Music - Missing Features, Bugs, Issues & Troubleshooting

[ErikGrim]

Big Sur 11.5 b4 - Music 1.1.6.28
Revision history:

Spoiler

Big Sur 11.5 b3- Music 1.1.6.19
Big Sur 11.5 b2- Music 1.1.6.12
Big Sur 11.5 b1- Music 1.1.5.74
Big Sur 11.4 b4 - Music 1.1.5.74
Big Sur 11.4 b3 - Music 1.1.5.69
Big Sur 11.4 b2 - Music 1.1.5.55
Big Sur 11.4 b1 - Music 1.1.5.40
Big Sur 11.3b6 - Music 1.1.4.110
Big Sur 11.3b2 - Music 1.1.4.78
Big Sur 11.3b1 - Music 1.1.4.56
Big Sur 11.2 - Music 1.1.3.3
Big Sur 11.2b1 - Music 1.1.2.28
Big Sur 11.1 - Music 1.1.2.28
Big Sur 11.0.1 - Music 1.1.1.3
Big Sur 11.0.1b1 - Music 1.1.0.282
Big Sur 11.0b10 - Music 1.1.0.278
Big Sur 11.0b9 - Music 1.1.0.265
Big Sur 11.0b8 - Music 1.1.0.247
Big Sur 11.0b6 - Music 1.1.0.234
Big Sur 11.0b4 - Music 1.1.0.208
Big Sur 11.0b3 - Music 1.1.0.186
Big Sur 11.0b1-b2 - Music 1.1.0.129
Catalina 10.15.5 - Music 1.0.5.14

Missing Features

1. Internet radio (old style streaming stations) - see apple support info - alternative = use a stand alone app such as "MyTuner"
2. "Search Filter Field" for Local Library "Songs / Column View" and "Playlists" is hidden -> must manually invoke "Show Filter Field" (menu < view< Show Filter Field (short cut = cmd + alt + F ) - (Still does not persist between switching playlists Music 1.1.6.28 ) - filter field- see post #140
3. Album/song view: Can't view albums in place. Music has a separate page for every album. Artist view can view them in a list.
4. No option for setting smaller grid size in album view. - previously in iTunes you could have 13 albums on each row, in Music limited to only 5 per row, makes scrolling through library tedious.
5. Now Playing - Can't view a bigger version of the album art from Now playing. (previously in iTunes you could cmd + click to open a bigger artwork. This was separate from the mini player which wouldn't resize quite large and won't open in iTunes full screen) - alternative is ctrl + click for menu and select "Show Album In Library"
6. Mini Player - "No Search Field" - as existed in iTunes - "History" is there, can toggle between "History" and "Playing Next" - but no search option
7. Sync Play Info - from iOS device back to Music App on Mac: Some users report that "Play Counts" do not update / sync back to Music app on Mac as was the case in iTunes - this may be an issue on the iOS side - see post 276 for more info . . .
8. Gestures missing in Apple Music - (compare to iTunes Store where gestures still work - I guess their solution was to remove gestures from the iTunes Store as well ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ )
9. XML library is no longer automatically generated - the XML file was for "sharing info" to other apps (it can still be created via "Export Library") – missing this can cause issues for some DJ software and sound system apps like sonos etc. - creating a manual XML file can be a useful work around ( see file menu)
10. Missing Icons - According to marketing material, playlist sidebar is meant to have icons based on album art or custom - coming in future update (?). Still nothing in 1.1.x.x.
11. Playlist Rename - No way to rename playlists inline from the sidebar - work around - can be changed in the playlist header on the same screen. Possibly removed so you can double click playlists to start playing from sidebar (which still doesn't line up with how Finder works)
12. Artwork for new music - Ripping old CD's into "Music" Still does not always add "Non Apple" Artwork - may require manually adding artwork
13. No Visual Feedback When Adding Songs to Queue - There's no indication that a song has been added to Up Next Queue at all. Previously there was an animation showing the song being added, and the glyph would glow blue indicating that there were upcoming songs. Both of these indicators have been removed.
14. Importing tracks progress (from CD or Finder) is no longer showing

