iOS 15.4 breaks 'gapless' playback in Apple Music

[crookadile]

Is this just a problem with Apple Music only, or does it also affect third party music players such as Cs music player, anyone know?

Cs music player uses the Apple Music App. So the problem will more than likely exist with all 3rd party apps that utilise the music app.

 

[sorgo †]

Seems better for me across iPhone/iPad/HomePods on 15.4.1 so far. Will report back if annoying gaps crop back up

 

[jonny]

Seems better for me across iPhone/iPad/HomePods on 15.4.1 so far. Will report back if annoying gaps crop back up

It seemed to resolve itself for me for around 30mins and then now it’s worse than ever. Including glitches during songs. My callback from support was just to say that they hadn’t heard back from their engineers. So still awaiting a resolution.

 

[zecanard]

I think 15.4.1 fixed it ?

Also fixed it for the HomePod. I use my mini to play brown noise at night, and that “No Fade” track was breaking for a second every 3 minutes. After updating to 15.4.1, no more gaps.

 

[andrewd3]

Is this just a problem with Apple Music only, or does it also affect third party music players such as Cs music player, anyone know?

I have the Cs Music app and gapless playback is also now broken. So installing a third-party music player is not a solution. Apple has managed to disable gapless playback for everyone it seems…

 

[Jayseph]

I have the Cs Music app and gapless playback is also now broken. So installing a third-party music player is not a solution. Apple has managed to disable gapless playback for everyone it seems…

Not everyone. Foobar2000 works great where gapless play is concerned.

 

[jonny]

Also fixed it for the HomePod. I use my mini to play brown noise at night, and that “No Fade” track was breaking for a second every 3 minutes. After updating to 15.4.1, no more gaps.

Wish this were the case for me. It seemed to resolve itself for around 30mins and now is worse than ever. Weird thing tho, I don’t get the gaps when jogging using my Apple Watch. I don’t know anything anymore! ?

 

[AugieWest]

I am having this issue. iPhone 13 iOS 15.4. Across all BT devices.

 

[Loge]

I am seeing it now, but sporadically with no apparent pattern.

 

[TonyC28]

Still going on for me. I have found that it I scrub ahead on a track to about 3 seconds left there is a pause when I stop scrubbing but then when the track starts over there is no gap. But if I scrub to about 30 seconds left and let it play out there is a gap when it starts over.

 

[JCCL]

I have this issue since the Beta. Annoying, especially since I listen to a lot of Live Albums. Curiously my Apple Watch doesn't do this, so would have thought that would end up being a better music player.

Ridiculous that they break this in 2022!

 

[Zensō]

I have to wonder if this is related to bandwidth. In other words, AM is streaming lower bitrates for CarPlay and Apple Watch, but higher resolution lossless otherwise, which may be creating a need for time to buffer playback between tracks.

 

[jonny]

I have to wonder if this is related to bandwidth. In other words, AM is streaming lower bitrates for CarPlay and Apple Watch, but higher resolution lossless otherwise, which may be creating a need for time to buffer playback between tracks.

I too was wondering this but in a slightly different way as I don’t stream. My issues are with songs I’ve manually loaded onto my phone which leads me to wonder if there’s some kind of memory leak in the iOS music app. Support called me again today with some follow up questions for the engineering dept. I have another callback scheduled for Wednesday. At this point I should be on their payroll. 🤣

 

[jonny]

I have this issue since the Beta. Annoying, especially since I listen to a lot of Live Albums. Curiously my Apple Watch doesn't do this, so would have thought that would end up being a better music player.

Ridiculous that they break this in 2022!

The behaviour was present on my apple watch prior to the latest update. But not any longer. My runs are certainly more peaceful now

 

[JCCL]

I have to wonder if this is related to bandwidth. In other words, AM is streaming lower bitrates for CarPlay and Apple Watch, but higher resolution lossless otherwise, which may be creating a need for time to buffer playback between tracks.

Don’t think it’s related to bandwidth at all. It happens with or without lossless, with media downloaded locally or streaming. Is all the same.

 

[ric_d]

I too was wondering this but in a slightly different way as I don’t stream. My issues are with songs I’ve manually loaded onto my phone which leads me to wonder if there’s some kind of memory leak in the iOS music app. Support called me again today with some follow up questions for the engineering dept. I have another callback scheduled for Wednesday. At this point I should be on their payroll. ?

Same here -- I don't stream, I just play songs that are loaded on my iPhone 13 Pro. I played a live album last night and the gap appeared sporadically between some tracks where it shouldn't.

 

[Demonic16]

Has someone tried new iOS 15.5 Beta 1? Does it fix our issue?

 

[JCCL]

Has someone tried new iOS 15.5 Beta 1? Does it fix our issue?

Exactly what I came here to ask. If it does I might try, otherwise I won't bother.

 

[drakula]

Hey everyone, I just wanted to add to the thread that I'm also experiencing the same issue. iOS 15.4.1 on an iPhone 13 Pro Max. I was listening with my AirPods Pro and it seemed like some songs on an album would transition fine but others would not. This is all music I've manually synced to my phone (and plays totally fine within the Apple Music app on my Mac).

 

[jonny]

Just an update on my unpaid qa internship (ha ha ha)

Yesterday apple support installed a Bluetooth profile on my phone so their engineers could monitor the issue. Will have a follow up call today.

As an aside, when I installed the profile I had to reboot the device. After rebooting it took around 20-30mins before the behaviour started up again.

 

[Demonic16]

So, no one tried iOS 15.5 Beta 1?

 

[Rod65]

Hi,
I am sorry to tell you that foobar2000 on my iphone 12pro with ios 15.4.1 dos not solve the problem, same gaps as in apple music player, total anoying.

 

[OhMyMy]

So, no one tried iOS 15.5 Beta 1?

It's working fine on 15.5 b1 on my 13 Pro.

 

[entropi]

well, monterey broke "music" and any finder back completely for me, so gapless playback is a minor issue for me...
(the app "iMazing" does back ups for me at the moment and I'm back to using my 15 year old iRiver MP3-player)

 

[Demonic16]

It's working fine on 15.5 b1 on my 13 Pro.

Great! Thanks for the answer. Will update today later.