOS 6. I thought I was going crazy for awhile after experiencing this problem. iOS 5 was performing so well for my music playback needs that I couldn't believe this quality mess up. But sometimes Apple sits back and waits for customers to complain so I decided to add my voice to the chorus of unhappy users whose music experience is something akin to Groundhog Day (the movie). I'm holding off on buying the new round of devices until this and several other frustrating iOS 6 bugs are squashed.

Oct 10, 2012 12:04 AM in response to phraxion

I have been experiencing this problem as well. I have some 8,000 songs in my library and just shuffled it once and allow the player to pick songs for me. Sometimes I have to skip several dozen songs because it plays the same songs I listened to before.


Now, this gets a bit speculative, but I noticed that if I pause the player briefly, it will pick up where it left off -- even when "briefly" means several hours. Thus I am speculating that the bug happens when you switch applications. Leave the player on, maybe answer a couple of phone calls, and you should be fine. Use other apps, and the music player will jump back to the last place when you resumed it under controlled conditiojns. I hope others can confirm or refute this finding, as I have a real job to take care of too.


This also suggests a workaround; when you stop listening, pause the player, but then press play again, and pause again. If that works, you should be able to pick up from the first pause when you resume listening.

Oct 10, 2012 7:40 PM in response to BennyHauk

Dude bro similar occurrence, turn my off and on then my music player started up. That not it too Siri would pop out during lock mode and a sec later my player starts up, this happens when I'm listening to Internet radio. I mean its in my pocket the whole time, my headphone play/pause button wasn't touched at all. What's weird was what happened next my phone call from my sister picked up the call on its own. I don't what to do. I searched if anyone have this issue too but found none...

Oct 13, 2012 10:19 AM in response to phraxion

I'm glad other people are having this problem too! I thought I was going crazy. I listen to audiobooks on my drives to and from work, and it's getting extremely annoying trying to remember where I left off.

I've noticed it will sometimes start where I left off (even if I use other applications in between), but only if I start listening within a few minutes of pausing it. I usually start/stop my audio player by double-clicking the home button when on the lock screen. If I double click it and it pops up with a track name, I know I'm in good shape to start listening again without it starting in a random spot. But if it just pops up with the volume and music player buttons (no track name), I know it's going to start somewhere odd and I have to go into the music player and begin the search.

Hope it gets resolved soon!!

Oct 13, 2012 10:30 AM in response to phraxion

i was having the same exact problem, start a playlist in the morning, stop it when i got to work and restart at lunch time and the playlist would start where it started in the morning commute


interestingly enough it has gone away now, i waited 5 days to make sure that it is gone before talking about it here, it may be that i got lucky, I drained my iphone, let the battery run to 0, let the phone shut down and recharge to 100%


i also bought some more songs since then (although i don't know if that has anything to do with this)


and now the music app is behaving

Oct 15, 2012 6:41 PM in response to dnikandjam

Somewhat different problem, but hope it will be fixed soon. On iPhone 4S I select an album, then start playing any one of the songs. The song just plays over and over. There's a "shuffle" icon button. [interwoven arrows] Pushing this jumps to another song, and that one just plays over and over. I don't see the replay [circular] icon / button that was on ios 5. and on iTunes on my MacBook Pro. Restarting the iPhone doesn't change anything. This problem occurs with several different Albums that I have tried. Fortunately, in the car, theres a button on the steering wheel to advance songs

Oct 17, 2012 6:31 AM in response to phraxion

Hello,


Same issue here...


When playing via Bluetooth on my car radio my 4s (iOS6) sometime resume correctly, sometime from the beginning of the last played song sometime from the first alphabetical song of my playlist.


If playing via a USB cable to my car radio, always play the first alphabetical song.


Everything was ok with iOS5...so please Apple, fix this asap.


Patrick

iOS 6: Music playback issues?

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