Music - Missing Features, Bugs, Issues & Troubleshooting (Sonoma)

[tkermit]

I'm glad 'Recently Added' is back to the old design

Indeed. Although one thing that is still missing is being able to use the filter field. Pretty sure that was possible at one point.

Now if they could get rid of those giant playlist headers that don't scroll with the content when viewing a playlist by songs or albums..

 

[Lvivske]

Indeed. Although one thing that is still missing is being able to use the filter field. Pretty sure that was possible at one point.

Now if they could get rid of those giant playlist headers that don't scroll with the content when viewing a playlist by songs or albums..

filter is there for me (1.4.3.17), works by scanning several meta data fields from what I can see (track titles, album name, artist, comments)

 

[tkermit]

filter is there for me (1.4.3.17)

That's great news then. I'm still on 1.4.2.83 and the option is grayed out for me.

 

[Lvivske]

little mandela effect moment, but has the app always shown the lossless icon when casting airplay? i realize it's still pushing 256kbps AAC and not ALAC but was the icon there before?

 

[ErikGrim]

Why would it be pushing 256 AAC? Even AirPlay 1 was lossless ALAC regardless of input.

 

[barracuda156]

Any fix to the totally broken by 14.2 update Music app? It freezes forever on any attempt to play something.

Still totally broken in 14.2.1

 

[Lvivske]

Currently an issue with playlists, at least on 1.4.3.17

if you use playlists in album view, and try to go back to the playlist index or even open it again, the screen is grey. Only solution is killing the app. (submitted to feedback, just sharing the issue)

screen recording

update: ok a temp solution is to make sure a track from the playlist is playing (ie, double click playlist and let the first track start), then use cmd+L for Go to Current Song, which wont go to the current song but rather the playlist index)

 

[Lvivske]

Why would it be pushing 256 AAC? Even AirPlay 1 was lossless ALAC regardless of input.

Airplay from within the Music app always compresses everything to 256 AAC (article on it)

this actually made me check A1 vs A2, on the Airport Express (A1) the Lossless icon disappears completely indicating a lossy stream, but on the Airplay 2 device the Lossless icon appears (but transmits as AAC regardless)

this actually had me find another issue. On Airplay 2 devices Airplay 'works', but on the Airport Express A1 device it only plays local ALAC and Music streams, but Music that is downloaded locally doesnt play and causes the app to revert back to default speakers, glitching out

update 2: I monitored the network traffic with the different options to see what happens in the background

Music app to Airplay 1 device: Steady 1.2mbps upstream from Music app, no Lossless icon for downstream
Music app to Airplay 2 device: 1.4mbps upload bursts via 'AirPlayXPCHelper' process, Lossless icon for downstream; Wiim app verifies lossy 256kbps stream

System audio to Airplay 1 device: Steady 1.1mbps upstream from 'AirPlayXPCHelper' process, Lossless icon for downstream
System audio to Airplay 2 device: Steady 1.2mbps upstream from 'AirPlayXPCHelper' process, Lossless icon for downstream; Wiim app verifies Lossless 900kbps stream

Airfoil app to Airplay 1 device: Steady 1.2mbps upstream from 'Airfoil' app, Lossless icon for downstream
Airfoil app to Airplay 2 device: Steady 1.2mbps upstream from 'Airfoil' app, Lossless icon for downstream; Wiim app verifies Lossless 900kbps stream


Conclusion: Apple implemented Airplay 1 in a way that would pull compressed music from Apple's servers, then send the compressed file quasi-losslessly to the A1 device, in a case of idiotic redundency. Trying to bypass Apple's compression and pre-downloading the file will cause an error.

When implementing Airplay 2 into Music, they avoided this glitch and had system audio secretly compress the audio

 

[barracuda156]

Airplay from within the Music app always compresses everything to 256 AAC (article on it)

this actually made me check A1 vs A2, on the Airport Express (A1) the Lossless icon disappears completely indicating a lossy stream, but on the Airplay 2 device the Lossless icon appears (but transmits as AAC regardless)

View attachment 2327049

this actually had me find another issue. On Airplay 2 devices Airplay 'works', but on the Airport Express A1 device it only plays local ALAC and Music streams, Music that is downloaded locally doesnt play and causes the app to revert back to default speakers, glitching out

update 2: I monitored the network traffic with the different options to see what happens in the background

Music app to Airplay 1 device: Steady 1.2mbps upstream from Music app, no Lossless icon for downstream
Music app to Airplay 2 device: 1.4mbps upload bursts via 'AirPlayXPCHelper' process, Lossless icon for downstream; Wiim app verifies lossy 256kbps stream

System audio to Airplay 1 device: Steady 1.1mbps upstream from 'AirPlayXPCHelper' process, Lossless icon for downstream
System audio to Airplay 2 device: Steady 1.2mbps upstream from 'AirPlayXPCHelper' process, Lossless icon for downstream; Wiim app verifies Lossless 900kbps stream

Airfoil app to Airplay 1 device: Steady 1.2mbps upstream from 'Airfoil' app, Lossless icon for downstream
Airfoil app to Airplay 2 device: Steady 1.2mbps upstream from 'Airfoil' app, Lossless icon for downstream; Wiim app verifies Lossless 900kbps stream


Conclusion: Apple implemented Airplay 1 in a way that would pull compressed music from Apple's servers, then send the compressed file quasi-losslessly to the A1 device, in a case of idiotic redundency. Trying to bypass Apple's compression and pre-downloading the file will cause an error.

When implementing Airplay 2 into Music, they avoided this glitch and had system audio secretly compress the audio

This is pretty horrible.

