Music app UI issues after macOS Tahoe update

Finally deduced that during the update to OS26 the music library file had become corrupted!! So binned the corrupted file and initiated a new music library file. After uploading from my hard drive 11,500 albums onto a new library file all seems well. However there are a few caveats in the new music app compared to the old one. 1) you cannot play music immediately, the app will crash. 2) You have to wait a while for all of the 'data' to load into the new music app before you can play any music without it crashing especially for a local library of this size (I haven't timed it but I leave it around half an hour from opening to be safe. However previously I could play music straight away, so this is a pain). 3) If syncing this to your iPhone, you need to be patient. when you click on the iPhone in the side bar of finder, it will appear blank for dome time. You need to leave it until all of the information is there, as in the sync button. Syncing new music will take as long as it takes dependent on the size of your local library.

Please be mindful that this only applies to a local library stored on an external drive. I do not use cloud based music, so no idea how that is behaving for other users.

Anuj_2 wrote:

Does anyone else see the music app's UI go crazy weird after updating to macOS Tahoe?

mainly with the header in the full screen where the top bar is just empty

when the queue is opened the header of that portion is stuck at a position even after scrolling through it

the music history is lost.

I don't know it's just weird and troublesome, not liking it at all, apple please do something

or just hire me, I might have a few great ideas for the music app. I can share my resume if needed XD

[Edited by Moderator]

Original Title: Music app header issue

This is a user to user community.

Not seeing the issue here—

Quit the Music .app and relaunch it holding down the Shift key and compare your results.

Call Customer Support (800) MY–APPLE (800–692–7753)

or on line https://getsupport.apple.com/

or call AppleCare Support at 1-800-APLCARE (800-275-2273)

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See a list of Apple phone numbers around the world.

Contact Apple Support - Apple Support

I only updated to Tahoe because my Mac told me I couldn't sync or backup my phone until I updated. (Which is really annoying.). Overall I don't care about liquid glass except that the graphics are pretty buggy. (On a 2023 M2 MacBook Pro.) A tip I found in general was to go to Accessibility > Display > and 'Reduce transparency', which doesn't look the best but does make things easier to read.

The Music app is driving me the most nuts, because it's like they make changes just to show they are doing something and not a change that gives any sort of benefit.

I hate the song information at the bottom (I mean, did they put Safari tab names at the bottom? Finder folder names at the bottom? Mail email message names at the bottom? No.), and I am so frustrated with the missing status bar.

I did get the Status Bar to show in my library by turning it off and back on again (...) but I can't get it to show in any of the playlists. Half the screen is useless in playlists anyway, and now it can't even show me the number of songs? WHY APPLE WHY

Also my playlist folders randomly open and close. I'm alarmed.

Thankfully my 500gb song library appears to be in tact. Thus far.

I hope we can get status bar back.

The folders bug is a stupid hassle, for sure. One workaround for now that helps a bit is to option-close the Playlists menu, then open again (no option). Usually that reopens the list all-closed. I have 10 playlist folders so the buggy behavior is definitely irksome.

I see this behavior, but this usually works: toggle shuffle off, then on again, then (usually) the playlist queue properly (re)shuffles. It's annoying that the first track is always playing, but that's a relative nit. If smart playlist shuffle was actually broken, I'd lose it, since that's 99% of my listening.

[Edited by Moderator]

The status bar now appears on the upper left. But it frequently disappears but comes back when you switch categories in the navigation pane. Also, the show all music/show only downloaded music portion of the status bar keeps switching back and forth. At least I now know how to get them both back by fiddling with the views. Many, many bugs.

Okay, so the last update fixed every folder opening up when I renamed or duplicated one. That was a huge headache.

For those who hate the giant LIBRARY and then a ton of wasted space when looking at the songs screen... try this.

Double click "Songs" and that huge waste of space disappears.

Good luck!

I believe we are facing the same issues, just because this was the first major version of macOS to be released.

1. UI is somewhat laggy as ****, even when scrolling through a single playlist with fewer than 300 songs.
2. When double-clicking a song in a playlist, once the song finishes it does not automatically continue to the next track in that playlist as it did back in macOS Sequoia. Instead, playback just stops completely (and if shuffle + repeat is enabled, it will simply repeat the same track). Strangely, sometimes after quitting and reopening the app, the issue disappears — overall it feels very unstable.
3. The input method occasionally lags; after typing, it freezes for a few seconds and then suddenly spits out all the characters at once (most noticeable in the Music app’s search bar).
4. From time to time, opening a playlist shows a completely blank list. Closing and reopening it makes the tracks reappear.
5. I personally haven’t run into any issues with Liquid Glass so far — it’s still transparent enough to read text. That said, the overall experience is definitely not as good as it was on Sequoia.

[Edited by Moderator]

Looks fine for me, as well. The UI has been updated, for example the playing controls and track progress bar that used to be at the top of the Music main window are now at the bottom. Shown here (Tahoe on top):

That's true in full screen as well. You can provide feedback to Apple, but this was clearly a design decision they made.

Feedback - macOS - Apple

[Edited by Moderator]

The playlist thing is my biggest issue. I have thousands of songs and hundreds of playlists. I don't have a fix, but one thing that helped me was being able to close all open playlists and reopen what I need. It's still a major hassle no one asked for. Next to PLAYLISTS there is a drop down arrow on the right if you hover over. Click that arrow while holding down the OPTION key and it will collapse all of the folders. Click it again without holding down option and you can open everything one at a time. Fingers crossed we get a fix for this soon.

Discovered a new glitch. I created two new playlists of downloaded albums. At times when I open the playlist it's empty. I have Music set to show only downloaded music. If I then set it to show all music then my playlists repopulate. When set back to only downloaded music, my albums still show. But then if I go back to the playlists later they're empty again. At least I know how to get my albums back. Every day I'm finding new bugs. What a drag.

Not unfounded conspiracy theory: it's an ongoing, willful degradation of the music library experience (iTunes Match destroying files, cap on cloud files, nav defaulting to Apple Music, opt-out Apple Music preferences) so that Apple can get out of the MP3/AAC business once and for all and put the full (consumer) focus on streaming.

It's terrible. Not even an option to place it at the top, where it's been forever. I'm using Swinsian.

I did a safe boot, the oval area showed up, however, when restarted the Mac, it disappeared.

For your Point 4., you can go to View Options>Time to see the time of the song plus what you want to see in the columns in the interface.