"Music is not responding" since Monterey 12.1

By Manuel, 15 December, 2021

Forum
macOS and Mac Apps

Hello,
Since the update to macOS Monterey 12.1, I have the following problem in the music app. For example, when I select the search field in the sidebar and enter a search term and then stop interaction with the sidebar and then interact with the Apple Music Web content and try to navigate there with VO+right arrow, I constantly get the message "Music is not responding". Even if I only switch between the different entries like "Listen now", "Discover", and "Radio" in the sidebar, I get the message "Music is not responding" after a short time.

Does anyone else have this problem and possibly a workaround until Apple offers a fix for this bug?

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Comments

By Cliff on Tuesday, December 28, 2021 - 19:56

I've had the same problem ever since the first beta of 12.1. The music app is hanging almost to the point that it is totally unusable at this time.
But it seems like this is more of a VoiceOver issue than it is purely a music app issue. I guess sighted users don't face this issue, or else we would have heard more repports of this release being a failure for all music lovers.
I've had a plan to write a note about this to accessibility@apple.com for a good while, but I haven't found the time to do it yet.
Would be very nice if all others facing this bug could send them a mail about this. I'm also having much of the same problem in Safari, although the Music app absolutely is the worst of them right now...

By Manuel on Tuesday, December 28, 2021 - 19:56

Hey,
Thank you for this confirmation. I've already reported this bug to Apple so let's hope that they'll fix that soon. Meanwhile, I suspect it's a general bug related to WebKit and VoiceOver. The Music app uses WebKit in order to display web content just like Safari and it is exactly in these apps that the problems with "APP XY is not responding" occur. It is especially annoying if you have an M1 Mac, because these error messages, as you have already described, often make the app unusable for a long time and you have to plan longer waiting periods, although the chip is actually very fast. And yes, I haven't heard any reports from sighted users about problems regarding delays when displaying or interacting with web content.

By Cliff on Tuesday, December 28, 2021 - 19:56

Yeah, I think you're absolutely right about webkit and the way VO reads theese kinds of content.
About M1 I'm not able to confirm this, because I bought my new MacBook just a damn short time before M1 was announced. (bummer..."
But I'm currently seeing this on my MacBook Pro 16 late 2019, with i9 processor and 32 GB of RAM, so lack of resources shouldn't really be causing this behaviour on my side either...
Good thing that you've repported this though! I'll see if I can get it done too tomorrow :)

By Manuel on Tuesday, December 28, 2021 - 19:56

I've just read that the music app in macOS 12.2 will no longer rely on WebKit in the background but will now be implemented completely natively. Let's hope that the bugs will be a thing of the past in macOS 12.2, at least in the music app. However, Safari still remains with its constant "Safari not responding" messages as it has to use WebKit.

Oh wow, that's definitely good news for the music app! I really hope that removing webkit from the oquation makes a big difference, so that listening to music on Mac can be a joy, instead of the frustrating hair-pulling experience it is right now! :)
For Safari though, they really have to do some serious work on how VO handles webkit content. For some reason the Safari Technology Preview app seems to work just a little bit better regarding this constant freezing bug, but this absolutely needs to get fixed in future updates.
Take care :)
Regards from Cliff in Norway

By Kevin Shaw on Tuesday, December 28, 2021 - 19:56

The squeaky wheel gets the grease as the saying goes. I have a 10 year-old iMac still running iTunes which is still a joy to use as VoiceOver plays very nicely with everything. On my MBP, Music is nearly unusable for finding and playing songs in the Songs list. It appears the Music team at Apple is slowly migrating everything to native over several versions. I'm personally not a fan of the new UI from a VoiceOver perspective as getting around the app seems a bit more cumbersome.