Downloaded music won't play when offline

Hello Guys, Same happen to me, so i looked for a Solution, when itunes it's online and you download a song, usually keep pushing to sync with the apple server, u can tell when you see the word downloaded once start playing it's change for a second, so what i did was simply go to the music settings and disable to add songs to the playlist automatically,(doesn't make sense) but what i realize is that when you are going to play the downloaded music it push to add automatically to the playlist and that's why needs the internet. so i disable it and close the app two times and at the same same play both time offline(it worked) and to ensure it was going to stay i turned off my iphone and started again and finally worked.🙂🙂🙂

I have this issue on my iPhone 7 running iOS 11.2.6

I recall it didn't used to have this issue before the last update. I am able to download music to my phone from Apple Music and listen to them when i am running. I have Mobile Data off for Apple Music, as I do not want to have Apple Music stream the music to my phone when i am using it.

When i was running this morning, my music got cut off as i moved out of range from my wifi at home. I am not able to play any music after that, and these are the ones that i have already downloaded to my phone previously before.

However I decided to try something and switched Mobile Data on for Apple Music, and the music started playing. This is stupid, the whole purpose of downloading the music to my phone is to prevent it from running up data charges from my network provider when i play them on the go. If Apple Music requires there to be an active network connection to play the music, then i'd be better off cancelling my subscription.

Yes, we know how to download songs, thank you very much.

I have the same issue - I add songs to my library with the plus button and then download them with the cloud button. I can play them alright, but if I turn off wifi or cellular, several minutes afterwards, after a song ends, the next one won't play - it will show the artwork and everything, but the time will be stuck at 0:00. I can scroll through the time, for example go to 2:34 of the song, hit play, but it won't play at all. If I turn wifi or cellular back on again, the song automatically starts playing (from the beginning though)

I'm using an iPhone 7 Plus bought in June last year (2017) brand new. I'm running the latest ios update as of now (iOS 11.3.1). I subscribed to Apple Music two days ago, on this same version of iOS.

I hope Apple does something fix it because it's not worth paying every month for a service that has this bug, while there are other music providers like Spotify that are far from perfect but at least allow you to listen to songs offline. Extremely disappointing and frustrating!

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities!

The songs you download for offline listening do not require an internet connection to play. Take a look at the resource below to confirm how to download these files, and how to change the view so that you are only seeing songs that have been downloaded to your iPhone for offline listening.

How to download content to listen to offline

Before you can download content to listen to offline, you need to add it to your Library. Then, in the Music app on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch; in iTunes on your Mac or PC; or in the Apple Music app on your Android phone, find the item that you want to download, and follow these steps:

• On your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Android phone: Tap Download .
• On your Mac or PC: Click Download .

You'll see when the download is complete.

If you have Automatic Downloads turned on, content automatically downloads to your device or computer when you add it to your Library. You won't see or .

Use the Watch app on your iPhone to add music to your Apple Watch.

You can download content on up to 10 devices. This content is accessible only when your Apple Music subscription is active.

If you want to download content automatically

The first time that you download content to your device, you might see a message that asks if you want to download it automatically.

• Tap Download Automatically to download all content automatically to your device. The next time you add an item to your Library, it also automatically downloads to your device.
• Tap Not Now to download the item later.

If you want to turn on Automatic Downloads for all content that you add to your Library in the future, go to Settings > Music, then scroll to the Downloads section and tap Automatic Downloads.

Take care.

Problem/answer.

Just spent over an hour with 3 different levels of tech. IF you connect wifi, delete the song/album/playlist that is having issues playing, then search/download it again (by the little cloud), and then you see it is "downloaded", click the three dots at the top. It will show a cloud again, and click the word "download". Now you should have the music again on your device, and you can go back to non-wifi to test playback.

This should fix the issue, but unfortunately, you will have to do that to every single affected song/cd/playlist individually. (or you can basically wipe out your icloud music library and start from scratch).

The real problem is not that, however. The real issue, and why some of my music was disappearing even from ripped/imported songs/cd's, is that in its infinite wisdom of cloudiness, Apple has decided to replace songs on your device with new, or what they consider 'better' versions. So if you have songs that are rare, impossible to replace, and having trouble keeping them from fading to gray and not playing, this is why. They will be replaced by "apple versions", like it or not. I've got 1/2 an iPod to illustrate this if anyone has doubt.

I was provided a link for feed back on this issue, and i will be providing feedback.

I do not think I will go through even attempting to do this on every single song/cd/playlist and have them just get replaced/disabled again.