Bugs

1. "Filter Field" Search does not persist when switching between playlists - Bug or Missing Feature ? - as mentioned above in missing features - Filter Field is the best option for searching local libraries, playlists etc. but disappears when switching to other views. Using the show lyrics icon at the top right also removes the Filter fields and wipes out any search text - losing the entry and requires re-opeing the "filter fileld" and re-entering the text again.
2. Main Search Box defaults to Music Store - when using the main search box (left / top) to search "local library" search defaults / displays results on music store even when there is already purchased music in local library.
3. Display Bar Missing (affected by language selection) - Some "French" language users report that Music can crash (mini player) and "top bar / player is blank" in album view - see screen shot post 194 - workaround = switch APP language back to English - check - then back to "french language" - see screen shot post 213, and another user post #227
4. Main Search Box disappears - The search field, being part of the sidebar, disappears up with the scroll making it useless for searching play lists lower down on the list
5. Artwork Handling and Bugs - Artwork handling is just terrible. They just don't show up for a lot of songs — sometimes it happens in the Songs view, sometimes in the Album view that pops up when Cmd+L, sometimes in the mini player up top. All the artworks are like 1800px max (usually 1400px)
6. Playlist/albums scroll positions aren't retained if you switch away from them. Album now retains position as of 1.0.2.37. Playlists DO NOT.
7. After a restart of the app the sorting changes from "Album by Artist/Year" to "Album" in smart playlists.
8. Some of the advanced playback features (for example Sound Check, Equalizer settings, Volume Adjust and Start/Stop) are not working when AirPlay playback is enabled.
9. On a wired (Ethernet) connection with WiFi off, try selecting an AirPlay output in Music. The primary network connection will immediately drop out and take some time to reestablish itself. Any network traffic (e-mail, file transfers, etc.) will be interrupted. (Holdover bug from iTunes)
10. Listen Now doesn't load (new in 1.1.0.234) loads very slowly / does not load for some
11. Rating stars in list view are not retina! How?
    
12. Inconsistency in star ratings, some are coloured and low res, some retina and non-coloured for no apparent reason:
    
13. Dragging tracks into a playlist from Finder to the top, or anywhere within a playlist, still adds the tracks to the bottom of a playlist
14. Returning to a song you are playing in the main library (Songs) with cmd-L is now impossible as it displays it as part of an album always - even if it is not part of an album / the only song. Previously would return to the place in the list.
15. Songs that are matched, but have been removed from the iTunes Store library for whatever reason (usually older compilations that have had songs taken off them when licensing has expired) will get stuck on download and cause the entire download queue to stop until they are manually stopped. These songs can not be removed from the library with Music. A workaround is to search for the song in Music on an iOS device and remove it there.
16. Mouse clicks in the song list view will often get stuck, fail to register, or cause brief "move" actions instead of playing tracks
17. Moving tracks in synced playlist will often put the track right back where you moved it from

