Music not playing on Apple Watch

Also happen in S2 Nike +

In the beginning I think that was because subscription was expired.

I have a similar issue. Music will play for awhile and then as soon as it goes to the next song, 5secs later it stops and I can’t restart the song. I have to skip ahead a couple more songs and then back 1 song to get it to play. Once it plays, as soon as the next song comes on it stops all over again. I’ve used different headphones, hard restarted the watch, reset the watch, unpaired the watch, erased the playlist and reloaded it. This didn’t happen the first few weeks i had the watch and now happens every time I use it

Same problem as several users here. Owned my series 3 for less than 3 months and the issue started appearing. First few times of experiencing music stopping in the middle of a workout, restarting the watch was the fix. Then I tried un-pairing/re-pairing several times. Then I tried unloading and reloading a few playlists at a time. It got to the point where music would stop, and pressing play each time would play a few seconds, then stop again.

A few days ago I brought it into an Apple Store. Since I was able to replicate the issue, they took it in and had it ready after 2 days (not sure if it was a new Watch, but a minor scratch I had on the face was gone).

The playback issue came back after a day of use. It appeared 22 minutes into my run today. Since I use it mainly for fitness and activity tracking, sending it in again is getting very frustrating!

I have the exact same issue. I have tried unpairing, deleting all music, resyncing, restarting my watch and iPhone, turning Bluetooth on and off, unpairing my AirPods, etc. It will work without issues for a few days and then suddenly, the music on my Apple watch just stops playing. I can't make it start again by doing anything - all the troubleshooting tips don't work (and I've searched for weeks). Then I'll try again later and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. The issue isn't consistent.

It's not my AirPods, because they work with phone calls and my iPhone. All Apple music and radio works with my iPhone, but it's very unreliable with the watch. It's especially frustrating when I leave for a walk without my iPhone and it won't work.

I have an iPhone 8 and my watch is a series 3 with an active cellular plan. All my software is always up-to-date. To me, it seems like it's a bug either with Apple Music, or with the watch OS. Either way, this needs to be fixed.

Hi all, same issue here too. As requested, I sent a message to Apple feedback: https://www.apple.com/feedback/watch.html

From my observation, it seems like this happens more when I'm doing weights activities. And I'm careful to avoid any contact with the watch face when doing weights too. I don't recall specifically it happening when I'm running, but it might have once or twice. In times when it stopped, it didn't matter whether I restarted the watch, made sure I was out of range of my phone, or confirmed LTE signal.

Yes, please keep us updated. I have a feeling that it’s a software issue since so many different models have the same problem. I don’t believe it’s a hardware issue (and neither did the support person I spoke to in store).

Assuming it’s a watch OS issue, I hope they can include a fix in an update ASAP.

I'm having this issue too. In my opinion this is a bug in WatchOS and I think it's related to the last update which allowed one to control the HomePod from their Watch. I'm hoping that Apple solves this in an upcoming update since as a runner, it is very frustrating to me that I now have to carry my phone in order to listed to music.

Same Apple Watch model, experiencing same behavior as you are describing. It seems to be repeatable connectivity persistence issues with both Radio and Music apps on the watch (in my case connected to Apple AirPods).

Thanks for the contact numbers. I’ll give them a call and reiterate that I’m fairly certain it’s a watch OS issue. Two engineers that I’ve dealt with in store believe the same thing and have reported it as such.

They also suggested reporting it here, as posted earlier in this thread: https://www.apple.com/feedback/watch.html

I’ve done this and encourage everyone to do the same. Hopefully a fix will be released with the next update.

I am having the exact same issue and it’s so frustrating! It even started around the same time that you made your original post. I have sent my watch off to Apple and they couldn’t reproduce the issue so of course they just sent it right back. I have an open case that is ongoing with Apple support. I have tried multiple headsets and even went so far as to buy AirPods to make sure it was not the Bluetooth device I was trying to listen with. While using my watch, I can still take and make calls and hear all of my notifications. But none of the music features work. I’ve reset my watch to factory, unpaired and paired again, removed the playlists and added back, tried to just listen to the music through streaming and not actually download to the watch. I even reset my phone. Each time, it works for a few hours and sometimes a day or so but then starts again. It’s getting extremely frustrating because the only reason I bought the watch was for the music streaming ability. It is still under warranty as I only bought it in December. Apple has been working with me and we have tried a lot of troubleshooting things but nothing is working and they don’t seem to know what’s the matter. It’s nice to know I’m not the only one with the issue. I have a call scheduled with my Apple support guy tomorrow so I am definitely going to let him know I came across this thread. Apple need to figure this out and get it taken care of now that other watch users are experiencing the exact same thing. I have the watch3 cellular. I wonder if the gps only watch is also having these issues.

Unfortunately, similar experience here.

Post-update, worked for about 30 min and then would decide to stop within 3 seconds of certain songs (all locally stored, all Apple Music). Sometimes pressing previous track plus frequently pressing Play would override this, but eventually would freeze about 2 out of every 3 songs.

Very frustrating!

Oh really? UGH, that's so frustrating. It's hard to know who is right if they aren't even on the same page!

Two of my colleagues sent their watches in for repair (both different models as discussed in this thread), and both had them returned saying nothing was wrong with them even though they successfully reproduced the issue. Their conclusion was that it was a defect in the software and should be addressed. The rep I spoke to most recently told me it was a known issue - so hopefully that means someone has it on a list of bug fixes.

To me, this is a stop ship issue since it impacts one of the main functions of the watch (especially for those of us who have cellular and is the main reason we purchased this model - to use without the phone). IMO, a hot fix needs to be pushed to fix this right away.

Since mine has been working for the last week, I'm afraid to breathe on it the wrong way. When I start the radio app, I'm always holding my breath while it loads because I think it's going to fail.

Hello all,

First of all I have the regular iWatch 3 and iPhone SE.

I have the same problem as all of you. I've purchased my Apple Watch 2 weeks ago and 3 days ago my watch starts with this problem. So I'm going to explain what is happening exactly:

If I open music app on my watch and I select a playlist located on my iPhone, it shows the song as playing but 3 seconds later disappears the title of the song and nothing is playing.

Then I start playing a playlist choosing it on iPhone, so I open the app on iWatch and it shows as playing the currently song without problems, also I can control de volume, skip songs (on the same playlist), etc... The problem is, if now I want to choose other playlist, then stops the music and disappear again the title.

I think this problems happened when I have updated the software because it started happening the same day as I updated it.

I have to add that I've tried all the ways that all of you posted here: turn off and on iWatch and iPhone, unpair and pair again, disconnect Bluetooth, delete all playlist on iPhone and syncing them again...

If someone know a way to fix it, please let us know.

Many of us here have called Apple or taken it to an Apple store. I have done both. Have done the whole unpair, hard reset, etc. As stated by others, the fix may last a day or two at most, then back to the same old problem.
[Edited by Host]

Reporting it to Apple...

https://www.apple.com/feedback/watch.html