Why is Siri unable to play music from my Apple Music library?

Made another call to Apple Tech Support (5/29/2024). Evidently, many have this issue. Because of all the calls Apple is aware of this. My guess is that there will be another software update to fix this Siri (music) issue.

I am having the exact same issue. I do not have a music subscription just music I have put on my iPhone.

Right after updating to 17.5, when I ask Siri to play a playlist “Looks like Apple Music can’t play that” pops up.

When I ask Siri to play an album, sometimes it will do that but Siri doesn’t speak anymore like before.

If I asked to play the album Left of the Middle, Siri would repeat the name of the album and say playing now or something like that.

I have a feeling Apple is doing this in order for you to pay for Apple Music and I refuse to do that at the moment.

I have bought and paid for too much music to have to turn around and pay Apple a monthly subscription to play it.

Yes Apple broke something with 17.5 and I can’t ask Siri to play my playlists anymore. I deleted all the music off of my phone and re-synched it with iTunes and that didn’t help. I also deleted the app. I still get the message: ‘Looks like Apple Music can’t play that’.

What a nightmare. I only just paid £500 to get carplay in my car a couple of months ago and now I am back to manually selecting playlists again on my phone. Shame... it was all working perfectly until the update.

As a last resort I decided to wipe my phone and reinstall everything from scratch. Usually, that’s what Apple support will try and make you do. That did not fix the problem so it’s definitely an iOS issue at this point. My other iPhone that I didn’t not update to 17.5 still works as it should. I guess it’s a waiting game until they release a fix.

In reference to the “looks like Apple Music can’t play that” issue, I spent the last three days on the phone with Apple support, unable to resolve the issue, so I created a workaround using the Shortcuts feature where I say “Siri, play playlist” it opens up my list and begins reading all 540 playlist titles, but if you interrupt Siri with the title you want it will immediately start playing it - I set the final function of the shortcut to “repeat all” and it plays until you stop it or repeat the shortcut for another playlist. It’s not perfect but, if like me you don’t want to reset all your data and permissions, it’s a workaround that retains the same functionality and safety while driving and trying to remain hands free. I sincerely hope this helps anyone who needs a fix until the next update corrects this issue (if ever).

It’s definitely not because they want you to pay. I have a paid subscription and I can no longer get her to respond to my playlist requests either. And it’s terrible as I always listen to music while I drive. I’m on the road all the time for work. It makes it dangerous when I can’t just tell her what I want to listen to.

I’ve been having the same issue since around the time this thread was started.

Eventually, it started working again when NOT connected to CarPlay and I ask Siri to play or shuffle a playlist.

It is still not working for me when connected to CarPlay…

I just upgraded to iOS 18 today, in the apparently vain hope that they would’ve fixed it with the next major release, but it is still an issue.

This is extremely frustrating and forces me to interact with my phone, or the stereo in my car instead of using voice commands. This partially defeats the purpose of CarPlay, and Apple should be ashamed of themselves are not fixing it yet.

If they update and fix it. They seem to have forgotten anyone that actually stores music on the phone.

Same here. Level two support spoke to engineering, they said to install 18 and see if it fixes it, then re-open the case if it is still broken. Not that I would ever be so presumptuous to question the almighty Apple, but at our company we have known bugs, we fix them, and then we release a patch to rectify the bug. Find it hard to believe they don't track issues and resolutions at a Trillion dollar company.

Updated to iOS 18, and still not working.

*Starts looking at Samsung phones*

I also do not subscribe to Apple Music. Why? I have 8,663 songs in my phone (51.8 GB). I have created many Playlists on my phone. Up to iOS 17.5, I was able to play these playlists in Muisc on my phone by asking Siri to play the music while driving. Now it does not work. This means I can not change my music while driving as I have the phone be locked out while driving.

Thanks others on this board I was able to create Actions in Shortcuts that tell Siri to play these playlists. We should not have to do this.

Similar problem. I noticed it when music is playing I get no response from Siri. Used to be able to pause, request different song etc. I also have to start my Playlists manually because Siri can’t play them. I get the same Apple can’t play that or I can’t find that or whatever.

Same problem here, but in addition, I will tell it to call my wife (First and last Name) Then it says hmm I dont seem to have a number for (first and last name) who do you want to call? I then respond with first name only and siri says "calling First name last name". It's as if she has dementia. Can AI develop dementia? Very annoying.

I don’t think Apple’s doing it on purpose. A year or two ago when they started pushing their try free Apple play subscription on phones, without peoples consent, for a limited time, that really messed up Siri. A later update fixed the problem. I expect another update will do the same for this problem.