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hammie14

macrumors regular
Mar 18, 2010
247
145
UK
Still not fixed in watchOS 6.1.1 (Watch series 4) and iOS 13.3 (iPhone 11 pro max)!
 

Bill Av

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 21, 2006
285
207
Same for me. After the update, I unpaired/paired my watch again to see if that would fix it. It did not.
 
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Bill Av

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 21, 2006
285
207
I deleted all my music from my phone to see what would happen to the watch. Oddly enough, my watch still thought that my phone had all my music on it - even after rebooting both devices. I thought it might have something to do with playlists (all the music I sync is part of a playlist). So as a test (a test that failed, mind you) I did the following:

  • Deleted all the music from my phone
  • factory wiped the watch
  • set the watch up as "new"
  • Added music manually to the phone (drag and dropped from iTunes)
Still no good. I also had the thought that if I added the music after I paired the watch, it might do something. Apparently not.
 
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Bill Av

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 21, 2006
285
207
This is (probably) the last thing I'll write. I deleted the Music app from my phone - which also deleted it from my watch. I reinstalled it, and it reappeared on my watch. This time, my watch didn't show any music at all. Then I re-added my music, and the problem remains. So that's it for me. No more messing around with it.
 

Mun Ching Lai

macrumors newbie
Dec 29, 2019
1
0
Noticed this problem after upgrading to watchos 6.1.1, and the problem is exactly as mentioned. May i know have Apple fix this on the watchos 6.1.2 beta?
 

gikirima

macrumors newbie
Jul 21, 2018
2
0
I’m also having this problem. I’m currently using iPhone XS Max with iOS 13.3 and Apple Watch series 4 with WatchOS 6.1.1 installed.
Mine’s apparently occur only when selecting from album and artist tab on Apple Watch. It’s normally playing when I manually select the song from the song tab list on the watch. I’ve tried resetting both iPhone and watch, but it just didn’t work.
Also, if I’m selecting the album from the iPhone, it can be controlled on watch afterwards, but once I get to different album, the same problem occur.
Anyone have this problem fixed?
 

Lyn2012

macrumors 6502a
Dec 26, 2007
693
272
I’m also having this problem. I’m currently using iPhone XS Max with iOS 13.3 and Apple Watch series 4 with WatchOS 6.1.1 installed.
Mine’s apparently occur only when selecting from album and artist tab on Apple Watch. It’s normally playing when I manually select the song from the song tab list on the watch. I’ve tried resetting both iPhone and watch, but it just didn’t work.
Also, if I’m selecting the album from the iPhone, it can be controlled on watch afterwards, but once I get to different album, the same problem occur.
Anyone have this problem fixed?
I’ve had extended conversations other Apple support over this and have sent videos for their technical dept. Please do report it to Apple, the more people do the faster it might be fixed. I’ve also requested that (non Apple/Audible) audiobooks be allowed to be loaded into the watch for use without the phone.
 

Bill Av

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 21, 2006
285
207
Fixed in 13.3.1 thanks Apple only taken you 3 months 😂
I upgraded my phone and it still doesn’t work. Did you do the Watch too? I can’t update the Watch until tonight, since I don’t have the charger.

Later that evening… updated the watch and still no joy. I'll probably start wiping them this weekend to see if anything helps. It's odd, since I have that same two devices: iPhone 11 Pro Max and AW4
 
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hammie14

macrumors regular
Mar 18, 2010
247
145
UK
I upgraded my phone and it still doesn’t work. Did you do the Watch too? I can’t update the Watch until tonight, since I don’t have the charger

When I posted this earlier I had only updated to 13.3.1 and had not updated my watch.

I have since updated my watch and it still working perfectly for me. It was not working on 13.3!

I have tested it will tracks and albums that I know did not work before. Seems strange that it now working for me but not other.

I just updated too no clean install, and I did not re-sync any music!
 

Bill Av

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 21, 2006
285
207
I retired my phone, watch and iMac from iCloud. I deregistered all my computers from iTunes, then wiped my iMac. While I was doing that, I unpaired/wiped my Watch and iPhone. I did a clean install on every device; no restoring from backups. On the iMac, I upgraded to Catalina using a thumb drive. When the install was finished, I added my music from an external drive to the Music app - not a Time Machine backup. Then I did a sync… still have the same problem. Apple brags that they control the hardware and software, yet this sort of thing happens all the time with them. I can't remember the last time I upgraded an Apple device without losing some sort of functionality for at least a year. If this gets fixed for me, it will be with iOS 14 most likely.
 
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terrapinjess

macrumors regular
Sep 11, 2012
135
270
I’m having the exact issue as others here. Worked fine until about when I upgraded to watchOS 6: From the watch I can select and play music I bought from Apple no problem. It’s all my other stuff—Will not play my music if initiated directly from Apple Watch.
 

hammie14

macrumors regular
Mar 18, 2010
247
145
UK
When I posted this earlier I had only updated to 13.3.1 and had not updated my watch.

I have since updated my watch and it still working perfectly for me. It was not working on 13.3!

I have tested it will tracks and albums that I know did not work before. Seems strange that it now working for me but not other.

I just updated too no clean install, and I did not re-sync any music!

Okay so everything was working, all ok. Added a new album to my music (on OSX) not purchased via iTunes and the synced my phone.

The problem is back, none of my non apple purchased music is working and I get the error again! Purchased music works ok!
 

vanhalen26

macrumors member
Nov 14, 2018
78
17
I get a similar problem pretty regularly. I’ll ask Siri to play an album from apple Music when I’m out using the watch on cellular with no phone present. It’ll give me a message about no suitable device being present (I can’t recall the exact phrasing).

Strangely, the last two times this happened I came home and when I got to my phone the audio I had requested was playing on my phone. I wonder if it started playing when I was miles away, or when I entered the house and the phone reconnected to the watch. The second time it was a radio station streaming through apple music, otherwise I would have checked how deep into the album the phone was.
 

travisc555

macrumors member
Jul 6, 2019
36
9
I have this problem too. iphone 8 ios 13.3.1 series 3 gps+cellular watchos 6.1.3

I can get playlists to play and select songs to play from the songs section of the music app, but can't select individual songs from Artists or Albums (I will get the cannot play this item error).

I have reported to apple about this and would encourage everyone else to do the same.
 
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