Apple Music play stops on Apple TV

After using my single user Apple Music successfully for well over a year, suddenly I am starting to have issues with music played on my Apple TV device, 4th Gen, stopping citing another device is using my subscription, which is not the case. It does it after just a few minutes of playing and why am I paying for a subscription that suddenly does not work?


I own a variety of Apple devices; Macbook Pro late 2013 15" Retina at 10.13, an older iPad, an iPhone 5C, the Apple TV, and a couple of older iPods that don't have internet nor do I dock at all.


I primarily listen to Apple Music on the Apple TV with my larger stereo system connected and only use Macbook when in my home office, and the iPhone or iPad only when I travel.


I have tried turning off each device and the problem still occurs even when all my other Apple devices are off.


This is definitely a bug or as you nice folks like to call it an "undocumented feature".


We all have choices and I rather give my $10 a month to Apple than Spotify. I really like the product but it clearly broke sometime in early April 2018.


Please help.

Thanks,

Roy

Posted on Apr 9, 2018 5:21 PM

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Posted on Apr 18, 2018 5:14 PM

Randell, since your last reply, I think I may have figured out the problem...


After trying unsuccessfully to get the Apple TV to continually play music I subscribe to on Apple Music without stopping, I again tried all of my devices: MacBook Pro Retina late 2013, iPad 2, iPhone 5C and they all worked fine and played without any problem, I went back to just the Apple TV and went through all of the items in Setup.


This is where I found something that seems to work so far.


Under General in Setup; third section down, Keyboard and Dictation, first item is Previously Used Email Addresses. I went into there and found not only my email address (name on my iTunes/Apple account) AND a second email address that belongs to my nephew. He had been here last Christmas and used the Apple TV since he owns a bunch of purchases movies. I remove his address and left mine.


For the past thirty minutes Apple Music is playing solidly without any stop or interruption and I am optimistic. If it does not fix it as noted by further use; I will let you know but please give this a try. Very best, Roy

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Apr 18, 2018 5:14 PM in response to randall98

Randell, since your last reply, I think I may have figured out the problem...


After trying unsuccessfully to get the Apple TV to continually play music I subscribe to on Apple Music without stopping, I again tried all of my devices: MacBook Pro Retina late 2013, iPad 2, iPhone 5C and they all worked fine and played without any problem, I went back to just the Apple TV and went through all of the items in Setup.


This is where I found something that seems to work so far.


Under General in Setup; third section down, Keyboard and Dictation, first item is Previously Used Email Addresses. I went into there and found not only my email address (name on my iTunes/Apple account) AND a second email address that belongs to my nephew. He had been here last Christmas and used the Apple TV since he owns a bunch of purchases movies. I remove his address and left mine.


For the past thirty minutes Apple Music is playing solidly without any stop or interruption and I am optimistic. If it does not fix it as noted by further use; I will let you know but please give this a try. Very best, Roy

Apr 20, 2018 2:48 PM in response to randall98

Randell,


I had it stop one more time after about 45 minutes. This time I started to look further and found that there was indeed a new version of the Apple TV App available too. I have downloaded it and installed and went back to my MacBook Pro computer and made sure Home Share was on as I had noticed the Apple TV not aware of items I had played earlier in the day on the computer from iTunes/Apple Music. That has worked before but not today.


Under iTunes and my Apple account profile I also found a Windows computer that I had not owned or used in three years and deleted it. This reduced my devices to access Apple Music to just four (4) counting iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, and the MacBook Pro.


I restarted the Apple TV with the brand newly installed App and so far fine. I will let you know in a day or two how successful this after testing all devices and continuing to primarily use the Apple TV for play Apple Music/iTunes.


Have a great evening with fingers crossed!

Apr 15, 2018 12:16 PM in response to videoroy

I am in the same boat as you as I have tied the Apple TV to my main home audio as the primary source. The failure of the Apple TV to produce reliable Apple Music is a dealbreaker.


FYI, I have gone as far as to deauthorize all other devices in my account and still get the same thing ("music being played on another device" error).


I guess I will abandon Apple TV and use another device since support could not resolve it and I can't find a solution.

May 17, 2018 2:42 PM in response to Cplaskus257

I had nearly ten days of perfect operation but yesterday 5/17/2018, it stopped playing Apple Music again on my AppleTV device and only once.


It played just fine for what must have been 50-60 hours in that period of days prior.


I have and don't intend to change anything on my end further, as I firmly believe the problem is with the Apple Music Product as used with AppleTV alone. It seems that something in periodic review of your subscription and use, finds a false positive for playing on two platforms at once or it thinks the old rules of DRM have been violates somehow, which should not be possible.


Keep writing it up if you continue to have issues. Apple Music is going to be an increasingly important product for Apple especially since YouTube/Google announced their own subscription service today too.


The nice folks in Cupertino will eventually figure this out and you can always use your iPhone, iPad, or Mac Computer to stream the Apple Music Service.


Good luck!

Apr 20, 2018 2:55 PM in response to videoroy

Randell, it is still broken and I am seeing others complain of the very same problem.

Yesterday I did get it to play my entire weekly automatically generated Chill List of 1 hour 45 minutes without stopping once but thereafter it stops after a few songs are played. It seems intermittent at best.

The Apple TV works fine for everything else and it is just Apple Music/iTunes that is a major issue.

Like we said a couple of days back, I can plug my iPad into an analog port on my stereo/TV but preferred the HDMI interface with the Apple TV.

Discouraged but keep trying,

Roy

Apr 13, 2018 1:53 PM in response to randall98

Thanks, Randall98...


That is exactly as mine behaves and others must have the problem too. I did get the Apple TV to play longer for almost an hour last weekend by confirming my Apple ID on all my other devices; MacBook, iPhone, and iPad but the issue returned. As stated, the issue is only on Apple TV but that is also my main stereo system in the house. I guess as a workaround, I could plug the iPad into that system for now too?

Jun 11, 2018 5:56 PM in response to videoroy

Apple Music play on Apple TV still stops at times.


I have discovered that brand new releases that they offer or ones I find by search and play, NEVER STOP. If it is new to them and new to me, it NEVER STOPS.


However older complied playlists they make for you and offer or even searches of older, even "oldies" music stop frequently somewhere in those playlist.


I am in my fourth month with the problem and have generally worked around it, however it is super annoying even though you can go and recovery your place on the playlist and play it from there.


I go days and don't have the issue and then encounter a cut that will stop and it always cites that I am using Apple Music on more than one platform which is never the case.


Are we crazy to keep paying Apple for a subscription music service that is "broke"? Perhaps yes, but I love my Apple TV and more so my Apple Music.


I just keep hoping that iOS 12 might fix this horrible bug!


<sigh>

Roy

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Apple Music play stops on Apple TV

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