Apple Music won't play songs - "Not playing"

So starting last week at some point, Apple Music on my iPhone seems to have just stopped working. It refuses to play anything that is not in my library, nothing from "For you", "Radio", or any saved Apple Music Playlists.


The now playing card only shows "Not playing". If I hit the play button enough times it seems to just pick a random set of songs from my library and start playing.


I have already tried:

  1. Restarting the music app
  2. Reinstalling the music app
  3. Resetting network settings
  4. Restarting the iPhone
  5. Signing out of iCloud and singing back in.
  6. Erasing all content and settings (I restored from backup, I might need to try this again without restoring)


No luck from any of the above. Anyone know how to fix this?

iPhone 7 Plus, iOS 11.3

Posted on Apr 10, 2018 11:02 AM

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Posted on May 5, 2018 12:17 AM

I just encountered this issue on my Apple TV today. After reading about the corrupt cache file in this thread it had me thinking that the file is attached to a profile rather than the application itself. This was after trying all the basic troubleshooting. I then logged out of my iTunes/App Store profile and logged in under my wife’s account and launched Apple Music. This reset the application and appears to have overwritten the corrupt file with the new profile. I quit Apple Music, logged out of iTunes and back iin under my profile. I then relaunched Apple Music and this appears to have rewritten the data again, thus fixing the issue and allowing Apple Music to work correctly. I’d recommend trying this before performing a reset. Good luck.

79 replies

May 4, 2018 4:21 PM in response to teltech290

So far nothing helpful. I was called by an apple support person, and there was no resolution. They had me try all the things I've already tried, then sent me a link to upload my log file to. I've heard nothing back since.


I just wiped my phone and am installing an 11.4.3 beta using my developer account. I'm sure music will work. Then I'll restore from backup, and I'm sure it will break again.


I'm really not happy about this experience AT ALL.

Jun 19, 2018 3:44 PM in response to cmx

After struggling with this for 8+ months, I had tried nearly everything, including those things listed in the original post here. The only thing I didn't want to do was clean install and rebuild the whole phone from scratch. Too much work. However, I found something that worked for me and I'm so relieved. It takes a while, but I'd love for someone else to try it to see if it was a fluke:


1) Delete Music app and do a full backup of iOS

2) Clean install iOS and then restore from that backup

3) Install Music app again


Let me know if it helps.

Jun 26, 2018 12:13 PM in response to cmx

I HAVE FOUND A SOLUTION!!! It may seem too simple but all I know is that it worked for me. I had asked Siri to start playing music while I was in the kitchen. She did so and it played for one second then immediately stopped leaving the play arrow present and not the usual pause sign. I would press play and again, immediately, it would stop. So I started browsing to see if anyone else had the same problem and obviously there are quite a few of us. I know that this solved the problem for me and I really hope it works for you, too, but it may be something more difficult or simply unknown for some.

So here’s what I did, after remembering that earlier in the day I switched the App Store from the US one to the UK one when I was looking for a particular app. I couldn’t download it, obviously, since my iPhone isn’t register for the UK Store so I just let it be. However, I didn’t switch back to the US Store. When I started to try and think of what could possibly have corrupted my phone to make Apple Music stop any and all music I thought about that app and realized I had never changed stores before so that just might be the problem. And low and behold, it was!!! I went back to the App Store, tried to download the app that isn’t available for me at the current store and when it prompted me to change stores I pressed “Change Store” and it went back to mine, the US App Store. And that right there, was it, Bam!!! Instant fix! It was really the only thing I had done different with my phone. If you haven’t actually switched stores I would still try it. It could’ve switched on it’s own somehow but either way it’s worth a shot. I hope it works for all of you!!! I would be so ****** if I had to build the phone back into what it is today, from the ground up. Too too too much of me has gone into it.

😃😃😆😆👍👍

Again, I hope it’s as simple as that for all of you. Good luck!!!

Jun 28, 2018 2:28 AM in response to MeghannMoonshine

I've found an solution for this problem, too...

I've found the app "Decipher Acitvity Transer" for MacOS via google. This app costs 30$, but I has the possibility to modify iTunes backups, so that I can save all app data and health data without the settings of the iPhone (Apple ID, Apple Music, etc.).

This solution worked very well for me, but it's very poor that the Apple support doesn't have any solution for this problem. Very poor!

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Apple Music won't play songs - "Not playing"

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