• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Can't play imported iTunes songs on headphones or bluetooth speaker

pauljbryant

pauljbryant

Lurker
First time owning an Android phone and imported all my data over from my iPhone 6s using the cable that came with my pixel.

Thought everything had worked fine but now realise anything I bought on iTunes doesn't play when using earphones or a Bluetooth speaker and using shuffle.

Weirdly they work when playing through phone speaker.

I've sold my iPhone now so importing again with the cable isn't an option.

Anyone got any ideas?
 
I believe this is due to the particular type of DRM that Apple uses. The music app doesn't care about it but it gets checked at a lower level by the Bluetooth audio codecs.

The best way around it is to export the music from iTunes on your computer and upload it into Google Music. Those same tracks will then play without an issue.
 
What media player are you using to listen to those imported files? If it's the default app you might want to try some third-party app like MX Player or VLC and see if the same problem occurs. Not likely but worth trying as third-party multimedia players tend to be a lot more comprehensive as far as file type support and include more functionality.
But generally yeah, it's not just DRM issues. Apple in general adds a lot of 'complications' when it comes to users just wanting to export their data when moving to a different platform. At some point you're going to have to resort to using iTunes along with your iTunes account to export your music.
 
Thanks for the tips, unfortunately still can't get it working.

All the other players I've tried have the same issue. Also tried uploading all my music to Google Play Music on my MacBook and that hasn't worked. Is there a guide you recommend for doing this so I can check I did it right please?

Starting to wonder if ill need to re-buy everything I bought on iTunes 🤨
 
What's the file suffix on the purchased iTunes songs? If it's M4P, they've got DRM and will only play on Apple. If it's M4A, they haven't got DRM and should play on pretty much anything. Were they purchased prior to 2010? Because Apple ditched DRM on purchased music in 2010.

Are they Apple Lossless, ALAC tunes, because that won't play on many players, and will need to be transcoded into something like FLAC, which is also lossless.
 
Last edited:
codesplice said:
I believe this is due to the particular type of DRM that Apple uses. The music app doesn't care about it but it gets checked at a lower level by the Bluetooth audio codecs.
Click to expand...
Only if the iTunes music was bought/downloaded a long time ago. iTunes music has been DRM-free since 2009, so that shouldn't be an issue any more.

(I see I've been ninja'd on that point!).

If you have old DRM protected stuff Apple used to run an "upgrade" programme to allow you to download a new, DRM-free copy, but I think that was discontinued after a number of years. There always used to be a workaround to remove the DRM, involving some incredible faff like burning to a CD and then re-importing. There are also some suggestions involving something called "iTunes match".

Are the headphones BT as well? The original post/subject don't say so.
 
Files are m4a and we're all bought in the last 4-5 years.

Headphones are Bluetooth as well so think it's definitely a Bluetooth issue.

Just trying to wipe everything from Google play and my pixel storage and trying again to see if that helps
 
And just to be sure, you only have this problem when using shuffle? That's what the first post says, but is a pretty weird problem (and one I'd not encounter because I've not used shuffle for several years, which means never on my Pixel).
 
Does it depend what music player you use? It might be a quirk of Google Play Music (which I disable, so have no idea how well or otherwise it works).
 
pauljbryant said:
Take it that no one has any ideas why this would suddenly start happening again?
Click to expand...

Have you tried another music player? I've never used Google Music myself as it's not available to me, so can't really help you there. However I do have some M4A iTunes Store purchased songs, and can play them on Android to Bluetooth no problem.
 
mikedt said:
Have you tried another music player? I've never used Google Music myself as it's not available to me, so can't really help you there. However I do have some M4A iTunes Store purchased songs, and can play them on Android to Bluetooth no problem.
Click to expand...

Tried using Pi music player today and still had the same issue, that was with headphones plugged in too not Bluetooth
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom