error message on Apple Music

I'm getting the following error message when trying to listen to songs on my iPhone under Apple Music:

"Cannot Decode. The media data could not be decoded. It may be damaged"

Posted on Jul 6, 2022 08:01 AM

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Apple Music Error Message: Cannot decode. The media data could not be decoded. It may be damaged. I have an iPhone 11 and an iPad Pro. I keep getting this Apple Music error message on both devices recently: Cannot decode. The media data could not be decoded. It may be damaged. I deleted the song and re-add it to the library. Then the song can be played. However, the issue keeps occurring to other songs occasionally. This is really annoying. I'm getting tired of this and really hope it can be fixed for good. My subscription is active and the software is the latest version. I never download songs. The problem occurs no matter I use wifi or celluar. After I got the error message, I tried to play a same track on my iPhone and iPad. And it played successfully on my iPhone but not on my iPad. So the media data is definitely not damaged. Even though that song played on my iPad, but other songs on iPad may pop up the error message and tell me "it may be damaged". Please help, thanks.
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2 replies

Jul 7, 2022 11:18 AM in response to dlk178

Hello dlk178,

Power cycle the iPad using these instructions: Restart your iPad - Apple Support While simple, this can refresh the iPadOS, apps and connections.

Does the message appear with every track, or only certain ones?

We suggest you try these steps:

Delete and re-download content

If the issue happens with content from the iTunes Store, delete and then redownload the apps and delete and then redownload music. Or, download the apps and download music directly to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.

Delete and re-import content

If the content isn't from the iTunes Store, delete and then re-import it from the original source.

Have a good day.

dlk178 Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 8, 2022 07:05 AM in response to srbwanderer

Thank you for your response. I was able to eliminate error messages by deleting Apple Music app and re-installing it.

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error message on Apple Music

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