Music Controls Not Working On Apple Watch (watchOS 8)

Music controls not working on Apple Watch

Music controls not working in watchOS 8


Are Music controls not working on Apple Watch? The Now Playing controls are greyed out, unresponsive or they don’t show up at all in watchOS 8? This happens when you want to tweak music playback on iPhone, AirPods, HomePod or any other connected Apple devices?

Music Controls Not Showing On Apple Watch

This issue has been reported to us by Checko on our watchOS 8.0.1 review page:

“Music controls not showing up in Now Playing.”

We’ve also seen similar reports about broken Now Playing controls in watchOS 8 on Twitter:

“Am I high or is the Now Playing app on WatchOS 8 utterly broken? Like, I would like to hit pause please. Where do I tap?”

How To Fix Music Controls Not Working On Apple Watch

Apple will have to fix the Music and Now Playing apps in an upcoming watchOS 8 update. However, until then you can apply the following troubleshooting steps as temporary solutions:

1. Force Quit Now Playing

how to force quit now playing controls on apple watch

  • Click the Side Button of your Apple Watch to bring up the App Switcher.
  • Swipe-left on the Music or Now Playing app card and tap the ‘X’ to quit the app.
  • Return to the Watch Face and tap the Now Playing indicator available at the top. Are the Music controls showing up now?

2. Reboot Apple Watch

If the above did not help, you will have to reboot your watchOS device.

How to: You can turn Off the Apple Watch and power it back On, or use the force restart trick to do it in one step!

Have you managed to fix Music controls not working on Apple Watch? Use the comments section to share your feedback!

Related: Check out more fixes for common watchOS 8 problems:
Apple Watch time not updating in real time in Always On mode.
Activity Rings disappearing from Watch Face.
Dismiss message notification button not working as expected.