A breakdown of bugs and temporary fixes for frustrated listeners.
After Apple Music’s latest update, I noticed that the app has become buggy, slow, and practically unusable. The issues I’m encountering aren’t just annoying; they’re basically rendering the platform I’m paying for useless.
And, based on what I’ve seen online, it’s clear I’m not alone in this.
A Widespread Breakdown
It’s not hard to pinpoint exactly where it all went wrong. A bit of research made it clear that the latest iOS 18 update was the cause behind the flood of reports.
There are mentions of the app freezing or crashing entirely, especially when dealing with larger playlists or trying to edit songs. A quick scroll through forums shows that the issues are widespread.
And, they’re not just affecting a specific version of Apple Music; they’re happening across iOS, Android, and even Windows.
Here’s a list of features going wrong with Apple Music:
- Songs not playing: Some say songs take a long time to start or don’t play at all.
- Playlist management problems: Previously saved tracks are missing, and some users can’t edit, scroll, or remove songs from larger playlists.
- App freezing and crashing: Apple Music becomes unresponsive when interacting with playlists or skipping songs.
- Queue issues: Adding songs to the queue or editing the playlist order doesn’t work correctly.
- Search function delays: Search results take several minutes to appear.
- Inconsistent audio: Playback randomly stops, skips songs, or glitches when locking and unlocking the phone.
- Audio quality issues: Some report a decline in audio quality, even with Dolby Atmos enabled.
- Album artwork issues: Album thumbnails sometimes fail to load or appear.
For me, the mobile version of Apple Music has been a bit more stable, but just barely. I haven’t personally experienced every bug mentioned above, but the issue I’m encountering the most is that songs randomly stop playing.
I’ve also had instances where songs take ages to start playing after I select them (sometimes up to a minute or more). It’s like the app is stuck buffering, even though my internet connection is solid. This kind of lag wasn’t something I dealt with before the update.
What We Forget About iOS Version Updates
It’s no secret that new iOS versions often come with their fair share of bugs. And iOS 18 has been no exception.
While Apple Music is seeing its own unique issues, the glitches aren’t limited to just one app. They’re happening across the board, and on a range of devices.
The rollout of a new iOS version always has some hiccups, largely because Apple is juggling so much.
Every update supports a wide array of hardware models, and there’s only so much testing they can do before a release.
Apple’s testing environment may not reflect every possible user scenario. So, millions of users’ real-world use of iOS often reveals bugs that weren’t apparent during internal testing.
Combine that with all the new features and updates, and you’re bound to run into some problems that only come to light once everyone starts updating.
The good news is, Apple is already taking steps to fix these issues.
The upcoming iOS 18.0.1 update is expected to tackle several of these bugs. This is a minor update made solely to address such bugs before the official release of iOS 18.1, which is said to drop this October.
Possible Workarounds
Apple has yet to acknowledge the complaints and provide a potential fix. So, users can either troubleshoot on their own or abandon the app altogether until a real solution arrives.
In my case, restarting my phone and Apple Music seems to do the trick whenever the app starts acting up. However, you can try other makeshift solutions if that doesn’t work for you.
These include the following:
- Sign out and back into your Apple account: Refreshes your connection to Apple’s servers, fixing sync issues with your music library.
- Enable “Sync Library” in settings: Ensures your music and playlists are synced properly across devices, preventing missing content.
- Uninstall and reinstall Apple Music: Clears corrupted data and cache, resolving freezing, lag, or missing songs.
- Turn off Vocal Shortcuts: Disabling this feature can address playback issues caused by conflicts with voice commands.
- Disconnect your VPN: VPNs may interfere with Apple Music’s server connection; turning it off can fix loading and sync problems.
- Revert to the previous iOS version.
Developers rely on user feedback to identify and fix issues. By reporting problems, you’re actively helping to make the software more stable and reliable.