iTunes Remote App no longer works properly. iOS 26, MacOS Tahoe

I tried removing the iTunes Remote app from my iPhone and re-downloading it, and re-pairing the iTunes Remote app with the four digit code, after which the Mac Apple Music app crashed, but when I reloaded it, the iTunes Remote app was able to connect to my library, but the problems persisted.

Set up the iTunes Remote app for Music on Mac

Switching to shuffle mode and reloading the playlist fixed the AirPlay problem and now it is playing more than one song from my playlist, just as Padwack reported. I then switched back to infinite repeat of the playlist and now it is playing more than one song and in order.

I found this to be the case as well. If you select the album or playlist from remote and press play on a track it will only play that one track and not play the rest of the album or playlist.

I have found that if you click the shuffle option on the album or playlist in remote it will play the whole album or playlist in its shuffled state.

I hope they fix this soon as it’s the main way I play music around the house.

I have the same problem. Also, Airplay no longer works for me. The audio only plays through the computer speaker, even when I select another speaker via Airplay. I tried to report this problem to Apple Feedback but iTunes Remote is no longer listed as an iOS app, even tho it is still available in the App Store. The version is 4.5.1, but it is 5 years old. The app info page states that update provided support for Apple Music and the Apple TV apps in macOS Catalina. "Requirements" at the bottom says "iOS 11.4 or later", "Wi-Fi connection to Apple TV, Apple Music, or iTunes on a Mac or PC", "macOS 10.15.2 or higher for Apple Music and the Apple TV app", and "iTunes 12.8 or later is recommended for use with iTunes Remote". It was working fine for me with Sequoia, but appears to no longer work with iOS 26 and Tahoe.

The iTunes remote app is suffering from long-term neglect, and appears to have been deprecated, probably because no one much in Apple corporate feels the need to use it. For those of us who like what it does (or, increasingly, what it used to do) this is hugely disappointing.

Along with other respondents here, I like to pipe music around the house from a static Mac that hosts my entire music library, stored on a local drive. This is a far better option than AirPlaying it from my phone and having the music interrupted by calls, text message alerts, random system noises and connectivity issues. It can be a brilliant way to wrangle your music collection, but the ongoing neglect is destroying its usefulness.

An iPad Mini on a little stand running the Remote app is how I liked to control things, but the iPadOS implementation of the app has suffered even worse than the iPhone version. In addition to the problems listed by other contributors here, there’s no PLAY control when you line up an album or playlist on the iPad, so it’s shuffle or nothing because you can’t manually add anything to Up Next. It’s a depressing shambles and I urge anyone reading this to complain bitterly about it on Apple Feedback. It might not stop the rot, but at least you’ll have had your say.

After updating to Tahoe, I’m experiencing the same issue with iTunes Remote.

Not only is the “Next Track” button unusable, but what’s even worse is that I can’t adjust the playback position at all — every time I try, the song restarts from the beginning.

It’s incredibly frustrating and makes it almost impossible to enjoy music properly. Please fix this as soon as possible!

I honestly don’t understand how, in 2025, with all the talk about Apple Intelligence and advanced AI technology, such a basic Apple-made app can still be broken — and nobody seems to fix it. Is this really the Apple we’re talking about?

Exactly this from Mr Tea!

Please, anybody having issues should submit your feedback to Apple.

It is an absolute embarrassment that Apple ever allowed this to be released. The Music App is now next to useless for use as a remote media library.

I’m now considering removing this “update” and go back to Sequoia, at least that worked as designed.