'An unknown error occurred [21]' downloading from Apple Music

Hi,


Hopefully someone can provide some insight into this problem, because it's baffled me.


I have an Apple Music account and download some music to my NAS.


I recently downloaded an album without problem. Today, Music informed me that a Dolby Atmos version of the album was available. I have Dolby compatible equipment, so I followed the instructions to delete the old download and redownload the album.


At which point I kept getting an error message:


There were problems downloading some purchased items.
There were problems downloading some purchased items.
There was a problem downloading “track name / album / artist”. An unknown error occurred (21).
...



Clicking an individual track in the pop-up error just says I should check the network is active (it is) and try again (I have, still doesn't work).


The album plays fine as a streaming piece, it's just downloads that seem to be broken for this album.


So far I have tried the following steps:


  • Quitting Music
  • Logging out of the Mac
  • Restarting the Mac
  • Signing out of my account in Music / Signing back in
  • Deauthorising / reauthorising the machine
  • Deleting the album from my Library and adding it again (it can be added, just not downloaded).


No success.


I've tried downloading other albums from Apple Music - they all download just fine, so I am confident the NAS is working fine and Apple Music can see it okay.


The Mac is up to date with MacOS 15.5.


If anyone has an insight that might help - thank-you!


Mike.


Mac mini (M4)

Posted on May 21, 2025 03:53 PM

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'An unknown error occurred [21]' downloading from Apple Music

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