Products · Product
Apple Music
Raised as a usability problem by 538 people on Hacker News over 18 years (2009–2026), in 312 threads.
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- 34Can't drag music into a sidebar playlistUnreviewed
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Every issue, all time, most people first
Pressing play or connecting iPhone unexpectedly launches Apple MusicUnreviewed
20092026- Apple Music auto-starts in the car, displacing Spotify and causing distraction2026-10-23
- Unremovable Apple Music nag screen keeps prompting subscription despite repeated refusal2026-08-05
- Music app opens itself when play is pressed by accident2026-06-08
Adding similar songs to playlists takes many steps and loses queue placeUnreviewed
20092026- Managing playlists is cumbersome and takes too many clicks2024-12-28
- "Add next" never works well and large playlists become unusable on PC2024-02-14
- Adding a song is slow, and shuffle/repeat options are buried in an awkward location2022-10-24
Can't manage library on phone; must sync from a laptopUnreviewed
20092026- Shared music stops after a few songs instead of moving to the next one2026-03-01
- Syncing opens a confusing Finder window, fails to copy songs, and shuffle state is unclear2025-03-03
- Nags about being offline and payment, and unreliably syncs locally purchased music2024-02-23
Search defaults to Apple Music with no results, requiring a change each timeUnreviewed
20092026- Search always defaults to the online store instead of local songs2026-06-09
- Search defaults to Apple Music and upsell banners persist even for local-file users2026-04-21
- Search defaults to Apple Music scope and fails for local MP3s until the user toggles it, every time2026-01-19
Downloaded songs won't play offline until airplane mode is enabledUnreviewed
20092026- Offline playback of cached songs fails when clicked directly, showing a connect-to-data error2024-04-08
- Sluggish, and downloaded songs still stream on a weak connection, making it unusable2024-02-04
- Downloaded songs still try to use the network instead of playing locally2023-07-14
Songs take about 60 seconds to start on WiFi without internetUnreviewed
20092026- Search is slow and clunky, and skipping streamed tracks causes long buffering delays2024-07-25
- Screens delay then appear all at once, unlike Spotify's progressive load2024-01-27
- Search and playback have a couple seconds of latency2023-01-20
Clicking play starts a different song than the one selectedUnreviewed
20092026- Right-clicking a song or artist gives different options depending on where in the interface you click2026-09-01
- Clicking a song sometimes does nothing, with no error shown2025-03-04
- Too many clicks to favorite a song or play an album2024-11-29
Local music buried in Downloaded Music section, cloud music shown firstUnreviewed
20092026- Switch between local downloads and Apple Music is placed on the far side of the screen2025-04-13
- Separate screens for local and cloud copies of the same album confuse users2025-03-03
- Users keep mixing library and cloud versions and can't find albums in menus2024-02-19
Apple Music content keeps appearing throughout the Music appUnreviewed
20092026- Apple Music can't be deleted on Mac and keeps popping up by itself2022-12-02
- Local music hidden away while Apple Music sidebar items can't be hidden2022-11-13
- Apple Music shows an unwanted interstitial that must be hidden through settings2020-09-14
System music app shows fullscreen ads whenever it's openedUnreviewed
20092026- Opening an audio file shows an advert, then doesn't play it, forcing repeated open-close steps2025-05-12
- System music app keeps popping up fullscreen Apple Music ads whenever it's opened2023-05-10
- App freezes and shows a fullscreen streaming ad on opening, even offline2022-08-05
Albums open on a separate screen, requiring extra clicks to returnUnreviewed
20092026- Album view shows only six fixed-size covers and forces a click to see tracklist2024-01-12
- Albums open on a separate screen, forcing extra clicks to return2022-06-04
- Must open album page and back out, instead of expanding album in place2021-04-01
Removing an album requires deleting each song individuallyUnreviewed
20092026- Impossible to remove a playing song from its current playlist2026-01-06
- Can't remove an album from a playlist without deleting it or the playlist; swipe-to-delete doesn't work as expected2020-01-29
- Removing an album from library also deletes its songs from playlists2018-07-27
Tapping an artist's name opens an album, with no way to see all their musicUnreviewed
20092026- Functionality hidden behind taps on artist name, hard to discover2026-07-03
- Tapping artist name opens cloud page even when subscription hidden, offline2026-06-09
- Tapping an artist's name opens an album instead of the artist, with no way to see all their music2023-04-06
Playback controls overlap content, making them hard to readUnreviewed
20092026- Playback controls moved onto transparent bubble overlapping content, hard to read2026-06-08
- Window controls become unresponsive after dragging the playback playhead, forcing workarounds2026-06-08
- Playback controls overlap and blend with content, hard to read2026-04-27
Can't manage the queue on mobile, only play next or stopUnreviewed
20092026- Reordering upcoming songs and play next feature broke, making queue management unreliable2024-02-08
- Classical library items mix into regular Music shuffle; lacks play next and queue management2023-09-07
- Can't manage the queue on mobile; only play next or stop current song2023-01-31
Can't play albums in recorded track orderUnreviewed
