Those trying to get in a workout may notice that watchOS 10 complicates the way you play music. I’ll explain below what seems to be going on, and how to work around this issue. Follow along!
If You Find watchOS 10 Makes Playing Music Much Harder, Try This
Remember that whenever music is playing during a workout, you can swipe to the left and tap the device logo in the top right corner from the Now Playing window to change audio outputs and source of the music.
For those that have made the upgrade to watchOS 10, they may notice that playing music from their Watch might be trickier than it used to be. Users within the Apple Support community are complaining that watchOS 10 makes playing music directly from an Apple Watch counterintuitive.
Instead, the Watch will typically try and play music stored on your iPhone. This can be annoying for those who want to work out with just their Watch. For most users, this seems to happen when using third-party devices as their music output.
While there are no ideal solutions for this situation, there is a workaround you can try:
1. Play Music Using Listen Now
Time needed: 1 minute
One Apple Watch owner recommends using the Listen Now option to play music directly from your Apple Watch:
- From your Apple Watch, navigate to the app selector screen and choose Music.
- Select Listen Now from the Music screen.
- You may be taken to the Listen Now screen directly.
Though this isn’t as intuitive as directly playing music, this will ensure that anything you’re listening to is from your Watch rather than your iPhone.
While this is an unfortunate situation, it seems to primarily be happening with users who use third-party party or non-Apple headphones. I wouldn’t fully recommend paying to switch to AirPods, though it would technically be the fastest way to fix the problem. Hopefully, Apple will release an update for watchOS or iOS to address the problem.
For further reading, you may also want to know what to do if your Apple Watch is not recording workout activity.