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Offline Playback of Apple Music files.

Stuey3D

Stuey3D

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 8, 2014
836
953
Northamptonshire, United Kingdom
Not sure if this is intended behaviour as some sort of DRM thing or a bug, however any songs I have downloaded for Offline Playback from Apple Music service need an internet connection to play.

Example

iPhone has dropped signal and I attempt to play an Apple Music song it will not start to play until signal is back, however once its got a signal it will play as normal from then on even when put into Airplane mode and other songs play as normal.

If you try to start a song in Airplane mode it throws up a message saying Apple Music songs can't be played, however if you turn off Airplane mode and start to play songs and then turn Airplane mode back on then the rest will play as normal.

I think this is just a bug, or rather I HOPE this is just a bug as this could be a problem with people going off the grid for a while for whatever reason (foreign trip with no data roaming, trip to rural area with no signal etc)

Also this ONLY effects Apple Music downloads, your existing music downloaded for offline playback play as normal regardless of data connection.

Anyone else experience this issue?
 
Mine has been doing this as well, wasn't like this in last beta so think it's a bug.
 
I just tested three full albums that I downloaded for offline from Apple Music and they played just fine in airplane mode. Not sure what could be causing them to not play for you.
 
lagwagon said:
I just tested three full albums that I downloaded for offline from Apple Music and they played just fine in airplane mode. Not sure what could be causing them to not play for you.
Click to expand...
Reboot your phone turn on airplane mode and then open the music app and attempt to play the files, it seems to need an initial network connection to authorise them or something.
 
Stuey3D said:
Reboot your phone turn on airplane mode and then open the music app and attempt to play the files, it seems to need an initial network connection to authorise them or something.
Click to expand...

My music app was fully closed and never launched in about a day on my first test.

I tested your reboot thing and they all still played. (Even tried different albums that were downloaded for offline from the first test)

If you've downloaded a full album can you screen shot the screen for that album (tapped into the album so it shows just the album and track list)
 
lagwagon said:
My music app was fully closed and never launched in about a day on my first test.

I tested your reboot thing and they all still played. (Even tried different albums that were downloaded for offline from the first test)
Click to expand...
Hmm dunno then, I can replicate it every time no problem. I wonder what you are doing differently then as me and JakeT85 seem to suffer the same issue so not a problem with just me.
 
Stuey3D said:
Hmm dunno then, I can replicate it every time no problem. I wonder what you are doing differently then as me and JakeT85 seem to suffer the same issue so not a problem with just me.
Click to expand...

Can you take a screen shot of an album you've downloaded for offline for me? (The view of just the single album and track list)
 
All apart from Guardians of the Galaxy are Apple Music, Guardians of the Galaxy was purchased as not available on Apple Music.
 

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Whole album is available offline, however I originally started with the song "Bleed the Freak" so that's why it's the only one with an offline icon even though all of them are available offline.
 

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Stuey3D said:
Whole album is available offline, however I originally started with the song "Bleed the Freak" so that's why it's the only one with an offline icon even though all of them are available offline.
Click to expand...

Yeah. I wanted to just double check if you had the downloaded icon on the top right corner of the artwork. (Which you do)

Very strange indeed. I rebooted twice more and turning on airplane. All three times (four if you include my original test) still play everything just fine.

Fully closing the app in the app switcher, rebooting, turning on airplane, launching music and then picking an album I've DL'd from Apple Music.
 
Try this, close all apps, reboot iPhone by holding the home and power buttons together, wait for iPhone to get signal and then turn on Airplane mode, open music app and then try to play an Apple Music download.

Just replicated the problem perfectly.
 
Stuey3D said:
Try this, close all apps, reboot iPhone by holding the home and power buttons together, wait for iPhone to get signal and then turn on Airplane mode, open music app and then try to play an Apple Music download.

Just replicated the problem perfectly.
Click to expand...

I've tried every which way. Exactly how you mentioned. I even did airplane mode before the reboot so it would still be in airplane after and no chance of getting signal and still plays. I've done letting it get signal like you mention, still plays. No matter what I do I have no issues of offline AM music playing.

It's very strange you can't. :/
 
Images below are showing the album was downloaded off AM and playing (icon on the artwork top right corner and not on the songs) and second image in the full screen player.
 

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For the record though I am running a clean install and set up as new from iOS 9 beta3 onwards so I wonder if that may have something to do with it, I highly doubt it but it could maybe.
 
Stuey3D said:
For the record though I am running a clean install and set up as new from iOS 9 beta3 onwards so I wonder if that may have something to do with it, I highly doubt it but it could maybe.
Click to expand...

It's been years since I've done a clean install. I only ever use OTA and the last time I did fresh was at least some point in iOS 6. (So OTA all through iOS 7, 8 ,8.3+8.4 betas, 8.4 release, iOS 9 PB1 and DP 4)
 
Up until I did a clean install with beta 3 my backup went all the way back to iPhone OS 1.1 on the original iPhone which I had jailbroken to run in the UK (American iPhone) it's served various incarnations of the iPhone and iOS updates so it was about time that I did a clean install, and by god it was worth it so much faster and just less buggy over all.
 
I had the same problem but I closed music, turned on airplane mode then rebooted with home and power buttons and now I can play all my music with airplane mode on
 
Ahh so there is definitely something wrong with it then.

To be honest it's not Airplane mode that I first noticed this, it was when my phone dropped to a GPRS connection and I wanted to play the files whilst driving home, that was rather frustrating.
 
Same happened to me on a trip Thursday.

Music stopped on a shuffled playlist, I thought it was down to a bug whilst using sat nav....but this makes more sense.
 
Yeah I first noticed this when my phone dropped onto a donkey slow GPRS signal and it just hung whilst trying to play offline Apple Music files as if it was trying to stream them even though they were saved. Eventually it either just gives up and stops all together, or it will suddenly start to play one of my normal non Apple Music songs.
 
Stuey3D said:
Yeah I first noticed this when my phone dropped onto a donkey slow GPRS signal and it just hung whilst trying to play offline Apple Music files as if it was trying to stream them even though they were saved. Eventually it either just gives up and stops all together, or it will suddenly start to play one of my normal non Apple Music songs.
Click to expand...
Hmm, I'm thinking this is why sometimes the Music App for me skips a song when walking to work on iOS 8.4. Sounds like a bug =/
 
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