Is offline music shuffle possible on Apple Music?

Apple seems to have done this with the podcast app already and now I'm expressing the same issues as you I have all the music downloaded.

With the podcast app, you need to go online (by enabling cellular data in the app settings), start playing, and then go offline. i've already checked data usage and it doesn't download anything. It simply refuses to let you access locally stored podcasts.

it seems to be the same for music now.

For the music, it's mine, except for the stuff that I bought from iTunes which I guess is "licensed". I purchased it. Either it was loaded from CDs that I purchased or I purchased it through iTunes. In fact, some of the music was made by myself or friends. I can't shuffle or play a playlist of that offline now by pressing those buttons in the playlist view. It seems like they're slowly taking away features and trying to migrate people towards Apple Music subscriptions. Again, they did that with the podcast app and it's still in that state...

So, unless it's a bug that they accidentally introduced, this seems like it's a new feature.

Personally, it's frustrating to see more and more taken away, even if I'm purchasing things properly through the iTunes store. I will never be interested in streaming music and there's no reason for me to be online to listen to local music.

But, there's a much larger issue here:

Often times I'm not within cell data areas and don't have wifi. I absolutely want my music local and playable.

I'll probably be looking for new apps to use for these now. :/

It would mean a lot if a pro, Apple support (Linc, you still around?), or other "in-the-know" individual can help out.

Does the non-shuffle playing work? Just tried this using playlists found under the Library tab and it works as expected. I would also suggest trying to play things from the Downloaded section under the Library tab.

If you add your own mp3 or other audio files to Apple Music, sometimes Apple Music may display a secondary playlist containing only the songs from Apple Music in a playlist on the Home tab.

This usually happens when one is not connected to the internet. This occurs UNLESS you ‘download’ song/s from Music.

To resolve this you need to download the said music to your device instead of streaming. Goto songs that were not playing WHEN your not connected to the internet. Look for a downward arrow next to song, try clicking that. This should allow you to play it without being connected to internet. If that works, look for a download ALL button.

Hi I have just managed to find a workaround using Drew!!!'s suggestion, thankfully without needing Siri.

• Open your desired playlist.
• Turn on any track.
• Make that track full screen.
• Typically here at first you won't see a shuffle option. At the bottom right corner of the screen you should see three dots and three lines. Click this.
• You should now see a shuffle and loop option. Just hit shuffle and you'll now have a shuffled playlist without needing data turned on.

A single-step shuffle solution has turned into 5 steps. Whoever designed this ... Slow clap award!

OK I’ve just encountered the issue on my iPhone of not being able to select playlist and shuffle. But noticed in my case neither “press play or shuffle” work with out connection error, but oddly not on iPad. Huh

Both are running 18.4.1 SW vers, but iPad has no cellular modem 🤔

I too have noticed this aggravating issue. In the past I could open a playlist I created and hit shuffle to listen to the music in a random order. Go figure… now I hit shuffle and it asks me to connect. My work around is tap a song in the list to start it playing then ask Siri to turn on shuffle and whala. 🙄 no access needed to use the “shuffle” algorithm nor to access anything I have downloaded to my phone. Just another way to try to get us to hook up to their data collection cloud. My apologies for the cynicism there at the end but this work around does work… for now. 😉

Normally I'd agree, but for me, I have all of my music downloaded. This just began happening in the past few weeks.

I’ve never had any problems with playing music I created with Logic in Music. Just music that was purchased from iTunes.

Try it on an iPad, (iPad doesn’t have cellular modem)I did and music works as expected on play and shuffle. iPhone doesn’t.