20092026- Album artist column resets sorting on every launch and the explicit sort option doesn't work2025-02-12
- Can't play albums in recorded track order, unlike other players2024-02-08
- Can't play albums in their intended track order; CD import loses metadata and albums2022-12-19
Albums randomly split, with songs swapped to compilation versions silentlyUnreviewed
20092026- Library songs disappear, and album covers get swapped or renamed unexpectedly2022-03-24
- Albums silently split, duplicated, or stripped of tracks with no warning or notification2021-05-17
- Albums show random compilation covers, and each song gets a different cover2021-03-31
Songs wrongly marked as rented, some vanish or get replacedUnreviewed
20092026- Songs wrongly marked as rented copies, some vanish or get replaced by other versions2025-09-17
- Random songs downloaded to device, forcing manual correction of downloads2025-06-17
- Local songs silently reclassified as Apple Music downloads, some replaced or unavailable2025-03-04
Cloud sync corrupts metadata and overwrites backups, blocking library recoveryUnreviewed
20092026- Users get confused about how to restore their deleted original songs after turning off Sync Library2022-12-19
- Apple Music overrides user metadata corrections and syncing has many issues2022-04-07
- Cloud library sync corrupts music metadata and overwrites restored backups, so the user cannot recover their library2021-08-10
Can't tell whether shuffle or repeat is on or offUnreviewed
20092026- Can't tell whether shuffle or repeat is toggled on or off2020-06-22
- Shuffle keeps re-enabling randomly and the setting is hard to find2017-11-07
- Repeat or shuffle turns on by itself and the controls to turn it off are hard to find2017-05-09
Search box loses focus, drops typed input, and scope toggle requires re-searchingUnreviewed
20092026- Extra click needed to switch to Search, and to get a keyboard after opening it2025-09-15
- Search bar loses focus after each character, forcing user to click back in2023-03-09
- Keyboard focus gets stuck; users can't exit search or reach the sidebar and song list2022-06-16
Shuffle never plays many tracks on phone, so some songs are never heardUnreviewed
20092026- Some MP3 songs randomly fail to sync to iPhone, with no clear pattern2022-03-19
- Shuffle never plays many tracks on the phone, so some songs are never heard2021-11-21
- Shuffle resets to alphabetical order and songs randomly grayed out after iOS 112017-11-07
Seeking near song end jumps to next track while old one keeps playingUnreviewed
20092026- Seeking near the end of a song jumps to the next track while the old one keeps playing2026-10-20
- Music keeps jumping to unexpected older tracks, and the option to turn it off is hard to find2020-01-30
- Car playback gets stuck repeating a 20-second clip of an old song2017-05-09
Purchased classical music missing from Browse and Library; albums must be added manuallyUnreviewed
20092026- Finding locally synced music requires digging through Library and Downloaded; Artists and Albums show only download prompts2026-06-08
- Purchased classical music doesn't appear in Browse or Library; must manually add albums2023-03-28
- Imported album can't be found easily on phone and shows unauthorized message2022-12-19
Can't find how to cancel subscription in-appUnreviewed
20092026- Has to dig through settings and disable features pushing subscriptions2026-05-18
- Every app launch shows a subscription prompt with no way to dismiss it permanently2024-06-26
- Hard to avoid Apple's subscription services and use alternative apps2022-09-21
Same-name artists get merged, making search hard to useUnreviewed
20092026- Same-name artists' songs wrongly attributed, polluting artist pages and New Music Mix2022-06-04
- Artists with common names get mismatched, polluting recommendations with unrelated music2022-01-20
- Same-name artists get merged, and search is hard to use2022-01-07
Front page filled with unwanted genres, with no option to hide themUnreviewed
20092026- Keeps pushing genres the user has no interest in2024-11-12
- Browse fills with irrelevant genres and recommendations, with no way to remove categories2023-03-27
- Navigating and scrolling to a sub-genre takes about 30 seconds, with no way to pin or hide genres2023-01-20
Can't go back to previous song when playing a station on macOSUnreviewed
20092026- Can't go to previous track when autoplay is enabled on Mac2025-09-24
- Hard to navigate back to what was playing when music stopped2022-06-04
- Can't go back to previous song when playing a station on macOS2022-06-04
Must add each album, EP and single individually instead of an artistUnreviewed
20092026- Must add every album, EP and single one by one instead of an artist2022-01-20
- Singles are mixed into album listings, which the commenter wants separated2018-03-13
- List of an artist's albums is almost unusable, pretty but poor usability2017-02-20
Hard to find music; radio suggestions don't match the moodUnreviewed
20092026- Hard to find music; radio suggestions don't match the mood set2025-07-10
- Hard to find a playlist or radio station for a mood2021-08-08
- Can't easily find songs liked while listening to a station2020-01-29
Tapping a playlist song goes to playlist, requiring three extra taps to albumUnreviewed
20092026- Playing an album or finding favorites takes several taps, and recents are cluttered with singles2024-11-29
- Takes four taps to start playing own playlist; buttons mostly for other content2022-06-04
- Tapping a song from a playlist goes to the playlist, requiring 3 extra taps to reach the album2018-03-14
