8 Solutions to Fix Apple Music Not Playing Downloaded Songs

When streaming songs from Apple Music collection, some subscribers reported that they've run into a problem with Apple Music, that is Apple Music not playing downloaded songs. Actually, it seems to be a prevalent problem, but thankfully, it's usually nothing serious, and there are various fixes for letting your downloaded Apple Music songs play again.

Fix 1. Check Your Subscription and Re-Sign

Apple Music only allows its subscribers to play music offline. First, check if your subscription has expired. If it has, you’ll need to renew it to continue offline playback. If your plan is still active, try signing out of your Apple ID and signing back in.

Fix 2. Disable Dolby Atmos and Lossless Audio

The Dolby Atmos and Lossless audio settings may cause your device to have trouble playing certain audio formats. If your device is older or has limited storage, it might not support high-quality Lossless playback. Try turning off both options and see if the songs play normally afterward. Follow the steps below to turn them off:

Step 1. Go to Settings > Music.

Step 2. Select "Off" for "Dolby Atmos".

Step 3. Go back to "Music" and select tap on "Audio Quality.

Step 4. Toggle off "Lossless Audio".

Fix 3. Enable Cellular Data or Connect to Wi-Fi

Though you've successfully downloaded songs from Apple Music, you might find that Apple Music not playing downloaded songs. Well, if so, what you need to do first is to establish a connection to Apple Music, for example, enabling cellular data or connecting to Wi-Fi.

Just turn on cellular data, then run Apple Music and tap the track that is downloaded before for listening. If the track starts to play, then you can disable cellular data now and Apple Music is supposed to play the track without issues from now on.

If you have disabled Apple Music from using your cellular data before, you should follow the below steps to enable Apple Music to use your cellular data.

Step 1: First tap the vertical Ellipsis icon which you can find in the upper-right corner.

Step 2: Then tap "Settings" > "Cellular Data" options.

Step 3: Lastly, turn on the switch of "Use Cellular Data". Meanwhile, as what you want to do is to connect to the Apple Music for a brief moment, you can keep other switches disabled.

Note: After fixing the issue, you had better disable your cellular data.

Sometimes, when your network connectivity is poor, you can try to connect to Wi-Fi and simply turn off Wi-Fi when Apple Music starts playing your downloaded tracks.

Fix 4. Sync Library Again

If your downloaded Apple Music tracks won’t play, it could be due to syncing issues or data errors that occurred during the library sync, causing your downloaded songs not to sync properly. To rule this out, try turning off Sync Library and then turning it back on when you're in a stable network environment.

To do this, go to "Settings > Music", find the "Sync Library" option, and turn it off, then turn it back on.

Fix 5. Restart Music to Clear Cache

Cache stores temporary data for the app and system. If these cache files become corrupted or outdated, they can interfere with Apple Music’s normal operation, causing downloaded songs to not play. If the above methods don’t solve the issue, you can try:

Step 1. Double-click the Home button (or swipe up from the bottom of the screen on devices without a Home button) to open the app switcher.

Step 2. Find the Apple Music app and swipe it up to close it.

Step 3. Then reopen the app to clear the cache and reload the songs.

Fix 6. Update the Apple Music App

Besides updating your device to the latest version, you can also try to update the Apple Music app to fix Apple Music not playing downloaded tracks, because newer versions always fix various bugs.

In order to get the latest version of the Apple Music app, you need to search for Apple Music on the Google Play Store, and then go to the product page. Tap "Update" if there's a newer version. For those who have installed the latest version, then you will see the "Open" option rather than the "Update" option.

Fix 7. Update Your Device to the Latest Version

iOS updates often include important bug fixes and system optimizations, which can directly address compatibility issues or errors that affect Apple Music’s performance. You should keep your devices up to date to avoid the issue of Apple Music not playing downloaded songs.

Step 1: Tap "Settings" on your iOS device and select "General" > "Software Update".

Step 2: See if your device is needed to update. If there is an update available, then tap "Download and Install" to let your device update to the latest version.

Fix 8. Re-download Apple Music Tracks

Actually, the issue might result from errors occurring in downloading tracks, so I suggest you delete the tracks and re-download them in the right way if you still can't play downloaded tracks on Apple Music. To download Apple Music in the right way, you need to:

Step 1: First of all, run Apple Music on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch or Android device and find the track that you want to download.

Step 2: If you want to add a single track, then tap "+". Besides you can tap "+ADD" to add the whole album, playlist or video content.

Step 3: Now you are able to find songs, albums and video content in your library, just tap the download icon near the item to download it to your device.

Once you see a tick icon, that means you have successfully downloaded Apple Music tracks to your device.

Tip: Re-Download Apple Music to MP3 for Unlimited Playback

If your phone is low on storage or if Apple Music doesn't have the proper permissions to access storage and media, it could cause downloaded songs to not play. If the issue still isn't resolved and you don’t want to switch phones, you could consider using other methods to download Apple Music tracks.

There are many Apple Music downloaders on the internet that help download Apple Music to MP3 or other formats, in this way, you can easily play them on any player offline. TuneFab Apple Music Converter is a decent one that is extremely easy to use and downloads music from Apple Music losslessly at 35X speed. It supports outputting Apple Music in various formats such as MP3, M4A(ALAC), M4A(AAC), FLAC, WAV, and AIFF with adjustable bitrate and sample rate.

However, this software only works on Windows and Mac. If you want to listen to downloaded Apple music offline on your iPhone, you need to get them downloaded on your computer and then transfer them to your phone.

Conclusion

Though Apple Music is a popular music service that enables you to download songs for offline playing, you might find Apple Music not playing downloaded songs sometimes. Therefore, you had better collect this ultimate guide so that you can fix the issue easily.