I hope there will be enough noise about this setting of their choosing my music for me that it will be changed. It really is risky if you have precious music versions you like, because they will be replaced for you.

In the meantime of waiting for this to be fixed, I'm going to begin spreading out my downloading from Amazon music and hope they aren't as invasive about choices.

Just finished four hours of doing the rounds of apple customer support chat (most of whom seemed to be using fake names, not that I blame them). Not sure if I would have been better off calling or not. The recommendation they left me with was to backup my phone to iTunes on a laptop, Reset and configure my phone as new again using iTunes, and finally restore my backup onto it. They had me try turning off and back on my iCloud library too with no results.

I might give your suggestion of just leaving it off all night a try first, because with my slow internet connection a iTunes reset means waiting nearly two hours for new software to download and many more after that for my music and apps to re-install. Oh god, 25 Gigs of music will take days.😮

Thanks for the advice, Nate.

I unblocked it as follows:

Cell data for iTunes on

Connect to network

Play downloaded music

During playback switch cellular data for iTunes off

During playback switch airplane mode on

Playback in airplane mode now works

Don’t ask me how or why!

I was having this issue also

In order to solve this, you would have to download your music for the second time.

1. Find the album when you first open the music app

2. Click the 3 dots in the red circle next to where it says “downloaded” with a ckeck mark, and it will automaticly download the whole album (if you have more than one song

3. Click download at the top of the list of options

4. Repeat this step with the songs/albums you want to download for offline listening

5. Enjoy 😁

I have the same issue.

It started for me after I upgraded to iOS 11.2.1 from an earlier version of IOS 11. Songs I have purchased from iTunes or ripped from my CD collection and physically synced to my phone from iTunes on a laptop still work.

But Apple Music songs I have downloaded (it says they are downloaded and they are not greyed out) to listen too offline will not play when I am offline and have not connected to the internet less than about 10 minutes ago.

It has also given me the pop-up warning "Cannot Open, This content is not authorized".

I made this same comment on your youtube video but realized this is probably the better place to post it.

Same here!! Just transferred all my stuff to a different unlocked phone.. downloaded all my songs from Apple Music to the phone so that i can listen on the plane... nothing is playing on airplane mode and it’s making me crazy! Hellllppppl

Hi Feelipies,

Yesterday I had the same issue and after searching for hours I didn’t found any solution.

However this morning I decided to plug my iPhone 6s into my pc and restore the music library from a backup I had, having done it before the problem appeared. After the restore I re-downloaded the musics on my iPhone and now I can play them offline normally.

I hope that works for you and sorry for my bad English.

Take care

Is there an answer for this yet? I spent about 4 hours yesterday without success. Ultimately I am trying to play music that I have downloaded from apple music (as well as some music I paid for and/or imported years ago). I am also getting the same issue of no sound coming out, but my iTouch pretends as if it is playing. My music is downloaded, and many of these songs I have had since joining apple music last summer (June 2017), but some of the music that will no longer play I actually ripped/imported into itunes and they used to work. So i've got songs, cd's, collections that have been just fine until lately, and nothing will play when it looks "faded" unless I'm on a wifi connection.

The worst part is that it has gotten worse in the last update I did, and randomly songs will fade and require re-downloading and/or wifi. songs I KNOW were there this morning, now gone as I drive down the road. This is an iTouch, no cell data, and the intent is to have it downloaded, which is why I choose download, yes?
After spending time with Apple yesterday to no avail, I did lose over 2,000 songs that have not shown up yet. Nice, eh?

FIX? PLEASE? Why have the ability to download and keep to play offline when that is exactly what is NOT happening?
I have an appointment on the phone today with them at 2, so it will be interesting to see what comes of it.

iOS 11.2.6

Same issue here, I looked up to try and find out a solution but as far as I can see it’s a bug, I don’t have data outside of home so I can’t listen to my music when I can’t listen offline, I’m on an iPhone 6s and I recently updated my phone to the latest iOS version. Ever since then my music hasn’t been working, must be a bug because no matter what I try to do nothing is working. I’ve tried things everyone has said worked for them but nothing.. Someone give me a hand

I seem to get the same issue as above, and what is even more peculiar is, while the track claims it is downloaded you can press the three dots and then there is option to download which once pressed is no longer there but there doesn't seem to be anything being downloaded, so perhaps authorizations issue?

I will try tomorrow morning on the tube to see if the files that have been now downloaded + extra three dots "downloaded" work.

It will be quite painful to have to go and update all of my songs manually with that though, it does feel like it is a bug that should be addressed by Apple. 😢