I have long used the iOS Remote app to play music on my iMac, streaming to one of my AirPlay-compatible devices. It’s convenient, and allows me to control the music and the volume with any iOS device.
But since the recent update to the Remote app, it no longer updates metadata in iTunes. Previously, it would update the play count and the last played date, useful notably because this would put music you played via that app in the Recently Played playlist. It’s a bit annoying; imagine if you play music on shuffle, and you want to go back and check out some of the songs you heard, because you don’t recall exactly what they are. Previously, the Recently Played playlist would show you this; now, there’s nothing.
However, what you can do is start playing the music in iTunes, then, later, if you wish, control if from the Remote app. You can skip tracks and change volume, but you can’t start playing something different; if you do, then the metadata won’t be updated.
I don’t know why Apple has made this change. It doesn’t make things better in any way, and only removes useful data from your iTunes library.
“I don’t know why Apple has made this change. It doesn’t make things better in any way”
Unfortunately a thought that occurs way too frequently these days.
“I don’t know why Apple has made this change. It doesn’t make things better in any way”
Unfortunately a thought that occurs way too frequently these days.
Hi Kirk,
Thanks for calling attention to this.
I experience the same problem when streaming from iTunes on my Mac to an Apple TV. As this issue first appeared for me after updating to iTunes 12.8, and I don’t use the Remote app or Apple Music, I think it’s possible this may be an Airplay 2 bug. When I toggle back to playing through my Mac’s speakers (or the headphone port), Play Count and Last Played Date then properly update.
I dearly hope this is a bug, but if so, how on Earth did Apple’s QA team not notice it?
Here’s an Apple Support Community thread with some similar complaints: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8466899
Hi Kirk,
Thanks for calling attention to this.
I experience the same problem when streaming from iTunes on my Mac to an Apple TV. As this issue first appeared for me after updating to iTunes 12.8, and I don’t use the Remote app or Apple Music, I think it’s possible this may be an Airplay 2 bug. When I toggle back to playing through my Mac’s speakers (or the headphone port), Play Count and Last Played Date then properly update.
I dearly hope this is a bug, but if so, how on Earth did Apple’s QA team not notice it?
Here’s an Apple Support Community thread with some similar complaints: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8466899
Apple routinely removes useful features, and very seldom returns them, regardless of the level of user protest. Of course, they celebrate that fact that they don’t monitor their own forums. They claim to monitor their Feedback pages, but this is belied by their forum pages, which are filled with comments saying that the authors submitted requests for redress to Feedback, without result. Only once over the years have I seen a feature restored for which I had submitted Feedback.
Apple has little respect for its current features, nor the users that rely on them. Conversely, they zealously add new features, perhaps believing that this is good for marketing. Many of the new features are not only silly, but actually get in the way of effective use of the device.
Apple routinely removes useful features, and very seldom returns them, regardless of the level of user protest. Of course, they celebrate that fact that they don’t monitor their own forums. They claim to monitor their Feedback pages, but this is belied by their forum pages, which are filled with comments saying that the authors submitted requests for redress to Feedback, without result. Only once over the years have I seen a feature restored for which I had submitted Feedback.
Apple has little respect for its current features, nor the users that rely on them. Conversely, they zealously add new features, perhaps believing that this is good for marketing. Many of the new features are not only silly, but actually get in the way of effective use of the device.