Click Spoiler to un-hide fixed bugs

Spoiler

[*]"Show Artwork" in View < "Show View Options" CMD+J - Disabling "Show artwork" in Column/Song view does not persist between launches - re-appears at next launch and often displays generic icons - why show artwork if the icon is generic - waste of screen space - Fixed in Music Version 1.1.6.12
[*]Opening lyrics while the filter field is open will remove the filter field and any input in it. Data loss! merged with filter field line
[*]A new playlist is not created takes a long time to appear when creating from an album in Apple Music. To reproduce, click the "More" (the three dots (•••) button on an album in browsing mode of Apple Music, then select "Add to Playlist," which then provides a long list of playlists, including "New Playlist.". Takes a long time with a "Creating playlist in Library" in activitiy. Causes error 9,039. Resolved as of music 1.1.2.28
[*]Double clicking a track for the first time will sometimes skip the track
[*]Stars don't show up at all under Artist in Songs list when app is open in Dark mode.
[*]Checkboxes in Songs view are showing as checked even it's actually unchecked when selected.
[*]Cmd+L in Songs view doesn't scroll the list to show the song but instead opens a whole new view that covers up the songs list. Does nothing in full screen mode. (Works if song is playing from a different playlist)
[*]Cmd-F no longer works to activate search. (new in 1.1.0.186) Cmd-F now takes you to the Apple Music Categories page for some reason (new in 1.1.0.243)
[*]Music app will randomly stop registering double clicks on a song to play. I have to use the "Play" button when you hover over the song number. If I quit and reopen the app double clicking works for a while and then stops again.
[*]Shuffle and Repeat Icons don't work when clicked (new in 1.1.0.208)
[*]Shuffle and Repeat icons don't appear until you click Shuffle in a playlist.
[*]Random UI bugs. It will lag, sometimes flash when going between albums, and the animations are sometimes very abrupt.
[*]Playlist folders re-expand when deleting playlists.
[*]Playlist folders are always expanded when restarting the app.
[*]Genius results can’t be updated right now. An Unknown error occured (18004) (4001).
[*]The results box not appearing properly
[*]Right clicking on an item within the “Browse” and “Listen Now” content areas sometimes opens the contextual menu at a random location.
[*]When I am playing a song in the list view and then I click Controls -> Go to Current Song (cmd + L) it changes to the album view (and goes back to the song view after clicking on the back arrow). When I do the same thing playing a song from a smart playlist, it remains in the song view.
[*]Play icon is cut off

Issues

1. Filter field DOES NOT PERSIST between switching playlists.
2. Playlists do not retain view and column width settings after converting iTunes library.
3. Shuffle - Un-Shuffle Confusion - This is the difference between inactive / active state of "shuffle" and "repeat" - shuffle indicated by shuffle icon turning blue when active (not easy to notice if on or off) see post 226 shuffle info - "repeat" is a similar 3 way toggle on the right side
   
   
   
4. Back button is ugly. Redesigned again in 1.1.x.x, but still a single button on same spaced line as "Filter text"
5. Play list Header Can’t remove playlist header in Song view. This seems to be intended behaviour, which sucks. This is the same as it was in iTunes - and in Big Sur this is where to edit the Playlist title / name
6. AppleScript / Scrobblers / Keyboard remote apps addressing “iTunes.app” no longer working. Last.fm scrobblers for Music now exist.
7. UI conventions from iOS are unwelcome, especially the slide-in lyrics / playing next panes
8. Loading the library can take a long time, especially after a force quit. Even on SSD.
9. Updating artist artwork takes a long time / lots of CPU
10. Apple Music is slow to load and navigate - even on very fast connections / 2020 iMacs.
11. Same font weight and size and tighter kerning for both primary/secondary text (instead of say Bold artist, regular title) in Apple Music. Only differentiation is font colour/brightness. Harder to read and scan - especially on non-retina screens.
12. There's very little to distinguish Music from being in the foreground or background.
13. "Show Only Downloaded Music" option is now universal. Not per playlist.
14. Songs not in two columns anymore if you have a large screen, causing excessive scrolling in Album view.
15. Transport bar only shows time elapsed/remaining when hovering.
16. Beachball often appears when using the new search. - I can’t seem to reproduce this anymore on my 110K+ library
17. Mini M1 with Apple Magic Mouse. Start Music and the mouse is unresponsive for about a minute
18. Quitting while downloading tracks will cause a beachball and take a long time

Troubleshooting

1. To rebuild your library from iTunes: Hold option when launching, select your old iTunes library in ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Library.itl
   1. OR: try deleting ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Music.plist then
      1. Move your music out of the Music folder and delete everything left in it.
      2. cd ~/Library and remove any folders that have Music or iTunes in the name
      3. cd ~/Library/Caches and delete any folders with Music or iTunes in the name
      4. Reboot
      5. Put your music folders back where you had them before. You may need to Import your music again to let the Music app organize them in a way that makes sense to it
   2. OR: This Applescript will force playlist re-build from original "iTunes Music Library.xml"
      https://github.com/dimecho/iTunes-Catalina
2. Music Store can be enabled under view and in preferences.
3. Home Sharing has moved to the Sharing pane in System Preferences (Media Sharing)
4. Some sync issues for older iPods fixed by installing ItunesAccess https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/has-anyone-gotten-an-ipod-shuffle-2nd-gen-to-work.2196567/
5. Switching all your playlists (back) to song view is quicker if you add a keyboard shortcut (System Prefs -> Keyboard) to this View item:
   View attachment 870422
6. Doug Adams have started updating all his scripts for Music
7. You may need to connect the remote app manually and not with home sharing:
   open remote app => tap settings in upper right corner => add iTunes library => in the music app in your Mac: look for the remote app symbol (arrow with your iPhone name) and enter the 4 digits
8. Music always starting in full screen mode? Close Music, run
   
