Some users are having issues with the Apple Music app after upgrading to macOS Tahoe, with most fixable by clearing the app's cache. Here's how to do it on your Mac.
Upgrading software or the operating system can sometimes result in unexpected issues. The nature of software development and the introduction of new or changed features often means there will be incompatibilities or discrepancies that will interfere with the app under normal usage.
There are often hundreds and thousands of changes made to software between updates, and sometimes bugs slip through. Sometimes, it could be data kept in an older format that has been depreciated in the newer version but not updated, while others could be features relying on software elements that have been changed or removed entirely.
Though Apple usually works to ensure software works on multiple generations of its operating system, it's not always perfect.
It also doesn't help if two sets of developers are working to make the operating system and application communicate with each other properly. Even in a fairly well-organized operation like Apple.
With Apple Music getting changes at the same time as an operating system upgrade to macOS Tahoe, it's a perfect storm for such problems to arise.
To be clear, this is not just a category of problems affecting just Apple Music. It's a perennial problem that resurfaces each time Apple introduces a new operating system.
While macOS Tahoe is the target this time, a similar thing happened with third-party apps in 2024 for the macOS Sequoia release. It's happened in previous years too.
We've found that this will fix most of the playback issues locally with Apple Music in macOS Tahoe. It has fixed some AirPlay problems, and every AutoMix and Crossfade issues.
The key to remember is that clearing the cache doesn't destroy any saved music preferences in Apple Music, or listen counts. The application will always redownload music to cache as you listen to it.
How to wipe the Apple Music cache in macOS Tahoe
- Close the Apple Music app completely. Either right-click the application in the Dock and select Quit, or while in Music, select Music then Quit Music in the Menu Bar.
- Open Finder, select Go then Go to Folder in the Menu Bar.
- Enter the cache path ~/Library/Caches/ into the text box then click Go.
- Find the Music Cache by opening the folder starting with com.apple.music.
- Select the contents of the folder and move them to the Mac's Trash.
- Empty the Trash by right-clicking the Trash icon in the dock followed by Empty Trash.
- Restart your Mac
Why clear the Apple Music cache?
Not every user will encounter issues with Apple Music, but some do encounter really annoying issues. In many cases, the problem consists of playback issues. Some songs simply don't play at all, while others that do are prone to skipping.
While streaming services pull songs from servers on the Internet, they tend to be cached in a buffer on the Mac's storage before playback. This can be as little as a few seconds of the track, at first, but Apple Music will pull the entire track down as quickly as possible.
It does so to ensure the entire track is playable to the user. It eliminates connection issues interrupting playback.
Apple Music also retains a cache of tracks on the disk that the user has played before. All to speed up the time between hitting play and the music actually starting to play.
It also saves on bandwidth, since the song doesn't have to be downloaded a second time. Users can also elect to locally store tracks, playlists, and albums, which again are cached to the disk regardless of whether or not they get played in the future.
Clearing the cache also has a benefit in that it can declutter your Mac's storage a small amount. There's no need for Apple Music to retain a cached version of a track that you haven't listened to in a long time, when it could be freed up for something you would listen to.
