In Tahoe, how do I move the play controls in Music?

I totally agree and have filed a feedback report but looking at my iPad it's obvious that the Music App has been optimised for the mobile iOS26 where the play bar placement needs to stay where it is while the listing can be scrolled beneath.

So once again us iMac users get hung out to dry!

Found it. Per tidbits.com (link below), you can disable Liquid Glass on a per-app basis. Stop the Music app, open the Terminal app and enter the command

defaults write com.apple.Music com.apple.SwiftUI.DisableSolarium -bool YES

then restart the Music app. This will revert the two most noxious changes to the app in my eyes: returns the controls to their rightful place at the top of the window, and restores the status bar at the bottom of the playlist in "View as Songs" mode.

You can revert to the godawful Liquid Glass nonsense by repeating the process and replacing YES with NO, if such a perverse urge should occur to you. More details about the process (and options to implement this system-wide) available at this link (many thanks to TidBits for publishing this):

TidBits article on disabling Liquid Glass

Looks like they've broken this workaround in 26.1. Music app has reverted to the unusable mess that originally shipped with Tahoe, and doesn't seem to be affected by the defaults command any more. Back to "firmly opposed" regarding migrating my daily driver MacBook Air to Tahoe.

Well that’s truly sad news and quite honestly a deal breaker for me.

I absolutely will NOT be upgrading to 26.1 on the back of this news.

I’ve been a loyal supporter of Apple for over 40 yrs and have seen them destroy what was once a brilliant app called iTunes and an app that I used daily.

Over recent years and particularly since it morphed into Apple Music the classic version has become an afterthought.

They should have kept the streaming app separate from the personal library player.

I only use an iMac and have never owned an iPhone and still use an iPod Touch 2 for travelling so the optimisation for that platform doesn’t work for me.

rscinbc wrote:

Found it. Per tidbits.com (link below), you can disable Liquid Glass on a per-app basis. Stop the Music app, open the Terminal app and enter the command

defaults write com.apple.Music com.apple.SwiftUI.DisableSolarium -bool YES

then restart the Music app. This will revert the two most noxious changes to the app in my eyes: returns the controls to their rightful place at the top of the window, and restores the status bar at the bottom of the playlist in "View as Songs" mode.

You can revert to the godawful Liquid Glass nonsense by repeating the process and replacing YES with NO, if such a perverse urge should occur to you. More details about the process (and options to implement this system-wide) available at this link (many thanks to TidBits for publishing this):

TidBits article on disabling Liquid Glass

This doesn't work on 26.1.

I can also confirm that 26.1 broke the "workaround" command-line fix. The controls are stuck at the bottom. The change also makes it difficult to see how many seconds/minutes a song has been playing and how many seconds/minutes are left until it is over. Previously that information was always displayed and now you have to hover the mouse pointer over a small specific area on the control panel to make that information visible. So for example trying to skip over the first 60 seconds of a song is now a chore. My theory is that whoever suggested and approved this change is NOT musical.

TOTALLY AGREE with all of the users who are upset Apple screwed up a perfectly good iTunes interface on the Mac. I want the currently playing song at the top and a way to show it in the larger method as well. But Apple has screwed up something they always did well again.

I think the only thing we can really do is leave feedback on Apple’s page. I did this once before when they removed the search field in Songs view, there was enough pushback that Apple eventually reverted it. Hopefully the same happens here. Nothing to lose by letting them know! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Feedback - Apple Music - Apple

For goodness sake Apple - STOP CHANGING THINGS FOR THE SAKE OF IT. You have just driven me away from Music to another app. Tahoe is a disaster. If you want to offer these changes, make them optional, so that users can choose.

I know, I was really hoping for them to put it back the way it was before Tahoe so I did the upgrade to 26.2 only to be very very disappointed. In fact, it's even worse than it was in 26.1 as they once again moved the controls in the mini player thereby causing even more clicks just to get to the airplay and volume control.

Apple is certainly moving in the wrong direction with these changes and it's causing me to go out and source a different music player for my local music files. Just awful.

Used the Feedback page.

This no longer works in 26.1 sadly.

Ugh 26.1 broke the fix :( Anyone else have any ideas? It really makes you think what Apple's UX & UI teams are thinking these days. Really bad stuff

Doesn't work in Tahoe 26.2. Bummer. There are so many unlikable things about the new displays that I don't know where to start.

Apple! Sheesh! What the heck were you thinking!?!