   defaults delete com.apple.Music
   
   in Terminal, and reopen Music (and re-set your preferences).
9. Seeing as we are stuck with 1.0.5.14 for Catalina and 1.1.x for Big Sur, your best solution is probably to just install iTunes again. Yes, this still works in Big Sur!

TL;DR:

Image by @mikzn

New welcome features:

1. New top bar View attachment 857531
2. New Listen Now screen:
3. Real-time lyrics in pane, mini-player and full screen mode (1.0.4.89)
4. New Full screen mode activated from mini-player zoom button or keyboard shortcut
   
   Thanks to @Internet Enzyme for discovering and screenshots
5. 1.0.5.9 allows you to two-finger scroll the volume and track bars.
6. Selection outlines now appearing when hovering over the lyrics and upcoming buttons, however nothing yet for the play/pauses buttons which also have outlines in Podcasts.
7. Animated playlist artwork in Listen Now are now present, the same as iOS
8. Mute and full volume glyphs on the volume slider are now selectable and change colour when clicked
9. 1.1.0.186 has the iOS 14 icon
   
10. You can now add descriptions to Playlists (from 1.1.2.25)

Wiki post: everyone is welcome to add to and edit.

 

[VKondakoff]

Hey, hey, hey!

Album art and intelligent sorting by Artist/Year in list view is back (Music 1.1.0.129):

 

[UltimateSyn]

I'm going to update tonight. Will I be able to select albums after I've performed a search, or is that still impossible? Big pet peeve in Music on Catalina.

 

[ErikGrim]

I'm going to update tonight. Will I be able to select albums after I've performed a search, or is that still impossible? Big pet peeve in Music on Catalina.

Select and drag? Yes, this is back.

 

[Traverse]

My few quick questions are:

1. Is the song duration/remaining time still hidden unless you mouse over the progress bar?
2. Can anyone on a 1440p+ display take the app full screen, are there still huge margins of unused space?
3. I'm sure they are, but can someone just confirm that star ratings are still there for my sanity?

 

[PowerBook-G5]

Album/song view: Can't view albums in place. Music has a separate page for every album. Artist view can view them in a list.

I'm sad to hear that's still a thing. I'm still on Mojave on my MBP, but have Catalina on my MBA. I absolutely HATE the new Music app, mainly for this reason.

 

[ErikGrim]

A comparison of iTunes and Music running side by side in Big Sur:

[automerge]1592960007[/automerge]

My few quick questions are:

1. Is the song duration/remaining time still hidden unless you mouse over the progress bar?
2. Can anyone on a 1440p+ display take the app full screen, are there still huge margins of unused space?
3. I'm sure they are, but can someone just confirm that star ratings are still there for my sanity?

1. Yes
2. Margins where?
3. Yes

 

[cmChimera]

1. Gestures missing in Apple Music (compare to iTunes Store where gestures still work - I guess their solution was to remove gestures from the iTunes Store as well ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ )

1. Album/song view: Can't view albums in place. Music has a separate page for every album. Artist view can view them in a list.

I'm sad to hear that's still a thing. I'm still on Mojave on my MBP, but have Catalina on my MBA. I absolutely HATE the new Music app, mainly for this reason.

How are y'all formatting feedback for this? I'll try to make mine similar so maybe it'll get more attention.

 

[ErikGrim]

How are y'all formatting feedback for this? I'll try to make mine similar so maybe it'll get more attention.

