Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Music stops playing after 15 seconds
- Thread starter MajorFubar
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I’m not sure if another solution has already been found, if it has is love to know what it is, but here is what I’ve had to do to work around this issue:
I am unable to reliably play lossless Apple Music due to many tracks simply stopping at 15 seconds, sometimes resulting in a “bad url” error of some sort. I found that tended to happen on songs I had uploaded from CD many years ago. As a workaround after a song stops at 15 secs I searched my personal library for the song and deleted it (or the entire album) from my library. After I did this, Apple Music had no problem playing the lossless/atmos track. I then re-added the lossless Apple Music version of the song or album to my library (not sure this is necessary but I like my library to contain my music).
I have a fairly large personal music library and this is a cumbersome process for every track that is effected. So I consider it a workaround and not a solution. I’ve been using this process effectively for the past couple days so I’m not sure if will always work but it has so far.
Hope this helps someone and I hope Apple comes up with a real solution sometime soon.
I am unable to reliably play lossless Apple Music due to many tracks simply stopping at 15 seconds, sometimes resulting in a “bad url” error of some sort. I found that tended to happen on songs I had uploaded from CD many years ago. As a workaround after a song stops at 15 secs I searched my personal library for the song and deleted it (or the entire album) from my library. After I did this, Apple Music had no problem playing the lossless/atmos track. I then re-added the lossless Apple Music version of the song or album to my library (not sure this is necessary but I like my library to contain my music).
I have a fairly large personal music library and this is a cumbersome process for every track that is effected. So I consider it a workaround and not a solution. I’ve been using this process effectively for the past couple days so I’m not sure if will always work but it has so far.
Hope this helps someone and I hope Apple comes up with a real solution sometime soon.
Thanks.
I'm surprised how little response this got on here. I tried bumping it but my bump was deleted by mods/admin (bumps not allowed apparently)...fair enough. I figured I really cannot be alone.
You are absolutely correct that it only happens to be on albums or songs I have previously ripped to my library from CD. I hadn't noticed this before.
Hopefully they fix this bug soon. It's driving me nuts.
I'm surprised how little response this got on here. I tried bumping it but my bump was deleted by mods/admin (bumps not allowed apparently)...fair enough. I figured I really cannot be alone.
You are absolutely correct that it only happens to be on albums or songs I have previously ripped to my library from CD. I hadn't noticed this before.
Hopefully they fix this bug soon. It's driving me nuts.
I have the same problem, and I’m tempted to throw my HomePods out the damn window
This happens for me too. I thought it was an issue with the Lightning port first.
I'm another to whom this happens from time to time. Most annoyingly, it happens to the first track on every Apple Playlist I try to play on my phone or over HomePods. Every single time, 15 seconds of track one, then silence for a bit and it moves on to Track 2.
My songs don't stop at 15 seconds, but they do GLITCH at 15 seconds. A momentary stutter.
I can avoid this by never using Siri on my HomePod pair, and just finding the songs on my phone instead and streaming them to my HomePods.
Weirdly, Dolby Atmos songs are immune.
I also get a delay in pausing songs between the two HomePods, and if I skip a song it sounds horrible because one HomePod reacts slower, sometimes a few seconds slower.
Edit: After a bunch of songs have played, the 15 second glitch can start to occur sooner, at 11 or 13 seconds.
I can avoid this by never using Siri on my HomePod pair, and just finding the songs on my phone instead and streaming them to my HomePods.
Weirdly, Dolby Atmos songs are immune.
I also get a delay in pausing songs between the two HomePods, and if I skip a song it sounds horrible because one HomePod reacts slower, sometimes a few seconds slower.
Edit: After a bunch of songs have played, the 15 second glitch can start to occur sooner, at 11 or 13 seconds.
Yes, I am facing the same! And I thought the problem is with my airpod as it's a bit old but worked totally fine before the update! Now I got to know the reason! 
same here, mostly at 15s but happened also at 7s, etc.
using carplay. wired/wireless no difference
using carplay. wired/wireless no difference
I have over 10,000 songs that I've bought from iTunes over the years and I have been using iTunes (now apple music) for 15+ years in my cycling studio. The 15-second cut-out just started happening to me a few weeks ago but it's extremely annoying. I have searched everywhere for a solution, but it seems like apple is just happy to take my $10 per month to play music that I've already purchased. I'm still not ready to give up. I noticed today that the songs that it's happening to are the ones marked 'matched'. I've never understood the advantage of the 'match' program, but I don't think I had a choice. Anyway, if anyone on this thread can run with the info that it seems to be happening only to matched songs, I (we) would be grateful!
OP here. The problem for me has not gone away. I can confirm that it only happens on matched songs. I was so sick and tired of this stupid issue that a few weeks ago i started walking to work with my personal cassette player (Walkman) again like it was 1995. It's 30 years old this year but guess what it at least 'kin works.
HA! Awesome - bring back the Walkman! I'm wondering what happens if I get rid of Match. 🤫 I can't even remember what the purpose was of that. Anyway, I somehow feel better that it's ot just me, but disappointed in Apple that they don't bother to address this.
i've been using itunes match for my 10k+ collection with no issues for around a year - i don't use apple music streaming service
yesterday was gifted via Shazam 3 months of apple music streaming which i redeemed, cos why not? but straight away all of my matched songs stopped playing after 15 seconds
the only way to fix it is to turn off lossless audio in apple music settings... a shame cos it would be nice to have lossless quality without my hd plugged in, but not the end of the world
yesterday was gifted via Shazam 3 months of apple music streaming which i redeemed, cos why not? but straight away all of my matched songs stopped playing after 15 seconds
the only way to fix it is to turn off lossless audio in apple music settings... a shame cos it would be nice to have lossless quality without my hd plugged in, but not the end of the world
Actually, I just checked and I don't have lossless audio turned on, so that won't help me. There is obviously a problem with match - I wish Apple would address this....
It is a $25 a year subscription service that allows you to stream any music in your personal library to devices to which your library isn't downloaded, such as to your phone. If you have songs in your library which match songs in Apple's library, then Apple will stream their version to your devices. But if like me you have dozens of albums not available in their library, they will upload your songs to their servers and stream lossy versions of them to your devices.
The problem is the matching algorithms are sh-te. Ask anyone with, for example, the Beatles mono box set, such as myself, which isn't available anywhere for streaming.
Does it also happen when the songs are offline, or only when you stream them? Maybe downloading the song/playlist/album could fix it.
I'm not really sure, but I have too many songs to download. I liked the idea of storing them in the cloud so it wouldn't take up so much space on my computer. I could possible get a separate hard drive ....Just really disappointed in how sloppy Apple is with this. \_(ツ)_/¯