Learn what to do if Apple Music tracks don’t play completely and skip to the next song before the current one finishes.
The main reason songs in the Music app don’t play till the last second is due to crossfade settings or custom start and stop times. In rare cases, it could also be caused by faulty tracks, app bugs, or system glitches.
It’s simple to address these issues and ensure your songs play completely without interruption.
Turn off crossfade if all songs are affected
The crossfade feature in the Music app removes the silence at the end of tracks and transitions smoothly to the next song. However, if the crossfade duration is set too high, the current song fades out, and the next one begins early, causing you to miss parts of both tracks.
To fix this, disable the crossfade feature or set its duration to less than 4 seconds. Note that this is a device-specific setting, so you’ll need to adjust it on all devices where you use Apple Music.
On iPhone or iPad
- Open iOS Settings and tap Apps at the bottom.
- Select Music from the list of applications.
- Turn off Crossfade or adjust its slider to a few seconds.
Mac
- Launch the Music app and click Music > Settings in the top menu bar.
- Go to the Playback tab.
- Uncheck Crossfade Songs or dial down its duration.
Windows PC
- Open the Apple Music app and click your name in the bottom left, followed by the gear icon.
- Select Playback.
- Uncheck Crossfade songs or adjust the duration slider.
Android phone
- Open the Apple Music app and tap the three dots icon in the top right, followed by Settings.
- Tap Crossfade.
- Select Off or tap the Manual radio button and tone down the duration.
Check the start and stop times if one or a few songs don’t play from start to finish
Apple’s current Music app and the old, now deprecated iTunes allow you to assign custom start and end times for a track. This setting also carries over to mobile devices where you sync your music library. If one or a few specific tracks don’t start playing from the beginning or fail to play through to the end, check this setting on your Mac or Windows PC and restore the song’s default playback duration.
Mac
- Head to the Music app and select the song in your library that doesn’t play from start to end.
- With the song selected, press Command + I or right-click and select Get Info.
- Go to the Options tab.
- Uncheck the start and stop boxes to restore default playback times, and hit OK.
Windows PC
- Launch the Apple Music app on your computer, right-click on the song, and select Properties.
- Go to the Options tab.
- Uncheck the start and stop boxes to resume normal playback and click OK.
After following the above steps, the song in question should play from start (0 seconds) to finish without skipping a second. If you have enabled Sync Library for Apple Music, this change will carry over automatically to your other devices, like your iPhone. If you manually sync music to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod, connect it to your computer and resync it for new changes to reflect there.
Restart your device
System glitches can cause various problems, including songs skipping randomly in the middle of the playback. So, restart your phone or computer and see if that helps.
Play that track on another device
While it’s rare for Apple Music tracks to be corrupted and not play in their entirety, MP3s you ripped off the CD, songs you downloaded from the Internet, or audio files imported from elsewhere may have file issues that cause them to play partially. So, try playing that track on another device to know if that’s really the case.
Update the Apple Music app and your device
If you’re on an iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Apple Watch, or Vision Pro, just update the device to the latest version of the operating system. And for Android phones and Windows PC, go to the Google Play Store and Microsoft Store to install the newest version of the Apple Music app.
If Apple Music songs don’t play till the end during CarPlay
I experienced at least three instances during my recent 1-hour drive with CarPlay where songs on Apple Music didn’t play all the way through and switched to the next track even when more than a minute of the playback was still remaining. When it happened for the first time, I thought I had accidentally pressed the next track button on my car’s steering wheel, but after it happened repeatedly, I was sure it was due to a bug in CarPlay. If you’re also facing this issue, the only solution is to wait for a future iOS update, hoping it addresses the problem.
Check the auto lock or sleep settings
It’s nice to play your favorite album or playlist on Apple Music and lock the device to relax and enjoy the tunes. However, on some devices, like a Windows PC, Android phone with aggressive battery management, or Macs with special software, playback may stop when the device auto-locks, sleeps, hibernates, or switches to battery saver.
On a Windows PC, go to Settings > System > Power & battery and adjust the auto sleep time. If you prefer not to keep the screen active during playback, just lock the computer instead of putting it into sleep mode.
If this problem occurs on your Android phone or Mac, go to the battery management software and tweak the settings there, or add Apple Music to the list of excluded apps so it remains unaffected.
Delete and re-download the Music app
Lastly, if nothing else works, uninstall the Music app on your iPhone, iPad, Android phone, or Windows PC and install it again (you can’t delete the app on Mac). Note that this will also remove all songs you have downloaded for offline listening, but you can always re-download them all using these lesser-known tips.
Also, check out: How to fix Apple Music pausing randomly