Short and to the point per feature / bug:

 

[UltimateSyn]

Crap - you can no longer access the iTunes Store for Movies & TV Shows within Music on macOS 11. That's the only place you can still buy full series of TV Shows, oddly that feature is not available within the TV App. Luckily the iTunes Store for Movies & TV Shows can still be accessed on iOS 14.

 

[funkypepper]

I hate it that they’ve recently dumbed down the Mini Player. It’s no longer possible to search for tracks.

 

[ErikGrim]

I hate it that they’ve recently dumbed down the Mini Player. It’s no longer possible to search for tracks.

This is true. No search in Mini Player.

 

[return2sendai]

Gawd! Reading this, I am just shocked. Music sounds abysmal. iTunes till I die!

 

[nnauq]

This is true. No search, no history in Mini Player.

View attachment 927027

History appears to be there, above the track durations.

 

[ErikGrim]

History appears to be there, above the track durations.

Indeed. That is a terrible UX however.

 

[cmChimera]

Short and to the point per feature / bug:
View attachment 926986

Thanks! When I install Big Sur, I'll submit in a similar fashion.

 

[Sowelu]

Annoyed to hear that the Filter Field still isn't persistent, and I am assuming it still has that horrible gigantic band/line that it creates on top of the app when this field is manually put into view.

Another annoyance is the hidden time laps while a song is playing - what is the point of this? I'd love that to return, it's quite useful while editing playlists and cutting down song lengths for songs that have awkwardly long fade outs or dead noise at the end (for an optimal crossfading).

Speaking of Crossfade, is this still not working via AirPlay in Big Sur's Music app? I still cannot believe that this is still broken under Catalina. Crossfading is a must, and is a widely used and basic feature, I am not sure why they can't figure this out. Who listens to playlists with gaps in-between songs? Transitions and crossfades are everything with a good playlist.

 

[funkypepper]

To anyone reading this thread, please report above issues through Feedback Assistant (feedbackassistant.apple.com). It’s the only way we can make our voice heard. Strength in numbers.

 

[nortonandreev]

New:

• Search field is showing results in a new way (similar to iOS 14)

Bugs:

• Search field doesn't appear properly while typing (half of it is transparent) and before its been populated with the search results
• Right clicking on an item open the contextual menu at a random location. It usually happens within the “Browse” and “Listen Now” content areas. I have seen this in Catalina as well, not sure when it start occurring
• The app crashes if you try to have input larger than the current size of the search field

I have attached screenshoots for the new search field, as well as the bugs I described. Already reported to Apple, do the same if you experience the same issues.

 

[justafew]

Hey, hey, hey!

Album art and intelligent sorting by Artist/Year in list view is back (Music 1.1.0.129):

Does this apply to Songs in the Library section or only to Playlists?

 

[ErikGrim]

Does this apply to Songs in the Library section or only to Playlists?

Songs as well

 

[Jack Neill]

A comparison of iTunes and Music running side by side in Big Sur:

View attachment 926948 View attachment 926949
[automerge]1592960007[/automerge]

1. Yes
2. Margins where?
3. Yes

View attachment 926952

Nice playlist.

 

[Killerbob]

I know someone crossed out "Genius results can’t be updated right now. An Unknown error occurred (18004) (4001)" - why? I am still having problems with Music failing to update Genius. The error message I get is "Genius results can’t be updated because the iTunes Store doesn’t recognize your music library."

Also, and I think these thing are related, I have added MP3 songs from my NAS; and the files still have cloud status "waiting".

UPDATE!

I may have sorted this out... I logged out of Music, rebooted, and opened up Music again, logged back into my account, and there was a LOT of activity in the background, uploading etc., and now it seems to be working again.

 

[ErikGrim]

I know someone crossed out "Genius results can’t be updated right now. An Unknown error occurred (18004) (4001)" - why? I am still having problems with Music failing to update Genius. The error message I get is "Genius results can’t be updated because the iTunes Store doesn’t recognize your music library."

That’s potentially a separate error to the previous ones. I’m going to run a genius update on both iTunes and Music now to check for errors.

UPDATE: Still an issue in both. Updated wiki. *sigh*

 

[ErikGrim]

With beta2 of Big Sur only being a single build number higher, it’s no surprise that Music stays the same.