Apple Music is a popular music streaming platform. Similar to Spotify with a huge library of artists and creators. Despite it being made by Apple, the music platform isn’t without its challenges. With users reporting error codes such as 42812 and other playback issues on Apple Music regularly. A large number of reports come from users trying to use Apple Music on their MacBook.
If you’re currently having issues when your Apple Music won’t play on your Mac, we have some easy troubleshooting techniques for to help get the player working.
How to fix when Apple Music won’t play on mac
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There are numerous reasons as to why Apple Music won’t play on Mac, therefore, we have created a guide sharing some of the most common issues and how to fix them.
- Try to restart Apple Music on your Mac
- Check the strength of your internet, as this can stop your music from playing. If possible, try connecting to another network
- Ensure sync library is turned on for all devices
- Check the status of Apple Music in your country
- Your Mac isn’t running the latest version of macOS
- The cache is causing your issues for Apple Music
- Make sure that you have an active Apple Music subscription, as you will be unable to play music without it.
Fix 1. Turn iCloud music library off
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Turning off your iCloud music library can be a huge help with fixing this issue. If you have several Apple devices all synced up to the same iCloud, you’re more likely to notice issues with playing music. The sync feature will sync all of your songs across all of your devices, if you have a large library you may notice this feature slowing down Apple Music. Therefore we’d recommend turning it off for some (or all of your devices). If you’re unsure how to do this on Mac, here’s how:
- Open Apple Music or iTunes on your Mac
- Next click ‘Music’ from the top of your screen
- There should be a dropdown, from that click preferences
- When you click preferences, there should be a ‘general tab’
- The first option should be the library, with a tick box which says ‘Sync Library’
- Untick this, then click OK to save.
If you ever want to turn this setting back on, all you need to do is head to the same settings and then retick it instead.
Fix 2. Force quit Apple Music and reboot
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If you notice your Apple Music isn’t running how it should be on your Mac, we’d recommend force quitting the application first. The reason for suggesting this over just closing the app down is that it also closes down applications/data that is running behind the screen. If you don’t know how to force quit a program on your Apple Mac, here’s how:
- Press option + command + Esc (escape)
- This should bring up a menu which you can choose which program you want to force quit
- Pick it and then click force quit
Once you’ve done the force quit on Apple Music, you can relaunch it.
Fix 3. Update macOS
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Running the latest macOS is essential for good maintenance of your apps. Using the latest version will have any bugs smoothed out, making for easier running.
Here’s how to find out if your Mac needs updating:
- Click on the Apple Menu
- Choose about this Apple Mac
- If there is an update ready, quit music.
- Go ahead with the software update
- Once all is rebooted, you should then open Music and find it to be working as it should be.
Fix 4. Apple Music Server Down
If you’re unsure whether it is your Mac or if Apple Music is down, we’d recommend using a status checker. A great status checker is called the Down Detector, which will advise you of any outages at Apple Music. Not only does it tell you about any outages, but it also reports other users based on their issues.
Unfortunately, if there is an issue with Apple, you will be unable to resolve this with troubleshooting.
Fix 5: Delete Apple Music cache
If none of the above fixes work, we’d recommend deleting your Apple Music cache.
To manually delete the Apple Music cache, here are the steps:
- Click the go menu and search for files that have Music or iTunes in them in the following locations ~/library/ or ~/Library/Caches
- Outside of these files, you do not want to delete anything else, else you may delete the program itself or any of the running files.
iTunes won’t play music
If you cannot play a song that you purchased from iTunes, Apple advises that you may have exceeded the number of computers on which you can play your purchase. If the song isn’t the iTunes plus version, you can play it on up to 5 computers. When you reach the limit you can only add it to a 6th when you de-authorize another device.
Unable to hear anything on Mac Speakers
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If you’re playing a song and the bar appears to be moving across as you’d expect, but you can’t hear anything – what does this mean?
It is likely to be related to your speakers, if you have external speakers connected to your mac, here are things to check:
- Check the speaker isn’t turned down (or on mute), although this seems easy, it can often be down to this issue
- Make sure the lead for your speakers is plugged into the audio port
- Head to settings on your Mac, and make sure the external USB speakers are selected
- If you notice your speakers don’t show up, unplug them and then plug them back in, you should notice they pop up.
- Finally, if they’re still not working, be sure to try them with another device to find out if it is the speakers.
Unable to hear on built-in speakers
If you are trying to listen via your Mac built-in speakers and they’re not working, here’s what to do next:
- Unplug external devices such as headphones or speakers if there any
- Make sure the cables are correctly connected to the ports on your Mac
- Choose Apple Menu > System Preferences > Sound
- Next, click output and make sure Display Audio is selected on the output device list.
To find out more about Mac speaker issues, check out Apple Support here.
Final Thoughts
We hope this post has helped you with your Apple Music woes on your Mac, as we know there is a range of issues that can go wrong with Apple Music. We hope you’ve found our troubleshooting guide useful.