Siri can't play all Recently Added songs without making a playlist firstUnreviewed
20092026- Siri plays wrong similarly named songs and smart playlist repeats same 50 songs2024-02-04
- Siri now requires opening the app and pressing a button each time to play music2022-08-12
- Siri can't play all Recently Added songs without making a new playlist first2018-02-05
Play/pause stops responding during buffering with no feedbackUnreviewed
20092026- Playback silently stops after 5-15 minutes when streaming from a DAAP server2026-05-18
- Playback stops with no indication of why, such as buffering or Bluetooth disconnect2017-08-15
- Play/pause stops responding during buffering with no feedback shown2017-05-09
Licensing alerts block purchased songs when phone plugs into multiple computersUnreviewed
20092026- Cannot find how to disable unwanted playback of purchased songs2022-07-20
- Licensing alerts block purchased songs when phone is plugged into multiple computers2022-03-20
- Purchased songs play on Mac but don't appear on iPhone under same account2021-11-28
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 50 complaints
- Took a while to figure out how the app works2026-10-23
- Apple Music auto-starts in the car, displacing Spotify and causing distraction2026-10-23
- Music app can't open direct page links, forcing users to search instead2026-10-23
- Seeking near the end of a song jumps to the next track while the old one keeps playing2026-10-20
- Music app described as completely destroyed and unusable in macOS 262026-09-29
- Flows get stuck at a click; hard to hide unwanted home screen content; many swipes to reach things2026-09-01
- Right-clicking a song or artist gives different options depending on where in the interface you click2026-09-01
- Must accept updated EULA before the app will open, even while driving2026-08-25
- Waits on web requests and stalls, making the interface slow and unpredictable to use2026-08-22
- Apple's native Music app is horribly slow and has many UX shortcomings2026-08-10
- Unremovable Apple Music nag screen keeps prompting subscription despite repeated refusal2026-08-05
- Video overlay plays on top of windows and can't be hidden despite the setting being unchecked2026-08-04
- Functionality hidden behind taps on artist name, hard to discover2026-07-03
- Search always defaults to the online store instead of local songs2026-06-09
- Tapping artist name opens cloud page even when subscription hidden, offline2026-06-09
- Apple Music opens unexpectedly on earbud connection and the prompt can't be turned off2026-06-08
- Playback controls moved onto transparent bubble overlapping content, hard to read2026-06-08
- Accidentally holding fn while pressing enter steals focus to Music app2026-06-08
- Local music library and iTunes purchases no longer manageable in the replacement app2026-06-08
- Pressing a headphone button launches Music and plays audio on the wrong output device2026-06-08
- Finding locally synced music requires digging through Library and Downloaded; Artists and Albums show only download prompts2026-06-08
- Music app opens whenever headphone play button is pressed, with no way to disable it2026-06-08
- Window controls become unresponsive after dragging the playback playhead, forcing workarounds2026-06-08
- Pressing play launches Apple Music, forcing a wait and a manual quit each time2026-06-08
- Pressing play/pause launches Apple Music, stealing focus and showing a subscribe window2026-06-08
- Music app opens itself when play is pressed by accident2026-06-08
- Opens Apple Music instead of the user's preferred player, which is poor design2026-06-08
- Full-screen resubscribe popup keeps reappearing on every car start, 2-3 times2026-06-08
- Users cannot easily stop the Music app from launching automatically2026-06-08
- App opens automatically when headphones are connected, pushed on users who didn't choose it2026-06-08
- Modal dialog has no obvious close button, so users can't dismiss it2026-06-08
- Has to dig through settings and disable features pushing subscriptions2026-05-18
- Has two search/filter fields, making the interface cluttered and confusing2026-05-18
- Playback silently stops after 5-15 minutes when streaming from a DAAP server2026-05-18
- Playback controls overlap and blend with content, hard to read2026-04-27
- Music starts playing by itself without the user asking for it2026-04-26
- Search defaults to Apple Music and upsell banners persist even for local-file users2026-04-21
- Apple Music's interface is rough to use on macOS2026-04-20
- Library hidden behind subscribe prompt after subscription lapsed, despite local music2026-03-25
- Apple Music's interface was so bad the commenter quit after a week2026-03-19
- Couldn't find how to do familiar Spotify actions; UI confusing even after days2026-03-19
- Transparent playback controls overlap text and thumbnails in the content pane, making them hard to read or use2026-03-18
- Classical music forced into a separate app, disrupting mixed listening2026-03-15
- Family plan price hidden in small text; play bar obscures content and has dead controls2026-03-03
- Stays active in Now Playing and accidentally opens account setup when play is pressed2026-03-01
- Shared music stops after a few songs instead of moving to the next one2026-03-01
- Confirmation pop-up covers the next button and blocks taps, forcing a two-second wait2026-02-16
- Can't right-click much of the interface; favourite stars don't appear; edge scrolling fails with a mouse2026-02-13
- Player bar UI is inconsistent on macOS2026-02-07
- Launches automatically when headset connects and pushes subscriptions unwanted2026-01-28