Watch: watchOS 4 restricts browsing of connected iPhone music library

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Comments

  • Reply 21 of 35
    This is a good change, the music app on the watch used to be a pain in the ass with the source constantly switching back to the phone. Likely a hangover from the series 0 which didn't have the incredible battery life of the Series 2. 

    As for remote controlling the phone, this seems like a ripe opportunity to update the Remotes app - the place where it should have been all along.
    Oh, if they took about everything but the time-keeping function, I have little doubt that the battery would last twice as long. 

    What's your point? They should keep only the battery-draining stuff you want?
  • Reply 22 of 35
    This doesn't make any sense to me at all. I cannot imagine that it is better for the AW to use its own LTE chip than piggybacking on the iPhone when the iPhone is in range, especially given the widely acknowledged drain that LTE places on the battery compared to Bluetooth. You can argue that if the iPhone is in range, you may as well use it instead of the AW to play music, but the AW is about convenience: it is always on the wrist while the iPhone may be buried in a backpack.

    Furthermore, and more importantly, I suppose Apple Corp, being based in California, does not understand that there are many many places that do not have LTE and require a large Downloaded Music Library: public underground transport, English countryside, commercial airlines, many trains, deep inside large office buildings, to name a few. And in these places, which are quite popular for music listening, accessing the iPhone's Downloaded Music Library is key. Why are we denied accessing the large Downloaded Music Library on the iPhone and make do with a few GB like its 2007? And are we now supposed to manually maintain two Downloaded Music Libraries?

    I hope they fix this somehow and make it easy to switch between three Libraries: Downloaded in the iPhone, downloaded on the AW, Apple Music Streaming. Maybe the Remote App is the answer. But I hope this is addressed.

    (To those that got confused about the choice: the choice of Music Source was always advertised by Apple and easy to find and use: the toggles are right there on top of the Watch Music App! Not remembering to switch before you go for a run is a minor inconvenience, a very minor one).
    anantksundarampalomine
  • Reply 23 of 35
    You can start playing on the watch by using Siri. 
    GeorgeBMac
  • Reply 24 of 35
    sflagel said:
    This doesn't make any sense to me at all. I cannot imagine that it is better for the AW to use its own LTE chip than piggybacking on the iPhone when the iPhone is in range, especially given the widely acknowledged drain that LTE places on the battery compared to Bluetooth. You can argue that if the iPhone is in range, you may as well use it instead of the AW to play music, but the AW is about convenience: it is always on the wrist while the iPhone may be buried in a backpack.

    Furthermore, and more importantly, I suppose Apple Corp, being based in California, does not understand that there are many many places that do not have LTE and require a large Downloaded Music Library: public underground transport, English countryside, commercial airlines, many trains, deep inside large office buildings, to name a few. And in these places, which are quite popular for music listening, accessing the iPhone's Downloaded Music Library is key. Why are we denied accessing the large Downloaded Music Library on the iPhone and make do with a few GB like its 2007? And are we now supposed to manually maintain two Downloaded Music Libraries?

    I hope they fix this somehow and make it easy to switch between three Libraries: Downloaded in the iPhone, downloaded on the AW, Apple Music Streaming. Maybe the Remote App is the answer. But I hope this is addressed.

    (To those that got confused about the choice: the choice of Music Source was always advertised by Apple and easy to find and use: the toggles are right there on top of the Watch Music App! Not remembering to switch before you go for a run is a minor inconvenience, a very minor one).
    Spot on. 
  • Reply 25 of 35
    Using the Watch as a conduit to playing music on the Phone but via the Watch’s Music app is more confusing than just having the Watch’s Music app play music from the watch only. The new watchOS 4 feature that has Now Playing auto-display music controls when you’re playing music on your Phone is the equivalent to remote controlling it, so there isn’t any/much lost functionality here, is there?
    edited September 2017 GeorgeBMac
  • Reply 26 of 35
    sflagel said:
    This doesn't make any sense to me at all. I cannot imagine that it is better for the AW to use its own LTE chip than piggybacking on the iPhone when the iPhone is in range, especially given the widely acknowledged drain that LTE places on the battery compared to Bluetooth. You can argue that if the iPhone is in range, you may as well use it instead of the AW to play music, but the AW is about convenience: it is always on the wrist while the iPhone may be buried in a backpack.

    Furthermore, and more importantly, I suppose Apple Corp, being based in California, does not understand that there are many many places that do not have LTE and require a large Downloaded Music Library: public underground transport, English countryside, commercial airlines, many trains, deep inside large office buildings, to name a few. And in these places, which are quite popular for music listening, accessing the iPhone's Downloaded Music Library is key. Why are we denied accessing the large Downloaded Music Library on the iPhone and make do with a few GB like its 2007? And are we now supposed to manually maintain two Downloaded Music Libraries?

    I hope they fix this somehow and make it easy to switch between three Libraries: Downloaded in the iPhone, downloaded on the AW, Apple Music Streaming. Maybe the Remote App is the answer. But I hope this is addressed.

    (To those that got confused about the choice: the choice of Music Source was always advertised by Apple and easy to find and use: the toggles are right there on top of the Watch Music App! Not remembering to switch before you go for a run is a minor inconvenience, a very minor one).
    Spot on. 
    Actually, on further thought, I assume the AW will use the iPhone for iCloud Music when it is in range and switch to its own LTE chip when outside the iPhone's range. But then it should show the whole Library now already, and apparently doesn't?