 

[CaptainAndrew]

Is it just me or is there no way to view the number of total songs or runtime duration of a Playlist in your Library anymore?

Playlists that are hosted and accessed on Apple Music do show the number of songs and duration at the bottom of the Playlist:

But Playlists that you create in your Library or are saved from Apple Music to your Library do not show the number of songs and duration anywhere.

If you put a Playlist in your Library into a Playlist Folder and click on that Folder, then you can see the number of songs and duration at the top. But it's really strange that they would remove this capability when you are viewing a single playlist:

If this was an oversight or bug and I'm surprised it was never caught in the beta cycle. If you create a new empty Playlist it does show the number of items at the top as "NO ITEMS":

If this change is intentional, I question the logic here. Knowing the number of songs and duration of a Playlist is a must have for any music app. Also, on iOS you can still see the number of songs and duration of a Playlist.

On macOS 14.2.1 (23C71) with Music 1.4.2.83.

 

[tkermit]

Is it just me or is there no way to view the number of total songs or runtime duration of a Playlist in your Library anymore?

From the menu bar, select View -> Show Status Bar

 

[Slix]

I did some searches and didn't see this mentioned anywhere, but I just realized that "Edit Rules..." no longer appears below the playlist info in Music on Sonoma.

Older Music apps:

Current Music app:

You can still edit the rules by going to the "..." and selecting it, but the top level link is gone. It also appears that "Add description" is missing from there too.

 

[ErikGrim]

Airplay from within the Music app always compresses everything to 256 AAC (article on it)

This is just incorrect and your article proves it: airplay 1 is always lossless - airplay 2 is lossless if you set it as a system output device whilst playing from the Music app.

 

[Lvivske]

Airplay from within the Music app always compresses everything to 256 AAC

This is just incorrect and your article proves it: airplay 1 is always lossless - airplay 2 is lossless if you set it as a system output device whilst playing from the Music app.

You should probably re-read the article 🙄

AirPlay 1 to AirPort Express 1st Gen - bit perfect at 44.1 only if the system-wide AirPlay device is set. If AirPlay device only selected in the Music app, the output is NOT bit perfect.

Apple's Music App, lossless streaming content, AirPlay 2 to AirPort Express 2nd Gen - bit perfect at 44.1 only if the system-wide AirPlay device is set. If AirPlay device only selected in the Music app, the output is NOT bit perfect.

The oddball exception seemingly being locally ripped files (ie, not Apple Music) via Airplay 1 on the app to an Airport Express Gen 1

 

[MrWeenus]

Speaking of AirPlay issues, does anyone have any issues when using the Music app with an AirPlay 2 device, such as HomePods or Apple TV? It would connect successfully and start playing music, but mid-song would disconnect (without stopping the music) and would require a re-connect or app relaunch to control devices once again. Even the playhead stops in the middle of the song.

 

[Klschmann]

I updated to Sonoma over the Holidays and the play count bug I first noticed with Ventura is still present.

Scenario - The last song of an album or playlist does not register a play count nor is it added to my Recently Played smart playlist when either Airplaying to a HomePod or listening to music with AirPods (regular, Pro and Max) connected. Play counts for the last song on an album or playlist are registered, however, when music plays directly through the computer speakers.

This is for both locally downloaded and streamed music. I never ran into this prior to updating to Ventura and it seems like something that should never have broken in the first place but also seems like it should be easy to fix.

I have isolated this to the Mac version of the Music app and it does not happen across any of my other devices (all on the most recent software versions).

I assume I am not alone in experiencing this but I'm also not exactly optimistic it'll ever get fixed.

 

[nortonandreev]

We still don't have information on the number of songs within a playlist... why?

 

[chromosapien65]

We still don't have information on the number of songs within a playlist... why?

You have to view the playlist in "as songs" view and you'll see the count at the bottom in the status bar. It will also show the amount of time for the playlist.

 

[chromosapien65]

I did some searches and didn't see this mentioned anywhere, but I just realized that "Edit Rules..." no longer appears below the playlist info in Music on Sonoma.

Older Music apps:
View attachment 2331488

Current Music app:

View attachment 2331491

You can still edit the rules by going to the "..." and selecting it, but the top level link is gone. It also appears that "Add description" is missing from there too.

You can also just right click on the playlist and select "Edit Rules" from the popup menu.

 

[nortonandreev]

You have to view the playlist in "as songs" view and you'll see the count at the bottom in the status bar. It will also show the amount of time for the playlist.

Thanks, but I'm pretty sure it used to display this info before in the playlist mode too, no?

 

[chromosapien65]

Thanks, but I'm pretty sure it used to display this info before in the playlist mode too, no?

You might be right about that. I can't remember.

 

[Slix]

We still don't have information on the number of songs within a playlist... why?

I posted a screenshot 5 posts before this which shows the songs at the top of the playlist. It works for Playlist View too. Unless you mean something else?

 

[Lvivske]

Smart Playlists show the # of songs info at the top, manual Playlists dont, in Playlist view
maybe that's the confusion?

 

[ErikGrim]

Thanks, but I'm pretty sure it used to display this info before in the playlist mode too, no?

Still shows in the status bar in Playlist view too:

 

[ErikGrim]

Smart Playlists show the # of songs info at the top, manual Playlists dont, in Playlist view
maybe that's the confusion?

No, I think the confusion stems from Apple Music playlists which shows this information at the bottom:

Only local playlists show the information in the status bar, which disappears when browsing AM. Just one of those quirky inconsistencies.