Apple Watch Won't Play Music on Airpods while showing connected via bluetooth - Solution

Bet it’s only a tempory fix. I can usually get the Watch 3 to play music to the AirPods by restarting the watch but it’s always a tempory fix. We shouldn’t have to do the hokey pokey for this to work. Not magical or seamless at all.

Hey WDI, curious if your issue is the same as mine. - I hit play on my "synced" songs on my series 3 Apple Watch and the music starts for a few seconds and then stops. From there I hit play and the pause icon shows for a second as if the music is starting and then it goes back to play. The only temporary solution I have found is restarting the watch. It then works for that session but inevitably returns to not playing the next time I try to play music again. However if I play music from my phone it plays without stopping.-

I have looked for a solution but in typical Apple fashion, I find nothing. I guess I am just wondering if your issue is similar so I know: 1) I'm not doing something wrong. (I just recently got the watch and Airpods), and 2) There is no other solution at this time. Thanks for any light you can shed.

Yes, I get that also, where music suddenly stops and when I press play again the icon toggles to pause like it’s going to play, nothing plays then the icon switches back the play icon. I’ve had all kinds of difficulties playing my iTunes Match music directly on the watch. I usually can get it to work but often with much frustration and doing the hokey pockey, trying this and that. It seems to me, and I’m totally guessing, but Apple hasn’t quite figured out how to create a smooth interaction between the phone and Apple Watch 3 as an independent device. I feel like most of the problems are from the watch still defaulting to the iphone when close by. However often they are not close enough for the interaction to work smoothly. I get all kinds of problems also with Siri not connecting or taking a very long time doing dictation and connecting. Phone calls seem to have the same problem, as the watch wants to default to the phone though it’s not close enough for a smooth experience. The watch seems to operate better when the phone is not thrown into the mix because it’s either off or too far away for the watch AirPods to know.

Also, in the latest watchOS I’ve noticed a disconnect between the music app and the now playing app. I often get where the now playing app will not control music playback at all. If I switch to the music app it at least tries to do what it’s supposed to do.

Another frustrating thing is Siri on the watch always plays Apple Music only, not iTunes Match music, and always from the iPhone when the phone is around, and often not close for a smooth experience.

Also, here is another example where the interaction between the watch, phone and AirPods is not smooth. If the phone is not a part of the equation, when answering or making calls on the watch with the AirPods the watch screen defaults to the phone app and the dial on the watch is volume for the phone call. This makes adjusting volume and controlling the phone call easy. However, when the phone is in the equation the call is always made or answered on the phone and the watch does not show the phone app. The call can only be controlled from the phone including volume so you have to go get the phone and use the phone to control the phone call and volume.

The problem is even more complicated when the phone is out of range for the AirPods to connect well. Both you and the party on the receiving end will get drop outs as if the cellular connection is poor and you end up having a pretty confusing conversation.

Again, all these problems seem to me being caused by Apple not figuring out how to make the watch 3 with cellular an independent device and still having a smooth interaction with the phone and throwing AirPods on top of all this makes it even more confusing.

Oh and one last thing. Here is an example of why I think the iPhone, Watch 3 with cellular and AirPods interaction is the problem to a lot of these glitches and annoyances. When I go running I never have my phone with me. As soon as I'm out of range of the phone all these glitches go away. Soon as I'm back around the phone they return. I'd say, some random percentage, I have a 95 percent smooth experience with the watch and AirPods when I'm away from my phone such as running.

Thank you very much for the info. I am seeing the exact same issues as you in all areas. While its a pain in the rear I am glad to learn that it is not me doing something wrong, or missing something. Wishful thinking, but hopefully they figure something out soon....seamless integration.

I have this same issue and it's very frustrating because it is the use case I bought the Apple Watch for, for use in the gym. The only thing I've found that works is to turn off bluetooth on the Phone and then you can play the music stored on the Apple Watch through the AirPods, which isn't ideal because you might not get notifications.

Note: you have to turn bluetooth off in settings not through control center because control center.

Hoping for a fix soon.

I ended up wiping the watch and starting over. That worked for about 10 days. Now the pausing problem is back. It is only with music that is stored on the watch (which is the main point of having of these for your workout).

Today I removed all the music and redownloaded the music to the watch. Issue is still there.

I’ve purchased new Airpods AND even a new Watch. Still not working.

It’s a complete joke ... it is the core use case for this product!!

I’m done trouble shooting this crap product.

Hoping Google releases a pixel watch in the fall and I will go back to the great Pixel Phone.

I think it's a software issue, maybe the last iOS11.4

I have this problem very recently though....

The workaroung, shut the bluetooth connection with the watch, works great but you don't have the notifications anymore 😟

All we have to do is wait a a fix in the next iOS update (or WatchOS update) and PRAY

My wife and I both have iWatch 3 (mine with cellular, although not activated and her's without) Both watches are doing what is being discussed in this form. Honestly I'm quite unhappy as we bought watches and airpods so we could have phone free workouts at the gym. What we have found is we are ending up having no music workouts. Also - this dosen't bode well for upgrading from iPhone 6s to 10... At least with our iPhone 6s we can still go back to using headphones with a cord... COME ON APPLE - YOU SELL US ON YOUR PRODUCTS SEAMLESS INSTIGATION AND NOW MY OVER 1,000 DOLLARS WORTH OF PRODUCTS ARE USELESS FOR WHAT I PURCHASED THEM FOR.

I have the same. You are absolutely correct. Also if you disconnect your Bluetooth on your phone or switch to airplane mode all problems are gone. In Apple store they will suggest to replace your watch but I don’t believe it will fix the problem. Apple please fix soon. This is really frustrating. The whole point is to listen to music directly from the watch.

Went to Best Buy today and talked with the Apple Rep. He had me turn off my phone and see if I could connect to the airpods via the watch and then access the music on my watch. This did work and seems to be working; Although not how these products are advertised to work it is a work-around at this time. He also suggested that we call Apple care and discuss this with them as they might have a solution he is not aware of. He also stated that was also a good way of logging the issue with Apple. Hope this gets fig out soon...

After a few months of frustration as all of you have experienced. I have had enough. I returned the watch (I had to explain that the watch doesn't work as advertised and showed them how the music doesn't play, even the music saved on the watch, wasn't streaming). I bought it for two reasons, running outdoor and music (Nike Run App ***** on the AppleWatch btw). I have visited the Genius Bar and they can't figure out why either. I have unpaired, reset, pair as new a few times with no luck of seamless operation. Shame, as it would be a great combo for outdoor running, AppleWatch, Apple Music, and Airpod. I am back to carrying my iPhone when I run. I am waiting for Series 4 and better OS. Hey Apple, it doesn't just work.

Chiefrude1

Exactly the issue I was having, and it turned out to be a network problem. The first clue came for me after switching out all of the hardware with the exception of the watch. I noticed the issue continued and occurred everyday around the same time (it worked fine until about 9-10am (high traffic times), and would continue to work intermittently until about 6-7pm. Called my carrier, and they confirmed this was a busy time in my area.

You should perform a Speedtest to determine your general network spped. If you are under 1 Mbps (typically you want to be between 5-12 Mbps) then you should consider switching carriers.

The music is in the watch and paired to Airpods via bluetooth. The network shouldn’t matter.

That’s the point of the watch. put your music on it and leave your phone at home while you run, bike, walk, whatever.