    Still leaves the use case of being able access the iPhones downloaded Music Library. Not having to take out my phone overtime I wanted to change a song, album, playlist or artist was very convenient. It allowed be to leave my phone in the jacket, under a coat, below a backpack, on the train.
  • Reply 27 of 35
    ireland said:
    Corporate Apple.
    ROFL....
  • Reply 28 of 35
    talexy said:
    Does anyone knows, if you still can „like“ or „dislike“ a song played on your iPhone on Apple Watch?
    You can.  By tapping on the 3 dots just like on the iPhone.
  • Reply 29 of 35
    Using the Watch as a conduit to playing music on the Phone but via the Watch’s Music app is more confusing than just having the Watch’s Music app play music from the watch only. The new watchOS 4 feature that has Now Playing auto-display music controls when you’re playing music on your Phone is the equivalent to remote controlling it, so there isn’t any/much lost functionality here, is there?
    I did not find it confusing at all that the watch played the iPhones's music by default, and only required you to play its own music when the iPhone was out of range. Whats confusing about that? You only ever switched to AW Playlist in very specific circumstances, when you were away from your iPhone, like going for a run.

    But I get it: the AW will now show the full Library, not just the stored Playlist, effectively showing the same Library as the iPhone link did under the old "remote" model.. It may work if my assumption is correct and it will use the iPhone's cellular connection to play from iCloud Music on the go, instead of using its own LTE chip and draining the AW's battery. I guess this can be made "seamless" (although reviews state that the handover from Bluetooth, to WiFi, to LTE interrupts everything; but that can be solved).

    Still, I wish there was a function to access the Downloaded Music Library on the iPhone as it is much larger than the Playlist I sync with the AW for when you don't have LTE (and for all we know, it may do this after all, and dynamically update the Library on the AW, it just won't be under a separate tab).

    I ordered the AW in steel, if it is buggy in this regard I will downgrade to aluminium and wait for G5 or G6 to pay proper money... (eventually it will get there, the iPhone did not hit maturity until 6s. Maturity meaning that new features have hit diminishing returns). 
    edited September 2017
  • Reply 30 of 35
    sflagel said:
    This doesn't make any sense to me at all. I cannot imagine that it is better for the AW to use its own LTE chip than piggybacking on the iPhone when the iPhone is in range, especially given the widely acknowledged drain that LTE places on the battery compared to Bluetooth. You can argue that if the iPhone is in range, you may as well use it instead of the AW to play music, but the AW is about convenience: it is always on the wrist while the iPhone may be buried in a backpack.

    Furthermore, and more importantly, I suppose Apple Corp, being based in California, does not understand that there are many many places that do not have LTE and require a large Downloaded Music Library: public underground transport, English countryside, commercial airlines, many trains, deep inside large office buildings, to name a few. And in these places, which are quite popular for music listening, accessing the iPhone's Downloaded Music Library is key. Why are we denied accessing the large Downloaded Music Library on the iPhone and make do with a few GB like its 2007? And are we now supposed to manually maintain two Downloaded Music Libraries?

    I hope they fix this somehow and make it easy to switch between three Libraries: Downloaded in the iPhone, downloaded on the AW, Apple Music Streaming. Maybe the Remote App is the answer. But I hope this is addressed.

    (To those that got confused about the choice: the choice of Music Source was always advertised by Apple and easy to find and use: the toggles are right there on top of the Watch Music App! Not remembering to switch before you go for a run is a minor inconvenience, a very minor one).
    It just means that, if you have your iPhone on you, then use that to select music from its own library.  If you don't that wasn't an option anyway.
    ... No biggee...
    ...... Actually it solved the problem of picking music from the iPhone then losing it as you moved further from the phone and lost connection.
    sflagel
  • Reply 31 of 35
    The one that bothers me (probably because I'm missing something):

    When I start music on my iPhone the remote control automatically pops up on my watch -- and its GREAT!  It works really well.

    BUT:  as soon as I switch to some other app (like messages) or even the home screen, the remote disappears and I can't get it back.

    Can I start/restart the remote control from my watch?
  • Reply 32 of 35
    The one that bothers me (probably because I'm missing something):

    When I start music on my iPhone the remote control automatically pops up on my watch -- and its GREAT!  It works really well.

    BUT:  as soon as I switch to some other app (like messages) or even the home screen, the remote disappears and I can't get it back.

    Can I start/restart the remote control from my watch?
    Swipe up, chose music, hit Playing Now.
  • Reply 33 of 35

    ben20 said:
    Doesn't matter, it runs out of battery quickly anyway. I wonder what surprises we see with iPhone X....
    Huh? All day battery. I charge at bed time, some get up to two days. 
    Do you think that your experience owning one trumps information from someone who doesn't and who has only read stuff on the Internet from others who don't own one?
    edited September 2017 GeorgeBMac
  • Reply 34 of 35
    This is a good change, the music app on the watch used to be a pain in the ass with the source constantly switching back to the phone. Likely a hangover from the series 0 which didn't have the incredible battery life of the Series 2. 

    As for remote controlling the phone, this seems like a ripe opportunity to update the Remotes app - the place where it should have been all along.
    Oh, if they took about everything but the time-keeping function, I have little doubt that the battery would last twice as long. 

    What's your point? They should keep only the battery-draining stuff you want?
    No. But they should be proactive about what useless features the 5 retired folks on here are bitching about losing ... and kill them for new features they’ve yet to think of... for Christ who has time to search their tiny watch for an item on a list that is literally on your phone. If your complaining about being forced to do Apple Music your too far gone too matter, hello iTunes Match is the best deal Apple has ever had but if you literally just looking for another to song as you squint looking at your watch

    Or.... u could just ask Siri - this is a fake issue. Pick up your phone or speak aloud and ask it - redundancy is a prison only you need 
  • Reply 35 of 35
    Here’s the solution!  ;)
    I have found a good work around with Siri!
    With your Apple Watch You can ask Siri to start the music on your IPhone.
    and I love how easy it is to delete a song from your IPhone library with the Apple Watch.
    GeorgeBMac
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